People make lists at this time of year: gift lists, shopping lists, guest lists, lists of resolutions. We made a list of unfinished business that we would like to wrap up in the new year, but given the nature of the subject matter, it's more of a wish list. Maybe even a "dream on" list.
First off, because Alec Baldwin is still in the news, we'd like to see an end to tales of misbehaving celebrities and/or autocratic flight attendants on commercial airliners. There have been too many of these recently. Some of these incidents appear to have escalated because of jittery flight attendants, but some are clearly the result of boorish behavior. Can we add a note to everybody's boarding pass that when you're in an aluminum tube, some parts of your daily routine must necessarily change?
We also wish for more progress in our relations with Cuba. The Obama administration has taken small steps, but we think it's time for bigger steps to facilitate increased travel. In our view, the economic and moral case for normalizing relations with Cuba, at least with respect to travel, are clear. The impediments are merely political and ideological.
Our 50 states are divided into thousands of cities and counties, and they all seem to have their own hotel occupancy taxes. Worse, they are all subject to different interpretations when it comes to assessing the tax on pre-paid transactions in which a travel seller marks up a net or wholesale rate. We wish, after watching years of back-and-forth litigation, that local governments would wise up and switch their occupancy taxes from a percentage of the price to a flat dollar amount per night. In a flash, that would eliminate all litigation over how to calculate the tax. Readers, share this with your governors and mayors.
We were going to wish for somebody to fix our broken airline industry, but that seems like wishing for world peace: a concept that is wonderful to contemplate but probably impossible to accomplish for very long.
Above all, we wish our friends and colleagues a happy holiday season and a successful 2012, even if our wish list remains unfulfilled.