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Family friends recently returned from a trip to the Wynn Las Vegas, but the first story they had to tell wasn’t about luxurious accommodations, gambling, restaurants, or shows. It was about the snacks on top of their minibar.

The motion-detector minibar wasn’t new to me. Those are bad enough: You move any item in the minibar, and if you don’t put it back within 60 seconds, you’ve bought it. So much for making room to store your own food or beverages in there.

But what the friends told us was about the outside of the minibar. Snacks were placed on a tray. Not inside anything, but out in the open. (Here’s a link to a photo of the display.) There’s a warning that the food is on an electronic scale, and moving the item means you bought it.

This is just absurd. What if you wanted to look at the nutritional information on the back? Or, as one Expedia review noted, what if you have kids who inquisitively pick stuff up? (Best not to take the kids to the Wynn!) And check your bill: As one TripAdvisor reviewer learned, after getting hit with $100 of minibar fees, even though they didn’t consume anywhere near that much, you need to watch your charges, to make sure you didn’t accidentally budge anything.

What’s next, a tripwire that triggers a fee if you use the bathroom?

Related:
- The hotel minibar is dead! Long live the hotel minibar!
- Upgrades and Downgrades: Pizza delivery to your plane, wi-fi minibars, why airport security wants to sniff your armpits, and more

With everyone talking green these days, and with many environmental groups squarely putting the travel industry in its crosshairs, European mega-tourism conglomerate TUI has announced that it will use its size to make good on the green mandate. The tour company is putting pressure on hotel companies to make their operations more environmentally sound.

“In five years we want minimum standards in all our hotels,” said Dermot Blastland, managing director for TUI UK and Ireland, which carries 30 million passengers a year across Europe to 200 destinations. “We will not feature hotels that do not comply.” He said that he expects other companies to follow its lead, as customer demand drives the move to more sustainable travel.

No specifics on what those green standards actually are, and five years is a long time for companies to catch up.

I’m hoping that the standards include more than putting a card in the hotel room to tell you how to notify housekeeping whether or not you want your sheets washed or your towels changed.

But it’s a start, and if a 600-pound gorilla like TUI gives its standards teeth, then they’re very likely to gain global relevance.

Some may be crying hypocrisy, since TUI operates airplanes after all, which aren’t known for their carbon-neutrality. But it’s a smart business move, even if hoteliers may be crying environmental blackmail. A company that’s willing to step forward and make a move like this signals to consumers that they’re taking the environmental impact of travel a smidgen more seriously than their competitors, and that could tip the scales for some folks weighing vacation alternatives.

Note to airlines: This is how you get in front of bad PR. By taking a stand that improves the greater good, and demanding that others follow or get left behind, the company comes out looking like a knight in shining armor, even if it’s not really a selfless act. There’s got to be a way for airlines to spin their less-than-stellar environmental reputation — or their less-than-stellar passengers’ rights reputation, for that matter — in a way that benefits the masses and simultaneously makes the company look good.

Sorry, I couldn’t find a picture of Kramer tucking the Japanese businessmen into a dresser drawer. Have a hot tubbin’ photo instead.

Pod, cube, or capsule — there are more and more mini-hotels popping up around the world, offering tiny rooms with no frills at low prices. Brands like easyHotels (from the makers of easyJet), Yotel, Qbic, Podhotel, and others are following the trend made famous by Japanese hoteliers. (No sleeping in drawers.)

At the same time that luxury properties are fighting for bragging rights on who can be the most over-the-top, the pods are aiming at the opposite end of the market.

The pods have their place. If you’re looking for a few Z’s at an airport? Perfect. City tourism for the go-go-go traveler who just crashes for the night? Sure. Backpackers looking to upgrade from the hostel for change of pace? You betcha.

But how big is this market, really? Will it succeed in the US? After all, America is still the supersize society, despite some slight recent pullback.

