Boldly Go Solo

Delayed flight remedy: tweet the airline

A decade ago or so, I remember feeling so clever when, after my flight was canceled, I called the airline to find me another flight, while I stood in a long customer service line at the airport.

Within a few minutes, I was rebooked to my destination and I stepped out of line. It had barely budged.

Twitter has upped the ante. A Washington Post story today describes how a woman got great service from United Airlines by tweeting her troubles about a delay due to mechanical problem.

United responded to several of her tweets and she was rebooked much faster than others who tried calling the airlines or using its app. 

The story, "How tweet it is," offers a list of tweeting tips.

United's Twitter page says, "We like hearing from you. Tweet us any time." And, according to the Post piece, people do and United has folks assigned to respond. 

Note to self: Make sure you're following all the airlines you ever plan to use. 

Note to followers: You should too.

@boldlygosolo

Three great travel apps for those willing to be adventurous

For my recent trip to Toronto, the adventure started a couple of weeks before I got on the plane.  

Booking a room through airbnb:

I started by searching for places to stay, using airbnb. It's tough to research places if you don't know what the neighborhoods are like. Or where the closest transportation is.

If cost were no object, I could have stayed in a downtown hotel, near the conference center where I was attending TBEX, a two-day conference for travel bloggers. But that would have cost about $600 just to sleep. Nevermind eating, flying and incidentals.