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In helping a customer get compensation for their checked artwork that was damaged in transit, Chris Elliott recommends dealing with baggage issues at the airport rather than going home and dealing with customer serviceI probably would have stood my ground at the baggage claim office, rather than waiting until I got home to file a complaint. Once you leave an airport and begin dealing with an airline’s customer service department, your chances of resolving a problem plummet. Supervisors are authorized to offer compensation, and I suspect that you might have gotten as good a deal from the baggage claim office as you did from getting me involved. It’s always better to deal face-to-face whenever possible, especially if a sufficiently empowered agent is on hand to assist. And it’s usually better to call an airport’s baggage…

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I love ‘best of the best’ hotel lists, and this year’s Travel & Leisure‘s 500 best hotels around the world — as voted on by readers of the magazine — is no exception. (Hat tip HotelChatter.) This one, I love to hate. While there are lots of wonderful properties on the list, the rankings are truly bizarre. If you believe this list, there are more top luxury hotels in the United States than in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Carribean, Australia, New Zealand (and the rest of the South Pacific) combined. This has to be a function of the limited travel experience of T&L readers. Some of the stranger U.S. listings: The St. Regis isn’t the best hotel in Manhattan. And the Pierre isn’t better than the Ritz-Carlton Central Park, the Peninsula, and the Mandarin…

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Orbitz has the Intercontinental Tokyo Bay for 374 JPY per night (~ US$3.19) and other hotels have glitches as well, e.g. Crowne Plaza Shanghai for 123.16 Chinese Yuan (US$15.24) pre-paid. Apparently conversion issues are affecting the Intercontinental Coex Seoul as well, with rates from 187 Won instead of the usual 187,000 Won. There’s plenty of availability. When you pull up the hotel, you’ll see “From $XXXX” and that will show the correct rate. Choose the hotel anyway and you’re given a list of rates including the mistake rate. In the case of the Seoul property you’ll have to choose to display more rates than then all rates in order to get Won pricing rather than US dollar pricing. This was posted on Flyertalk a bit after 10pm last night but wasn’t sent out on fare…

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Final disposition is pending the outcome of the auction next week of course, but it sure looks like they’re going to sell just a few pieces of the airline and shut down. A thread at ACA-LOUNGE.COM, a bulletin board for the airline’s employees (and a place rife with rumors), indicates that pretty much everyone has gotten their furlough notices: Dear Flight Attendant ######: As you know, FLYi, Inc, the holding company for Independence Air, has been actively engaged in securing inverstors in, or purchasers of, the Company as it attempts to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankrupcy Code. The Company expects that is it is unable to secure significant external investment or a sale of all or substantially all of its operations before January 7, 2006, it will permanently cease all operations…

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What a great line, but how much further from the truth could this be? At TripAdvisor, one reviewer of the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park describes the place as “a reminder of war-torn Beirut.” The complaints are that the hotel is downtown (duh — it’s perfect for business in the financial district, but not where tourists choose to stay) and that breakfast was expesive (double duh, it’s breakfast at a hotel, a Ritz no less, and in Manhattan to boot). Still, it’s a great line, and one I’ll have to remember. I can think of a few Radisson properties where it might apply…

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American Express Membership Rewards has added Airtran as a points transfer partner. This new partnership makes sense as Airtran already has a meaningful partnership with American Express, offering bonus frequent flyer credits for tickets purchased using an American Express card. It’s interesting in another way, though. Juniper Bank issues the Airtran Visa. Juniper’s partnership with USAirways is forcing the USAirways Dividend Miles program out of American Express Membership Rewards and Diners Club Club Rewards. But I guess their contract with Airtran isn’t so restrictive! The transfer ratio is 1500 American Express points to 1 Airtran credit, which means that 24,000 Membership Rewards points buys a capacity controlled domestic reward ticket. Sounds about right. But the best use of these points isn’t going to be transferring that many for a free ticket. The way to use…

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