Here’s a quick list of travel discoveries we made this weekend from around the web:
1. Our airline experiences do not mesh with the 2014 Rankings of the Best U.S. Airlines compiled by the Airfarewatchdog team. The top eight U.S. carriers were ranked based on their performance in canceled flights, on-time arrivals, mishandled bags, denied boardings, and customer satisfaction – and our favorite two airlines – Southwest and United came in sixth and eight (or last place) in the rankings.
Taking advantage of my A-List Preferred status and Companion Pass, we find Southwest generally a great airline to get us around the country with no fee to check two bags and no fees to change or cancel tickets. Aided by Mr. Jones 1K status with United, we’ve enjoyed some fantastic travels through United’s Star Alliance partners. Hopefully, Southwest will get its merger issues resolved and United will improve it’s overall customer satisfaction.
2. As we move toward the end of summer, we wouldn’t mind a visit to any of these 11 Rooftop Hotel Bars for Hot Summer Nights rounded up by Joy Pecknold in the Huffington Post.
3. We often rely on Yelp to help us locate good, local places to eat or drink when we are in a new destination. We are not, however, thrilled to learn from Dennis Schaal’s article in Skift that an update to the Yelp iPhone app now enables users to add 3-12 second videos of their favorite or out-of-favor restaurants, attractions, and other businesses. Shooting videos while dining in restaurants or enjoying a relaxing cocktail in an elegant bar – eek!
4. Since one of our most memorable meals from our summer in Europe was a long, late lunch on the beach at Positano, Italy, we loved this article from Lonely Planet on How to eat like a local on Italy’s Amalfi Coast.
5. While we may not travel in the same style as Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, we have to agree with his comments on why traveling with family is the ultimate luxury, from the Wall Street Journal article: Francis Ford Coppola Talks Travel.
“The ultimate luxury is: traveling with family. My family is spread around in different places, and travel means we can get together with the kids and see the grandkids and have time with them. At a certain point in your life, you get the idea that if you buy a new car, it’s a thrill for about a week. After a while it no longer continues to give you that pleasure. Material objects are very short lived, but a memory with your family lives forever.”
Do you have a different opinion? Please share in comments below.
May you have a great week of travels!
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