Seven lessons learned from the summer of 2007
Congratulations, you've survived the summer of 2007 -- the worst summer for travel in modern history. No, wait, make that since the invention of the wheel. Or was it? Well, no. Despite what you may have read, heard or seen on TV, the summer of 2007 was pretty average for travelers. That's according to an online poll of more than 100 readers that I ran last week, http://www.elliott.org/archives/2007/08/poll_the_summer.php, and a bigger survey of travelers released at the end of August by insurance company Access America. One in 10 respondents to my poll described the summer as "better than average," and 54 percent said it had been "average." About two in 10 readers thought it was worse than average. And get this: 5 percent even called it the "best ever." No one should be shocked by these results. We journalists are fixated on anything that flies: big jets, executive jets and private planes. And for air travelers, it's been a rough couple of months. But factor in cars -- which is how most of us get around -- trains and other mass transit, plus hotels, and you get ... average. Even though it was a so-so summer, it was also pretty memorable in other respects. Here are seven takeaways from the busy travel season: startclickprintexclude--> Suddenly, everyone wanted a passport. Result: a massive backlog of applications and months-long delays. At its worst, during late May and early June, dozens of despondent travelers were contacting me every day for help with their paperwork. Thousands of vacations were postponed or canceled, even after the State Department eased its rules. Lesson learned: This might be a good time to get that passport for your 2008 vacation. particularly to the motorists who survived and the families of those who didn't. Lesson learned: Travel is risky, no matter how you get there. the Access America survey singled out fuel prices as the No. 1 travel annoyance this summer, with about eight in 10 travelers complaining about them. But in conversations I've had with vacationers, it was obvious that they weren't going to let gas prices get in their way of having a good time. Maybe they would stay with friends instead of checking into a hotel, but by golly, they were going to take their hard-earned three days of vacation. Lesson learned: "Green travel" is a great idea, as long as it doesn't interfere with your vacation. especially airlines -- love to invoke weather as an excuse for their shortcomings. So you were stuck on a plane for eight hours without food or water? Blame the weather. Missed your connection? It's the weather. Flight canceled? Weather! It is often impossible to prove the weather, or what the travel industry likes to call an "Act of God" -- had anything to do with your trip interruption. So when a travel company pulls the weather card, you almost have to become an amateur meteorologist to prove them wrong and get them to take responsibility for your ruined vacation. Lesson learned: When your airline blames the weather, question it. I'd like to be optimistic about next summer, but every time I try, the words of reader Stephen Doggette haunt me: "This will all get worse before it ever gets better." |