So, the question goes to you, the traveling consumer:

Downgraded: Hotel-room glasses
I’m always a little wary of those glasses in hotel rooms, but now we’ve got hidden-camera proof that we shouldn’t be using them — or washing them ourselves before every use. Fox Atlanta planted cameras in several hotels, including Holiday Inn, Sheraton, and the Ritz-Carlton. In each hotel, housekeepers don’t remove the glasses for cleaning in the dishwashers downstairs. At best, they simply rinse them. At worst, they spray them with poisonous household cleaners, handle them with the same gloves they wore when cleaning the toilet, or dry the rinsed glassware with the same towel you used as a bathmat that morning. Disgusting. (Thanks, James!)

Upgraded: Ways to contact Skybus
Skybus, the notoriously hard-to-reach airline that tries to tell its customers that there’s no working phone number at the airline, has been exposed. How to contact Skybus, according to Skybus? Write an e-mail. After seeing far too many boilerplate e-replies that don’t address the problem, Chris Elliott has posted the executives’ contact information, including e-mails.

Upgraded: Advertisers’ unwitting sense of irony
Skybus again: CapitalOne is shelling out the big bucks to paint pigs all over a Skybus A319. It’s a savings account ad — a piggy bank theme — plus a riff off “When pigs fly,” leaving you, the consumer, with hijinks and hilarity. But if you’re an airline, do you really want your plane looking like a pig? Skybus, the flying pig? Wallow aboard!

Upgraded: Paris wine
Where to find a good wine bar or wine retailer in Paris? Look no further. Dr. Vino hits the scene with yet another installation of his wine maps. The Paris wine map features both stores and bars.

Upgraded: Getting on the bump list
The Cranky Flier notes that United has started asking for volunteers on overbooked flights at the time of check-in. Talk about getting in front of the problem. Unfortunately, the net effect for travelers is negligible, because you can’t (yet?) be guaranteed a bump by registering for one online. You still have to drag your butt to the airport and wait at the gate. Registering online only gets you an early spot on the list, if that’s your bag.

Upgraded: Smokin’ hot suitcases
The joke luggage insert (ahem, the Citizen’s Insertable Swiftness Manifest) posted last week included several jokes about smoking luggage. Now life imitates art. Phoenix SkyHarbor Airport was actually shut down after a smoking suitcase was discovered.

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Downgraded: The mile-high club
Singapore Airlines has some of the swankest first class seats — ahem, “suites” — in the sky, but if you want to get frisky with your mate at 39,000 feet, no dice. Despite having a double bed in their suites, the airline enforces a no-sex policy in the sky. Note the key word: enforces. Early passengers on the A380 weren’t pleased:

“So they’ll sell you a double bed, and give you privacy and endless champagne — and then say you can’t do what comes naturally?” asked Tony Elwood, a vigorous 76. “Seems a bit strange.”

Sorry, Tony. Your ticket may say first class, but you and the missus will have to use the lavatory, just like everyone else. Or rent a private love jet for $299.

Downgraded: Airbus’ green claims
One big selling point for modern aircraft is always their lower fuel consumption. Leo Hickman at the Guardian ran the numbers on the A380, and found that Airbus’ calculations are bogus. They assume a full plane of 555 passengers, but zero luggage or cargo, when they calculate the kerosene burn. How realistic. (By the way, Airbus claims that the A380 will burn 2.9 liters of fuel per passenger for every 100km traveled, i.e., 75 grams of carbon dioxide per passenger per km.)

Upgraded: Olde tyme hotel rates
The Palmer House in Chicago is allowing repeat guests to stay there at the rate they paid years ago. A great deal… as long as the earlier stay was fifty years ago or more, and if the guests still have the original receipt. A 1947 receipt will get you a room under $10. Which wasn’t cheap! (Notice to my wife: THIS is why I keep receipts.)

Downgraded: The State Department
Turns out that the $97 passport fee is nicely padded in the government’s favor, far above the cost of processing. Gosh, really?

