Okay, I admittedly am over-snarking about what looks like something possibly of value to those urban hipsters who live in secure buildings and simply MUST-SHARE-EVERYTHING Basta svenska online casino online casinon spela kasino.

After my whiny post which illustrated the challenges I had with the gosimply service, a nice email came (below) in from Tim Hagger, Managing Director at gosimply. In it, he makes it clear that the service is designed to provide a pass 24 hours ahead of time, not when you discover at the airport that you'd like to get access.

To me, that's a major problem (and one I assume gosimply has no control over,) as I generally don't know I need a lounge until I get to the airport!

Dear Mr Broback,

I realise this may seem like an untimely response, but we have just discovered your post on airport lounges. First off, thank you for your feedback and we are sorry to hear of your disappointing experience.

The gosimply lounge program is designed for travellers to book their airport lounge before they travel (or at least 24 hours before arrival time). Amongst other reasons, this helps ensure there are enough potato chips and complimentary beverages to hand

In this instance it appears that the incorrect availability was given, which in turn allowed you to book within the 24 hour time frame. We cater for 1000's of lounge stays and this is the first time something like this has occurred (unfortunately for both of us). Based on this, we would of course be more than happy to refund your stay.

We have many hundreds of satisfied customers, who have enjoyed the extra touch of luxury that an airport lounge brings to their trip.

In our ongoing efforts to improve the gosimply airport lounge program we are trialling mobile phone ticketing (which removes the need for a printer), and hoping to shorten the notice period from the current 24 hours to 12 hours.

gosimply.com

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The Wall Street Journal reports:

The U.S.-based investors in Virgin America, the discount airline founded by Sir Richard Branson, recently cashed in their stakes in the startup carrier, according to people familiar with the situation — raising new questions about whether the airline can continue to comply with U.S. airline “citizenship” rules.

If the don't replace this backing with other U.S. based investors soon, the airline may not comply with ownership rules. Under federal law, a U.S.-based air carrier must be at least 75% owned and controlled by American investors.

Given the cash the airline is hemorrhaging, this may prove to be difficult.
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Say hallelujah. The Wall Street Journal reports that a consortium of 17 handset makers and cellular operators have agreed to agree on a standard charger for all member phones. Apparently, discarded chargers currently create more than 51,000 tons of waste a year.

Expect deliverance from charger hell by 2012. Basta casinot online casino slots pa natet.

Lenovo Group Ltd and Research In Motion Ltd., have created an accessory card that will download e-mail through the owner’s BlackBerry, even when the computer is off or asleep. This from Salon:

That means that when the ThinkPad boots up, new e-mail will already be loaded. There’s no need to establish a secure Internet connection to the employer’s servers. The user will also be able to send e-mail from the ThinkPad through the BlackBerry without an additional Internet connection.

The “Lenovo Constant Connect” card will let users combine the always-on nature of the BlackBerry with the larger keyboard and screen of the laptop, said Rick Cheston, executive director at Lenovo. For instance, a traveler could flip open the laptop to do some quick e-mailing at an airport layover, rather than spending time to set up Internet access, he said.

The new card will cost will cost $150 or less.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Virgin’s battle to prevent disclosure of their financial and traffic data has come to an end:

The airline has sought to keep its data under wraps, claiming it would suffer “competitive harm” if forced to open its books.

Rivals have pressured regulators to make Virgin America disclose a range of performance and financial statistics.

Industry analysts have speculated that the numbers if/when revealed could indicate a lack of financial viability for the airline.

Avondale Partners airline analyst Bob McAdoo, meanwhile, predicted in a research note Monday that upstart Virgin America — which is privately held and therefore releases less operating information than publicly owned carriers — could be the next casualty.

McAdoo cited preliminary filings with the Department of Transportation that suggest the carrier is rapidly losing money, and flew planes that were considerably emptier than some of its competitors through the end of last year.

“We caution that these estimates are based on limited (Transportation Department) filings and may be overly pessimistic,” he wrote. “However, given the ownership structure of Virgin America … we see parallels between Virgin and the three failed airlines.”

As if that isn’t enough, the blogosphere is up in arms about Virgin America suing a blogger over a parody ad.

In todays Wall Street Journal, reporter Joann S. Lublin provides us with a piece titled Claiborne’s CEO Crams Into Coach to Cut Costs. Seems quite appropriate for a blog titled InFlighHQ. Lublin describes how in these times of financial distress, more and more CEOs are flying coach.

Twenty-eight U.S. companies, from Altria Group Inc. to Universal Corp., divulged their sale or planned disposal of corporate aircraft in the past two years, says Equilar Inc., which tracks executive compensation and benefits. Several others, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Citigroup Inc., say they are seeking buyers for company planes.

