Mac Users Are Being Directed to Pricier Hotels on Travel Site: Fair or Foul?

You stated that most people you know are rich OR college students. So the college students you know are rich? Some sure, but all of them? You contradicted yourself - you first stated that most Mac users you know "are rich asses or collage students" and now you're saying they are just rich... I was simply going off by what you had originally said and I think it's ridiculous that you think that 1) buying a Mac is to show off, 2) it's a staple of money, and 3) that somehow a rich person buying a Mac is to show off and therefore they need to pay more (what kind of messed up, unethical logic is that?), but somehow most college students having Macs is okay and thus this is unfair to them...

So, to go through:

1) Buying a Mac is not necessarily to show off. It can be certainly, but no more than any person who buys a large TV, or spends over a thousand on their PCs. So the people who have good gaming machines or systems built for design work are showing off and they deserve to pay more? And why in the world would showing off mean you should pay more? That's completely heinous.

2) Along the same lines as #1, a Mac is no more a staple of money than any other computer over $1000 is a staple of money. And buy stating such a thing, you are completely overlooking that many people receive Macs as GIFTS, or they are using these machines at school or work, or they splurged to purchase them, or they need it to keep themselves competitive in their career field. Apple only has about 10% of the personal computer market. That means that most of the 90% is Windows. I bet there are as many or more Windows users with computers that are expensive as Macs than Mac users. So, by that logic Windows users also deserve to pay more.

3) If a rich person is buying a Mac to show off then there's no reason to think that a college student is also buying a Mac to show off. So, by your logic, why is it unfair to a college student but fair to a rich person?

The point though that I was trying to make is that there are more Mac users than those you know and while some of the ones you know are "rich asses" there are apparently, going by your first statement, some that aren't. There are obviously many others that aren't that you *don't* know. Your analysis of the situation should be greater than the little bubble you live in and you should realize that this impacts more than the relatively view people you know that you've apparently stereotyped in your head. Therefore, your decision that this is fair because there are Mac users that are rich is ridiculous because this has the large potential of affecting the non-rich Mac users as well.

People hate on Apple fan-boys, but there is a huge group of people who are just as absurd that are Apple-haters who like to stereotype people who buy Apple products. You people need to realize that, firstly, a personal purchase is none of anyone else's business but the buyer's, and, secondly, Macs have significantly more use and value than what people stereotype them as. I have had four laptops in my life and about three desktops. To compared apples to apples (no pun intended): My Dell XPS and Alienware laptops were both about $2000 *each*. All of my laptops were paid with school loans, which is the only way I could have afforded them, but by the logic of spending money, that would mean that my Windows machines are the ones that should be triggering the higher priced hotels, not my Mac.

The Alienware was crap and died within 1.5 years. My Dell is awesome and I've had it for about 4-5 years. My Mac is about 2-3 years old I think and it's the machine I use the most. I prefer it for handling my photos and doing day to day activities on it. It's the computer I take to school with me because it has significantly better battery life than my Dell and is lighter and therefore more portable. I much more prefer the commands on my Mac, my scroll pad, the body and keys, the screen, the app market and app integration, etc compared to my Dell. My Dell however is a powerhouse and it handles my gaming, though my Mac can handle that okay too (and comes built in for me to video my game-play). Organizationally, my Dell is better and there are certain files that handle better on Windows than on Mac OS. Pros and cons to both machines but for my daily life, considering the time I spend on the computer, it is way worth paying the extra money for my Mac and enjoying the experience with the least amount of headache than saving a few hundred dollars and having to deal with a system that I don't find as easy to use.

And in regards to pay for men and women, yes, on *average* men tend to get paid more than women, dollar per dollar. Much of that is due to non-discriminatory reasons, but in the end, men are still making more averagely: http://www.businessweek.com/a...

Your point is completely irrational and disgusting. Reason:

1) Not all Mac users make more money. I personally make about $10/hr. My boyfriend, who is a Windows user, makes $20/hr. See the difference?