Downgraded: Surcharges
The seven most annoying travel surcharges, from Chris Elliott. Room service “Tray fee”?? Wow, that’s really brazen.

Downgraded: The TSA
TSA regularly sends staff to conduct internal testing of its security procedures. But it turns out they’re sometimes tipping off the front-line staff in advance. (I know someone who works for TSA, who has had the pleasure of carrying a “bomb” through the airport. Yes, they caught him. Who’da thunk.)

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Upgraded: The jurisdiction for Southwest’s Fashion Police
Good to see that the memo that Southwest doesn’t have a dress code made it to every employee. Oh wait… “Southwest Airlines said it will apologize to a passenger who was told he would be removed from a flight if he didn’t change clothes, the second time in recent months the budget carrier has been forced to do so.” The shirt read “Captain Jack Hoff: Master Baiter.” Har har har. Those t-shirt auteurs… such cunning linguists! Well, considering how Southwest “apologized” the last time, we should expect a fare sale with a saucy name soon. But what will they call it? “The ‘No shirt, no shoes, no assigned seating!’ Sale” ?? “The Happy Hands Sale” ?? Speculate in comments.

Downgraded: Urns
The Indianapolis Airport was shut down and evacuated because a funeral urn hadn’t been screened properly and the owner couldn’t be found. Talk about adding insult to injury for the family of the deceased. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened with those newfangled security systems that somehow keep hitting the media but don’t actually show up in widespread use at airports. Or maybe it would happen anyway. This is the TSA we’re talking about, after all.

Upgraded: Olympic fever!
Looking to visit the Olympics in Beijing next summer? Over on Peter Greenberg’s site, Mike Day rounds up the ways to get tickets, get a room, and get around. Don’t forget your asthma medication.

Upgraded: Erosion
A 2002 flood created a new canyon in Texas in just three days. And then it took five years to open it to the public!

Upgraded: Quieter hotels
Longtime readers know that one of my pet travel peeves is the noisy luxury hotel, often courtesy of a crappy door with a giant gap at the bottom, allowing in all the noise from the hall. I’m happy to read that soundproofing materials are selling well as hoteliers build new facilities. Better walls, yay! But no mention of better doors. Nice try, people! The Door Wars are still on!

Upgraded: Bio-air-travel
Air New Zealand, Boeing, and Rolls-Royce engines will test a biofuel-powered 747. If you smell french fries in the wind, look up to see if a jumbo jet is passing by.

Upgraded: Government bloggin’, government surveillance
Move over, Kip Hawley! Now there’s something bloggier! Hawley’s boss, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, has started a blog. No, wait, it’s a “leadership journal.” This blog leadership journal has nothing but eyerolling snark for that self-aggrandizing title. Maybe he could show some actual leadership by answering why the government has been collecting and preserving all sorts of minutiae about travelers who aren’t on anyone’s watch list. (Hat tip to Benet Wilson for pointing to the DHS blog. Yes, blog. We shall never refer to it as a leadership journal again.)

Downgraded: OneWorld cooperation
American Airlines AAdvantage members will no longer earn elite-qualifying elite-bonus frequent flyer miles when they fly on oneworld partner British Airways. Lovely. Remind me why we have alliances, again? Updated: Several readers have written in (and the Global Traveller has written in comments) that the linked article by Tim Winship is wrong: Elite bonus miles are cut. Elite qualifying miles remain. I note that smartertravel.com pulled the article down from their site. Thanks to all who wrote in!

Upgraded: Motel 6’s reputation
Arthur Frommer offers this tip on finding “a stunning value for the price” in hotel accommodations: Look for ones that feature an interior corridor. “Stunning value”? That’s really quite an endorsement. I appreciate the sentiment — and yes, those with interior corridors are newer than those with exterior corridors — but isn’t it still just a Motel 6? The walls are thin and the bed isn’t that comfy. Sure, it’s better than some alternatives, but “stunning value”? I’ve stayed at Hyatts for $37 a night via Priceline. THAT’S “stunning value.”

