Travel Insights 100 2009 Dumb Travel Moments

Travel Insights 100
Survey Summary
Dumbest Travel Moments of 2009
January, 2010

This wasn’t a contest, but it seems as if the airline industry wins for the dumbest acts in travel in 2009. The dishonorable mentions were:
The overshot of MSP by Northwest pilots
United and its guitar episode
The TSA raid on two bloggers
The eviction of a family due to crying children
The nickel & diming by most airlines, e.g. checked baggage fees
The denial of a first class seat to a passenger due to his attire-a track suit
Strangely enough, no hotels were mentioned by our experts
Several travel twitterati disliked the hijacking of a twitter tag for promotion of another’s personal cause
…read on to see summaries of each participating of the Travel Insights 100 experts’ favorite dumb moment
Summary- Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…

Willy Volk - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"Hands down, the dumbest moment in travel in 2009 was when the pair of Northwest pilots overshot MSP by 150 miles" - Willy Volk
See Willy Volk’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @WillyVolk
NWA Flight 188 Pilots (Timothy B. Cheney & Richard I. Cole)
On Oct 21, 2009, the flight overshot Minneapolis St. Paul Int’l Airport by 150 miles because the pilots were distracted.

Chris Christensen - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
Dumbest moment in travel during the past year “United breaking guitars" – Chris Christensen
See Chris Christensen’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @Chris2x
United Breaks GuitarsUnited Airlines breaks Dave Carroll's guitar, refuses to make good. Carroll protests with a music video on Youtube, which todate has been viewed by 7.31 million people, and turned a small story into an international PR fiasco for United.

Jeanne Dee - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
“Dumbest? (And most outrageous) I'd say it has to be the TSA "raid" on two gentlemen travel bloggers who have young children!" – Jeanne Dee (Soultravelers3)
See Jeanne Dee’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @soultravelers3
TSA Blogger Subpoenas
Travel bloggers Christ Elliott & Steven Frischling were threatened by the TSA and served with subpoenas for publishing a leaked TSA directive.

Mara Gorman - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"I'm no fan of screaming children - my own or anyone else's. But given the wide range of human behavior to be seen on airplanes, much of it beyond the pale, I find it ridiculous that this mother and child were singled out so dramatically.”- Mara Gorman
See Mara Gorman’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @motherofalltrips
Pamela Root’s Eviction
The 38 yr. old San Jose resident was kicked off Southwest Flight 637 in Amarillo, TX because her 2-yr old son was yelling before takeoff. Southwest later apologized.

Mark H. - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"My personal pet-hate is this new lexicon of staycation and petcation and other equally horrible marketing words. Can't we just go back to traveling?" – Mark H.
See Mark’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @TravelWonders
Lexicon of Staycation
The recession forced many people to limit their travel to attractions in their own backyards. Destinations have started advertising staycations for local residents with special deals and discounts.

Gary Arndt - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"I'd have to go with the trend of airlines charging for checking bags. Passengers feel nickel and dimed and Southwest, who has openly advertised that bags fly for free, has picked up about $800m in business because of their policy" – Gary Arndt
See Gary Arndt’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @EverywhereTrip
Checked Baggage Fees
2009 was the year when airlines tacked on all sorts of ancillary fees to make up for their losses, but the checked baggage fees look like the last straw. Southwest has won over a lot of business from the other airlines by keeping it free.

Scott Carmichael - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"Fees - or better said - the perception and bad marketing around fees. I understand that airlines feel they need to introduce these new charges, but the way they were imposed on passengers created a really bad environment for travelers." – Scott Carmichael
See Scott’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @itsmescotty
Airline Fees

Kim Orlando - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"Cathay Pacific randomly increasing fares for lapbabies by 15%. Crying fee? Fuel tax? I know, baggage surcharge.” – Kim Orlando
See Kim’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @kimorlando
Checked Baggage Fees

Anil Polat - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
"It's hard to narrow down but I'd include any of the arguments about 'the best way to travel' - to each his or her own. Every method and type of travel has its benefits and its followers.” – Anil Polat
See Anil’s Profile; Follow him on Twitter @foxnomad
Best Way to Travel
Locking horns over the best way to travel is a meaningless pursuit. As Anil says, to each his or her own. One such issue which made headlines in 2009 was when ResponsibleTravel.com dumped carbon credits, saying it wasn't helping save the earth. Many Environmentalists vocally disagreed.

Jessica Spiegel - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
“From what I hear the cruise itself was fine and the Twitter folks who were on it had fun. But anyone who was on Twitter in the weeks leading up to the cruise was more likely to be inundated not by people gearing up for the cruise but by one person using the #followmeatsea hashtag to talk about how environmentally unfriendly cruising is.”– Jessica Spiegel
See Jessica Spiegel’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @italylogue
#FollowMeAtSea
Princess Cruises invited some travel bloggers to a Caribbean cruise aboard the Crown Princess, and asked them to talk about it on twitter under the hashtag #followmeatsea. The hashtag got hijacked by a blogger cribbing about the environmental impact of cruises, and the controversy went viral.

Nancy D. Brown - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
“As for a dumb moment in travel, I think the hijacking of the #FollowMeAtSea hashtag from one particular blogger didn't further her environmental message.” – Nancy D. Brown
See Nancy Brown’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @Nancydbrown
#FollowMeAtSea
Princess Cruises invited some travel bloggers to a Caribbean cruise aboard the Crown Princess, and asked them to talk about it on twitter under the hashtag #followmeatsea. The hashtag got hijacked by a blogger cribbing about the environmental impact of cruises, and the controversy went viral.

Kara Williams - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
“On TheVacationGals.com, I wrote an entire blog post about the "wackiest and weirdest travel stories of 2009 – naked hotel guests, disruptive airplane passengers and Danny Devito's feet top the list.” – Kara Williams
See Kara’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @karasw
Wacky Travel Stories 2009
Kara’s top ten weird and wacky travel stories include blogger Nicole’s TSA rant, a German tourist falsely claiming to have bombs, nude people wandering in hotels and airplanes, a civilian passenger who accidentally ejected himself from a military jet and Danny Devito’s “troll feet tweet” pics from the road.

Mary Jo Manzanares - Dumbest moment in travel during the past year was…
“Travel arrogance - My travel is better than your travel. Please -- there are lots of different types of experiences to go around, and they aren't all for everyone. Let people enjoy what they enjoy without condescension or a sense of superiority.” – Mary Jo Manzanares
See Mary Jo’s Profile; Follow her on Twitter @flyawaycafe
Best Way to Travel
Locking horns over the best way to travel is a meaningless pursuit. As Mary Jo says, let people enjoy what they enjoy. One such issue which made headlines in 2009 was when ResponsibleTravel.com dumped carbon credits, saying it wasn't helping save the earth. Many Environmentalists vocally disagreed.

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