Triangle Trip

The Triangle Trip team wishes our global travelers a happy and prosperous Lunar New Year!

Demonstrating the depth and breathe of our travel experience, Terminal D and Captain G have put together the best practices for business travel in Dothan, AL. Where exactly is D-town? See the map below:

Below is a list of our recommendations:

Where to stay?

1.  Hampton Inn

Believe it or not, this is the nicest place to stay in town, if you can get a reservation.  Built within the last few years, it’s managed to stay fairly clean and has free wifi.  It’s recommended that you bring your own pillow.   (For a true best practice, steal a pillow from the Fairfield Inn by Marriott)  And don’t let those Hilton points expire!

2.  Courtyard Marriott, which happens to be connected to the Fairfield Inn, is our number 2 pick. We recommend the Courtyard because it is slightly cleaner, but “clean” is a very generous word in this case.  Only stay here if you are a true PW.

(Warning: Don’t be confused if your morning paper and coffee is interrupted with a bill.  The breakfast is not free!)

3.  Sleep Inn is next to the Hampton Inn. It’s fairly clean but clearly in 3rd place.

What to eat?

1.  Long Horn Steakhouse – it is the best restaurant hands down. It also has a great wine by the glass selection which is unheard of in D Town!  They have a St. Jean Cab!!  Woohooo.

2. The Bistro – A great lunch place located at the heart of downtown D-town! It has good food and nice pictures of Europe – probably the only place where you could find such pictures.

3.  La’Le Mediterranean Cafe & Bistro – A great lunch place offering classic greek and similar cuisine.  Odd hours, random closings and a difficult-to-find location may anger you the first 3-5 times, but it’s worth holding out for.

4. Atlanta Bread Company – We know, but it’s the only place you can get fresh fruit and $3 coffee — although Starbucks recently opened at Target which doesn’t open until 9:30AM.

5. Applebee’s – And you thought #4 made us look dumb.  Don’t go here for the food, but the bar is nicely stocked, it’s packed with locals every night, and its proximity to the Mariott makes it a great place to wash away the memories of this terrible visit.

5a. TGI Friday’s – This is a toss up with Applebee’s. Hence the 5a rating. They have karaoke night like 2x a week. It is probably the only karaoke place where you will find zero Asians.

We love to hear from you. You can reach by leaving a comment or via email:  captaing@triangletrip.com or terminald@triangletrip.com

We all know that Southwest does not have assigned seats and everyone is aware of the standard practices to get in Zone A to avoid having to sit in the middle seat. The standard practices  to get away from sitting in the middle are:

1. Print your boarding pass at right after midnight before your departure date so you board during Zones A or B. This may mean staying up all night just to avoid getting a bad seat – which is not so attractive.
2. Paying for Southwest Business Select. This approach does not really make sense as you’re flying SWA because you’re trying to save money. Why should you pay to board first especially if you fly SWA all the time?

The standard practices also does not cover you for flight cancellations or changes. Here is the secret to avoid the middle seat or at least mitigate the risk of having to sit in the middle.

Kids generally prefer to sit by the windows because they want to look out the window during takeoff and landing. Since kids rarely travel by themselves which means a parent will be next to them. Like everyone else, parents also don’t like to be stuck in the middle seat. The usual scenario is a kid seated by the window and the parent sits at the aisle hoping no one will take the middle seat. This scenario occurs toward the back of the plane.

Regardless of when you board the plane, you need to look for a kid seated by the window and a parent occupying the aisle seat. What you must do is ask the adult to allow you to sit in the middle. The result is the parent will move to the middle because the kid will not want to give up the window seat nor does he or she want to sit next to a stranger. I have used this trick on every flight that is crowded and have an 80% success rate. Go try it!