VamoStraying: ReVive La Difference! +

Posted On 20 Jan 2024

Post-COVIDic Hodophobia ➬ Toward Traveler ReMotion (Premise).

re: Digesting Travel’s Latest In-or-Out Burgers:

Harm for the Holidays.

(1/3/25)—Sadly, amid all the holiday joy and good cheer came this slayload of headline-grabbing coal. What to make of the mishappy holidays just past: crowd scenes begat crowd screams, inflight safety is no longer so air tight? Let’s roll out tales of the yellow warning tape…

Begin with a pre-Christmas salvo of mysterious drones and laser beams bestrewing skies and alarming travelers/fliers along the US Eastern Seaboard. Magdeburg, Germany’s cherished Christmas Market was soon attacked for a second straight year, an activist former Saudi psychiatrist high-speed plowing through the festive booths and stalls in his SEL before being ‘neutralized’. By Christmas night, a family gathering turned downright Yule ugly as three members were shot and killed on a Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport concourse.

Shortly thereafter, an Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 Flight J2-8243, en route from Baku to Grozny, was erringly shot down over Kazakhstan December 25, killing 38 passengers—reportedly by Russian antiaircraft weaponry. Then a South Korean Jeju Airlines Flight 7C 2216, a 737-800 from Bangkok crash landed at Muan International Airport, possibly victim of bird-struck engine failure, belly sliding in with malfunctioning flaps and landing gear, exploding as it hit a retaining berm at runway’s end, killing 179 of 181 aboard.

Moreover, a Japan Airlines jetliner collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane which was mistakenly taxiing onto a Tokyo airport runway January 2, five CG crew members perishing; the nation’s Transport Safety Board points to air traffic controller error.

This, while hellacious winter and tropical weather conditions caused delayed and diverted flights the world over, if not cascading cancellations, as record numbers of travelers surged to take leave. Let alone how climate change extremes were punishing drivers hitting the snowy, icy roadways.

Tourism, Meet Terrorism.

Topping (or bottoming) it all was New Year’s Eve, when an ‘ISIS inspired’ Texan terrorist barreled a rented truck along New Orleans’ Bourbon Street—still thronged by revelers at about 3 a.m., mowing down scores, taking at least 14 lives. The focus turned swiftly to missing traffic bollards, scheduled to be repaired, replaced on Bourbon Street—just not soon enough. For Super Bowl and Mardi Gras crowds also loom, while NOLA locals are uneasy about the fabled street’s situation as it is.

Meantime a much-decorated Army Green Beret soldier on leave from Germany rented a Cybertruck in Colorado and loaded it with explosives/fireworks, driving to Las Vegas, setting it and himself ablaze on the portico of a Trump Hotel—suicide mission accomplished, no other victims or injuries reported.

All told, there were holidaze woes galore. But whoa: Think of all the places where the holidays off went so beautifully (re: Destination Dispersion, anyone?). Still, how does this mortal mayhem affect or deflect a traveler’s course, particularly as tourist traps become more like tourist targets?

Point being, do we cower, cave and kaputulate to the turmoil and terror? Or do we have no truck with the travel uncertainties of today’s troubled world, instead doing what ‘Nawlins celebrants did New Year’s day: Got right back out there, besting the whole crowded holiday scenario, and otherwise doing no harm. Just not necessarily until 3 a.m.—with all due respect to Gary U.S. Bonds. Bonne Année! (MTC…)

Après Turkey-Day Grilling.

(12/5/24)—Pass the tryptophan and Dramamine: After another Thanksgiving holiday travel record, the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations made a big to-do on December 3 about soaring airline fares and fees. This after more than 80m traveled over the week, upwards of 5.84m flying—with international flights surging by 23%—TSA checkpoint numbers sky high. Some 72m traveled by auto, nearly 2.3m by other means—without major glitches unrelated to weather.

Summoning the leaders of biggies American, United, and Delta, the bipartisan panel also grilled counterparts from low-cost Spirit and Frontier over the multibillions of dollars they have gained from their customers between 2018 and 2023 onward. Turns out the five carriers have collected some $12.4 bn from seat fees alone, according to the committee. Thus fee’d up was the tone of the two-hour hearing, chaired by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut).

Fears For Tiers?

Beyond flight/scheduling squeezes and resulting fareflation, the committee zeroed in on this rampant feeflation—namely the unfair and arbitrary application thereof. Senators noted flight/seat change, baggage, carry-on and various cabin comfort/amenity surcharges—accusing the airlines of using captive airline customers as ‘walking piggybanks’, leveling bounties and shakedowns, gouging for every possible dime—to the tune of $1bn in change/cancellation and $7bn in checked-bag fees over 2023.

Make that unleveling fees on a customer-specific basis, unbundling via stealthy algorithms, tierfully discriminating as to profiled ability and willingness to pay more: increasingly resulting in differing baggage fees for the same flight.

Beyond rebuking the major carriers, panel members cited how low-cost Frontier Airlines and beleaguered Spirit painstakingly collected such fees between 2022-23, actually paying their gate agents and other employees to catch ‘shoplifting’ passengers who had not paid required baggage check and oversized item fees.