2) Having more money doesn't mean you should be charged more. WTF is wrong with people who think this? Everyone should be charged the same for the same product. The websites, though, aren't charging more per room, they are just offering the more expensive hotels first in some situations.

3) Owning a Mac doesn't mean you are trying to look like you have money. It means you either need the machine for a specific use, or you like it. You can like it for a variety of reasons that are COMPLETELY unrelated to trends/designs/Apple-koolaid/...

4) Macs are the preferred machines for photo, video, and sound editing, for art and design, etc. My Windows machine cannot integrate applications as smoothly into my daily use as my Mac can. Even World of Warcraft, which my Windows machine does handle better, has the added bonus of having the video recording feature stock with the Mac. For my Dell, I'd have to download Fraps or another like program. I am also significantly less likely to get a virus, not necessarily because of the computer itself, but at least because it pays more for virus-creators to focus on Windows machines than Macs. That is of course changing as more and more people switch to Macs. Controls on the Mac are easier to use, imo. Notice how Windows machines are more and more creating Mac-like controls for the newer computers, as well as Mac-like scroll pads and buttons? I can more seamlessly connect to some wireless devices than I can on my Windows machine. My Mac recognizes a printer, for example, automatically downloads the drivers, and voila! I can print with little hassle. Many Windows machines, or at least the many I've used throughout my life, require that the user find the drivers, install them themselves, in order to have access to the device. I have less heating issues as well. My Dell and Alienware both got incredibly hot to the point it was painful to touch. I don't have this issue with my Mac - they say it's partly because of the material that the case is made with, but I'm not sure. Plus, there's the bonus that it's one company making several types of devices (phone, tablet, music player, Apple TV, etc) and your computer seamlessly integrates and syncs with all of them and the Cloud. Etc, etc, etc.

Each OS has its pros and cons. I like both for different uses, so I own both. I would never try to spend the money to get a competitive Mac gaming machine because I could buy a significantly better device with Windows for the same price. However, for daily use, I absolutely love my Mac, despite the price. I'm sorry though that you're biased and just another Apple-hater with generalizations and absolute statements mostly driving your arguments. I wasn't a fan of Apple at all until I gave it a try (school forced me to). Took me a while to get used to the difference in controls, but once I did, I ended up really enjoying it. /shrug

Apparently one can be computer-ist these days. When clients are treated differently by what computer they use, that's discrimination of some kind. It's as if someone walking with a Coach purse were given the higher priced options when someone without that purse were given the regular options. It's wrong. The travel agencies don't know the circumstances of why that person is using a Mac. Perhaps it was a gift, perhaps it was a school or work computer, perhaps it's a friend's computer, perhaps it was their one splurge in an otherwise simple life, perhaps it was a relatively necessary purchase for their career to keep the person competitive in their field. None of these things are taken into consideration when people label Mac users as either money-wasters or rich and were certainly not taken into consideration in these companies' change in policy.

And yes I am a pretty casual user. I pretty much just Internet browse, use Office, organize, read, watch videos, listen to music, etc. My Dell is for gaming (specifically World of Warcraft, which I understand is not that intensive of a game), my Mac is for everyday simple stuff. "Better", though, is a very relative term. My Dell is the better machine spec-wise, but it also cost about double what my Mac did. For ease of use, imo of course, in regards to the other things I listed that I like to do, my Mac tends to nicer to use. Plus, it's more portable and has the longer battery life, though nowadays Windows machines are much competitive in regards to those two features than they were a few years back when my Mac was purchased. I'm on my computer for hours and hours each day, so I would rather spend more on a machine that does what I want with less headache, then spend less on a machine that may have certain other capabilities, like dual-boot (which can be done, rather easily I've heard, on a Mac) that I would never use.

Lastly, there are Windows computers that are hella expensive - most people I know who game for example have Windows machines and they are typically about as expensive as a Mac. So, dollar per dollar those people are just as likely to be able to afford those more expensive hotels, if the logic is based on wealth and computer costs.