Travel by rental car? have a Diners with you

I was a happy Diners Card member for a long time (well... 10 year is not long for many heritage card holder, but anyway). I had numerous debated with family and friends regarding paying its not so friendly membership fee. But a recent event made me feel my loyalty worth. So I am a happier customer now.

Back to March, I traveled to Belgium and rented a car just for commuting between client and hotel (earlier blog post). I used AutoEurpoe (http://www.autoeurope.com/) to book the rental, It is buying car rental in batch and resale them at cheaper price, wholesales kind of business. It was new for me so I was kind of cautious. The rate was excellent. And the process to use the coupon went smoothly. It earned its credit. I will use it again if possible. The rental was actually provided by National Car Rental at Belgium Brussels Airport. This sounded all fine, right??

The problem started from return. 9AM return flight in the morning, so I went back to airport and tried to return the car roughly at 7AM. The rental office down at parking garage supposed to be opened at 6 as I believed. However, there was nobody there. I phoned the upstairs office asked how to return the car. They said the guys supposed to be there was late bhah bhah ... and just drop the key in the return box and go. But then I asked whether there will be a receipt of returning. They said no because nobody there... hum??? fishy??

After couple weeks, I checked the credit card charge and noticed there was a charge, five day after the return from this national car rental at Belgium. The amount was even higher than the whole rental !!! hum??

I phoned this national car rental at Belgium, nobody ever picked up the phone... So, I start contacting national car rental here at US... The US customer service was not bad... they tried to help... but they told me that the Belgium operation was a franchiser. So everything is on different system. They have no access at all, except their are hanging a brand which is identical to national care rental. urr..... I knew running this kind of business is screwy.

So, about a week later... the national car rental came back with some info, finally. They said it was a vehicle damage charge ..?? hum? that does not sound right... firstly, I should have received the damage report from this vendor, it was almost a month after the return. Second, I was using Diners, the charge should not come to me as a normal practice... So I asked whether national car rental US had a copy of damage report... funny, they said: no, the vendor said it will take a while to retrieve it..... hmmmm, the sky is darkening and seems storm is coming.

So, I told national car rental US to get a report anyway, which they did (again, they earned their credit). Ok, so eventually I got a piece of crappy hand writing and some mark on the car diagram saying there was a ding on windshield and cost $300 to repair it (what? a ding on windshield which I did not see? and $300 for a ding? I almost replace half of the windshield already).

So I told national car rental US: " go check to your franchiser, this seem not right... first the damage report and charge were not reasonable, second, please deal with the insurance company directly rather than charge to my card" At meanwhile, I already contacted Diners car service to be ready for this. The reply from national rental car was shocking but funny: "sorry, the vendor just filed bankruptcy and no long can be contacted!!!" hahaha........ we finally see the last episode.

I asked to Diners to follow it up.... this apparently to be a fraud. That company must be overcharging whole bunch of victims at the last minutes before it closed it business. And I am guessing the faciliate at Belgium airport must be hanging another brand and run their business as usual now. (not sure this is normal in Belgium or not... may it is. But aleast seems an awkward way of running business :D)


serviced by Eurocar??? anyway... does not matter anymore. If you are in Beligum, check the car rental in airport, which company it is now next to Sixt... May be Alamo??? hehehe..

5 months later, Diners finally closed the investigation. I don't know how eventually they are going to resolve it. But I was informed that I am not obligated for that stupid windshield charge..

Travel by rental car? get a Diners. In a case like this it will dip into your personal car insurance firstly before any other credit card's car insurance kick in. I am happy that I was really in worry-free for such a long period. And I got at least 3 years memebership fee even out.

Lexington, NC - BBQ in North Carolina style

Made a short stop at Lexington, North Carolina to have a BBQ lunch.
Lexington, the capital of NC BBQ, has numerious BBQ shops. However, mostly are closed on Sunday thus left us not many options to choose.

But the Smileys's we went, was not bad at all. We ordered the classic pull pork sandwich...
It came with stunning volume and very reasonable price.... definitely enjoyed.
The vinegar based north caroline style, which is lighter and more refresh comparing to other style, is one of my favor, for sure.

Honda Civic

Woow! come to me with surprise... got a brand new Honda Civic! The odometer is just 160!! and just has a temporary license plate... Need to give credit to Hertz and Costco...Used Hertz for 5+ years and enjoyed its service and overall quality, but gave up laterly due to its notorious rates. But with Costco travel discount, this became a very appealing deal and pleasant experience.


