Barnett on Business Travel from Creators Syndicate

Ticket Jackets Becoming an Endangered Species for 11/24/2008

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Airline buffs have a new collectible: the ticket jacket. I haven't surveyed every carrier, but if you fly economy class at United Airlines the ticket jacket is a vanishing breed.

Now you're not going to miss the ads and the tiny print that spells out the airline's "rules of carriage." But they are handy pocket or purse organizers for boarding passes, receipts for the pesky extr ...

Updated: Mon Nov 24, 2008

The Elite Cafe Harkens to San Francisco's Jazz and Rock Eras for 12/08/2008

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco's Fillmore District is known far and wide as the launching pad for The Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, The Jimmy Hendrix Experience, The Doors, Big Brother and the Holding Company and other bands that put psychedelic music into orbit in the mid-1960s. Home of the "San Francisco Sound" was rock promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore Auditorium that still stands as The Fil ...

Updated: Mon Dec 08, 2008

Hotels Giving 'Extras,' Not Cutting Rates, During Tough Times for 12/22/2008

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Some hotels are rolling out fluffier, brighter red carpets to business travelers in an effort hang on to loyal guests as the economy, housing and investment markets dive and fears loom. But there is little rate-cutting in these tough times.

Why? Hoteliers know if they whittle away at room rates now and guests get used to them, it will be much harder to raise rates when good times return. ...

Updated: Mon Dec 22, 2008

New Year's Resolutions for Weary Travelers for 01/05/2009

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Traveling was tough enough before the last three months of 2008 when we were slammed by wave after wave of shocks and scandals. Now it's anyone's guess.

Airlines, with lower fuel prices and fewer planes in the air, can pump up fares and still fill their planes unless their bread and butter — the road warriors — belt-tighten and fly less. Then prices will drop selectively. Hot ...

Updated: Mon Jan 05, 2009

From Beleaguered Business Traveler To World's Most Traveled Man for 01/19/2009

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

What does a near nonstop business traveler do when he hangs up his briefcase? If his name is Charles Veley, he keeps trotting the planet and aims for the title of World's Most Traveled Man.

Veley is no grizzled wanderer with a long white beard, walking stick and a scruffy dog tagging along. He's a good-looking, well-groomed 43-year-old who has personally visited 709 of the "757 Part ...

Updated: Mon Jan 19, 2009

Rosemary's: Hideaway for Las Vegas Locals and Entertainers for 02/02/2009

Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Looking for a great bar and restaurant in Las Vegas where the locals go to escape the madness of the high and low-rollers bent on striking it superrich?

Hidden in a nondescript neighborhood strip mall, nine miles north of the neon-blinding, traffic-snarled Las Vegas Strip, is Rosemary's Restaurant, an unpretentious oasis of fine dining and drinking where the cocktails are as inventive as ...

Updated: Mon Feb 02, 2009

Gumbo of Travel Tips And Rips for 02/16/2009

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

While the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee recently lobbed softball question at CEOs from the nation's biggest banks who pocketed $700 billion in taxpayer bailout dollars, these lenders and credit card companies are quietly doubling interest rates and slashing credit limits even on their best customers.

Diane Nissen, an art dealer and educator, who has been char ...

Updated: Mon Feb 16, 2009

Global Headhunter Now Searches for Best Travel Bargains for 03/02/2009

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0800

A year ago, Jeanne Branthover wouldn't think twice of flying business class "almost anywhere." Now, the New York office-managing director of Boyden, the global executive search firm, asks her assistant to scour websites and other sources for the best possible airline and hotel deals.

The worldwide financial and economic plunge, she says, "have made me very cost conscious, ...

Updated: Mon Mar 02, 2009

Oregon Saloon Doesn't Know the Word 'Recession' for 03/16/2009

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Born in Norway in the mid-1800s, Simon Benson worked as a bull-team driver, fry cook, and logger turned philanthropic lumber baron. He donated 20 bronze drinking fountains to Portland, Ore., so his timber cutters wouldn't quench their thirst in the city's saloons. Wishful thinking.

The lifelong teetotaler would be stunned to learn that today the El Gaucho Bar, attached to his elegant nam ...

Updated: Mon Mar 16, 2009

Choice Hotels for Budget Travelers Claim No Discounting But Check for Deals for 03/30/2009

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Not all hotels are taking a chainsaw to their room rates to lure or hang on to customers.

Choice Hotels International, hardly a marquee name in the hospitality world and one that caters to frugal business travelers and vacationers who can live without afternoon high tea and 900-thread-count linens, claims it isn't cutting prices to chase guests at its 5,800 hotels and motels worldwide.
Updated: Mon Mar 30, 2009

Big Apple Wine Bar Is a High-Tech, Serve-Yourself Wonder for 04/13/2009

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Think the ultimate wine-tasting room is a musty, dank, candlelit cave piled high with oak barrels, where aged nectars of fine grapes are sipped from pure crystal? Might be if you're lucky enough to have access to the great wineries of France or California's Napa Valley.