Company aircraft are a flying office and “a day extender for me,” says James E. Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy Corp., a Charlotte, N.C., utility that owns two jets and a helicopter. After flying to White Plains, N.Y., for a business dinner this month, “I got back on the [Duke] plane and I was home by 10:30 p.m.,” Mr. Rogers recalls.

But public anger and tough times mean more CEOs may soon be joining Mr. McComb on commercial flights. The heads of the Big Three car makers provoked a firestorm of criticism from lawmakers by traveling to Washington on private jets in November to plead for federal help.

That is if you are uninitiated with the service and/or at the airport when you decide to access a lounge (or at least a Continental President’s Club lounge…)

I’ve been intrigued with gosimply for some time and decided to try it today. The promise is inviting:

Relax in 1st class comfort and treat yourself to an executive airport lounge. From £13.50 per person
With 97 airport lounges across 38 countries we guarantee you’ll find the right lounge at the best prices.
Each airport lounge is uniquely designed and offers a haven of calm away from the airport crowds.
Enjoy some V.I.P treatment whether you’re on business or that much deserved holiday break!

I arrived at the airport a whopping 4.5 hours before my Alaska Airlines flight from Newark to Seattle was due to depart. (My intent was to get an exit row seat no matter what…) Due to weather issues, my flight from Newark to Seattle was delayed by 3.5 hours, so I had plenty of time on my hands. I thought it would be a great time to try out one of the services that (for a fee) can get you into an airline lounge. Here is my experience with gosimply:

1. Logged into gosimply.com and entered the airport and date/time of flight. The system responded with availability in one of the several President’s Club lounges. One was in the same building I was — and in the concourse adjacent to my flight. (2 minutes.)
2. Got a quote that for £20.00 (pounds?? wha…? No auto-detect of locale?) I could get a pass for 3 hours. Google tells me that converts to $32.00. I go for it. I enter my charge card data and I get a confirmation screen and an email of same. The system tells me repeatedly to “print” it. Hmmm. Might this be a problem down the road? I ponder… No matter, I can show them the email onscreen, and can forward it to them as required.
   (2 minutes.)
3. Headed for the Lounge. Wait in the security line. When I hit the point that they are reviewing my ticket, they won’t let me go any further since my plane departs from a gate on another concourse. They don’t care about what my laptop says. They insist I go back to the Continental desk and get a “gate pass.”
   (7 minutes.)
4. Waited in line at Continental counter.
   (10 minutes.)
5. Talked to counter agent. She had no idea what gosimply was or what I was talking about. Calls the President’s Club. They have never heard of me or my lounge booking. They think for some reason that I think that I have reserved a conference room. After some back and forth they say come on out, and I better bring a printout as pixels are meaningless to them. Forget emailing it, as THEY HAVE NO PRINTER(!) My impression is that they don’t get reimbursed unless I provide them with an atom-based representation. Luckily, I have an efax account, so I say “hey, can I fax you a copy?” They say that is fine and that I should bring my Pet Shop Boys cassettes with me. I head to the gate with my gate pass.
   (15 minutes.)
6. Show up at the lounge. Am greeted by what the Wall Street Journal used to call a “Bully Broad.” She has never heard of gosimply. As I get on wifi to fax my confirmation — she and her cohorts Patty, and Selma unceremoniously reject at least two other prospective entrants with a hearty “no lounge for you!!” Their Platinum cards are meaningless here. It’s clear to me that I better get her the damn printout. I send the efax email and sit down in a lobby chair.
   (5 minutes.)
7. Wait. After several minutes I realize they are not paying any attention to me, and may have even forgotten about my existence. No one is jumping up and telling me the magic fax has landed or not. I also notice that because of the weather, the lounge is starting to fill up. As I get up to inquire if the fax has arrived, I realize that if it has not, I will be forced back out into the utter hell that is the main concourse. Instead, I carefully slink unnoticed into the nirvana that is the President’s Club.
   (5 minutes.)

And here I sit. I have a glass of Stags Leap Artemis before me and am typing this in a well-lit luxury cubicle in a comfortable office chair. I have ample power and all the potato chips I can ingest. The internet access is fast and free. I believe I see a former T.V. newswoman sitting at the bar and have playful banter with what looks like a Fortune 500 CEO. In a nutshell, life is good.

The bottom line is that if you try gosimply, I suggest you:

• Buy your lounge time before you leave home, so you can print it.
• Realize that you may have to get in line to acquire a gate pass before you head to the lounge.
• Be prepared for no one in power having any idea what you are talking about when you show them the piece of paper that grants you access.

AN UPDATE: A nice email from gosimply.

The Wall Street Journal crew recently did some research into the actual value of several Hotel Loyalty Plans that seem to be adding perks all over place, often generously enough to be valuable for even the infrequent traveler who can’t rack up sufficient night stays.