This ‘Gate Gate’ apparently continues, Denver-based Frontier paying its personnel a $10 per ‘scofflaw bag’ bonus (totaling $26m and counting) to catch items that won’t fit trimly beneath one’s seat. Meanwhile Frontier charges up to $99 for overhead bin space, Spirit between $15 and $77 per bin.

Bounty Hunting vs. Shoplifting?

The assembled air carrier CEOs countered that so-called ‘junk’ fees and dynamic seat assignment models are a key part of their revenue picture amid ever rising operating costs. They claimed air travel has never been so affordable, and customers are flying more than ever these days; that its passengers are paying fees (e.g., for premium seating, location to legroom) by choice. They also acknowledged the need to attract budget travelers, accordingly providing fare/fee options for every customer.

Same time, the airline industry has sued to block a Transportation Department ruling on upfront fee disclosure, lobbying against bipartisan legislation to mandate “reasonable and proportional” change and and bag fees. Carriers steadfastly maintain that their responsibility is to generate the most revenue they can to remain profitably and safely aloft over the long haul.

Nevertheless Senate lawmakers want the D.O.T. to investigate these airline practices and finalize rules on fee disclosure (esp. for family seating )—more transparency being necessary so air travelers can better plan and budget for trips. Blumenthal did laud an October Transportation Department ruling on automatic cash fare/fee refunds for flight cancellations, and foresaw two additional aviation reports by year’s end.

Given everything, these are issues Vamigré has canvassed/covered all along. Be that as it may, this hearing was much to-do about nothing but grievances. So will the airlines significantly change course in terms of fare/fee revenue—particularly with a new crew soon taking Washington D.C.’s helms? When turkeys fly…likely when fat turkeys fly…

Still, gobble forth we will. Our eyes clearly on the kiosks, gates and skies, blindly winging it no longer…rather flying triptofan ravenous and Dramamine free. (MMTC…)

Vamostray = Splittin’ to the Différence.

(10/22/24)—Hit it where they ain’t. Vamigré has long called it (and for) Destination Dispersion—going for the elsewhere, the other ways, the anyhows and wherefores when we travel.

Because there has been more than enough holiday herding and crowd strife of late—to where the excesses of over-tourism are finally coming home to ruination as we fall into a brilliant autumn.

Tourism Turned Tourrorism?

Firstly, let us recount the misplays and dismay as US Labor Day and worldwide celebrations were on approach: Witness teeming terminals, jam-packed flights, gridlocked roadways, overheated hotspots, social-media selfie swarms, grotesque site stomping and cruise swamping. Hallowed landmarks and monuments were being defiled and graffiti tagged, cherished parks trampled underfoot, Greek islands being overrun and setting fees (esp. ship docking). Add shinning up the Eiffel Tower, crime tourism on the rise—all told, our entire planet is largely being hugged or mugged to death. While the tourism industry blames low-cost airlines, short-term rentals, local infrastructure failings and more tourists than ever. Trust and goodwill falling on either side.

In response, Venice, Italy increases its day-visitation fees, doubling down on restriction times; besieged parklands large and small tighten reservations and quotas, Oahu, Hawai’i shuts its historic stairs, Bali posts a tourist entry tax, locals by the thousands protest tourism run amok in historic UK villages (e.g., Cotswolds) or Mallorca—others taxing, even douse tourist crowds with water guns in Barcelona. Stir in Amsterdam red-lighting; view-blocking barriers at Mount Fuji, hassling hoards on the Isle of Capri. Talk about falling off the high-season welcome wagon…

Difference Re-Maker.

So what’s the cure for such summertime blues? Falling into a healthy, reviving dose of TDD, or Travel Destination Dispersion—namely a re-set, redirection that Vamigré has long championed. To refresh: it means deTouring from tourrorism excesses and ugly behavior. Detaching from over-trod tour groupthink—the whole tourism marketing industry site search/saturate/destroy syndrome; decelerating from chronic, ever lengthening highway bottlenecks. Departing from same-old places and scenarios, splittin’ to somewhere different, parts unknown—letting spontaneity ring true. It’s not about getting over all tourism, just getting over over-tourism.

TDD builds upon a foundation of foresight, flexibility and fortitude, veering toward more shrewdly fare-minded booking, traveling off season/hours, demanding truth in scheduling by more reliable carriers; utilizing alternate, less clogged airports/terminals—better, more economical service and recharging stations. Thus furthering more uniquely enjoyable, enriching destinations/experiences—while dodging cyber and labor strikes. En total, deploying a fuller range of travel sources, supplier and vendors best aligned with Vamigré standards—not depending on any further governmental/regulatory remedy.

So why not re-steer the course, drop the bucket lists and f—k-it trips? Lay fewer TIRDs (reasons for tourism industry’s rising dissension). Freely choose to value experiences over extravagance and exploitation; embrace selective serendipity, support locally over just package deals, refocus on elsies rather than only selfies by turning smartphone/camera lenses back around. Not least, show some respect out there—and that’s only for starters…

In a word, we say let’s VamoStray! Beginning with yet another record-setting three-day+ Labor Day weekend, 17m TSA scans were expected, with 85-90% of holiday travel to be by car/SUV, gas prices marginally down, airfares nominally lower as well, smartly capping another surging summer season, readying for what fall’s into place from here.