But in New York City the place to taste one or more of a 100 cult, boutique and rare wines — and meet other wine ...

Updated: Mon Apr 13, 2009

Luxury Hotels Courting Guests Discreetly With Sweet Deals for 04/27/2009

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Don't be surprised if you get a phone call from a cheery-voiced, erudite lady or gent tipping you off that the genteel, 137-room Hotel Ritz in London, created by Cesar Ritz himself in 1906, has rooms for 30 percent off.

This is no scam, no boiler-room telemarketer reading from a script, no digital voice that sounds human. At the other end of the line is a reservationist with an organizat ...

Updated: Mon Apr 27, 2009

Former Toronto Whisky Distillery Is a Warm, Inviting Saloon for 05/11/2009

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Boiler House sounds like a hot, steamy pipe works festooned with valves and gauges. Might have been a century ago. Today, the 167-year-old, weathered brick building in Toronto that spent most of its life as the Gooderham & Worts rye whisky distillery, is a dark, high-energy, sexy saloon and restaurant lit with flickering candles. It could pass as a gothic Victorian monastery minus the m ...

Updated: Mon May 11, 2009

Travel Journalist Bares Secrets For Staying Aloft and Alive for 05/25/2009

Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Just reading travel journalist Peter Greenberg's itinerary for one week gives me jet lag and the willies, making me think I would lose something important along the way — like my sanity.

In a little over a week, Greenberg flew from Los Angeles to Shanghai, back to L.A., took a red-eye to Washington D.C., flew to Cancun, Mexico, back to New York for four days, drove to funky Fire Is ...

Updated: Mon May 25, 2009

Airlines Hike Prices for In-Flight Booze for 06/08/2009

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Next time you say, "Set 'em up, Flo," at 40,000 feet, ask the flight attendant the price of your libation. Depending on the airlines, chances are in economy class those teeny-weeny, 1.5-ounce, plastic bottles of your favorite libation are now $7.

That's a sobering 30 percent hike over the $5 we used to pay for a mix-it-yourself cocktail in a plastic cup.

Flight attendant ...

Updated: Mon Jun 08, 2009

The Sweet Life Awaits at Harry's Bar in Rome for 06/22/2009

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

My first visit to Harry's Bar in Rome is forever implanted in my brain. A silver-haired Anthony Hopkins look-alike in a proper white barman's coat standing behind a small, U-shaped bar was slowly, serenely stirring a gin martini, unfazed by the after-work throng shouting drink orders at him. He was the picture-perfect bartender, neither intrusive nor aloof, but friendly, plying his trade at his ...

Updated: Mon Jun 22, 2009

Classy Hideaway Re-Creates Speakeasy for Cocktail Lovers for 07/06/2009

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

CLEVELAND — It's Friday night and inside what looks like an abandoned century-old brick storefront, women in evening gowns are meticulously re-creating Prohibition-era cocktails.

A pianist tinkles out the soothing Duke Ellington icon "Satin Doll" on a baby grand in the lounge and locals in the know are slipping through the coatroom and vanishing. Indeed, a small, pink, ne ...

Updated: Mon Jul 06, 2009

New York's Vintage Boutique Hotels Are Often Good Bargains for 07/20/2009

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Hard to imagine that New York hotel prices were $300 to $500 a night for an ordinary room just 10 months ago. Luxury lodging like the Mandarin Oriental hotel opened its doors starting at $850 a night. Sleek boutiques wooing the hip and stylish traveler were getting around $450 a night and up for a designer room with expensive sheets.

Then the roof fell in. Wall Street's venerable investm ...

Updated: Mon Jul 20, 2009

Sale, Tale of a Tired Landmark Hotel for 08/03/2009

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

SAN FRANCISCO — New owners of a palatial but tired hotel that withstood San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and fiery aftermath have poured $40 million into restoring and re-energizing the grand landmark while quietly offering rates starting at $149 night plus taxes. During the roaring 1980s, and before the upgrade, the same rooms started at $299 night.

Chicago's Strategic Hotel Corp., ...

Updated: Mon Aug 03, 2009

Philadelphia Pours It on for Thirsty Travelers for 08/17/2009

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

PHILADELPHIA — Fair warning: Don't call Philadelphia the "next New York" just because the saloon and restaurant scene here is suddenly smokin' hot. Locals cringe. In fact, for libation lovers, Philly may even be cooler than Gotham, but on a smaller scale.

At the Water Works, the city's first water pumping station, circa 1812, bar maestro Mariaelena Galie makes a mighty ta ...

Updated: Mon Aug 17, 2009