Upgraded: In-flight service, Sesame Street style
Next flight, remember: Your flight could always be worse. You could end up with Grover as your flight attendant. Video below… (via FlyAwayCafe)

Upgraded and Downgraded: Virgin America to add inflight wireless internet …and voice
Virgin America will feature inflight wireless internet access on its planes, by working with AirCell (the same company that will roll out inflight wireless on American Airlines’ 767s). Jaunted reports that some unnamed features will be free, too.

Great, right? Well… there’s a catch. Skype is on the list of planned features. Hell is your seatmate shouting, “Guess where I am! No, guess! I’m on a plane!” Screaming madmen yelling at jilted lovers in faraway places could soon be sitting right next to you, laptops open, vocal cords ablaze. Bring the earplugs!

Upgraded: Singapore Airlines reveals its surprisingly spacious A380 layout
The Airbus A380, when packed to the gills with nothing but economy seats, could carry as many as 853 people. The normal three-class provision is estimated at 555 seats. But Singapore’s layout will only feature 471 seats, thanks largely to a boatload of extra-wide business class seats, much like the ones pictured here. To get a glimpse of the seatmap, Click here. Note that the economy class seats on the lower level are configured 3-4-3 and the upper level has them at 2-4-2.

Upgraded: The UK’s Travelodge
Downgraded: Home
An elderly British couple has been living in a Travelodge motel room for over twenty years. Talk about extended stay! Travelodge in the UK is not the same company as in the US. I’ve never stayed in the UK variant, but for their sake, I hope it’s better than the stateside chain. (via BoingBoing)

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Farecast, the airfare prediction site, has expanded its predictive abilities to hotel rates. Sort of.

Instead of offering a prediction about the direction of room rates, as they do for airfare, the site offers an analysis of how relatively good or bad the rate is. They offer a star rating (1 to 5) for how good the rate is, historically.

That’s helpful, but not a forecast. Essentially, Farecast is now a hotel rate aggregator, comparable to Kayak or Sidestep.

The historical ratings are interesting, but are they really helpful? Depending when you’re trying to book, and depending on occupancy rates, you might not do well to hold out for a five-star rate at the hotel you’re looking at.

A rate prediction might be on the horizon, but I wouldn’t count on it any time soon. The reason may be the variation in rooms. As I wrote in a review of hotel rate aggregators nearly a year and a half ago:

Hotel searches are trickier than airfares, for the most part, because not all rooms are created equal, and hotel location is less standardized than air travel routes. Finding a low rate isn’t helpful if you have strong preferences for two queen beds vs. one king bed, or smoking vs nonsmoking, or if you need to be within walking distance of a particular location.

Add to that the large blocks of rooms that can be taken up by conventioneers, wedding parties, or any other large group.

Knowing that rates are good or bad may make you feel better or worse about your reservations, but will they stop you from making the booking? After all, most hotels will let you cancel and re-book if a new, lower rate appears.

Upgraded, finally: Lufthansa economy-class entertainment
Lufthansa’s calculus has always seemed to be, “Should we give placate people in economy class with decent in-seat entertainment, or should we liquor them up for free? Let’s go with the liquor!” (Other airlines, say, Virgin Atlantic, have managed to do both, but let’s set that aside…) They’re finally reconsidering the entertainment options, if only on three routes. Still: Thank the heavens. My favorite real-world example of bad Lufthansa inflight video, broadcast on those overhead screens: A decade-old episode of the German crime drama “Derrick,” with an episode title that translated to “Rose on a Dump.” I’m not making this up. (Couldn’t they have shown the episode “Pornocchio” instead?)

Upgraded: Airbus A380 delivery dates
Singapore Airlines, the first airline to take delivery of its Airbus A380 mega-jumbo, is officially taking delivery of the plane on October 15, 2007. The first flight, from Singapore to Sydney, is scheduled for October 25.

