How Was Your Holiday Travel?

Welcome to 2011! I must say, I was feeling a little told-you-so-ish about the storm that made post-Christmas travel hell for an awful lot of people. And I quote (myself): "Airlines will cancel flights rather than risk having them out of place when the weather clears. […] Air capacity is really high these days, and it'll be worse at Thanksgiving—so there are unlikely to be empty seats on other flights, especially near the holiday." Then again, the weather is one of those things that you can't do much about.... Or can you? If your flight was canceled and you discovered new strategies as a result—for getting on another flight, for traveling home some other way, or for killing time at an airport—please share them on this TravelPost discussion. The more knowledge we all share, the better off we'll all be.

To that end, here are two non-storm-related tidbits I learned on my trip to California. (I was fortunate to have returned to New York City the day before the snow started.)

1. TV remotes for germophobes Because remote controls are so difficult to clean, the ones in hotel rooms creep many folks out. The Best Western Date Tree Hotel in Indio, however, had something called the Clean Remote, which has a "spill-proof, non-porous, easy-wipe surface." Logically enough, it's being marketed to hospitals and hotels, places where infection is an issue and/or a particular concern. Of course, there's no guarantee anyone wiped it down since the last guest handled it, fondled it, or wiped his nose with it. (The remote is actually white—my camera turned it yellow for unknown reasons.)

2. Has United Airlines no sense of decency?
Click "Read more" below to find out the answer.

I checked in for my return flight while at my parents' house, and I was surprised to see the prechecked box trick rear its vicious little head. It's such a bush-league maneuver. Sure, the "skip option and continue" button is fairly big, but the prechecked box and the green "Yes! Add this option" button make paying extra seem like the default, common way to go. Even worse, this screen came up in the beginning of the check-in process, so someone who doesn't travel often might think it's less of an add-on option and more of a perfunctory one. (Perhaps it was because I was in Palm Springs, where the demo is decidedly age-advanced, but I couldn't help imagining I was a bit older and I didn't fly often and I had kept hearing on the news about airline fees—I might think this is one I had to pay.) It's an open question why anyone would pay for access to a "Premier check in line" while checking in online, but what was really appalling was that my flight was on a regional-airline prop plane, so there was no priority boarding. I don't recall there being a priority security line, either, but then I was the only passenger in security at that time on Christmas morning. I can't say it enough: Airport security is frustrating and tedious, but it rarely takes so long anymore that you should feel the need to pay to avoid it.