Holiday travel stories, some interesting, some not so much, some in between.......
Why does the if you pay more you get more concept seem to elude today's j-school grad travel writers? The people who are "getting" these perks have either paid for them in the form of significantly higher ticket prices, or through many miles flying coach.
The most un-surprising thing about this story on United's struggles competing with China's airlines is that Smisek and company have decided to use a "second-tier" strategy to compete. Almost everything about the "new" United is second (or third, or fourth, or worse)-tier these days.
Fliers, even the so-called "uneducated" ones, learning about the joys of alternative travel days is hardly a "new" trend. I do feel sorry for some of these local reporters who are tasked with writing something, anything, on Holiday travel. It's busy. That's about it.
My gut feeling is that America missed its window to fix the aging air transportation infrastructure and that most of the 'fixes' aren't really. But the story is still an interesting read.
Hard to believe that one ERJ-145 flight per day won't be enough to turn around a flagging city's fortunes but there you go. A bigger concern for Atlantic City, in my mind, is that they never really developed a secondary industry (as did Las Vegas and their high-end club scene) when it became obvious that gaming was undergoing an irreversible slide. Add that to the fact that Trump and many of the other old-school casino owners (I'm looking at you Caesar's) let their casinos grow out-dated, antiquated and (to be honest) just not real nice places to be, and you have the making of a perfect funding storm. Mix all of this in with a city government that was short-sighted, greedy and just plain stupid and you have a city that's on the edge of financial collapse. That said, I enjoyed my time in AC, and I enjoyed staying at the Golden Nugget.
One final note: If you're travelling, be careful. That Winter storm is no joke.
