Mike FriedmanEvery week, we like to wrap up some of the weeks’s most interesting or amusing stories in our famous (infamous?) TWIT (this week in travel) notes. This week, we’ll look at how you’re stressing out your coworkers, a $73 billion company that may never make money and the best way to get off of an airplane.
This Week In Travel
Your Vacations Are Why They Can’t Have Nice Things
According to a Business Insider survey, 23% of workers claimed to feel stressed out when their co-workers go on vacation. Millennials claimed to be the most stressed out, while baby boomers handled it the best. And, not surprisingly, social media is making it worse. Color me shocked.
Okay, this has to stop. The problem is not that Americans are taking too much vacation. It’s that they don’t take enough vacation. I’ve never understood people who brag about how long it’s been since they’ve taken a day off. You don’t want them? Fine, give them to me. Get out and see the world. It’s much prettier than your desk.
As for the social media aspect, here’s a suggestion: Stay off of Facebook (except for our page, of course). And if you are the one on vacation, you need to stay off of Facebook, too. Enjoy your trip, instead of spending it searching for a Wi-Fi network.
Lyft And Uber Are Losing Lots Of Money
It’s been a big week for Lyft and Uber, both of whom announced to the world just how much money they’ve been losing. Lyft’s stock rose 3% after announcing that they lost $644 million, but that they would, hopefully, lose less at some period in the future. As of Thursday night, Uber’s $73 billion market cap wasn’t quite so lucky, with its stock down 5% after announcing a loss which was just a skosh over $5 billion. Lyft also announced a price increase, and I have no doubt that Uber will follow.
The problem with these two companies is that they went public 20 years too late. Not that they existed in 1999, but if they had, we would have all gotten a sock puppet and the investment banks would have remembered that their job was to prop up the stock price so that it didn’t fall after its IPO.
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The Fastest Way To Get Off A Plane
There are two problems that the airline industry seems completely unable to solve: The fastest way to board a plane and how to get my checked luggage to me in a timely manner.
Okay, this article addresses neither, but it is a shot at the fastest way to get people off of a plane. And, I’m a sucker for time-lapsed videos. According to this WestJet flight attendant, who taped a group of oil-rig workers, the best thing to do is exactly what your mother told you: Wait for the people in front of you to move and then you can go.
I’m not sure that this method would work on the average passenger flight. You usually don’t have to worry about an oil rig worker being big enough to grab their overhead luggage, not to mention that they don’t have to worry about the guy in 32-C having a connecting flight to catch. Fortunately, there’s no such thing as “elite status” on a rig.