Interior and steering are solid. To dual console made me take some time to adjust it... something rather fancy than useful. Cabin noise isolation is not bad... somehow just feel the view angel is a little bit awkward.. maybe just because of the sitting angle... used to drive bigger car already. How about powerplant and and transmission?? urrr.... I would suggest Accord if want to drive in a hilly place (like Atlanta) or catch up highway traffic more easily. I can bump up rpm to 6k easily with a simple kick down.... feel I am going to stress out the engine quickly if I keep doing so.

Busch Garden Williamsburg

Second time in a month we came to Busch Garden Williamsburg. For those who don't know it, it is a Europian theme amusement park. Sounds odd, right? US east coast is so close to Europe already. Why need a theme park? But I guess it is serving as a cheaper option by driving instead of flying.

The other thing awkward for me is this: They have shows like - October festival. It is done in a artificial beer house as big as the real one in Munich. And the show has dancing and singing in every two hours...

So if you missed the experience (like me) of octorber festival... you can come here and have it year round... the music and dancing are not bad .. But having it year round? I guess those Bavarian will feel awkward :-D

It is the bottomline, stupid!

I could not find the original source of this new clips, but I saw it on my USA Today firstly
'Red coats' to boost Delta's customer service
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090701/BIZ01/907020329/1076/BIZ/+Red+coats++to+boost+Delta+s+service
I wasn't pay much attention on it when I skimmed through the newspaper, my wife then thought this is a interesting new and ask me to look into it.

So, it is cutting back the outsourcing practice and adding "face to face" agents to handle growing complains.... I cannot understand Delta wants this becomes a PR and how a intelligent people will think this is something positive. Any people has IQ more than 90 should realize this is a stupid story: showing how stupid a company is run.
Firstly, so growing complains definitely is not a good thing for a company. And this story is specific for Delta (well.. that is a well-known fact even without this story)
Funny and secondly, is any of these managers or journalists spending a piece of their brain to realize where these mounting complains come from? Sounds like they are saying:
"oh! because we are outsourcing too much, complains increase"??? hum!!!
"and we are taking actions to remedy it" ???haaaa!!!
Mouth-wide-opened. Don't see any rationality.

It is the bottom-line of your operation, stupid !

Who wants to talk to a agent if the plant leave on schedule, arrive on time with all my personal belongings in tact? A lot of people already PAID to reduce their time facing TSA agent, needless these airline agents. ONLY when I am not reaching my destination ON TIME, or arriving with PROBLEM... then I need to grab an agent and to be angry....
People are planning to be a place ON TIME... no one want to pay to get somewhere but late...
People will buy a cheaper ticket in exchange for a longer/more connections/no service flight... but does not mean people will accept the trip get delayed, or lugguge go nowhere... no matter how bad the ambience of the transportation vehicle is, or how non-fringe the service is.

So, bottomline is ... don't screw up flight schedule and lugguge handling.... get people there safely and ON TIME with their luggage... nothing more fundamental than that. Rather than spend money having people wearing red coats at airport, or pajama in India call center.

Do people realize that all these airlines have a group of PHD just sitting there, evaluating traffic data and thinking how to put a premium on the ticket to rip customer off??? But seems lack of minimum attention on bottomline operation. Have these PHD to expedite the lugguage loading and unloading!!!!

Norfolk, VA

Naval Station bus tour is sort of boring... it was informative, but arm-length from what you see and all in a glimpse

Ice cream in Dourmar is ok, but food is disappointing. Even it claims to be the inventor of ice cream waffle cup. The owner should take a look how they run their business...

The only thing better than disappointing is Wisconsin. It is still a gorgeous battleship and in a nice location to visit. Even through you barely can see any interior, it is still ok to have a visit, for free.

Outer Bank, NC

So, summer travel frenzy started.
The first stop - Outer Bank, North Carolina. The famous OBX in east coast

Wright Brother Memorial
So, Wright brothers came here on 1900 started some aerodynamic experiements.
on 1903, they finally can effectively control the airplane and did four flights.
The first flight is only 100 feets and 12 sec... slow than human being spring, haha..
But feel it is really a nice spot to visit, actually seeing the place human history changed.