Meantime, what VamoStraying means more specifically is well on the way, wherein Vamigré will surely be showing and sharing the way, foilage to sun breaks, all autumn long. (MTC…)

Fallout Amid the Frolics.

(10/20/24)—Alas, to begin wiht, where would we be without a frightful October surprise, particularly during an election year? This one comes in the form of a US State Department ‘Worldwide Caution’ travel alert, owing to unrest and worse amid the current Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah War. The warning cites potential for violent demonstrations and terrorist attacks anywhere, anytime in the contentious days ahead. For more detailed information on the advisory, particularly regarding Israel, Gaza, the West Bank and broader Middle East, visit TripWire and travel.state.gov…

Falling For Fests and Foilage.

Otherwise scare tactics and fallacious thinking abounds: as in, (to paraphrase Senator Arthur Vandenberg/1947) travel stops at the summer’s edge. Yet high-season foibles, failures and frustrations have now significantly fallen by the wayside, while autumn travel looks to be a comparatively fresh and welcome breeze in the wake of copious traveler outlays and soaring airline/industry profiteering.

What’s fading in the rearview mirror? Hopefully changing climate weather extremes—the searing global heat domes and flooding rain storms, a Morocco earthquake, Maui firestorms and choking smoke from mega-burning forestry. Add in TSA checkpoint snarls and FAA air traffic controller staffing shortages, heightened by the long looming threat of a US government shutdown. But on a wing and prayer, we turn the corner and seasonal page.

Autumn In The Air.

Now with the ‘revenge travel’ surge easing, airline service/performance should improve over a summer of overheated flight delays and cancellations (CanDels), capped by American Airline’s record federal fine for flight delays.

Still, carriers will continue slashing capacity, shifting schedules, dropping routes with little or no notice. Inflight turbulence, engine failures and birdstrikes will plague air travel no end, as will white-knuckle takeoffs and hard landings and the troubling increase in taxi/runway incursions.

Throw in over-taxed pilots (despite hefty pay raises) and crew/stew labor strife (e.g., raising the mandatory pilot retirement age from 65 to 67); airlines coping with emissions pressures and tardy cleaner jet deliveries), plus scouring for bad or fake aircraft replacement parts: Hopefully the summer traffic jam’s demise will serve to clear those cloudy skies.

FallOut: So fallback strategies are in order, including scouting out cheaper airfares in the months ahead (however whack-a-mole fleeting), even booking early for as far out as summer, 2024, while exploiting the postpandemic economic pressures on high and/or low fare carriers. Being mindful of dodgy ‘all-you-can-fly deals, mileage reward roulette, sticky hotel/lodging rates and such, not to mention airlines’ penchant for quick flight departure changes, or jettisoning flights and routes altogether with little or no notice. Nor will we wait idly by for Congress to act on predatory airfare spikes and crackdown on insidious junk fees.

Nevertheless, this bracing fall season should help cool that summertime fever in the skies, particularly soaring blow-ups in overstuffed airline cabins—the overhead bin battles and territorial seat/tray skirmishes, much less the onboard food fights, stabbings, aisle scrums and pepper spray. Little wonder the FAA seeks more fines (up to $37k per incident/case) and criminal prosecution of passenger misbehavior (over 270 cases filed since late 2021)—on everything from lav smoking to physical/sexual assaults. Ahh, vamateur hour, au revoir…

Fall Out: But pre-flight, we’re gonna be working through, walking around stuffy, crowded airports, wary of creeping fees and the gouging gamut of retail/concession prices along interminable concourses. Moreover skirting the mayhem—departure gates to baggage claim—while wheedling into luxury airline lounges, much like chaffering into luxe hotels when opportune. By the same token, tactics such as bag-fee angler vests and skiplagging warrant all due consideration.

On the technology front, computer snafus will still spark FAA tower/tarmac delays and aircraft ground stoppages, be it over software glitches or hardware malfunction, the EU and UK no less vulnerable to systemwide data/information breaches and crashes. New TSA scanners, lauded as more electronics and liquidity friendly, are still no match for crawling peak-period security lines, PreCheck, Clear of marginal help. Updated data processing and procedures have not yet pared visa and passport application/issuance backlogs—Global Entry expedient efforts notwithstanding—while feds are accused of trolling subjects’ social media activity in US visa cases. Yet as techies say, almighty AI alchemy/salvation is well on the way.

FallOut: So we’ll be ever combing, comparing and contrasting airline, lodging and third-party ticket/reservation websites/mobile apps for deals and steals, for advantages and abuses—targeted to specific trips and itineraries—right down to paperless reservation/ticketing and baggage mishandling (Air Tags anyone?). Also focusing on high-tech snafus and hacks, as well as transcending the toxins and pitfalls of T/T social media. Tracked as well will be the corporate consolidation of flight/fare giants like Expedia and Orbitz, as well as ancillary fee ‘unbundling’ and pay-per-reviews on too many carrier proprietary and third-party booking sites alike.

