Simon Calder, British travel writer and the travel editor for the Independent, has a neat ‘insider’ account of ghost flights, which are flights operated by airlines with or without passengers, simply to keep the takeoff slot assigned to them by the airport. He spices it up by adding that he was naked in a hotel room in San Diego while giving a radio interview related to ghost flights. Excerpt below.

The root of this nonsense is the “slot”: the right to take off from, or land at, an airport at a specific time. Slot allocation is used at busy airports worldwide, from Hong Kong to Malaga to New York JFK. But the most precious permission in aviation is the entitlement to use one of the two runways at Heathrow airport. But this privilege applies on a strictly “use it or lose it” basis. If an airline fails to operate at the times it is entitled to, the slot can be reallocated to another carrier. This prospect is so alarming that airlines will go to desperate lengths to preserve what they regard as their birthright. - It’s time to put an end to the idiocy of ‘ghost flights’, Simon Calder, The Independent, UK, 19 July 2008

A valid point he makes in the article is that while we’re all desperately trying to save the planet by reducing unnecessary travel, especially on airliners, the Airlines themselves are operating empty flights just so they don’t lose out on a prime time slot.

Anyway, let’s move on from a naked British travel editor to bikini clad hotel guests checking-in at the the Clarendon Hotel and Suites, a boutique hotel in midtown Phoenix (which, BTW, has a really neat pool called the Oasis with underwater speakers, scalp-and-shoulder massaging water jets, bubbling fountains, a jacuzzi that holds over 50 guests, a colorful Sicis Italian tile mural with 24K gold and platinum accents - and almost one thousand illuminated stars at the bottom of the pool.)

Ozgur Tore, Focus on Travel News, reports that if guests check in wearing a bikini (or, for men, swim trunks or a Speedo), they receive a $20 credit that can be used for poolside service, room service or in the hotel’s old-school Mexican restaurant, Clarendon Kitchen. Photo courtesy & copyrights - The Clarendon Hotel (www.theclarendon.net/).

The article also has more summer specials from other Phoenix hotels, so its worth adding to your Phoenix vacations and deals bookmarks. What? I keep bookmarks of good articles, which I categorize by state, and by major cities. Otherwise, I’d end up searching my bookmarks, instead of the internet.

I also have a copyright free flickr sub-category in my bookmarks, with images of all the major tourist attractions bookmarked for each major city, from which I pick and choose relevant images for posts without having to poke around Flickr searching for good free images which can be used alongwith the content. A little bit of organization is very helpful if you’re a travel writer.

Posted on July 19th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Travel News