Gadling

Last month I wrote a post about Franz Wisner's book, Honeymoon with my Brother, an account of two brother's travel around the world that lasted for two years.

In contrast, there's the story I read yesterday on Wallet Pop that illustrates the opposite of the brotherly love found in Wisner's book. The two brothers that the Wallet Pop post refers to were duking it out on a JetBlue flight Saturday because one of them smoked in the airplane's restroom. Now, that's a reason to clock someone. These two brothers weren't able to travel together for more than a few hours. Perhaps their book could be Travel Hell with my Brother and highlight all the sib trips that have gone wrong. It might make for great reality TV. Send the pair to various destinations and watch the sparks fly.

The result of the flight that was host to the seemingly endless brawl was a diversion to North Carolina. I'm sure the passengers have not finished telling tales about their trip to Florida. Travel Hell with Two Brothers

I know that flying can create stress between family members so I'm wondering what else led up to this. Or does this family actually live in a B-rate movie or have too many hours of watching Jerry Springer episodes under their belts?

The only time I remember people physically fighting when I've traveled, and I've traveled a lot, was a pushing, shouting and shoving match in a Greyhound bus line at Port Authority. The fight was between two unrelated people--also males. I attributed it partly to summer heat that makes people a bit crazy in New York. The other passengers in line stopped the fight by intervening and talking sense into the lunkheads who forgot that all they needed to know should have been learned in kindergarten.

Any great fights when you've traveled? Not yours, someone elses? The photo shows that a lack of sisterly love could apply.

I'm here with Doug Poindexter, president of the World Wide Pet Industry Association, the oldest nonprofit within the field dedicated to pet care. He's here to talk about the tricks of the trade when it comes to traveling with pets, or what to do if you have to leave them behind.

What types of trips are feasible to do with pets, and which ones are not?

More pet owners are traveling with their pets, which means that an abundance of hotels and businesses are looking to host you and your four-legged companion. However, you must do your research before your trip begins. Below are some tips for booking the perfect hotel for you and your pet.

• Don't book online - You should call the hotel and ask for a rundown of the rules associated with booking a pet-friendly room. Explain the size and weight of your pet to ensure he/she falls within the requirements.
• Ask for a list of restrictions – Pet friendly hotels often have rules surrounding the types of pets they allow in the room. Confirm the size and weight restrictions, breed policies, and supervision stipulations prior to reserving a room (ie. You can not leave your pet unattended in the room).
• Don't assume all rules are universal – Hotel chains can vary in policy surrounding pet friendly programs due to differences in state and local laws. It's important to always request a list of rules surrounding pet lodging at every new hotel location.
• Inquire about pet programs – Many pet friendly hotels offer perks such as dog beds, treats, water bowls, etc. for no additional charge. An increasing number also partner with local dog walkers and groomers to offer discounts to residents traveling with their pet. Be sure to request a list of programs for you and your pet to check out while you are in town.

That day, September 11, 2001, was the day I landed in Zurich, Switzerland for a week long vacation with my mother who is also a flight attendant based in New York. That morning, the morning we sat on a strange bed in a hotel room far away from home, our eyes glued to the television, we watched in horror as it happened, as an airplane, one of our airplanes, carrying our fellow crew members, along with our passengers, crashed into the World Trade Center. Like you, we were stunned, and scared, and could not believe what we had just seen so far far away from home. Little did we know our lives had changed forever.

"Don't even bother going to the airport until the 21st," said an airline representative over the phone after I told her we were airline employees trying to use our flight passes to get out of Switzerland on a flight, any flight, to the United States.

"How much to purchase a ticket?" I asked.

"Let me see....the only seat available is on the 28th, in coach, and that costs..." I could hear her fingers clickity click click clicking, working their magic. I held my breath. "$8,000," she finally said.

"Just keep going to the airport," said a Delta Captain laying over at our hotel. We were in the lobby waiting to check in - again, when he spotted the red CREW bag tag wrapped around my suitcase. "We were able to get a few standbys out the other day."

So that's what we did, my mother and I, we woke up early each morning, checked out of the hotel, walked to the train station in a daze, our bags rolling behind us, where we boarded a train in the dark to go to the airport. Hours were spent waiting to get on one of two flights, the only two flights going to the United States. All other flights had been canceled. One flight departed early in the morning and another left later in the evening and we were number 800-and-something on the standby list. Yet we continued to go to the airport and wait it out every single day, just like thousands of other people desperate to get home to family and friends.

Eventually some passengers did leave. By car. A couple of them decided to drive to other airports in neighboring countries. A few days later they returned. My mother and I still sat waiting, waiting, waiting in the terminal with little hope of getting out any time soon.

When we did finally make it back to the United States, I found myself in Texas, where my parents live, and that's where I decided to stay until October. The route I'd flown for two years straight, New York - Vancouver, had been wiped off my schedule the entire month of September - never to return again. Which left me with a little time off that many of my colleagues were not fortunate enough to experience. I was lucky and I knew it.

In an article in the St. Petersburg Times, writer Bridget Hall Grumet tells about her experience waiting with her pre-toddler to pre-board, only to not pre-board after all. The unnamed airline had dropped the practice unbeknown to her. (She later mentions an American Airlines and United flight, but they are not the ones Grumet initially described.)

We've posted in the past about airlines who have stopped pre-boarding families with infants and small children. Southwest, American, Delta and United no longer have pre-boarding, although Grumet says that if you ask gate attendants with American and Delta, they may let you board early if you have a small child. Grumet personally found that to be true on an American flight.