Tooling, Railing and Sailing.

Same time, different station: summer ’23/24 train travel set new US passenger records, as Eurail ridership gained steady, heady steam across a sweltering continent. Moreover, AMTRAK is undergoing a systemwide makeover, gaining from a $1.4bn Congressional outlay for rail upgrades and repairs. Sleeker railcars, better wifi: and that comes as higher speed rail advances, from Florida’s privatized BrightLine service to accelerated construction of a Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles leg, rail bed to station upgrades—eventually linking with California’s Central Valley HSR network.

Cruise lines enjoyed packed post-pandemic ships the world over, with bookings strong into the Fall. This despite a destination backlash against bloated, floating city behemoths (e.g., limiting daily docking), reports of deck chair squatting, food/balcony straits, soused mateys overboarding guardrails into the deep, and coronavirus outbreaks revisited, not to mention a luxury MV Ocean Explorer ship stuck in Greenland mud. Nevertheless, some cruise industry heavyweights are actually sailing toward private resort islands of their own.

Despite soaring gas ppgs, roadways were clogged all summer long—cars, wagons, SUVs, camper vans and motorcoaches taking to the highways in pre-pandemic numbers. Too often, too many drivers to too few popular places: Traffic jams ruled the roads, no matter the inflated cost of buying and operating today’s techno-fiddly motor vehicles, no to mention motorcycles. For there are just too many clearer, more colorful fall joyrides to be so detoured or denied.

Which in turn raises the matter of fossil fuel versus hybrid and electric power (with hydrogen fuel on the horizon). EV sales have increased dramatically, regardless of per-vehicle price tags, iffy driving range estimates, tech/software glitches, heavy battery fires—but mainly the equipment/deployment shortages of charging networks. Then come the issues of weighty vehicle traffic safety, let alone the prospect of more and more driverless vehicles—cabs, UberLyft, Amazon—on city streets, highways and byways. These concerns will soon be compounded with the takeoff of flying taxis (namely eVTOLs like Wisk Aero and Joby Aviation), WIG electric seagliders, shuttles and various individual cars.

FallOut: So all modes and models will be boarded, floated and/or taken for a spin with regard to comparative efficacy, service and safety…seeing to it we’re not derailed, waterlogged, backfiring or otherwise just plugging along on our scenic autumn drives.

Destination Desperation.

To be sure, the summer’s post-pandemic ‘revenge’ tourism has surely taken its toll on destinations and the environment worldwide, overwhelming ‘hot spots’, domestic and international. Venice (struggling to fend off a total tourist takeover), red-light Amsterdam and other popular destinations establish visitation quotas, mount restriction bollards and selfie shields, but still tourists still come and congest customary hubs the world over—with crime, hazards and worse awaiting them, or not far behind. Yet other, less traveled places and possibilities still struggle to regain their pre-COVID footing.

Hotel chains and other lodging logged record bookings in kind, with attendant rate raises, tightened cancellation policies, invasive ‘smart’ room surveillance, increased service abuses and guest complaints. While online share services like Verbo and HomeAway can be a consumer crapshoot, AirBnB posting the lion’s share of horror stories—stark, raving orgies to peeping toms—even triggering a New York City clampdown.

Parklands, preserves and heritage sites were overrun as well, despite megafire/smoke and flood threats—litter, vandalism, trespassing and landmark/monument desecration following in too many cases. Stricter reservation/allocation measures result in US national parks, from the Adirondacks and Everglades to Yellowstone and Yosemite. The summer’s crowd muddle was perhaps best illustrated in Burning Man’s flash-flooded muck and mire across Nevada’s Black Rock Desert—a sea of Burners getting swamped and stalled in place for days. This, as Disney Corp. doubles down on pricing and expanding its plastic fantasyland in Orlando.

FallOut: So we’ll be exploring and fully experiencing autumnal trips, routes, settings, events and circumstances—little known local treasures to farther flung adventures; lesser travelled roads and beaten paths: insider secrets to whole other sides. Being mindful of potential crime and dangers therein. Shrewdly paring prices and skirting proscriptions when and where we may. Holding that Destination Dispersion, not hot-spot clotting is the better revenge, we will soon be toasting and sharing Vamigré values and adventures via Club Vamaway…

Scrutiny On the Bounty.

Beyond that, topics of more personal nature are surely on the tray table. Falling into view are matters of traveler health and fitness, of reconciling work and travel, esp. remotely—as in carry-on bags versus checked luggage, what with the advent of more spacious Airspace L overhead bins. Or given everything, travel insurance: yea or nay? Add in affairs of spirituality and romance on the go—not to mention the spirits and substances that can help pave the way, as other issues fall in line.

Now be VamoSure to keep eyes peeled for wat’s to come—beyond the splendiferous festivals and foilage—seasoning to make for more venturesome, comfy and colorful roving this whole Fall through. For who says that travel stops at summer’s edge? Indeed, fallacy is as vamateur tourist does… and if the ‘revenge’ crowds are not up to speed on autumn travel, we’ll be glad to take the Fall ourselves. (MMTC…)

Summertime: Sun & Safety, Meet Scares, Scarcity.