It turns out that in most cases, the free membership offer perks that are well worth the hassle of signing up. Their experience at Omni Berkshire Place, for example, caught my attention:

During our Saturday night stay, the free membership let us dodge the hotel’s wireless Internet charge of $9.95 a day and entitled us to free coffee or tea with juice in our room in the morning.

Speaking as someone who is hopelessly addicted to the internet but who does not yet have a traveling internet card from Verizon, Clearwire, Sprint, or whoever else is selling them (I’m waiting for the $29.99 price point – I may have to wait a while), free hotel wi-fi is a great benefit.

You can find run-down of all the hotel programs they checked, which include benefits like check-cashing services and free champagne, over at the Wall Street Journal article.

The idea sounds fabulous: Call a number, talk for up to 4 minutes , hang up and a human types it up and emails it to you. Call the service as often as you want.

The reality does not quite live up to the promise however.

I’ve been using the service for over a year and am now (sadly) about to drop it. The problem? Several come to mind. Here they are in order of importance:

1) Delivery takes forever (unless you’re doing the trial!) I signed up for the trial and very soon after I’d hang up, the transcription would appear in my in box. Once I became a paying customer, the lag times steadily increased. I called a transcription in yesterday around 3pm and did not receive the mail from them until after 12 noon today. As a blogger, it makes using the service for timely posts impossible.

2) It’s too expensive. 80 bucks a month(!) If anyone knows of a less pricey alternative that provides more than 30 seconds of talk time, let me know.

3) Inconsistent results. Some texts come in with proper interpretation of what I say, others come in riddled with errors.

1 and 3 are permissible, but not when 2 exists. This is an awesome free service, it’s just a lousy $80 a month service. My two cents.

According to Reuters, on Wednesday, American Airlines started offering the option to buy in-flight Wi-Fi to passengers on some of their flights. The service costs about $13 for the flight, but doesn’t let you do VoIP, most likely just to keep the bandwidth use in check.

The service, which has been in the works for a while, is powered by AirCell and called “GoGo.” It’s only available on some routes so far:

The world’s largest airline said its passengers on Boeing 767-200 aircraft can pay $12.95 for Internet access on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.

Those cross-country routes don’t come up in my schedule too often (come to think of it, I barely fly American anymore), but I go where the Wi-Fi goes, so if I’m looking forward to checking it out the next chance I get.

I don’t normally fly Delta airlines, so I haven’t been tracking the number of redundant screens on their automated check-in kiosks the way that David Pogue has, but I do know that most airlines have a pretty mediocre check-in interface.

It turns out that a new Delta software system has been in development for months, and is now being rolled out to all 1,400 kiosks they have placed in 195 cities:

They actually sent me a PowerPoint deck that shows the new kiosk software, side-by-side with the old, and I can tell you for sure that they’ve streamlined the process a lot. (The kiosks are used 70,000 times a day for check-in, so that translates into a lot of saved time.)

The new software system offers a quick-print option that lets you swipe your card, select your destination and then immediately print your boarding pass.

It also gets rid of the “continue” button, since that’s a little redundant.

Sounds like a good start. If other airlines follow suit and start to streamline their digital check-in process, we could really see some welcome improvement in airport line-speed.

I’ve written before about how I hate to pack everything carry-on, even though there’s no logical reason to check your luggage if you can fit it into a small enough size to take it with you.

While my illogical habits still hold, business travelers at JFK who weren’t already making an extra effort to fit it all in carry-on were probably pretty disappointed as they were forced to choose between making their flight and staying with their bags.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Handlers are currently sorting baggage manually, and the airline is telling its departing passengers that they can choose whether to go on the flight or not, Wagner wrote in an email to the Terminal. “Once we have the issue resolved, we’ll get the bags that are left behind on their way to the customer’s destination and delivered to them. Until then, we appreciate our customers’ patience as we work through this issue,” Wagner said.

It’s interesting to think about how many of the things we do are enhanced by computers, and how much of a difference that really makes. Without computer assistance, we can’t load planes fast enough for them to fly on schedule.

When the economy is slowing and oil prices are rising and consumers are flying less and businesses are starting to replace travel with video conferencing, what’s an airline to do?

If you’re United, you go after the ever-growing luxury market. Successfully.

According to the Wall Street Journal, United has taken some of its more popular routes and made the right much more comfortable in exchange for a more expensive ticket:

Take a Boeing 757, remove 40% of the seats and give customers lots more room, better food and flat beds. Does that sound like a typical recipe at a U.S. airline these days?

Hardly, but that’s exactly what UAL Corp.’s United Airlines did with two of its busiest, most-important routes, and last year they were the best routes financially for the airline in the country.

Not a bad strategy. I can’t say I’ve never wished for more legroom on a flight.

