The Luggage Dance

It seems like airlines have done everything in their power to make travel more and more tedious. It wasn't too long ago that travelers got to check two bags for free, pillows and blankets were readily available on flights, and to get a exit row seat, all you had to do was ask. Those were some of the things taken away or modified with fees. Many airlines went on to drop free meals. Having eaten airplane food, I think we can agree that not much was lost there! Then things got worse. Fuel costs went up. The number of people traveling went down. So of course the answer is to make travel even more costly and more difficult for the consumer. I believe the pinnacle of this is the cost to check even a single bag everyone has to pay on most major airlines now. Not only is this an extra expense to deal with, it's causing a rather annoying scenario that I call the luggage dance.

Geek husband and I recently took a trip to his home city of New Orleans. Our luggage dance started before we even left for the airport. We were trying to figure out if we could both pack for a four day trip, in one suitcase. The airlines we were traveling on charges $15 per checked bag, each way. If we checked only one bag, we'd save $30. We had already decided that just using carry-ons would be too hectic. Both of us travel with our laptop computers. Trying to keep track of two computer bags and two small pieces of luggage in four different airports (1 connection each way) sounded like far too much of a hassle.

As we packed, it became apparent that everything would fit, but it might get a little tight. So then the question was: what if we buy a bunch of stuff while we're on vacation? The suitcase we used expanded with the flip of a zipper, but I knew from past experience that if I open up the expansion and pack it tight, it can weigh more than 50lbs. An overweight bag costs more than checking a second bag, so we'd be better off taking two if that happened. After much discussion we decided to go with one bag and to buy something cheap to throw clothes into if we needed a second one on the way back. We ended up only doing a little bit of shopping, so our one suitcase worked for the return trip just fine. However we spent far more time on packing than we ever would have prior to the $15 bag fee.

The luggage dance continued as we boarded the plane. More people than ever are using carry on bags, rather than paying the checked bag fees. I can't blame them. I would do the same in some cases. This means however that overhead compartment space is at a premium. Above our seats other passengers spent a good 15 minutes attempting to rearrange the luggage in the overhead compartment to fit someone's bag. In the process they took another passenger's bag out of the compartment (unbeknownst to the owner of the bag), and never put it back. Several minutes after they finished, another passenger held up a bag and asked who owned it, as it had randomly left by his seat. Neither that person nor the owner of the bag knew what had happened. And we must not forget the bag that almost got dropped on my husband's head in the middle of all of the commotion. I was quite displeased about that one.

Maybe I'm strange, but I find the luggage dance to be very annoying. The airlines have set up a scenario where passengers are going to try to jump through hoops to avoid paying baggage fees: packing fewer suitcases, trying to survive with just a carry-on, and finding a place for that carry-on once a person is on the plane. The flight attendants seem to understand the situation, yet attempt to stay away from it. Not one attendant came over to help the people who rearranged one compartment for 15 minutes. The hassle and the extra cost have people more frustrated with traveling than ever.

If I were an airlines, I would seriously consider revising that policy right about now. I have to wonder if a very modest price increase (say $5 per ticket) would compensate for the missed income. The good will towards travelers may be the real benefit though. I know that if I were looking for a plane ticket these days I'd choose a $15 more expensive flight over one with the same $15 baggage fee. I can't be the only person out there that feels that way, a smart airlines would take that into consideration right about now :)

On Star Trek

1. I really enjoyed it!
2. Many of my favorite 1-liners persisted in the new vision.
3. I'm glad J. J. Abrams did not try to duplicate Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. No one could do Roddenberry's Star Trek as well as Roddenberry.
4. It was a great movie in it's own right.
5. Go see it!

Steer Your Financial Future with Rudder!

A few weeks ago I was reading articles on Lifehacker and I ran across a reference to the personal finance tool, Rudder. Given that Rudder is free (for basic service), I decided to give it a shot.

The backbone of Rudder is the Dashboard page. This page contains a number of widgets, small components which provide information about various elements of personal finance. The Dashboard provides an instant glance at my financial state. The Account Balances widget lists the current balances on my accounts. The Recent Activity widget is one of my favorites, listing recent transactions. These are updated nightly, however I have found that the updates are not perfect. The Bills widget requires a little setup. It will list reoccurring bills, but I had to enter them the first time. The hallmark widget of Rudder is one entitled What's Left. This widget projects how much money will remain after all of the bills are paid. Two more widgets are available, but not added to your dashboard by default. These are the Savings, and the Spend Meter.