(7/23/24)—The heat is on, torrents are as well. The more seasons change, the more change comes to the seasons—and not necessarily for the better. As in hotter, hotter; drier, drier; wetter, wetter; muggier, muggier, stormier, stormier and wilder, wilder the world over.

Not that climate change stops us in our tracks and treks, for more than 70m US travelers took off by air or roadway over the July 4th holiday week alone, setting TSA screening records—coming and going—in all, 7% above rip-roaring, roving 2023. This mass movement comes amid ever higher air fares and nominally dropping gas prices, in the face of too-hot domes, flash flooding (particularly along the East Coast, with crippling airline groundstops and bottlenecks), plus fire/smoke dangers and early tropical depressions.

Then came a faulty CrowdStrike Windows OS software update, perhaps the largest IT outage in history, which instantly crippled some 8.5m Microsoft devices last Friday morning, acutely affecting airline operations worldwide. Termed a security update glitch not a cyberatt yet it caused likely worse air travel chaos and groundings—nearly 10% of all domestic US cancelled by mid afternoon—stranded, bewildered travelers confronting communications breakdowns and schedule boards frozen in Windows’ dreaded Blue Screens of Death.

Though the Texas-based cybersecurity company released a software fix by day’s end, the damage had been done, requiring every Microsoft-configured server and device to be booted and rebooted time and again throughout the weekend. Meanwhile travelers frantically attempted to access scarce carrier information on cascading flight cancellations and delays (CanDels) by the thousands—what with aircraft and crews scattered throughout stalled, misrouted systems. The upheaval has dragged on into early week, with scant assurance that such sudden service disruptions, à la SWA’s holiday meltdown in December 2022, couldn’t become yet another new reality of techonnected air travel today. (VamoTech & Technicalities for details…)

Still, our feet are clearly willing, even though the fleets are weak; that is, plenty of journeys planned but too few airliners to fill. So the squeeze is on, as well. According to most aviation authorities, flying is statistically safer than ever—yet that doesn’t mean it hasn’t gotten scarier up there.

New aircraft deliveries by Airbus and troubled Boeing have lagged, leaving airlines short on capacity. In turn, major carriers have dropped routes and trimmed flights/scheduling—leveraging a demand/supply imbalance to inflate fares and excuse away flight delays and cancellations. They escalate upselling and overselling with impunity, while bemoaning (overworked) flight and cabin crew labor pains. Conversely, existential fiscal problems plague sorely needed lower-fare carriers, even Southwest Air.

Same time, the US D.O.T. and FAA struggle to keep up with staff vacancies, from TSA checkpoints to air traffic control towers, and the alarming increase in near misses, close calls, mechanical failures, much less airplanes getting turbulently tossed around, up and down mid-flight.

Nevertheless off we go—fearless, tearless—beating the heat, leaving the swarms and throngs behind. We’re overcoming packed flights, clogged highways, steamy weather extremes, short-sheeted lodging, vehicle rental gouging, visitor fees, reservation caps, train derailments, shipboard outbreaks, on/offline tourist traps and scams; food fits, selfie scrums, beach algae, shark attacks, bad actors and scenic crime. Bring it all on, for there’s no stooping, or stopping us now.

This of course is just scratching the summertime surface, seas and skies. Reason enough why Vamigré will be all over all of it, all season long. (Much to come…)

Springboard with Savvier Fare.

(3/21/24)—Adieu to the winter that was, and wasn’t—the deep freezes and off-season heat waves, the white-outs and atmospheric rivers. It’s finally springtime to bust out, to chuck and chill, to refill and fulfill: lose the hibernation and cybernation, go for some footloose flybernation and bye-byebernation…

Time to break away from winter’s avalanches, torrents and tornados, from munching potato comforts on the cozy fireside couch. For we are springing into a bright new season, fresh spaces and pace, wide open to wonders around the corner and the world at large—surpassing some hurdles and speed bumps along the way. So high time to spring for a flyer to parts and ports known and unknown, unique destinations and experiences near and far—eager to preview and review…

Scares and Scarcity, Still.

Recent United Airlines and Boeing MAX horror stories notwithstanding, commercial flying is said to be ‘statistically safer’ than ever before.. Moreover, most all airlines appear to be going the budget route, at least for the moment, and whack-a-mole lures abound. Call them early bird fares, but the Big Four carriers are doing bargain battle with smaller low-cost and ultra low-cost lines like Alaska, Allegiant, Frontier, Spirit, even jilted JetBlue. And we travelers can split the differences, reap the spoils.

Thus best to book ’em while they last, because today’s fares are itching to inch upward, and fees (change to bag) are already piling on; just as airlines trim their routes, increased ‘CanDels’ and bumping surely to follow. It may also be prudent to keep the true LC and ULC carriers in mind and booking mix, lest they be ground into the ground by predatory majors. Which would leave American, Delta, United, if not Southwest Air free to fare and fee us travelers to the heavens—not to mention weighing passengers for add-on charges.