Downgraded: The real Virgin America story
Virgin America knows how to play the PR game. No news there. But when the chips are down, they still need to figure out their schedule and customer service. But hey, the entertainment is decent. Mark Johnson of Jaunted flew a PR-free flight with Virgin America last week, and has the full report.

Downgraded: Charlotte security
Upgraded: Charlotte’s ability to bounce back
Charlotte Airport TSA agents let someone through security without screening. Flights delayed, passengers inconvenienced, etc., etc. But one thing I can tell you: The delays weren’t long-lasting. Later that same day, I caught a flight from Charlotte to LaGuardia, and it was all fine.

Downgraded: Hotel bathroom amenities
The China recalls keep rolling in. And now, hotel amenities are due for the seemingly inevitable report of poison. Gilchrist and Soames toothpaste is conveniently flavored with antifreeze. (I’ve seen G&C products, but never their toothpaste. My loss.) Better check that bag or box of mini-soaps, shampoos, etc. that the frequent traveler inevitably has stashed in their home. Toss the ‘paste.

Downgraded: Bellsouth/AT&T
It’s hard to blog without an internet connection. The BellSouth idiots first mistakenly shut down our dial tone but kept the DSL running. We called for service. They came, turned on dial tone, and shut down the DSL. Thanks. Great. Not once — not once — has BellSouth (now merged and rebranded AT&T) gotten one thing right on this phone line on the first try.

Last week, my wife and I stayed at a Hyatt Place, the Hyatt chain’s new upscale suite hotel brand. I was really looking forward to the stay, since the early reviews were good. After actually staying at one, I hope that the absurd number of problems we experienced were isolated, and that we simply were unlucky. This was a stay that I’ll never forget.

As background: Hyatt Place hotels are few and far between at this point, but they’re revamping old AmeriSuites properties and swankifying them to include the Hyatt bed, plasma televisions, etc. The lobbies are completely redesigned, with warm, contemporary design and some interesting sitting areas. Overall, the feel of the hotel is very upscale, at a midscale price. (Disclosure: We got our room through Priceline.com at a very deep discount.)

As part of an 800 mile drive last week, we spent a night at the Louisville location. We had left Chicago in the midst of flash flooding, making our escape nearly impossible. By the time we reached Louisville, it was 3:00 in the morning. Late, yes, but we had called ahead to ensure that our prepaid reservation was still there, and not given away to someone else. Our timeline follows:

3:00 a.m.
When we arrived, the well-meaning but hapless front desk clerk was unable to check us in, though our reservation was in the system. Why the problem? The calendar day had changed from Tuesday into Wednesday, he said, and our room was reserved by someone else for Wednesday night. The hotel was full, so there were no other rooms to give us, so he was wrestling with the computer to get a key. Watching him shuffle between computers, I felt a sinking feeling in my stomach, knowing that something was going very, very wrong.

3:15 a.m.
After fifteen minutes of wrangling with the keyboards, he finally got two keys issued for room 508. We headed to the elevator, up to the fifth floor, and to the room. The keys didn’t work. Instead of the green light, we kept getting orange. So back downstairs I went.

3:25 a.m.
After another few minutes of computer struggle, new keys popped out. Up to the top floor again, where my wife was sagged together in a heap of exhaustion in front of the door. The newest keys didn’t work either. Back downstairs I went.

3:30 a.m.
The front desk person was confused as to why this latest set of keys didn’t do the trick, so he called a technical support person… and got voicemail. He declared in his message that this was an emergency, but at that hour, who would get the message? So he sent me back upstairs, saying he’d figure it out and take care of it. “We’ll take care of you,” a phrase he repeated several times throughout the festivities. I went back upstairs and dozed off in the hallway outside our room. I was getting flashbacks to college, but thinking I was getting too old for this.

