Science fiction led us to believe robots would be flummoxed by trying to process logical paradoxes, such as the sentence "This statement is a lie" or perhaps the idea of "jumbo shrimp." But now that artificial intelligence has actually made its much ballyhooed emergence in everyday life, it turns out the machines can be stopped…
Flying into LAX can feel like landing in a much poorer city than Los Angeles. For many of the 75 million passengers who use LAX each year, the experience is miserable. It's old-fashioned and clogged with cars. The limitations of LAX's outdated horseshoe layout result in horrifying and unpredictable traffic, a situation that's only compounded…
Where is Everybody? “Humanless” Customer Service is Dominating Travel. Can We Be Heard as Consumers?
• DINING. Yeah, we all know about the upgraded LaGuardia Airport in New York. I grew up seven blocks away from LGA, and I worked there for two years, so I can appreciate the array of restaurants, bars, and shops as well as anyone. But last week, en route to my departure gate, I stopped…
We've warned you before about travel scams involving fraudulent phone numbers for airlines' customer service call centers. Passengers fall prey to that con when they look up an airline's contact info via an internet search engine and dial a number on the search results page that goes to a bogus call center. A fraudster on…
Amtrak rail service between New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, has been suspended since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. A long-in-the-works project to bring Amtrak trains back to the route, once known as the Gulf Coast Limited, was previously aiming for completion by the end of 2023. But Amtrak and partner organization the…
A lot of advice out there for getting through airports quickly and comfortably involves enrolling in paid programs like TSA PreCheck or Global Entry (or even CLEAR), carrying the right credit card, taking shelter in an airport lounge, and earning airline elite status. But the time and expense required to do all of that can…