Otherwise, despite ever slow delivery of new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, planes are getting cleaner and greener by the day. For their part, FAA and NTSB regulators are becoming more attentive to aircraft manufacturing/production quality and safety issues and/or incidents. Yet beyond that, the FAA needs to better, fully staff besieged air traffic control towers— if we travelers are to continue confidently springboarding our street cars named desire.

Meanwhile, TSA security stations are attempting to move more smoothly these days, incorporating self-service Innovation Checkpoints, CAT (credential authenticity) technology, CT (and gradually touch-free, full-body) scanning into it pre-flight security measures. Airports themselves are increasingly models of comfort and high-tech convenience (e.g., automated/digital processing)—currently better equipped to accommodate passenger traffic before the inevitable terminal surges and gate storms further down the travel calendar.

Modus Alternatus.

Springing for other modes: Regardless of the motorcoach indignity of Greyhound selling off its storied bus terminals—forcing passengers to wait curbside in too many dicey locations—other modes appear to be advancing. AMTRAK continues to bolster its national network and improve services/rolling stock via increased increased federal support, with high-speed rail accelerating coast to coast. Offshore, cruise lines are packed to the gills and trolling for more.

Now if we’re springing for road trips, motor vehicles are largely safer, speedier and better connected than ever: sportsters to SUVs to tricked-out vans and Winnies. Power wise, gassers, hybrids and EVs are fighting across lanes for highway dominance, what with charging stations building out nation- and worldwide. Vamigré will be driven to cover/compare them all.

Springing For Good.

That’s not to say we won’t be looking to spring from the inevitable tourist crush in places too hot to further clot, already sparking visitor entry fees, and how Destination Dispersion can help relieve that maddening congestion.

Also under the Vamoscope will be creeping air fares and crimping service. Third-party bookers vs. airlines’ proprietary reservations/ticket websites; much less ticket/pass swiping gate crashers. Add in gimlet eyeing bad onboard behavior, selfie excesses and alarming act-outs—from defacing monuments and the Mona Lisa to bodily violence including traveler robbery, rape and murder. In other words, the going gamut of cautionary tales, and ever onward…

So many scenarios, so many strategies, with details on the way—all in the service of hitting the bricks with fresh licks and slicker tricks, putting savvier Vamosteps in our spring, whatever our age and stage. (MMTC…)

Warming to a Winter Wanderland.

(1/10/24)—Fast forward: Skating into the winter months. Autumn falling to the road side, we embark upon our winter of disconfinement—breaking free, breaking glad, warming to the idea of getting out there, be it to sleighs or rays, slopes or swells—running hot or cold…or a little of both.

Are we departing like it’s 2022? Not hardly, as flights are running somewhat more closely to schedule of late (weather permitting). TSA checkpoint stations are operating more smoothly. Surface transportation is better geared toward coping with diversions and disruptions on/over the road. At least when compared (by most mobility measures) to last year’s holiday season meltdown.

So zip up, strip down: layer on the Gor-Tex and polar wear, or shed the garb altogether, skate across the ice and snow or chill along the shore. Only we best not turn a cold shoulder to the pratfalls and haphazards that continue to prevail worldwide once we do…

Freeze Frame, Breeze Frame.

Crete to Cabo, Crans-Montana to Crested Butte—c(gl)amping in Tongass or Denali; vamping in Budapest or ‘Nawlins, tramping through the tropics as the summery Southern Hemisphere abounds. Winter is briskly upon us, however we frame it—whether we seek to warm our cockles or frost our very bones.

Brrrr, either way, the ice jams cometh. For even with the change of seasons, some things don’t seem to change, if they’re not frozen in place. Granted, coming out of a stormy holiday week, it surely does appear domestic air travel has improved significantly over 2022, despite a record number of passengers and severely inclement weather conditions coast to coast. Even with Spirit Airlines’ misrouting a lone six-year-old Philadelphia boy—bound for Fort Myers, Florida—to Orlando instead.

Nevertheless an Airlines For America trade group pushes the US Department of Transportation to act upon the ‘precarious’ air traffic controller shortage (currently some 3k ATCs below target levels), and address/rebalance commercial vs. private aviation traffic, specifically as overcrowded skies trigger further carrier flight delays and cancelations.* This, from an airline industry that continues to slash capacity, shift schedules, and drop routes altogether with little or no notice amid soaring profiteering—big-five carriers faring better than lower cost/budget rivals overall.

* Case in point: The most recent (1/2) flaming crash landing of Japan Airlines’ Flt. 516 at Tokyo’s Haneda airport upon colliding with a smaller Japan Coast Guard plane on an earthquake aid mission—readying for takeoff on the same runway. All 367 passengers and 12 crew safely evacuated the A350-900’s burning wreckage further down 34 Right, escaping a smoke-filled cabin via inflatable slides (sans carry-on baggage) within 90 seconds, while five crew members aboard the exploded Bombardier Dash-8 perished; 14 were injured, including the coast-guard pilot. Issues: praise for JL516’s emergency procedures and the resilience of Airbus A350’s composite carbon fiber fuselage, the less combustable nature of its cabin furnishings. Concern for miscommunication between Haneda ATCs and Dash-8 crew, since the Japan Airlines jetliner was evidently cleared to land—not so the coast-guard plane.

