First, as usual, a travel rant.

Here's a study in contrast. If you have a late flight and you make it to the airport in time to catch an earlier flight, Northwest Airlines will be happy to put you on stand-by for the earlier flight free of charge. As long as you have a ticket, what do they care which flight you take?

US Airways will charge you for a ticket change.

Another example: If you are looking for an inexpensive last minute upgrade to First Class, some airlines have a policy wherein if they have open seats in First an hour or so before your flight, they would let you have one for $50-$100 dollars (a fraction of what it would cost for a reserved First Class ticket). That makes sense because the incremental cost to an airline of having someone in First versus Coach is trivial -- a meal and a couple of glasses of wine maybe, which can't cost the airline more than $10. So once it's clear the airline is not going to sell a full fare First Class seat, yit may as well offer the upgrade and snag a few dollars and in return get a passenger who feels special.

They don't do that any more at Northwest. Now you have to be an "elite-level" frequent flyer to get the cheap upgrades. (As much as I fly, I am not anywhere near elite level.)

US Airways, on the other hand, use their gate agents as upgrade shills, regularly announcing that they have upgrades available for whatever amount of money they think people are willing to pay, usually $100-$150 for domestic flights up to $500 or so for international.

Two airlines with completely opposed policies. What's the difference? I'll tell you: US Airways is in bankruptcy and trherefore is after every last penny they can get. If you are offering money, they don't have the luxury of turning down your upgrade request on principle. Nor will the pass up the chance to charge you a few dollars if you want to fly an earlier flight.

I used to love to fly US Airways, but they are a total mess these days. Their website is the completely unreliable and often inaccurate. Their customer service is nothing approaching warm and friendly, that's for sure. Their policies seem be pretty much made up as they go along.

Case in point: Flying back from Turks and Caicos through Charlotte, I had a six hour layover. Ugh. So I stopped at the customer service desk to inquire about getting on an earlier flight. The diffident slob manning the desk said that there was one leaving in an hour and half; I could pay a fee to transfer my ticket, but they could not move my checked luggage. So my choice was to sit and wait out my layover in the nice hub terminal in Charlotte or sit and wait at the seedy old terminal in Detroit until my bags arrived. I chose Charlotte.

But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that the diffident slob had just said that because he didn't want to go to the trouble of sending a request in to transfer my bag. So I walked to a different concourse and a different customer service desk. This time a nice fellow, who was newly transferred from a smaller regional airport and who had to keep checking with his supervisor to make sure he was giving the right answers, said their policy was that they could transfer bags up to an hour before the flight so it should be no problem since I had an hour and a half. So I said to go ahead and completed the transfer to the earlier flight.

The good news is that I got back home a few hours earlier than I had planned. The bad news is the diffident slob wasn't trying to make me go away. He apparently knew that, despite 'policy', there was no way they would get my bags transferred. And they didn't. But since I had followed the correct protocol, at least I didn't have to wait for them in Detroit, they were delivered to my home the next day. No doubt any revenue US Airways got from my ticket transfer fee was used to pay the bag delivery guy.

I really hope US Airways can claw their way out of the mess they are in. Especially because they are now merged with America West, which means they have a hub in Vegas which means I have an option for direct flights from Detroit besides Northwest.

And I do prefer to have the chance of snagging a cheap seat in First now and then.

At least US Airways did safely get me to Turks and Caicos, which is certainly one of the most awkwardly named places in the world. In fact, it is unlikely you have ever heard of it. Don't feel bad, that is not a failing of your education in geography. Only recently has it emerged from pretty much complete obscurity.

Turks and Caicos (TCI) is a chain of islands in the Caribbean; just south of the Bahamas and just north of Haiti. There is little industry or economic activity beyond tourism -- in fact, on the way to the hotel, the driver dryly offered, "Welcome to Turks and Caicos. Tourism is about the only industry in the islands so thank you for coming."

TCI is of British extraction, like Bermuda or the Bahamas or Grand Cayman. However one of the oddest things I learned was that for many, many years there has been discussion and debate over whether it should become a Canadian province. Apparently there are strong ties to Canada and the question has come up in the parliaments of both places. Typical of the damn Canadians, always trying to expand their empire.

