News and notes from around the interweb:
- 6 common travel myths debunked. I think this US News piece is the first time I appear in an article with Christopher Elliott.
- Australian woman sues her travel insurance company, insisting they should cover depression.
- Marriott is introducing a ‘preferred partner’ program called Accolades along the lines of American Express Fine Hotels & Rewards and Virtuoso (although even more similar to Four Seasons Preferred Partner because it’s limited to a single chain). The idea is that booking through an agent that’s signed up with the program gets you extra benefits like a one category room upgrade, early check-in, and late check-out (all subject to availability).
- This 3 year old piece from The Onion is making the rounds again… “Dad Suggests Arriving At Airport 14 Hours Early”
At press time, Holbrook had reportedly revised the arrival time to 3:45 a.m. “just to be safe.”
- Design Hotels will join Starwood as an 11th brand. It’s a big boost, especially to Starwood’s European presence. I’m not sure how to reconcile Tribute Portfolio, Luxury Collection, and Design Hotels which are all independent and not consistent and yet run as separate un-brands. More nice hotels that are part of a good loyalty program is a good thing, even if the narrative is way too confusing for customers.
Ion Luxury Adventure Hotel in Iceland - Cruising on the cheap: You can actually take cruises on cargo ships
With regards to to getting to airport early, many flyers out of Austin on Halloween day may have wished that. Huge backups to get into the Airport. Not sure what was the culprit but the new Rental Car center (which I do love) was backed up all the way to Airport entrance blocking a lot of traffic. It was a big mess on Friday that extended to Saturday for most of Texas. I was stranded at DFW Friday night so decided to get a room and a car for morning drive home. That typical 3 hour drive took 5 hours because part of I-35 was flooded the day before and then another hour to return the car.
I have been in Austin only for 2 years but I have sensed the awkward teenage puberty growth spurt of Austin where infrastructure is behind the rapid growth. As much as I love zipping from curb to gate, the city needs a Professional airport not the amateur hour flooding in ATC type stuff that caused the Airport to shutdown on Friday.