3:55 a.m.
The front desk person arrived at “our” room, but instead of keys, he had a luggage cart in tow. He was unable to get us keys, but he “found” another room on the first floor for us to check into. (Weren’t they sold out?) This new room was “never sold,” since the room dimensions were slightly off: The bathroom door would bump into the bed. Fine, no problem, we said, we weren’t about to quibble over a door, as long as we found a bed to sleep in.

4:00 a.m.
My wife opted for a shower and hopped right in. Once in there, she noticed a half-dissolved bar of soap and a pair of used washcloths. Uh oh. Bad sign. Time for a room inspection. And that room that was “never sold” was certainly used, if not sold. Short hairs on the pillows (someone had a haircut that day…) and longer, curlier hairs between the sheets … in a made bed! Used coffee cups on the counter. Several slices of pizza in the refrigerator. Bottom line: A dirty room that had bizarrely been tidied up to look superficially clean. Was this the manager’s secret hideaway where he napped or enjoyed some extracurricular activities? Ring ring, phone call to our man at the front desk…

4:15 a.m.
The exasperated front desk clerk delivered fresh pillows and sheets to our door, again with the statement that he would “take care of us.” I asked for two things: A very late checkout, and that breakfast would be delivered to us. (Their breakfast bar closed up shop at 9:30am.) He wholeheartedly agreed to both, apologized profusely, and left us to make our beds. After a long night of driving, there we were, stripping our hotel bed of its dirty sheets, and putting on the fresh ones. A surreal end to a long day.

When we checked out (very, very late) the next day, a different clerk asked us if our stay had been pleasant. In unison, we blurted out, “No,” to his shock and bemusement. “It’s a long story.”

This would have all been somewhat funny if we hadn’t been so spent. It was the end of a really rough few days, and we really, really, really just wanted to relax and unwind. Instead, we found ourselves sleeping in hallways and making our own hotel beds.

“I’m sorry, Mark, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

All of this could have been prevented if Hyatt’s computer systems aided their employees instead of limiting them. Had the front desk person been able to issue a key, we would have been in a (presumably) clean room and in bed. But no, the computer wouldn’t let the staff get us what we reserved. Technology got in the way of hospitality, and of customer service.

Hotel staff needs to be empowered to help the customer. When the computer can’t be trumped by a human being, then the customer loses. And when the customer loses, the hotel eventually loses even more.

…
Postscript:
As far as the Hyatt Place itself, I liked what I saw. Admittedly, I had an unusual room, and I didn’t experience the full amenities, but the hotel design and styling were great, the bed was comfortable (even with our half-assed bedmaking), and it was remarkably quiet for a fully-booked hotel. The promo photos that Hyatt puts up on their website are actually pretty close to reality (see below), though our room didn’t have that screen/room divider, and the room lighting wasn’t quite this photogenic…

I’d gladly try them out again, but I’d cross my fingers that I could actually get into a room.

Downgraded: Odds of seeing pole-dancer art on London-Gatwick approach
First it was the Kentucky Fried Chicken ad featuring a Colonel Sanders image visible from space. Now, a website’s advertisement featuring a giant chalk outline of a poledancing stripper is causing controversy in the UK. The image, in a field below a common approach path for flights to London’s Gatwick Airport, is only visible from the air, but is still causing an affront. It’s likely to be removed soon. But thanks to news reports and posts like this one far more people will see it online than ever would see it from a plane. (Yes, I’m guilty of supporting their marketing machine… I know…)

Upgraded: Kayak.com introduces alliance-based search
Aggregator Kayak.com tweaked its search tools ever so slightly, allowing you to sort by alliance (Star, oneworld, Skyteam) and not just by airline. But you can only sort it that way AFTER you’ve the basic search. (You can search preferred airlines up front, so why not alliances? Meh.) Orbitz has allowed alliance search for some time, but this is the first aggregator that I’m aware of that’s doing this.

