Charlotte Douglas International Airport

I can't even explain to you how great the Charlotte Douglas International airport is. You can smoke in the bars there. Absolutely wonderful. Especially when you have and hour and ten minute flight there, then a lay over, before getting on your 7 hour flight to San Francisco. I don't understand why all airports do not offer this. The bars are obviously equipped with smoke eaters. You can see no smoke outside of the bar in the main walkways. What is the problem? I was discussing with my honey the other day that I am going to try to book all 1 stop flights through Charlotte. It is easy, convenient and smoker friendly!

Way to go!!!

K.P.

Smoking Cigars

Here you go, the Top 10 Occasions for Smoking Cigars.

K.P.

Why Your Dog Really Goes Outside

A found this great video clip yesterday.

K.P.

Here We Go Again with a Marriott

As I posted the other day, we have found out that our next conference is being held at a Marriott. This is a run down of the comedic sketch that happened when I emailed and called the hotel to straighten out the issue.

1. Received an email from the company that books our rooms with our CONFIRMATION number for a smoking/king room
2. I emailed what I thought was the hotel directly to confirm the above.
3. I then received this:

"Thank you for contacting Marriott. We appreciate the opportunity to provide you with information.

We regret to inform you that a king sized room with smoking is no longer an available option at this hotel. While there will be no smoking areas within Marriott properties, smoking will be allowed outside in special designated areas.

To make any changes or additions to this reservation, you will need to contact the booking source it was made through. We apologize for any inconvenience.

If we can be of further assistance, we invite you to reply to this email.

Thank you for choosing Marriott".

4. I called the hotel directly. I spoke to:
a. girl at the front desk who told me that the hotel was going non smoking.
b. another person at the hotel who told me that smoking rooms could only be requested, not guaranteed.
c. a guy who told me that the whole hotel had gone non smoking.
d. I then asked to speak to a housing manager. Who then FINALLY guaranteed the reservation, after being put on hold twice. A wonderful woman who was the first intelligent person that I had spoken to in the past weeks of dealing with the Marriott. She was also surprised at the issue that happened at the Santa Clara Marriott (previous posts), but that just may have been some a** kissing.

Just adding that my honey is not just a guest, a "staffer", he is a chairperson for certain events. He is one of the ones to even decide which hotel to have the event at and when. Which makes this whole thing even more ridiculous.

K.P.

Top Cities & States for Non Smoking Hotels

For your information, I found this article the other day. HERE are the top 5 States and Top 10 cities for Non Smoking hotels in the U.S. Just in case you wanted to know which ones to avoid during travel.

;-)

K.P.

I Just Found Out

I just found out on Friday that the next event that we are attending in San Francisco is at another MARRIOTT hotel. I could have screamed when I found out. I am looking forward to another disaster of trying to get a room with a balcony due to the fact that the nonsmoking change was never told when the event was booked. What is their issue? They only had 10 % of their rooms offered as smoking before as it is. According to an ARTICLE in the New York Post, 31 % of Americans smoke, so wasn't offering only 10 % smoking rooms in their hotel enough hassle? If you research state by state statistics the percentage of smokers are even higher in some states. This is a nationwide decision by Marriott.

Just a thought.

K.P.

Whew Post Below - TOTAL B.S.

So as I stated my last post, I have a lot to say this post.

The "Whew" post - is total b.s. As you have heard, the Marriott hotel chains have gone completely nonsmoking. This was very upsetting to us during this last conference due to the fact that this was booked over 10 months ago as was NEVER told to anyone that the hotel would be nonsmoking during this conference. The received a VERY large deposit, and still, never disclosed the act that they would be going nonsmoking. We had no choice of course but to have the conference there. Marriott announced in July that as of September 1 they were going nonsmoking.

One of the management members that books our hotel rooms for us contacted the hotel with the dilemma. They told them that one of the owners was a smoker and needed a smoking room or a balcony. The management personnel that they spoke with said this " There will be NO PROBLEM, the hotel is not going nonsmoking until the 15th of September." We thought "great, there will be no issues." I then called the hotel the next day to confirm. I called the hotel directly, not the 800 general number. I spoke to a girl who first told me that no rooms were assigned until check in. I then explained the situation. She then told me that the entire hotel was nonsmoking as of September 1 and that they WERE NO SMOKING ROOMS. I said thank you and then we preceded to contact the management on our side to find out who they talked to. They sent us the information and then contacted THE HEAD OF THE HOUSING DEPT at the hotel. He then AGAIN said that there would be no issues, that the hotel wasn't going to be nonsmoking until the 15th. Another call, and another call, and another call to finally find out - (this is now 1 day before we have to go there) that IT IS NON SMOKING. We ended up with a room with a balcony. This balcony was 2' x 10". We could smoke on it anytime. What doesn't make sense? ALL OF THE SMOKE BLOWS BACK INTO THE ROOM ANYWAY.

Bottom line.....the Marriott has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING. It seems that the company can't send out any information or memos to it's staff. They are extremely unprofessional due to the fact that this nonsmoking information was
not given to anyone at the time of booking. As we all know, these are not decisions that big companies make overnight.

K.P.

Last Post - TOTAL B.S.

I have a ton to tell, but we are traveling and at a conference right now. All I can say is that my last post is TOTAL B.S.

K.P.

Whew!

As most of you know, ALL of the Marriott Hotel chains have gone non-smoking. At least that is what has been seen, heard and read. Confirmed yes, but not so much. They were supposed to go non-smoking as of September 1, 2006. We are attending an event in Santa Clara next week and they have NOT YET gone non-smoking. Which is good, because I was throwing a fit. This event has been booked for over 10 months. The fact that this decision is something a big company does not make overnight, brought me to the fit throwing result. When booking this, someone should have been informed that the establishment was going non-smoking, this was not the case. It took phone calls from execs to MAKE sure that smoking would still be allowed. All and all it will be a much more relaxing week next week.

Whew!

K.P.

Airline Dedicated to Smokers

Smoking on planes! Wow. Who can believe it? With all of the security changes, smoking bans, etc., this is a SHOCK to me. I like it, but it is a shock. I however do not see this happening in the U.S. anytime soon, although, I would book with them for sure.

My honey forwarded me an article this morning about an airline in Paris dedicated to smokers. Flights will run between Dusseldorf and Tokyo.

It is about time that somebody did this.

K.P.

Smoke + Hangover = Question

Off of the normal topics here, I am curious. . . .

Does smoke (another person smoking around you) affect you differently if you are hungover?

It does my honey. It has nothing to do with the fact of smoking a bit more the night before while having some cocktails. Something about the smoke makes him feel nauseous. I have never really heard of this before I was with him. Not a big deal, I was just wondering if it affects other people too. So the question is .......

If you are a smoker and you have a hangover, does it bother you when other people smoke around you?

K.P.