December 29, 2007

THE MOST-TRAVELED MAN IN THE WORLD … IS NOT PETER GREENBERG

I flew back to New York and did a piece on the Today show on a very interesting man. The most-traveled man in the world. And guess what? It’s not me. This guy has me and everybody else beat like you cannot believe.

His name is Charles Veley, and he’s a 42-year-old man in San Francisco who made all of his money in the dotcom boom in the 1990s. He decided that he would set the world’s record as being the most traveled man in the world. He operates a Web site called MostTraveledPeople.com, and he lists 673 unique and distinct destinations, states, provinces, locations that make up the world.

If you go by the United Nations’ count, there are about 196 countries in the world. I like to boast that I’ve been to about 146 of them, so I still have about 50 more to go. I may have more air miles than this guy, but I have not been as far away as him. He’s got me beat by a long shot. Of the 673 unique destinations in the world, he’s been to 629 of them. Think about that. He was once on a boat for about 71 days, just to land on a remote island near Antarctica, get off on the island and have a photograph taken of him next to one sign that said he was there, and then got back on the boat. Just so he could say he was there.

His wife is pregnant with their third child, so obviously he’s been home some of the time, if you do the math. Based on the fact that he’s 42 years old and only has about 40 places left to go, he’s going to get there.

MAXJET GROUNDING PREDICTION COMES TRUE


Two weeks ago we warned you that MAXjet was in trouble. They had suspended trading of their shares, they weren’t properly capitalized, and this week they basically shut down. This is the discount all-business-class airline flying between New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and London. Three things really contributed to it, none of which were surprises. One was fuel prices heading north again. The other was about the fact that the airline wasn’t properly capitalized, they needed more financing. The third thing, which was the coup de gras, was that they were flying out of Stansted, which is a secondary airport outside of London. Their prices were so low that they were, at one point, taking market shares away from the main airlines.

So what did American Airlines announce about two months ago? Twice-daily service from JFK to Stansted, hoping that they’d be able to take back, or a keep a lot of their passengers based on the fact that they have a mileage program. Well, it worked. MAXjet is no longer flying. Some airlines like Continental and Eos, one of the other all-business-class airlines, were honoring the MAXjet tickets on a space-available basis. We never like it when an airline fails, because we all know what that means: less competition, less service and increased fares. It’s not beneficial at all for any of us.

(VERY) UNUSUAL HOTELS

The Olympics are coming up in Beijing next year. A hotel just opened up in China, which comes out of the You Cannot Make This Stuff Up category. It’s a mausoleum. It’s wild. And it’s next to a shopping center, and on the other side is a cemetery (bringing up the old line, “You can shop till you drop”). But this is a room with no view. The only view you’ve got is of dead people.

Are you interested in opening a luxury hotel in the heart of Provence? That’s a lot of people’s dreams, right? Listen to this ad being offered from the French government: “Exceptional location at the foot of the Palace of the Popes. View of the Rhone River, 10,280 square meters. This property includes two gyms, a library, a cinema, a kitchen, and stores.” Oh yeah, by the way, it’s a prison. That’s right, it’s the ancient St. Anne Prison in the walled Provence city of Avignon. The prison was built in 1865. I would call that a major fixer-upper.

But you know what? There are a lot of hotels that were built out of former prisons. The Four Seasons in Istanbul. There’s a hotel that just opened up in Boston, three months ago. A former prison. What does that tell you about the state of the hotel industry? Talk about a captive audience.

BRITAIN’S ONE-BAG RULE FINALLY RELAXED

The airline rated worst for lost bags and delays in Europe? British Airways. The only thing we can hope for is that in about two weeks, the geniuses at the British Airport Authority are going to relax that really stupid one-bag carry-on rule, which I think will alleviate at least part of the problem. People won’t be forced to check in unnecessary bags. Finally, somebody saw the light. Let’s see what happens January 8 and if those numbers start coming down. But if you’re flying to London between now and January 7, the one-bag rule is still in effect. It’s stupid, it’s unnecessary, and it’s the reason I personally boycott all UK airports until they fix that rule.

Check out other entries in Peter’s Travel Detective Blog.