Corolla
nice beach and scenery... very relax and enjoyed. But the trip to take kids to climb Currituck light house was a scaring experience...

Verizon Data Plan

I have been with T-mobile for 5+ years. Be frank, the reason is not because I like it... Other than it is cheap, it is also I hate these "proprietary" or "regional" technologies,like the PCS by earlier AT&T, CDMA by sprint and/or whatever... Why? feel stupid to carry a different phone at different place, particularly out of united state... Does mobile phone means it should be able to mobile around the globe? So, it works pretty much as I want, moderm GSM phone could travel mostly around the world except Japan... just swap a local SIM card and then you are back on line, without roaming... but for VOICE only.

I don't know how many people realize this... It is fairly easy to get a local monthly or prepaid voice plan. But the DATA plan available for traveler, are rare and STINK. Most countries are basically have no short term, flexible or prepaid data plan on the menu. Even have a GSM phone, most of time have to drop the hope to have data coverage. (Note: GSM has a slow data connection GPRS. But hey, still better than no connection since you could be in the middle of somewhere that you know nothing around including their language. Internet is the real saver. Have you ever use a google map to identify where you are? So most of time I have to roam or just give up)

Was hoping 3G will make the world better. But it does not!!! US still is implementing strange frequencies.(so be aware, even you have a 3G phone, it does not guarantee it works in US on particular network unless the phone is fully supporting its frequencies). So, I give up the hope for a device that could work globally with local data connection. Human being are just not going to make their lives easier with new technologies.

Funny, my wife start asking mobile data connection recently. So, I started looking around what might be the acceptable "local data connection" option, since US has all these networks with funky technologies 3G UMTS, PCS, CDMA, EVDO etc...

Anyway... T-mobile is not grown up yet. Its 3G coverage is rare. AT&T is stinky since it mandates 2 year contract. I was thinking the "cell swap" thing. Then it turned out Verizon gave me quite a sweet option. And that is why I am writing this.

Verizon allows you to start with Monthly connection if you have their equipment handy. And they don't care how you get the equipment. So, I got a Verizon PC5750 (PCMCIA type wireless modem) just around 10 bucks including shipping (you can easily guess where I got it) and then stopped by one of their shops to activate the data package... whoopy!!!! It works like breeze. Even the EVDO technology is not that cutting edge (funny, my wife used EV-DO in Japan back to 2003 already! could not believe we again back on it in US after 6 years!!!). But this is definitely a much better option than that nonsense 2 year contract and no worry for the ridiculous early-termination fee. Can pay a little bit more for a newer hardware, like USB type modem. But the bottom-line is the initial cost and long term obligation are both lower. And in fact this is greener, I can reuse the equipment unwanted by someone and that is what I really like.

In contrast, thinking about AT&T's package, it makes me throw out... it pretty much forces you to buy a new equipment every two years since they make no sense to "reuse" or keep exisitng hardware. Definitely not qualified from environmental aspect and (I guess they don't care)

Ok, so all these are FYI....

Today's Dilbert

as having two MBA under this roof… this made us laugh…. LOL…

Rose Brut from Cristalino

My Japanese friend bought this one for the gathering. The dinner went well. Both family enjoyed the dished and kids seems had a lot of fun.

A sparkling wine from Spain. Relatively sweet and have a nice fruity aroma... But not strong...

Sort of between dissert wine and table wine... if taking a light dish...

Finnish Herring

At Salve, a traditional bar in Helsinki.. converted from fishman tavern. The grill herring is yammy..but just too much.. 12 herrings with lots mash potato on one dish....urrr....

go search on TripAdvisor...

Helsinki, Finland

Got stumbled last time when tried to come to Helsinki, Finland. The reality show of "Airport" almost happened on me... good that I managed it without becoming a true disaster. This time, still some hump, but managed and get here relatively smoothy...

Helsinki itself, is not that impressive. It got strongly influenced by Sweden. City itself, relatively industrial, not that clean or neat comparing to some of the best cities in Europe. Culture wise, don't see any excitement either (maybe because I had been to Sweden?).
However, sort of in my surrpise, the people are nice, should say nicer than Sweden and definitely inch better some other major Western Europe countries. I had a horrible experience dealing with Finnair. But try to be neutral thinking "airline" does not represent people. If you consider how bad the airlines in America is, then you pretty much can conclude that human being definitely won't go that bad... only corporation...

