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PR Fuel: A Vacation Without PR? No WayIf you're wondering why there was no PR Fuel for the past two weeks it was because for the first time since December 2006, I actually took a real vacation.My 11-day trip took me from New York to Seattle to St. Louis to Chicago and back home again. I attended a wedding and five baseball games in three cities. I even took time to do a little business in between sightseeing, eating and drinking. As I've been known to do while on vacation, I was on the lookout for public relations winners and losers. I was surprised by some of the winners and even more surprised by some of the losers. PR Winner - American Airlines: Amazing, right? Consider the fact that I flew five flight segments into four airports over 11 days and I encountered zero problems. An equipment issue delayed one flight by about 30 minutes, but the pilot quickly and clearly communicated the issue to passengers. Employees were helpful, courteous and compassionate as they let my overweight baggage slide without additional fees at three airports. My luggage was undamaged and arrived without a problem. Throw in the fact that I upgraded to First Class very cheaply on the last flight segment and I'm happy to say that all of my anxiety about flying so much over a short period and on a tight schedule quickly dissipated. Did I get lucky? Perhaps, but this is the second time in a row that I've had an above-average experience flying with American. The airline will get my business until the company proves it no longer deserves it. PR Loser - Seattle: The Emerald City is a wonderful place, at least I think so. Seattleans, however, apparently have a different idea of their hometown. Casual acquaintances, an old friend, cab drivers, bartenders, baseball fans and salespeople were among those who talked their city down after they found out I was from New York. I've honestly never been to a place with such a self-esteem problem, and I'm still not sure if it was all part of some ploy to keep out East Coasters. People apologized for the weather, "boring" nightlife, lack of culture, traffic, transportation system and just about everything else they could think of. The odd thing is that the weather was absolutely beautiful for most of my visit, the nightlife was fun, the Seattle Art Museum is a great institution, traffic is mild compared to most major cities and I rode the bus for free most of the time. Blame it on the rain, perhaps, but Seattle's civic, business and cultural leaders would do well to remind people that they live in a great city and that residents should spread such a message. PR Winner - Starwood Hotels: I stayed at the Westin Seattle and Sheraton St. Louis City Center, hotels owned by Starwood. Staff at the Westin were exceptional and both of my stays were great. I was able to check in early at both properties and they even let my father, who beat me to the Sheraton by four hours, check in without me despite the fact that he wasn't on the reservation. I'm a member of the Starwood Preferred program and the company has treated me very well. My experiences at the Starwood properties went a long way towards building customer loyalty. PR Loser - Hyatt Hotels: When I think of Hyatt I generally think of high-quality hotels in the 4-star arena. The Hyatt Regency Chicago would be such a place if it were not for the fact that the place resembles a drunk tank at Mardi Gras. I've never been in a hotel populated by so many drunks. One woman threw up in the lobby, another woman screamed "fire" in the hallway at 4:45 AM and three guys used an elevator as a wrestling ring. The hotel staff was ill-informed, twice badly misquoting prices offered by third-party services but booked through the hotel. The experience really sullied the Hyatt brand as far as I'm concerned, and my father took some grief from me for booking us into what seemed like a perpetual prom night. PR Winners - Restaurants: Be it Samurai Noodle in Seattle, Tucker's in St. Louis or Hopleaf in Chicago, virtually everywhere I ate and drank on my trip lived up to my expectations. I mixed in a smattering of "must eat" places with some local joints and came away impressed. I, of course, read about these businesses online and it was nice to see businesses deliver the experience I expected. The best meal of the trip was the Italian sausage and peppers at Harry Caray's in Chicago. (We were skeptical about eating there, but my cousin's husband is a local and he suggested it.) PR Loser - MetroLink: The light rail system in St. Louis is great because you can basically ride for free. There are places to purchase tickets, but there are no ticket-takers or machines to process tickets. Apparently you're supposed to validate your ticket at a punch machine on the train platform, but you wouldn't know this unless you spent a lot of time studying the system. I bought a $4.50 one-day pass and used it for three days, riding the train to and from the airport and area attractions. I think I could have gotten away without buying any ticket and pressed my luck that no transit worker or police officer would ask for one. The Metro agency needs to do a better job of explaining the ticketing process.
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