Unease rose all the more as a passing Korean Air A330 plane soon kissed wings with a Cathay Pacific 737-300 being back towed upon a New Chitose Airport tarmac on Japan’s snowy Hokkaido Island. Then another 737, a Nippon Airways flight with 59 passengers and crew of six returned from Sapporo, Hokkaido to Tayana, Honshu with a cracking cockpit window across the outermost of four glass layers. No one was injured and the fissure affected neither flight control nor onboard pressurization, then again… (mmtc…)

Cold Sores.

Moreover, inflight turbulence, engine failures and massive birdstrikes plague air travel no end, as will white-knuckle takeoffs and hard landings, not to mention the troubling increase in such taxi/runway ‘close call’ incursions. Throw in over-taxed pilots (despite hefty pay raises) and a cold front of crew/stew labor strife (e.g., raising the mandatory pilot retirement age from 65 to 67); airlines coping with ‘guilt-free’ emissions pressures and tardy cleaner jet deliveries), not to mention scouring for bad or fake aircraft replacement parts. Then came Boeing’s recent door plug blow-out, which the FAA determined “…should never have happened…and cannot happen again.”

Hopefully some winter season modulation will serve to clear those cloudy holiday skies, defrosting the bitter flight delays and cancellations—which were recently exemplified by Delta Airlines billeting stranded Amsterdam-Detroit passengers in a Goose-Bay, Labrador military barracks because of Airbus 330 icing problems.

What’s more, beyond the FAA’s air traffic control tower shortfalls, TSA checkpoint improvements under holiday duress is a warmly welcome balm to the chilblains of chaotic terminal congestion. Regardless of an ever looming threat of US government shutdowns, more efficient security screening promises to further ease our gateways in weeks and months to come.

Terror Firma?

Speaking of security, a New Years Eve specter of locked-down crowd control zones—product of bomb threats and other terror assessments—may have fizzled some of the celebratory sizzle. Yet no significant nightmare incidents were reported in cities worldwide. Still, we should remain mindful of extremist wartime hazards as we go with the floe, not to mention the return of masking in the face of resurgent respiratory viruses like RSV and new COVID strains.

Icebreaker: So cold-brewed strategies are now in order, including scouting out cheaper airfares in the months ahead (however whack-a-mole fleeting), even booking early for as far out as summer, 2024, also exploiting the post-pandemic economic pressures on high and/or low fare carriers. Being wary of dodgy ‘all-you-can-fly deals, mileage reward roulette, shrinking frequent flyer miles, sticky hotel/lodging rates and such, not to mention airlines’ penchant for blitz-quick flight departure changes, or jettisoning flights and routes altogether with little or no notice. Nor will we wait idly by for Congress to act on predatory airfare spikes and crackdown on insidious junk fees.

Otherwise, this bracing winter season should help cool the holiday cabin fever in the skies, particularly soaring blow-ups in overstuffed airline seat rows—the overhead bin battles and territorial seat/tray skirmishes, much less the onboard food fights, stabbings, aisle scrums and pepper spray. Little wonder the FAA seeks more fines (up to $37k per incident/case) and criminal prosecution of passenger misbehavior (over 270 cases filed since late 2021)—on everything from lav smoking to physical/sexual assaults. Ahh, holiday vamateur hour, au revoir…whether we’re staying on a snowy course or stealing away for the rays, spending winter on ice and the like.

Icebreaker: But pre-flight, we’re gonna continue working through, walking around stuffy, crowded airports, wary of creeping fees and the gouging gamut of retail/concession prices along interminable concourses, air ‘concierges’ notwithstanding. Moreover skirting the mayhem with due timing and patience—departure gates to baggage claim—even wheedling into luxury airline lounges, much like chaffering into luxe hotels when opportune. By the same token, tactics such as bag-fee angler vests and skiplagging warrant all due consideration.

Updated data processing and procedures have not yet pared visa and passport application/issuance backlogs—Global Entry expedient efforts notwithstanding—while feds are accused of trolling subjects’ social media activity in US visa cases. Yet as techies say, a cold wave of almighty AI alchemy/salvation is well on the way…

Icebreaker: So we’ll still be combing, comparing and contrasting airline, lodging and third-party ticket/reservation websites/mobile apps for deals and steals, for advantages and abuses—targeted to specific trips and itineraries—right down to paperless reservation/ticketing and baggage mishandling (Air Tags anyone?).

Also having focusing down cold on high-tech snafus and hacks, as well as transcending the toxins and pitfalls of T/T social media. Tracked as well will be the corporate consolidation and hi-jinx of flight/fare O.T.A giants like Expedia and Orbitz, as well as ancillary fee ‘unbundling’ and pay-per-reviews on too many carrier proprietary and middlin’ third-party booking/ consolidator sites alike.

Wintry Tooling, Railing and Sailing.