I did some city tour around. It was nice and clean, but not much though... there is a monument and the sort of famous rock church.... and it happened to be May 1, one of their biggest festival. Told will be crowded... hmm... with a city size about 2M (1/10 of just Tokyo city district, excluding suburbs) and a national population only about 5.6M, I think crowdness should never be a problem.

Now, I safety got out of that city and that country without more incident. Cannot complain... :D

Ostende, Belgium

Since I only went to Ostende straightly from airport and stayed in Brussels overnight prior departure, I really cannot claim I have been Belgium.
But anyway, I marked that I have been in this country on my map now.
One thing I have to say, is the internet service is really ...... "limited"...

Many hotels I found in Ostende has no internet but 3. I called the hotel before booking to ensure they do have intenet working.... But man, yap, it worked. But just half of the time....
Then on the return route I picked a higher ranked hotel in Brussels. I couldn't believe the detail when I checked in... 10 Euro for a hour on 802.11b!!?? what the heck?? paying premium for obsolete technology!!!!!

Anyway, the country is very clean, everything seems well organized and people are generally friendly and nice... I hope I have another change to visit it and dicover further, and make sure I have proper connection firstly - go get a wireless 3G first. :)

Fiat Panda

Oh. befor talking about this car. This is the first time I tried to use car rental whole saler in Europe. It turned out pretty good. The rental company eventually is National, which is ok. But the price is excellent, prett much half of what I guoted on Hertz. I start to wonder whether there is similar things in US. However, the trip went smoothly. But I will be in concern if anything happens, who will be in charge for car... I guess both side will leave us along, just like wholesale air ticket.

Last time I got Fiat Punto in England. This time in Belgium, I got a Fiat again when key chain cames from car rental...urr...not too excited about it. But it turned out ok.
so, it is actually a tiny, neat car... of course lack of power, but hard to critisize. Its manual transmission fit its engine very well.Even with three adults on the car (myself only most time, but gave rides to my other two colleagues couple times), I still hardly have any issue to steer car around Belgium curvy road and up/down hill.

Its exterior design made to recall the Suzuki wagon Z in india. it is easy to access and retrieve stuffs. The suspension had some issues with its pushing bearing, but I am guessing it is due to its over used. The interior space is good. It is compact but not too bad, still can still fit whatever I want (my suitcase !?). The console it not badly (but cheap), can access whatever needed.
Overall, I like this car. Have not check the value but I am guessing it has a good money-to-value ratio.

Toyota RAV4

I don't know this is nth time i got a RAV4. was trying to pick a different mini SUV, then the rental service guy drove this freshly-out-of-car-wash RAV4 next to me. cannot refuse it .

Not sure I can come out more comments on it... solid steering and maneuvering... but still... engine lacks of juice and I can easily go up to 4,5K rpm...

Icewine from Kittling Ridge

whew.... 17% alcohol. The "Ice wine & Brandy" from kittling ridge in Canada

Quite sweet, but not too heavy. It has quite strong aroma, maple? smell good and pretty fresh taste... well qualified to be a desert wine.

CHT 9000, aka HTC Hermes

So, I got a new smartphone. It is a private branded phone in Taiwan but in fact is the HTC Hermes

It turned out to be a better option, since it does not require a contract and comes with some widgets which are useful. And reduce a lot of my headache for initial configuration

It is relatively more powerful than wizard... however, the dumb UI, still not improved and not close to user friendly. Well... it is for geek, not ordinary people.

Chrysler Sebring Convertible

Gee... got it on a cold day in Atlanta, very very cool.

Really cannot enjoy anything about being in a "convertible". Eventually I never try to open the top. Did not check weather forecast when I booked the car. Anyway, that was the best deal I can get. Then realize that is a convertible......

Sebring was ranked one of the "most unfavorable car" for auto theft couple years back. Maybe the reason is spare part or something else. It was not that bad. It just feel a little bit cheap, since being a convertible you want something a little bit more subtle.

Not a killer. It was not bad driving. Engine is not that great but really just everything mediocre.

BlackBerry

Felt very sad and sorry, during this journey, I lost my cell phone, the MDA mentioned in my earlier entry. It was such a nice, power and reliable phone, particularly for text msg, email and blogging.. Damn, I missed it.



