Up Front With Martin B. Deutsch for 1984

December 1: BEYOND THE BEST
The pervasive theme of this issue is The Best. The staff wanted to bring the best of the world to Frequent Flyer readers. But I will devote the next two columns to a discussion of the overriding issues facing the travel industry in 1985 and their possible impact on the frequent flyer.

November 1: MEET A COUPLE OF YOUR SEATMATES
Those who write with the most authority about travel and aviation are the ones who are endowed (or cursed) with the restlessness and curiosity that keeps them on the move, corporeally and mentally. Let me tell you about two of our frequent flying writers, David Martindale and Joe Brancatelli, who’ve made particularly significant contributions to this magazine.

October 1: MY SECOND HOME(S)
Hotel rooms are my second home: it’s been that way for more years than I care to remember. I spend more than one-hundred nights a year ensconced in commercial establishments of all shapes and sizes, in this country and abroad. Airlines seem to generate the most curiosity and the most deeply felt emotions. But hotels are not that far behind; as the population becomes more and more peripatetic, the volume of hotel encounters grows proportionately, and so do the traveler’s reactions.

September 1: SMALL WORLD
Flying British Airways between London and Sri Lanka last spring I was struck by the random thought that BA offers excellent—if not dominant—frequencies to the Gulf States, an exceptionally vital area in today’s world. The flights in both directions stopped at the oil-rich island of Bahrain (where you are allowed to stretch your legs at the airport), and at Doha in Qatar (where you aren’t).

August 1: DOING BUSINESS AT SEA
A sea voyage and the normal demands of the business travel fraternity are not easily compatible: first, cruising implies and enforces leisure; and second, the current tax climate for conference activities aboard ship is decidedly unfriendly. Nonetheless, I was reminded recently of the suitability of the cruise experience for business groups of manageable size, say between 10 and 150 participants.

July 1: SAMPLING CALIFORNIA
It wasn’t so very long ago that hotels and restaurants around the world, including those in the United States, were importing French and German wines almost exclusively for their top-of-the-line wine lists. The California product got a small and grudging play, if any. But times and attitudes have changed.

June 1: OLYMPIC PRICES IN LOS ANGELES
Citus, altius, fortius, the Olympic creed, is usually translated as "swifter, higher, stronger." Based on what’s been happening in Los Angeles lately, I’m beginning to wonder if those comparisons don’t apply to price increase, profits and rip-offs.

May 1: TALK ABOUT CARRY-ON!
Last December, David Martindale flew his typewriter into the treacherous shoals of carry-on luggage. Readers jumped right into the fray with a growing tide of submissions. The views on carry-on luggage play both sides of the aisle. Almost every letter has its own nuances or variation beyond the pros or cons.

April 1: FIRST-CLASS FANTASY ON REGENT AIR
I flew a fantasy of sorts recently; among other things, I experienced a haircut going 600 miles per hour at 39,000 feet. And while the vehicle for this tonsorial trim was merely a converted 727, I felt the in-flight setting and the available activities must rival--or exceed--what I imagine a nineteenth-century tycoon would have taken for granted aboard his private train. My magic carpet late last November from New York to Los Angeles was provided by Regent Air.

March 1: DO YOU KNOW US?
Although we’re the new kid on the magazine block, so to speak, we keep changing and maturing. Frequent Flyer is only 43 issues old this month, a monthly magazine with a mission that won’t quit: our dedication to become the voice of the airline passenger, particularly the frequent traveler, that full-fare passenger who is the backbone of today’s airline industry.

February 1: GOING NOWHERE
As a frequent flyer with bicoastal tastes, I feel I must speak out. I’m just plain tired of the recurring remarks by Los Angeles natives that their town’s restaurants have come of age. It just ain’t so. You’ve stolen our Dodgers, this is your year for the Olympics, and you’ve got the weather, but your restaurants don’t hold a candle to Manhattan’s.

January 1: DMZ
I'm favorably impressed by the cosmopolitan nature of Seoul, by the warmth the Koreans displayed to visitors, by the intensity of local business activity and by the country’s unexpected potential for tourism. But if there is a highlight to a trip to South Korea, it is Panmunjom at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which divides the two Koreas.

Copyright © 1980-2007 by Martin B. Deutsch. All rights reserved.