Same time, different station: 2023 train travel set new US passenger records, as Eurail ridership gained steady, heady steam across a sweltering continent. Moreover, AMTRAK is undergoing a systemwide makeover, gaining from a $1.4bn Congressional outlay for rail upgrades and repairs. Sleeker railcars, better wifi: and that comes as higher speed rail advances, from Florida’s privatized BrightLine service to accelerated construction of a Las Vegas-to-Los Angeles leg, rail bed to station upgrades—eventually linking with California’s Central Valley HSR network.

Cruise lines enjoyed packed post-pandemic ships the world over, with bookings strong into the winter. This despite a destination backlash against bloated, floating city behemoths (e.g., limiting daily docking), reports of deck chair squatting, food/balcony straits, soused mateys overboarding guardrails into the deep, and coronavirus outbreaks revisited, not to mention a luxury MV Ocean Explorer ship stuck in Greenland mud. Still, some cruise industry heavyweights are floating new monster ‘utopian’ megaships and actually sailing toward private resort islands of their own (as on Carnival’s Celebration Key).

Cold Fuels.

Despite soaring gas ppgs, roadways were clogged all year round—cars, wagons, SUVs, camper vans, RVs and motorcoaches taking to the highways in pre-pandemic numbers (even though bus lines like Greyhound are selling their venerable stations to realty vultures). But too often, it’s too many drivers to too few popular places: Traffic jams ruled the roads, no matter the inflated cost of buying and operating today’s techno-fiddly motor vehicles, much less motorcycles. For there are just too many more colorful winter joyrides to be so detoured or denied, and this promises to continue, despite snow stormy and black-icy conditions, particularly as gas prices keep trending downward.

Which nonetheless raises the matter of fossil fuel versus hybrid and electric power (with hydrogen fuel on the horizon). EV sales have increased dramatically, regardless of per-vehicle price tags, iffy driving range estimates, tech/software glitches, heavy battery fires—but mainly the equipment/deployment shortages of charging networks. Then come the issues of weighty vehicle traffic safety, let alone the prospect of more and more car shares and driverless vehicles—cabs, UberLyft, Amazon—on city streets, highways and byways. These concerns will soon be compounded with the takeoff of flying taxis (namely eVTOLs like Wisk Aero and Joby Aviation), WIG electric seagliders, shuttles, Google blimps and individual cars.

Icebreaker: So all modes and models will continue to be boarded, floated and/or taken for a spin with regard to comparative efficacy, service and safety…seeing to it we’re not derailed, waterlogged, backfiring or otherwise just plugging along as we go on our scenic winter drives.

Destination Desperation, Hot to Cold.

Clearly 2023’s post-pandemic ‘revenge’ tourism took its toll on destinations worldwide, overwhelming ‘hot spots’, domestic and international. Venice (struggling to fend off a total tourist takeover with entrance fees), red-light Amsterdam and other popular ‘iceburg’ or sea ‘scape destinations establish visitation quotas, mount restriction bollards and selfie shields. But tourists still come and congest customary hubs the world over—with crime, hazards and worse awaiting them, or not far behind. Yet other, less traveled places and possibilities still struggle to regain their pre-COVID footing, not least Lahaina, Maui’s rebuilding tensity.

Parklands, preserves and heritage sites were overrun in 2023 as well, despite fire/smoke and flood threats—litter, vandalism, trespassing and landmark/monument desecration following in too many cases. Stricter reservation/allocation measures result in US national parks, from the Adirondacks, Big Bend and Everglades to Yellowstone and Yosemite.

In retrospect, last summer’s crowd muddle was perhaps best illustrated in Burning Man’s flash-flooded muck and mire across Nevada’s Black Rock Desert—a sea of Burners getting swamped and stalled in place for days. This, as Disney Corp. doubles down on pricing and expanding its plastic fantasyland in Orlando.

Icebreaker: So we’ll press on with exploring and fully experiencing winter trips, routes, settings, events and circumstances—little known local treasures to farther flung adventures; lesser travelled roads and beaten paths: insider secrets to whole other sides.

Being mindful of potential crime and dangers therein. Shrewdly paring prices and skirting proscriptions when and where we may. Holding that Destination Dispersion, not hot-spot clotting is the better revenge, we will be toasting, sharing cold comfort food, hot adventures and Vamigré values via Club Vamaway before too terribly long…

More Cold Comforts.

All the same, topics of more personal nature are surely on the tray table. Flurrying into view are matters of traveler health and fitness, of reconciling work and travel, esp. remotely—as in carry-on bags versus checked luggage, what with the advent of more spacious Airspace L overhead bins. Or given everything, travel insurance: yea or nay? Add in affairs of spirituality and romance on the go—not to mention the spirits and substances that can help pave the way, as other issues snowfall in.

Now be VamoSure to keep eyes peeled for what’s to come—beyond the splendiferous festivals, tourneys, meets and carnivals—seasoning to make for more venturesome, sun-splashed or cold-comfy and colorful.

Vambling through the whole winter wanderland—running hot or cold, if not just splitting the difference. That is, if you happen to catch our drift. (MTC…)

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