Since I pretty much addicted to smartphone, and this is really hammering my productivity, after some negotiation with my company, they gave me a temporary one to use in India - a blackberry 8700. Well, it is a brand new one and costs Rps 15000 (roughly $300) here, so I really should not complain about it.

But I have to. I couldn't believe something such retrospectly designed still survive on market. That is the summary. These are why I felt so:
- Many people did not realize that.... BB has no touch screen. It is by key stroke only. But its price is well enough for any touch screen phone on consumer market. no in a debate whether touch screen is better or not... but the fact is... a chunk of the cost of a phone is on LCD.. and sensing LCD is costier than ordinary LCD... We all have to realize this fact.
- The interface is very text style. I mean, it does not try to be more graphic oriented or WYSIWYG... a lot of things are just a line of text and then go select it.. feel I am back to Unix or AppleII...(the argument is easier to read?:?p)
- following with previous one. The mail reader... ya... ugly... even moto is better looking.... but hey it works, since it only needs to display text (BB must be very good on "Focus" strategy in porter's generic model)...
- The whole machine feels...cheap... It is bulky. but you definitely can argue that it seems more reliable (and I will buy that too). It seems built for malitary purpose or somehow...or maybe just for "some people" with fat thumb...
- But then the QWERTY keys are so tiny.... I guess it is trying to fit the whole keyboard on the range within one palm. but this is contraditing with previous point. Nobody with fat thumb can really type by his thumb on this tiny keypboard
- no really multi-media support
- no camera.... couple of my colleagues laughed: hum? no camera phone? it is a free phone? nonono.... BB....
- Ok, I used it in India, so maybe that contribute it... I was using HTC, Nokia and Moto... none of them drop signal as bad as this BB... my colleage in US keep saying "hey...man... you are fading away..."

But it does have some advantages:
- the data connection seems much more reliable... better than GPRS, which keep dropping when in low signal.
- very solid applications like messangers for Yahoo and MSN... considering there is even not YM for WM....
- All data are encrypted... no wonder corporate IT loves it... but hey... it cost more for data transition too....
- the scroll wheel is a huge plus.... It sort of designed to be operationable with scroll wheel only (but in trade, it end up scroll or push more I can tell... some time I really get tired for keep scrolling...)

well, anyway, my complains are done and I have returned the phone since I just left India.

Now I just got a used HTC with scroll wheel :D (I should use it to type this post though) from auction, Yappy!!! and considers to get a Touch Pro some time later after back to US.....later

Travel in South India 2 - Kerala

- Cochin

Little China in old time. Anyway, not coming here for history or sightseeing.

Chinese Fishing Nets

Santa Crus Basilica Jewtown

It is a nice and peaceful city. However, just right at this moment, the worse terrorist attack in decade just started at Mumbai.

- Kumarakom Lake Resort

Very very nicely landscaped resort hotel. Directly faces the Vembanad lake. One of the best three in backwater: Coconut Lagoon Rand Taj Garden Resort. The service is good and plenty items on activiy list.

The Meandering Pool Delux Villa is even better. Two stores villa with nice layout (cozy for even 3 adults and 2 kids). The backdoor of your room is directly to the swimming pool.

From here, our swimming suits has never been dried through the whole Kerala trip.

- Backwater/Houseboat

Lake resort has their own boat tour and definitely worth spending. the boathouse is excellent, way above the average houseboat in backwater area.

Fully air condition bedrooms and dining area (very nice and useful)

Nice interior and gorgeourly decorated bedrooms.

Scenery? No flattering words. Unique and fabulous!!! It is a life time treat. Quite and peaceful. Immersed into the nature. Backwater is definitely something worth visiting in India... no, in the whole world.

- Kovalam beach resort

Resort is definitely over rated and priced. Generally, it is a nice 4+ stars hotel. It is on a high up cape, so provides excellent view. But its overall layout is just something not right. Facilities are not that all well-maintained either. Service is acceptable, but definitely nickle and dime on you (much stronger than lake resort). This definitely should thank to these European tourists, eventually, it is they get this hotel over-rated.

Kovallam beach is very good. Scenery is excellent. Yes, all from India aspect. Sand and sea water is not that world class clean, but acceptable. The private beach is the focal point for the resort. However, money to value rate is not high enough to compete with Bali.

But still, we managed to have a wonderful time here... Kids start loving ocean. They were only exploring the beach and splash initially, but then they now can enjoy the wave in the middle of the sea.