Although Grumet misses the perk of boarding early with a kid because it makes settling in on a plane that much easier, she does understand the airlines' latest practice. The idea behind not making allowances for people with small children and infants, and others who need assistance, is that when they get on the plane in one group, it creates a bottleneck.

If people who need extra help are randomly spread out during the boarding process, it saves 10 to 12 minutes. That may not sound like much, but as airlines struggle to get people to their destinations on time, 10 to12 minutes can jam up arrivals and departures for more than that one airplane.

My thought is that if I were traveling with a small child, I'd not be in any hurry to board. Spend less time on the airplane. The problem with that strategy is that with overhead bins becoming more packed as people avoid the cost of checking a bag, there won't be space in the bins. Then you'd be stuck searching out a bin rows from your seat. See Heather's post on how the trying to find bin space can look to a flight attendant.

Here's one of my solutions for combating the headache of traveling on a plane with a small child. When at all possible, take the train. Stay tuned tomorrow for my post on how train travel worked out for me. My six year-old got us on the train first.

Between the satellite dishes and the barren, otherworldly landscape in this photo, you could be forgiven for thinking it had been taken on the moon. It's all the more amusing therefore, to find out that Flickr user konakoka, got this spacey shot on top of Mauna Kea, the dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The lack of light pollution and the high altitude make Mauna Kea a top spot for astronomy. The summit is littered with all manner of observatories and satellite dishes, as we see here in this photo. I like the way the focus of the image has been pushed to the very bottom, leaving an almost limitless blue sky to dominate.

Have you taken any great travel photos you'd like to share with our Gadling readers? Add them to our Gadling pool on Flickr and we might just use your image as our Photo of the Day.

Admittedly, Russell Brand, the British comedian and actor, probably best known in the U.S. for his role as Aldous Snow, a rock star in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, can go a bit over the top with his humor.

Because he will be hosting the MTV Video Music Awards tonight, he is on U.S. entertainment radar again. However, it's an earlier appearance on David Letterman in May that caught my attention.

This account of why he missed his first scheduled appearance on David Letterman pokes a bit of fun at U.S. immigration without being anti-American. According to him, Brand wasn't allowed back in the U.S. after a trip to Britain to promote the movie because of his past record. Although he doesn't specifically state his past problems, they have to do with drug issues for which he has had treatment.

Basically, Brand's hilarious style of story-telling captures an interesting cast of players and circumstances at U.S. immigration. I do think he's embellishing, but it's funny. For example, he describes a Gambian man wearing an American flag tie under going questioning and hones in on the stereotypes of people who look suspicious.

There are some people who are determined to not wear clothes in the great outdoors. There are the people who do naked rock climbing, people who hang out on a nude beach (or play volleyball in the buff on a beach like those I saw once in Greece), people who sky dive nude, dance in the nude, go on cruises in the nude, and, like this German guy I read about, people who prefer to hike in nothing but a good pair of shoes.

Even jail time is not dissuading this German fellow from his naked hiking habits, according this Reuters article. This fellow was put in jail for ten days for in the buff walkabouts, but has vowed that he will continue to hit the trails without clothes even though it is against the law. Perhaps he sees a double standard? Hiking in the nude breaks Germany's indecency laws, although nude beaching it is okay in designated areas.

Interestingly, Germany has a German Nudist Association which is part of the German Sports Association. Nudism can be traced back to Germany as a way to be healthier, so the association fits the idea of fitness. This membership has created an increase in nude hiking love. Nude jogging also has a following, but loping along in just socks and running shoes also lands a fine.

In a way, one could say that if there are nude beaches there could be nude forests and nude mountains for those who like to scale cliffs. Whatever they do, I hope they're using a decent sunscreen.

To celebrate their 80th birthday, Leading Hotels of the World is running a promotion where you can stay in almost 100 of their properties around the world for US$19.28.

At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EST/Eastern Standard Time) on October 1, 2008, LHW will release a limited number of rooms in these properties for 80 minutes only, in which you can try to secure rooms for US$19.28. You can pre-register here.

It's not clear what type of rooms will be up for grabs; rooms at LHW properties range from US$500-2000, so for $20, any room will do!

80 minutes is not long and I imagine tonnes of people trying to milk this offer, so let's hope that LHW have their act together and their servers do not crash.

[Via globorati]

A British student researcher while on a project in Kamchatka in Russia broke her leg after falling off a horse. She had a 406 megahertz beacon locator, the distress signal of which reached Scotland -- 3,700 miles away! She was rescued and is currently recovering.

Kamchatka is a scarcely populated remote part of eastern Russia, one of the world's last great wildernesses that is also home to 300 volcanoes.

I think we tend to take safety for granted; you never think you are going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere alone and disconnected. The girl in this case was with 8 others, and she had an advance beacon thing. What happened to the Russian rescue services?

I'm not very knowledgeable about the types of personal beacons, the way the work, and the distance they cover, but if they can send SOS signals to centers cross-continent, whoa, hats off to technology. Apparently, this is not normal though.

Here's a good piece with basic information on personal beacons. They are available for around £200-300, probably worth the investment if you are going to be away from civilization for a while.

Back in April, Jeffrey wrote about a new initiative by some American Airlines pilots to try and get public attention to the large number of delays and cancellations the airline was experiencing. At that time, they invited people to their web site, where they could "tell their AA story".

They have now taken things one step further, with their own billboard. The billboard is about 2 miles away from Chicago O'Hare and next to one of the busiest highways leading to the airport. The Allied Pilots Association is behind the billboard, and they want to make it clear that they don't think you are AA's top priority. It's a pretty eye-catching way of delivering your message, and if I had the money, I'd love to rent one every time an airline messed up my trip.