Dear fellow travelers:
Hello and welcome to David Rowell’s Travel Insider newsletter. Once again, this is Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe.com pinch-hitting for David while he’s escorting several Travel Insider groups around Europe.
Our focus this week is, of course, the TSA, which had a 95% failure rate on a test of its ability to find weapons. David Danto thinks it’s time to shut down the TSA. I only disagree in my Seat 2B column because the alternative, letting private enterprise run a national-security matter has already failed at the airport. Elsewhere this week, Phil Baker looks at the newest MacBook as a travel companion, Carol Pucci dislikes some new airline and airport policies, Bob McGarvey compares Apple Pay with Google Pay. There’s more, too, including my weekly business-travel briefing, the Tactical Traveler, which requires JoeSentMe membership. Otherwise, everything else this week is a free read.
Have a great week on the road and, as David says, enjoy safe travels.
Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe.com for The Travel Insider.
BRANCATELLI IN SEAT 2B: BETWEEN POLITICAL ROCK & PRIVATIZED HARD SPACE
The news this week that the TSA failed to detect mock weapons and explosives in 95 percent of tests run by the Homeland Security Department pretty much confirms what we already know. The government agency is an abject failure. But here’s the problem. Private airport security was a failure, too. Looks like we’ll be flying between a political rock and a privatized hard space for the rest of our lives. Surf to http://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/blog/seat2B/2015/06/transportation-security-administration-report.html
TACTICAL TRAVELER: GEE, GREAT, ANOTHER AIRLINE FEE…
The weekly business-travel briefing in brief: Lufthansa puts a pricing gun to our heads and threatens to shoot itself in the foot. More changes in the high stakes (credit) card game. Pittsburgh has a hotel boom. Amex opens a Centurion Lounge in Miami. Gogo raises jacks its monthly subscription prices by 25 percent. Southwest Airlines pulls back in Akron. Apu at the airport. And more … Surf to http://tactical.biztravelife.com
DAVID DANTO: TIME TO END THE TSA
Today we’ve reached a moment in time where we have to bite the bullet and come to self-evident conclusion about our business travel: It’s time for the US Transportation Security Administration to end and go away. Surf to http://danto.info/Its_Time_to_end_the_TSA-JSM.htm
PHIL BAKER: THE NEW MACBOOK MAKES A FINE TRAVEL COMPANION
Apple’s latest MacBook–introduced the same day as the Apple Watch, but with much less fanfare–is the lightest and thinnest MacBook ever. It weighs just 2 pounds and is a half-inch thick at the rear, tapering even more in the front. Needless to say, it makes a fine travel companion. Surf to http://techspertsinc.com/macbook-12-notebook-a-fine-traveling-companion-san-diego-transcript/
ROBERT MCGARVEY: SHOULD YOU ABANDON APPLE PAY FOR GOOGLE?
Consumers may swoon for Android Pay even though its a mild update of the failed Google Wallet, which consumers by the tens of millions ignored. Yet the big question for consumers will be: Should they chuck their iPhone to get Android Pay? Surf to http://www.thestreet.com/story/13173554/1/google-s-android-pay-takes-aim-at-apple-pay.html
CAROL PUCCI: AIRLINES AND AIRPORTS TIGHTEN THE SCREWS
It literally pays to travel defensively these days as airlines, airports and other travel suppliers find new ways to turn the screws a little tighter on the customers they’re supposed to be serving. Surf to http://carolapucci-tips.blogspot.com/2015/06/airlines-airports-find-new-ways-to.html
ROBERT MCGARVEY: EUROPE ON THE CHEAP ISN’T IMPOSSIBLE
The good news about travel to Europe this summer is that the weak euro means the continent is on sale. But then there is the wallet destroying bad news, which is that you have to fly there and the carriers are showing no mercy. Expect to pay a bundle on airfare–unless you know where exactly to fly and where not to fly. Surf to https://www.mainstreet.com/article/flying-to-europe-on-the-cheap-is-not-impossible-this-summer
MISTER MEATBALL: CLAMS AND CHORIZO AND BROTH, OH MY!
My clams and chorizo are always a big hit. If you’re like me, though, a dish like this is really about only one thing: dunking bread in the broth. Surf to http://mistermeatball.blogspot.com/2015/06/clams-chorizo.html
