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Books! Books! Books!

I have most of the logistics taken care-of – a little bit of work left to do, not much – so now I’m free to start some detailed planning for our trip to France. Daily itineraries and such. This gets fun.

As you can see, I’ve started my map & pin method; yellow being “must-see”, smaller pins as “worth a look”. And, continuing with the tactile theme, I’m still eschewing digital sources: I’m still working off of my lovely books. In this case I think my map is a little too small – it came with one of the books – and I may have to upgrade to a proper Michelin map.

I have a small thing for travel books – small, indeed, barely half a shelf – but I find them useful to have on hand for this purpose (aside from being fun to breeze through on occasion). What gaps I may have for a chosen destination, I can fill with my local library. Actually, that’s an even better resource: more than a few of my books I’ve bought for 50 cents from the library, when they decided the info had become stale – maybe two years after publication.

You may see that some of my books are much older than two years. Sure! I’m not going to a “hot” destination, I’m choosing to vacation in an area known for its…timelessness? The Loire Valley chateaux aren’t supposed to change, that’s the point. Most of the sights worth seeing haven’t changed in 100 years, much less 20. For my purposes, the old-ish books are perfectly useful.

Now, they fail on the practical details. Operating hours and contact information changes annually; hotels wax and wane in quality; restaurants come and go in short intervals. But those are exactly the things in which the web excels. As far as I’m concerned, I’ll happily use Yelp to help narrow my restaurant choices. But for sightseeing, I want a more curated approach, which is what the books do best.

Most of the books, in fact, do a pretty good job of creating a suggested itinerary for you, based on number of days in the region. I often start with those, and add & subtract based on my particular interests. E.g., I love secluded ruins, and scenic drives. I’ll add those in when I find them.

Base itinerary selected, I’ll go back to the web to fill in the gaps – sometimes much later. Only high-end dining needs to be scheduled this far out, everything else can be managed on short notice. I’ll also use the web for scheduling activities (as opposed to sights). By that I mean, oh, a winery, or a river boat, or a flea market. No problem, since I try to save some open time in my itinerary for such things.

It helps, in fact, to make your itinerary somewhat modular. This is especially possible if you’re working off of a centralized base, so you don’t need to adhere to a progression in one direction. E.g., categorize one day as “in case of rain” if it has a lot of indoor activities, and use it accordingly. And another as “light walking” for when you get tired and need some recovery. Or, “short drive” if you want to sleep in late. Then, adjust to local conditions when you’re there. You’ll be grateful you have options, especially when you realize how inclement Northern European weather can be.

Why I'm Thrilled About Frontier Airline: Example 1

I'm officially in full planning mode for my summer trip to the Loire. The hardest part of my planning experience was, so far? Not the lodging, or the trans-Atlantic flight. It's booking the dopey flight to get to New York (Newark, actually) to get to that trans-Atlantic flight.

It’s one of Birmingham’s inconvenient features, that getting to and from here is difficult and often expensive. This was not always the case; there was a time when Southwest was considered a “budget” airline. $88 r/t to New Orleans…fantastic. The company I worked for years ago would take SW service options into their expansion decision.

That’s gone, of course; SWA is hardly a bargain, and generally raised their prices to be close to legacy carriers. Fair enough; they don’t charge bag fees or whatnot. But sadly, we don’t get the benefit of a low-cost carrier in BHM – no Jet Blue or Frontier to try to drive competition.

Result? We get one daily direct flight to New York (LGA), and typically it runs $350+. A connecting flight can be had for up to $100 less. It irritates me to no end that it’s $100 cheaper to take two flights and 3 extra hours, but that’s the result of lack of competition. Delta charges a premium for the convenience of a direct flight. Grumble.

Not that Delta's one direct is the most useful flight, for trans-Atlantic purposes. Follow me: The flight to NY takes off at 6:00 am, arriving at 9:30. Most flights leaving NY for Europe leave in the early evening: 5:00, perhaps, with another later one, usually.

That’s a long time to kill in NYC. So, decide what you want to do: you can try to spend it at an airport (hint, don’t do this); or, you can head into Manhattan/Brooklyn, see some sights, have a nice lunch, and then head out to the airport. Stash your bags at a local hotel, btw – they may ask for a holding fee, but usually they’ll do it.

Not bad, right? Downside: This is a long day. And if you don’t get a lot of sleep on the plane…well, your first day in Europe will be a very tiring one. It usually is regardless, but it’ll be worse, now. Anyway, up to you: really, it’s not a terrible option.

The return is similar; you’ll land around noon, and the direct flight to BHM leaves…well, they have one at 2:10 from LGA, which, if you land at 10 or 11, you can reach via a taxi. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until the 8:30 one. Again, you can try to spend an afternoon in NYC, but you’ll be tired. Seems like a bit of a drag.

That’s why, in the end, a lot of us bite the bullet and drive to ATL, to reach NYC. Comparison: The direct flight option has me leaving home at 5:00 am, returning to home at 10:00 pm or so. $400/person, all in. The ATL option…has me leaving home at 8:00 am, returning to home at 9:00 pm. $300/person, all in (factoring parking or, as we do, a one way car rental each way). It’s a shorter trip, at a cheaper cost, but you have to be willing to make the drive. Again: irritating.