Upgraded: Hertz’s environmentalist credibility
Last September, Hertz rolled out its “Green Collection” of rental cars and I was thoroughly unimpressed. Buick LaCrosse? Come on. Where were the hybrids? Well, it took nine months, but Hertz finally got around to buying more genuinely eco-friendly vehicles, with a purchase of 3,400 Toyota Priuses (or is that Prii?). That’s more like it.

Upgraded: Wine in coach. Viva jetBlue!
JetBlue is serving up some slightly more interesting wines than usual the usual coach fare. Thanks to a partnership with Best Cellars, the airline is giving their all-economy class passengers a slightly better guzzle. Choosing wine for coach can be challenging, since it has to be a) cheap, b) in tiny ready-for-sale bottles, unlike in premium cabins, and c) pair-able with a wider range of foods. I hadn’t thought about that last one before: After all, the wine in business and first can presumably be paired with the menu (though that’s not always obvious). But in coach, a wine demands “versatility in pairing with a wide assortment of airport meals people bring on planes, including pan pizzas from Pizza Hut and Taco Bell burritos with chicken and mole sauce.” (Taco Bell has a mole sauce? Really?) Either way, good for jetBlue, and good for their wine-imbibing passengers. (Thanks Tyler!)

Downgraded: US Airways right to serve any wine
Unlike jetBlue… US Airways, which got into trouble for selling booze without a license in New Mexico a few months ago, and which has been serving the sauce with a temporary scrip since then, was denied an extension of its license this past week. Tough break. BYOB, anyone?

Upgraded: Marriott; Downgraded: Ian Schrager (or is it the other way around?)
Look, I happen to like Marriott hotels for what they are: Consistent, clean, competent, and overall comfortable spaces to spend the night. (4 C’s!) They usually don’t have too much bling or pizazz, though some of their big-city properties have that 1980s glitz that has an odd appeal to my mid-to-late-30s, graying-gracefully, receding-hairline self. So when I hear that they’re teaming up with Ian Schrager, king of the boutique hotel, to create a new boutique-y brand, I’m skeptical. It seems like a late-to-the-game attempt to create a “W” chain within a chain. If it adds a little funk to the Marriott decor, great. (Bye bye brass fixtures, please!) But it also smacks of desperation. And isn’t Ian Schrager past this? Seems like he’s here to cash in while the cashin’ in is good.

Upgraded: WestJet’s honesty; Downgraded: Little old ladies’ pensions
Canada’s WestJet (hearts) little old ladies. Not because they’re nice grandmas, but because they’re walking piggy banks, and the airline’s got a hammer. Consider this nugget from the airline’s president:

“There would be a little old lady coming up and she’d have a table and she’d have a chair and she’d have six or seven bags and we’d say ‘Yeah, take it on the plane. No problem.’ Now we’re actually going to charge a little bit of money for taking that table and chair and those extra bags on board. And that incremental revenue that we extract from that little old lady is very, very profitable to us. Some 85% goes to the bottom line.”

Good for him, for saying publicly what other airline executives discuss privately. So I guess the business traveler isn’t the company profit center; the rarely-traveled senior citizen is. Bank it.

Upgraded: Amputees and their TSA experience
Got a prosthetic? The TSA wants to make your security checkpoint experience kinder and gentler. Good! On the other hand…

Downgraded: Sippy cups, and TSA cinema verité
A former Secret Service agent reports that she was harassed when she accidentally carried her child’s sippy cup of water through security. Stupid enough, but it gets more absurd: The TSA actually released a silent security tape of the incident, labeled “Mythbusters,” in their own defense. Feel free to view the videos, read the incident report, review the embarrassed mother’s story, and decide for yourself.

Upgraded: Demolition
Let me make myself perfectly clear: I want to help destroy this hotel. I’ve never been to it, but I want to help Spanish hotel chain NH Hoteles wreck the Alcala Hotel in Madrid. The company is holding a contest to see who can take a sledgehammer to the joint. Only 30 lucky few will get to play rockstar-cum-wrecking ball. Let the spirit of Keith Moon guide you.