Tag: Travel

As I’ve predicted, the airlines jacking up baggage fees is going to result in fights for overhead bins inside cabins. Airlines have NOT been enforcing their own rules for some time, even the often shrill Airtran has loosened up on this.  But now, it looks likes everyone is going to tighten down.

To make this work, airlines will also need to enforce their own boarding rules. The stupid zones are useless. When Delta used to board back to front, you could book in the back to ensure that you had a place for your bag. Now Delta uses a bizarre zone boarding that often has aisle folks boarding before middle seats. I have yet to find Delta employee who understands it.

Apparently, the best benefit of being an elite frequent flier is not the points, the miles, the free trips or the upgrades. It’s going to be the early boarding!

To  the good folks at Avis, I’ve rented a car from you now almost every week since the beginning of 2008. Most of my experience has been good, so I’m not concerned about the dirty car with a 3/4 full gas tank this week. Perhaps the holiday has everyone off a little.

I’m part of your elite “Avis First” program based on the number of rentals this year. While I like feeling elite, I’m not sure of the point of Avis First. The free weekend rentals are nice, but frankly, after driving rental cars all week, I want to drive my car on the weekends.

I like the specialty website, but when I need a reservation, it simply points me back to the main site. The dedicated phone number was cool until I called to complain about this week’s car and I was redirected to the main customer service line.  It was really fun to find out that the main customer service line was jammed. Hint: It makes us feel elite when we get to jump lines.

On a positive note, getting the emailed rental receipt for a completed rental while I’m still on the Avis bus to the terminal is way cool.

My point, is that I’m not sure that I get the point of Avis First. I felt special until I actually tried to use some of the features.

Finally, I appreciate that you try harder but what I really want is for you to succeed regularly. I really don’t care whether you have to try hard to make that happen or not.