I'm mostly a happy traveler, but this week seems to be an exception.

When I started serious flying (about 16 years ago) I wished that someone could improve the travel experience on the ground. Well, Hertz (and others) did that with "gold" service, where your car was ready and waiting. At one time they even tried a *wonderful* addition, Valet Return. (I remember arriving at the new Denver airport, with a Ford Explorer packed with four people, luggage and golf clubs - for $6 a driver jumped into the front seat and drove us to the curb, where the skycap took our luggage - *big* improvement over lugging the stuff to the rental bus, on the rental bus, off the rental bus.)

Now, in their wisdom, the airports have decided that the solution to crowding is to have "shared" rental facilities. I have hated DFW for years. This week I just used the new one at SFO. It has a few minor problems: 1) it is *far* from the airport; 2) the Hertz portion is so far from the shared shuttle bus that Hertz has little electric carts (pile on your luggage one extra time) to get there; 3) the "shared" busses still don't run frequently enough during peak periods; 4) it is a *long* ride back to the airport.

What is the best feature? They *add* a $5 charge to your rental for use of the "shared" bus service.