Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Thursday, April 25, 2024 81° Today's Paper


Travel

Be considerate in using hotel printer

Question: My family recently had a relatively big reunion to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. My sister decided to scan our parents’ wedding album and ask other family members who were at their wedding to reminisce about it. I thought it was a fantastic idea — until I found her in the business center of our hotel printing about 30 copies of this huge document while other guests were waiting to print their one-page boarding passes! I insisted she stop and let them print so they could get on their way to the airport. She did but she wasn’t happy about it. She later said a hotel business center is first-come, first-served.

I think this is ridiculous. What do you think?

Answer: I agree with you. The business center at a hotel is intended as a courtesy for guests — it’s there for you to print boarding passes or directions or a couple of pages of meeting notes. If you have hundreds of pages to print, you really ought to ask the hotel for the address of the nearest FedEx Office/Kinko’s. If for some reason that’s not an option, print your long document in increments of 20 pages so other guests can "cut in."

Q: When you board an airplane and there are empty seats in first class, can you take your stuff and move to one after they close the cabin door?

A: I wouldn’t. I’ve seen people try upgrading themselves from coach to first class and then get booted back to coach. I think that would be rather embarrassing. Ask a flight attendant but don’t get your hopes up. Airlines tend to be strict about upgrades.

Email travel etiquette questions to Lesley Carlin at deartripadvisor@tripadvisor.com.

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