Thursday, January 11, 2007

LA confidential

We may wonder why. But it used to be when arriving at an American airport, coming from an international destination, that at a strategic location a large portrait picture of the President of the USA, smiling and looking amiable, would welcome the visitors. Last September, arriving in Los Angeles, there was not one picture, but two. The second one was of Dick Cheney. How did he manage that? But now the pictures have been taken away. There is just a cheap banner saying: “Welcome to the United States: have your travel documents ready”. What is going on in this beautiful country?

The flying time from La Paz to Los Angeles was 1 hour and 50 minutes and the waiting time to get through Immigration and customs 1 hour and 10 minutes.
What is going on in this wonderful country?

There is a terrific website, called www.kayak.com, to find the best deals on flights, hotels and car rentals.
At Los Angeles Airport a company called “Deluxe rent a car” has the best deal: a weekly rate for a PT Cruiser of $ 89,95!
Once in the office, about to receive the keys of the fancy car, the invoice is presented with a total of $ 251.26!!!
Taxes this, insurance that, wakes up roughly the customer. After signing the contract it is said the car needs to be washed and will be ready in 5 minutes. Twenty minutes later Enrique brings the dripping wet car and inspection learns there is quite some damage to the vehicle. With more than 22.000 miles on the clock, lacking cruise control, failing dashboard lights the rental company “Deluxe rent a car” may consider to change their name.

There are some things going on in this country!
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For an excellent travel-search site, click on:
http://www.kayak.com

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Take also a look to this travel search engine - www.trabber.com

Anonymous said...

Please adjust your perspective a bit. Deluxe rent a car's shoddy customer service is hardly an indication that "something is going on in this country."
Your preoccupation with the presence or absence of presidential photos in the airport seems to say more about your political hang ups than it says about what is going on in this country.
Long waits in airport lines are not unique to America.
When you see a problem, please don't be so quick to blame our entire country. The U. S. is a wonderful place, even though you sometimes need to wait in line, and even though they sometimes display photos of their elected leaders at the airport. Hope your future experiences are more pleasant as long as you are a guest in our land.
Best Wishes - An American