Shuttlesworth Airport is a lovely facility. I hope, hope that more airlines, not just Frontier, will decide to add  flight options for us; I suspect they’d be filled. But, until we manage some real local economic growth, our choices may remain slim. By the looks of it there's a greater chance of Huntsville being my departure point for my 2020 trip.

You’re Welcome!

We here at BhamTravelDad know we wield some powerful influence, with readership regularly climbing into the high 60’s. But sometimes we surprise ourselves in how much change we can help spur. As in, just yesterday I was lamenting the lack of flight options from BHM. Well, it looks like Frontier Airlines is one of those sixty-odd readers, and has heard my plea. Coming soon, they’ll offer discounted flights to several choice destinations.

As always with a discount carrier, check what you get before buying, especially in terms of baggage fees. Regardless -- this will put pressure on legacies to compete, driving prices down. The one I'm most excited about is R/T to Philly. We have one direct to there already, but it's expensive. Frontier should be affordable; plus, Philly is a pretty good international departure gate. And if it comes to it, it's not too far from Newark. I now wish I hadn't already booked my fare to EWR. Oh well.

In the mean time, what Birmingham *really* needs is a free bar for guys who write travel blogs.

More Flights, Please

We try to stay politics free here at Travel Dad, but the reality is that politics eventually plays a role in many of life’s decisions. Even travel. 

I give some respect to those who argue the downside of global free trade: no doubt, US jobs and industries have been devastated by certain open trade agreements. 

Airplane manufacturing, though, isn’t  one of those. Boeing is a fantastic company, with a superb offering. If, unlike their foreign competitors, they don’t get direct US subsidies, they still profit from fat military contracts. What I’m saying: Boeing will be fine. They’re not under any immediate threat; their competition with Airbus has made them efficient and resilient, and has certainly improved our flight options. I doubt we’d have the 787 without the pressure Airbus put on Boeing to innovate.

So I was pleased to see that the proposed tariff on Bombarier’s C-series aircraft was scrapped. From what I can read, this Canadian-built plane is a marvel: comfortable and efficient. When you live in a mid-size market like Birmingham, you absolutely need planes like this in the market: your only other options are the 737/A320 (often too big for BHM routes); 717’s (old MD-88’s, horribly inefficient), or CRJ’s & Embraers: tiny, uncomfortable regional jets. Gorsh, I hate flying those. 

I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I can dream that some airline will recognize potential in underserved markets like ours, and decide to make an offering built around these new jets – exactly the way Southwest did, back when they were still a budget carrier. Perhaps it’ll be a start-up, or perhaps a legacy looking to grow. I don’t care. I just know we in BHM need more competition. 

Eco-not-me

So, why I really, really hate coach, and want to fly business class? Basically: Airlines keep ratcheting the “economy” experience downward. I look longingly at the photos from 1960’s travel, roomy seats, fresh food, and everyone dressed properly. Those days are gone. Frankly, I’d be willing to live with early 2000’s, in terms of comfort and service.

To be clear, I don’t fault airlines one bit. They work in a free market, one in which consumers have made it increasingly clear that they value price over any other consideration. Airlines will continue the race to the bottom up until such time as consumers vote with their pocket book.

Beware of this, is all I can say. If the last time you flew was 2010, take care in booking, read the fine print – especially on the “basic economy” fares (I hate these fares most of all, since they don’t include seat reservations, making them totally useless for family travel). Prepare for baggage fees, and tighter controls over what qualifies as carry-on.

And be aware of ever-tighter seating. As of writing, most airlines are working on revamping their cabins for their wide-body planes, turning 9-across rows in 777’s to 10-across. Legroom and recline keeps getting smaller as well, to the point where, for short-haul, you can expect no recline at all. Ryan Air pioneered this, with good old British Airways now signing on. Btw, there’s a vocal group of fliers who consider reclining to be rude to recline your seat; personally, with recline being as restricted as it is, it does me no good. Might as well sit upright. That’s a prime example of the above – I’d be willing to knock $20 off my flight for a no-recline seat on a short flight.

If you just can’t tough out the economy cattle-car, then you always have the option of “premium” economy, a relatively new feature. From what I can tell, it’s priced out (factoring in inflation) at levels of the old regular economy – well, yeah, because it’s the same seating as old regular economy. We flew it on the last trip, and I found it to be worthwhile – only complaint from me was that the arm rests were fixed, so the boys couldn’t stretch out across multiple seats.

Again, on this, I come out squarely on the side of the free market. Some may say that Airlines are treating us fliers shabbily, or feeing us excessively, or whatnot, and perhaps even call for government regulation. But from what I can tell, the airlines are giving us what we want: choices, choices, more choices. If the in-flight meal adds $25 to the cost, why wouldn’t you want the option to bring a sandwich of your own instead? Or a blanket? These days, we have more tools than ever to help us plan ahead and know what we’re getting into. And if you’re still confused, feel free to nudge your friendly neighborhood travel blogger. He’s happy to help.