TRAVEL
I am coming to the end of one month of travel. Which included 16 separate flights, 2 train journeys and 1 long car drive. Some of observations: US major carriers will go out of business. I have flown Jet Blue, South Western and ATA over the last few weeks. Jet Blue is the clear winner. In all of them the service was better than the established airlines, the prices were cheaper and we landed on time and they were FULL. My international travel on American Airlines was scandalous. It was low cost travel at high cost prices. The US and EU have to come to an agreement on open skies as soon as possible. However I assume that national carriers, which includes Delta, AA and United, control over landing slots will preclude this and leave us all subject to cartel pricing.
The winner however is rail journeys. I write this on board Eurostar from London to Brussels � not cheap but comfortable. The same is true for the Acela (?) from DC to NY. Travel, waiting, check-in (try travelling around the US with an Uzbek, Ukrainian and Turkmen visa pasted in your passport � more security officials have had a close up of my feet than is good for an individual) are completed in 5 minutes. There is real space on the train and the wine is not bad. My next trip to the NE of the US will be done exclusively by train.
01 June 2004
TRAVEL
I am coming to the end of one month of travel. Which included 16 separate flights, 2 train journeys and 1 long car drive. Some of observations: US major carriers will go out of business. I have flown Jet Blue, South Western and ATA over the last few weeks. Jet Blue is the clear winner. In all of them the service was better than the established airlines, the prices were cheaper and we landed on time and they were FULL. My international travel on American Airlines was scandalous. It was low cost travel at high cost prices. The US and EU have to come to an agreement on open skies as soon as possible. However I assume that national carriers, which includes Delta, AA and United, control over landing slots will preclude this and leave us all subject to cartel pricing.
The winner however is rail journeys. I write this on board Eurostar from London to Brussels � not cheap but comfortable. The same is true for the Acela (?) from DC to NY. Travel, waiting, check-in (try travelling around the US with an Uzbek, Ukrainian and Turkmen visa pasted in your passport � more security officials have had a close up of my feet than is good for an individual) are completed in 5 minutes. There is real space on the train and the wine is not bad. My next trip to the NE of the US will be done exclusively by train.
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