Barnett on Business Travel for 2017 WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT CHRIS Chris Barnett writes about business-travel tactics and strategies that save time and money and help minimize hassles. He is based in San Francisco and has written for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. Chris was a contributing editor of Frequent Flyer when JoeSentMe.com founder Joe Brancatelli was the magazine's executive editor. He was the first columnist Joe approached to join JoeSentMe. Chris' column, syndicated for decades in newspapers around the country, has appeared exclusively at JoeSentMe since 2012. November 17: THE PROUD BAR AT THE END OF LAX RUNWAYS For 50 years, the Proud Bird bar, restaurant and aviation museum has sat at the end of LAX runways. Now it's bigger and better and it's worth a visit. October 26: EVERYTHING'S GOOD AT ALASKA AIRLINES--FOR NOW Seattle-based Alaska Airlines chugs along, pleasing passengers from coast to coast. Now comes the test of the Virgin America merger and combining disparate cultures. September 28: A PACIFIC HIDEAWAY FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS In San Francisco, a 48-room boutique hotel in Pacific Heights pampers business travelers with the kinds of services that chain hotels are eliminating. It also happens to be the accidental birthplace of JoeSentMe. August 31: TAPPING INTO TAP'S TRANSATLANTIC REVIVAL TAP Air Portugal has engineered a sprightly revival. It once again flies to its Lisbon hub from five North American gateways. It has ordered dozens of new long-range Airbus jets and retrofitted existing transatlantic widebodies with a radically upgraded business class. What's more, TAP is now 50 percent privately owned and 100 percent entrepreneurial. June 15: CLASSIC COCKTAILS GO BACK TO THE FUTURE Real speakeasies were dark and dank, not the lively haunts made popular in Hollywood movies. But classic cocktails from the era of Prohibition are hot in bars across the nation. In Raleigh, a jazzy place specializes in jazzy concoctions. May 18: COMPLEX CALCULATIONS FOR THE LAPTOP BAN The looming threat of laptop computers and other electronic devices banned from passenger cabins is being met with shock and disbelief by American business travelers. Far more than an inconvenience, veteran road warriors worry about the safety and security of their devices and data if Homeland Security forces them to stow digital gear in the belly of aircraft. April 20: A BOUTIQUE HOTEL FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS IN SAN FRANCISCO San Francisco these days is a notoriously difficult place to launch a hotel of any kind, but a mom and daughter real estate investing team have an imaginative twist on boutique properties. The Alise offers signature amenities such as pineapple cupcakes in the lobby and free bicycle rentals. Food prices are shockingly low and The Alise is catching the fancy of business travelers. March 23: CALIFORNIA'S DREAMING OF BETTER BUSINESS TRAVEL OPTIONS In California, frequent flyers are finally finding options: New airlines such as JetSuiteX flying from close-in airports, shiny new trains on new tracks and even buses. February 23: HOW FREQUENT FLYERS BECOME ROAD WARRIORS Frequent flyers are becoming literal road warriors thanks to a range of luxury bus lines that offer plush rides and regular schedules. They are popping up in Texas, Florida, New England and in the heavily traveled corridor between Boston and Washington. February 2: OPEN HEARTS AND OPEN BORDERS President Trump's ban of Muslim immigrants and refugees from seven countries, even though pitched as a short-term "pause," feels like a punch in the stomach. If leaders of other nations slammed their doors shut over the last four decades, I would have missed life experiences that could never have been duplicated at home. I don't like Trump threatening my right to jet someplace new and make new memories. January 26: DOWNGRADED TO THE BUS FOR AN UPGRADE I got downgraded to a bus--and got upgraded. It's part of the strange tale of Amtrak's nearly secret network of Thruway motorcoaches. And, of course, it all gets stranger when we're talking about buses and trains in California. January 5: LOOK! UP IN THE SKY! IT'S, UM, SKY AIRLINE! When an airline you never heard of and can't contact offers the best nonstop between two cities in foreign nations, the, um, Sky's the limit. And dealing with Sky Airline is, in fact, the limit. These columns originally appeared at JoeSentMe.com. Copyright © 1990-2017 by Chris Barnett. All rights reserved.