From what I could see, most islanders have little interest in politics. There does not appear to be any significant poverty, although I certainly wouldn't call the island wealthy in the sense of a Grand Cayman (never mind Bermuda). But they may be getting there.

For the time being there is a certain dichotomy. There are a huge number of top flight resorts -- including some of the best in the world, such as the famous celebrity hang out Parrot Cay and the requisite Beaches and Club Meds and so forth -- the overwhelming majority of which are situated along Grace Bay on the island of Providenciales, or Provo. Grace Bay is rightly renown as one of the most beautiful beaches in the world -- a multi-mile crescent of powdery white sand and calm, crystal clear waters. I stayed at a place called The Palms and you can read about my somewhat bi-polar resort experience in my review over at Hotel Chatter. But the resorts seem to be the extent of the usable development.

Beyond the resorts, there is one little area on Provo that has the usual touristy crap shops and bars, but in relation to the number of resorts, it is tiny. There are numerous condo and condo-hotel combos in the process of being built on the Eastern end of Provo and, as I understand, on the other islands, but most seem to be "in-process" at this point. No doubt there is a massive time-share bubble in the early stages of expansion.

For the most part, the islands still exude something of a Caribbean backwater air. People run their little shops, go to church on Sunday, sip their somewhat watery beer and just live it day-to-day like in a Jimmy Buffet song. One guidebook suggested being extra careful on the road when merging into the roundabouts because they were relatively new to the island and the natives weren't all that comfortable with them. There are no stoplights. The cell phone company Digicell was giving away t-shirts by the side of the road and the party they were going to throw to announce their arrival was the talk of the islands. (For another example of how provincial life is, I suggest you try to follow the story of my car rental fiasco at the above linked hotel review.)

Provo is far and away the most developed of the islands but even there major shopping areas as marked on maps may turn out to be a packet of four or five shops including a gift shop that went out of business and a little seafood shack with a hand-scrawled sign that says, "Back in 30 minutes" on the door. Like an idiot, I took a Hobie Cat out on the bay one afternoon without a lanyard for my Ray-Bans. Bye-bye Ray-Bans. I swear I spent an hour and a half driving around looking for a little gift shop that had a cheap, $10 pair of sunglasses; the kind of things you find on any corner in most tourist destinations.

Is the island beautiful? Not especially. There are some lush green areas, but it is mostly scrub. The beaches and the water are beautiful. As I think about it, it is easy to draw a ton of comparisons between TCI and Grand Cayman. Both places are of British extraction, but cater almost exclusively to U.S (and Canadian) tourists. Both have one very long and exceedingly beautiful beach around which most of the tourist activity is centered. And both have a main island without any particularly easy way to get to the other islands in the group short of a commuter flight (and when you ask about visiting the other islands, people can't understand why you would want to). It's hard to escape the conclusion that Provo is Grand Cayman ten years ago. And I suspect it is on the same development path. I would take Bermuda over either. (You can check out some pics at the blog.)

Although there is no reason you wouldn't enjoy yourself, I just can't see a compelling reason to pick TCI over more accessible and less expensive vacation spots (barring a yearning for some specific dive or fishing sites). The resorts are as good as any, so if you just wanted to hang in the resort, you'd be fine. But there are similar vacation spots that are easier to get to and still provide you with that sort of vacation.

For a limited amount of time, you can probably still scare up an off the beaten track trip by staying clear of Provo (maybe venturing over to Grand Turk). The people were unfailingly friendly in that understated way of Caribbean out-islanders. You can even find gems on Provo, like the Tiki Hut at the Turtle Cove marina, where a medium rare burger is over to the rare side (as it should be) and the fisherman exchange exaggerations at the bar.

I did enjoy my time in TCI, but my gut emotional reaction was one of discomfort. Perhaps because there was so little to explore. I was happy for a couple of days in the resort, but venturing out there was so little to do and see that I almost felt trapped. (I would have killed for a casino, or even a good sized hiking trail.)

No doubt it's personal taste. Like I said, TCI is just fine and if you choose to go there you'll likely enjoy yourself. But if you're looking for a tourist center, Grand Cayman or Paradise Island is better. If you're looking for a something more sophisticated, Bermuda can't be beat. If you are looking for something more remote, someplace like the Grenadines are popular - actually I hear Saba is the hot new off the beaten track Caribbean island. TCI just doesn't stand out enough.