Rudder also includes transaction lists and trends pages. Trends are not that helpful unless you pay for an upgraded account. Rudder's basic services are free. This means however that Rudder will only store 200 transactions (between all accounts). That's not enough to do meaningful trend analysis for most people. Upgraded accounts will hold more transactions. I opted for a one year, unlimited transactions account, which set me back $15.

What Rudder does really well is give me a succinct, up to the minute look at my current financial position. Every night Rudder sends me an email with a snapshot of my dashboard. It's easy to read, and at a glance I can see where things stand. I used to check my checking account balance every couple of days, and with Rudder's emails I don't need to do that anymore. If someone should say, use my debit card to buy train tickets in Europe, it'll show up in my daily emails, and I can call the bank immediately.

The only catch... sometimes it doesn't work. Rudder had trouble communicating with my bank for about a week. Rudder needed me to repeatedly input my user name and password (which is buried on the settings page), yet it could not update my account. Eventually the problem seemed to repair itself. I waited until it worked for a couple of weeks following that event before paying for the unlimited account.

The other disadvantage to Rudder is that it does not talk to company in which I have my investment account. This is important to my daily finances because I use the money market account with that company for short term savings. So Rudder doesn't know that I've got a little money stashed away for summer vacation.

If you are currently using some other tool for personal finance management, and you're happy with it, then stick with it. If you want to give something new a try, sign up for a Rudder account and see what you think.

Murder! Or is it?

I recently discovered that many of my friends do not know of one of my favorite movies of all time, Murder by Death. So I write this post to introduce them, and all of my loyal readers, to one of the funniest movies of all time.

Murder by Death is a spoof of a handful of classic mystery characters. Agatha Christie's Miss Marple is replaced by Jessica Marbles. Instead of Sam Spade, Peter Falk does a hilarious rendition of Sam Diamond. And my personal favorite, the Thin Man, makes an appearance, or rather his alter ego, Dick Charleston does. Milo Perrier (Hercule Poirot) and Sidney Wang (Charlie Chan) round out the detective offerings. Pitted against them is Truman Capote as Lionel Twain and his blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum, played by Alec Guinness.

The plot is simple, the five detectives are invited to Mr. Twain's house for dinner and a murder. What they don't know is that Mr. Twain is determined to get the best of the detectives. His mechanical contraptions and sometimes plain outrageous schemes keep them guessing. The detectives further complicate the situation with their own idiosyncrasies.

One of my favorite things about this movie is how many quotes it has, which persist far beyond the movie itself. Geek husband just has to say "Shh shh, cow talk again." and I get the giggles. If I every meet someone named Jamesir in real life, I probably will not be able to contain myself! Imagine introducing yourself as Jamesir, to someone who you're addressing as sir, and you'll get the picture. I could list a dozen more, but I don't want to spoil it for you :)

Join us at 22 Twain's house, for dinner... and a murder!

Fast Food Follies: Baked Potato Soup

I took this to lunch one day last week and my friends were amazed that I made potato soup so easily. The secret: bake the potatoes first. Whenever we have baked potatoes with dinner, I bake a couple of extra and mash them, or turn them into soup.

Here's what you need:
1 potato per bowl of soup
Milk and/or chicken broth
Onions if you have em
Toppings: Bacon, cheese, grilled chicken, green onion, anything that's good on a potato

Here's how you make it:
Bake the potatoes.
If you're using onions, chop them up so that they are bite sized (or smaller) and sautee in the soup pan with a little butter, until golden.
When the potatoes are done carefully (they'll be hot) scrape out the insides into the soup pan. Add enough milk and/or chicken broth to make soup. I often use all milk. You can vary the consistency to your liking - thick or thin is fine.
Warm up in the pan until everything is hot. Season with salt and pepper.

Top each bowl with your favorite potato toppings. I love bacon and cheese!

PS: Yes I use baked potatoes to make mashed potatoes :) Why? It's easy! No peeling necessary! And to me they are just as tasty.