Here is some of the best travel news and notes from around the Internet:
- I was featured recently on 2 lists of dubious value – the 81 top travel hackers of 2017 and 60 of the best travel blogs to follow.
- Of course the recent aviation news has been the removal of 4 passengers from United flight 3341.  Ian wrote his take on things (which I generally agreed with) and it’s so talked about that there have even been a series of MEMES about the incident.  I enjoyed this take on things from an airline pilot’s wife – I Know You’re Mad at United but… (Thoughts from a Pilot Wife About Flight 3411)
- Remember the story a year ago about the guy who had bought his girlfriend a round the world trip and then got dumped? Â So he searched for someone with the same name to travel with him? Â A year later, Elizabeth Gallagher has no regrets about taking that trip
- The Deal Mommy is always a good read – here’s don’t make this rental car mistake AKA the time I nearly killed my kid
- I recently was checking out the (fairly new) site / app called CultureTrip. Â They have content in 11 different “culture” categories (food/drink, literature, music, books, etc) across several different cities in the world. Â I checked out my hometown of Cincinnati (a nice middle of the road city) and they had 32 articles so their breadth seems pretty solid. Â Has anybody used them before? Â Might be worth checking out
Interested in top travel hacks? Â You should definitely follow me on Facebook or join our new miles and points Facebook group.
Up for more travel news? Â Here’s the previous installment:Â Flight attendants asked: Would you rather work in the economy, business or first class cabin of the plane?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I wish you wouldn’t link to a dumb article from the dumb pilot wife. She doesn’t even have her facts straight, she claims Dr Dao was escorted off, ran back on, then was assaulted. We shouldn’t give dumb people the addition exposure. It’s like ESPN keeps putting Lamar Ball on TV even though he’s and idiot.
You are absolutely right that the “pilot’s wife” did not have her facts straight. She was wrong about the timing, and she did not mention that Dr. Dao’s, the 69 year old physician, had his nose broken and two teeth broken when he was assaulted. She also lies when she says the airline has the authority to take people off the plane. They can overbook and prevent people from boarding but Rule 21 says they can only take a passenger off the plane if the passenger is sick, or is a public safety hazard. Rule 21 is probably why United claimed that Dr. Dao was disruptive, but, thanks to all the cell phone videos, that particular lie of United’s is not sticking.
United wanted to save profits by having 4 of its own personel use seats on this plane. Those 4 United employees did not get to the airport early enough to prevent boarding of the people filling those seats. Rather than offer more money, or rent a car for their crew or find other planes for those 4 crew, United did what they thought was going to be most profitable: forcibly remove people who were already boarded.
It is amazing to me the number of Americans willing to bow down to their corporate overlords and give up their rights under Rule 21.
If United had gotten away with this, I wonder what their next move would be to enhance their profits? Make the crew pay for using the bathroom?
Professor Richard Wolfe gives the best analysis of this horrible event that I have seen:
Agree with ^^^. The “pilot wife” doesn’t even understand the laws and regulations. Spreading fake news. Everything she stated as facts and laws has been refuted by an actual United pilot and the DOT.
A point-by-point rebuttal:
https://www.facebook.com/andrew.webb/posts/10210949707810105?pnref=story
‘I was only following orders, err…procedure…’
‘Rules are rules…’
‘Read the fine print…’
To the author, Pilot’s Wife:
It’s really offensive to tell people they don’t have a right to be angry…because reasons.
People are angry, sad, frightened, depressed…whatever. They don’t have to justify their feelings, right or wrong, they just ARE.
Surrogates coming out of the woodwork to “defend” United, the Chicago Transit PD, the DOT, whoever, need to STFU. Let people be mad. Corporations don’t need you to shield them from angry customers. They have publicists and lawyers for that.
“I once actually had to remove my infant son’s socks because they mimicked little baby sneakers.”
“But instead of pitching a massive fit, refusing to comply, and bolting through the TSA checkpoint like an out-of-control toddler, I did the big girl thing–sucked it up, removed the offensive socks, and went on with my happy life, sans being tackled and dragged through the airport in handcuffs by a bunch of big men with guns.”
Aren’t you special. And judgmental. And what’s called a “concern troll”. (Thank you for your concern.) And attributing your imagination to another person’s point of view.
“Pitching a massive fit”. Doesn’t look like it.
“Bolting through the TSA checkpoint?” Conflates your imaginary sock “incident” with the actual events.
By your framing then, this 69 year old senior is a “little girl”? a “toddler”?
…’cause you’re a “grownup”.
Best take a step back and check your privilege.
Her rudeness and supercilious attitude are really something. I tried not to address that, because it doesn’t have anything to do with the situation or her claims, except that she believes what she believes because of whho she thinks she is.
Ok, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut but I feel like my blood pressure might return to normal if I just say this. The pilots wife is so full of herself. What a self righteous, self important, clueless human being. She compares him getting beat, to her having to take her sons socks off? She doesn’t know the facts of the story and she misstates several things. And she seems so d****d condescending. Like she is schooling the ignorant masses, doing us a favor really because you know us travelers, lawyer, aviation experts, etc… well no one knows a thing about all of this, except for the pilots wife and well maybe her pilot husband. Good Grief.
Her article to me is BS. There lack of planning doesn’t and should not constitute an emergency on the behalf of paying customers. If they needed 4 seats for staff before even boarding people they should have held 4 seats back and rescheduled people accordingly. But NO that’s not how they handled it. Fine print or no fine print……they waited until everyone was boarded and right before take off. This just isn’t right but it’s bad business!!!
They owe the man an apology and a massive amount for the pain and suffering they’ve caused him because of there oversight which is solely there fault!
And they need a complete overhaul on there customer service policies!