More out of curiosity than anything else, I’m interested to know if any of you have started holding more virtual meetings compared to your usual travel schedules?

The New York Times ran a story yesterday about how rising travel costs are forcing more businesses to adopt virtual meetings in place of good old fashioned I-flew-halfway-across-the-world meetings.

As just one example:

Accenture figures its consultants used virtual meetings to avoid 240 international trips and 120 domestic flights in May alone, for an annual saving of millions of dollars and countless hours of wearying travel for its workers.

So virtual meetings are definitely cheaper, not to mention if you’ve got a really good setup it can make you feel like you’re in Minority Report. Do you think that virtual meetings are going to start supplanting the travel in your schedule anytime soon?

The famous Steve Martin routine goes – the first thing you do when you get into a French cab and realize the driver doesn’t speak English is you adopt a French accent.

“I vould liek to go to ze houtel pleez.”

As many seasoned travelers have no doubt discovered, this rarely works. Thankfully, the Wall Street Journal may have found one answer to the problem:

But interpretation companies are hoping you use another tool: your cellphone. These services aim to give you access to a 24-hour bilingual interpreter; you call the service on your cellphone, explain your dilemma in English, then hand over the phone to whomever you need to speak with — cab driver, waiter, police officer, doctor, or the object of your affection in a bar.

The WSJ tested several of the services to see how well they performed, and the consensus seems to be that they’re work as advertised. There is sometimes a bit of a lag time before you actually get on line with an interpreter, so it’s best to call before you need one if you can plan that far ahead.

It can also get a bit pricey. One dinner order cost about $30 to place, although I think it was purposefully complex.

The bottom line seems to be: it’s a worthwhile service for business.

Earlier today BoingBoing pointed me to this Ask the pilot column on Salon.com with the kind of TSA story everyone just assumes doesn’t apply to airline pilots:

“No, this is no good. You can’t take this.”

“Why not?”

“It’s serrated.” He is talking about the little row of teeth along the edge. Truth be told, the knife in question, which I’ve had for years, is actually smaller and less sharp than the knives currently handed out by my airline to its first- and business-class customers. You’d be hard-pressed to cut a slice of toast with it.

“Oh, come on. It is not.”

“What do you call these?” He runs his finger along the minuscule serrations.

“Those … but … they … it …”

“No serrated knives. You can’t take this.”

“But sir, how can it not be allowed when it’s the same knife they give you on the plane!”

“Those are the rules.”

But beyond the amusing front…in fact, largely on the second page of the article, Patrick Smith dives into an issue that does fall under the radar more often than it should:

Propped up by a culture of fear, TSA has become a bureaucracy with too much power and little accountability. It almost makes you wonder if the Department of Homeland Security made a conscious decision to present bureaucratic incompetence and arrogance as the public face of TSA, hoping that people would then raise enough of a fuss that it could be turned over to the likes of Halliburton. (Funny, how despite this administration’s eagerness to outsource anything and everything, it’s kept its governmental talons wrapped snugly around TSA.)

While I might not put it in such apocalyptic terms, I think we should all be wary of what powers we cede to the government in the name of “safety.”

It’s time for blogs and social networks to grow up. We’ve had our fun setting them up and marveling at how bright, shiny, and high up the Google search results they are, and now it’s time to figure out what they’re actually good for.

It turns out there are quite a few uses. Yesterday’s New York Times had an article about major travel companies rushing to build the social network for business travelers:

Word of mouse is the latest trend in online travel planning, and a variety of corporate travel companies are setting up networking sites in hopes of becoming the Facebook of corporate travel.

Both Expedia and American Express Business Travel are announcing their new offerings this month. The Internet travel site Orbitz had one of the first networking sites, but it, too, is trying to increase participation by sending out e-mail messages to members to promote its Traveler Update.

The idea is to crowdsource the tips and locations tied in with business travel to help “road warriors” squeeze every bit of efficiency out of each destination.

Frankly, it’s not a bad idea. Social networks have proven to be a great, inexpensive way to augment many kinds of real world planning. Facebook’s event system comes to mind as a wonderful tool for getting a bunch of people in one place at the same time.

It stands to reason that the same trick ought to work in reverse; let’s get a bunch of people to figure out how best to visit different places at random times.

Welcome to “premium economy.”

As business-class seats have consistently moved towards the luxury originally set aside for first class seats, European airlines have started phasing in a new level of ticket, often called premium economy.

The idea is to appeal to business travelers “on a budget” and people who are taking vacations but can spend a little bit extra on the tickets:

“It’s a smart business move because there’s been what I call class creep on an airplane,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Forrester Research. “What’s now called business class is almost what first class used to be. So premium economy is more like what business class used to be back in the 1980s, akin in many ways to U.S. domestic first class in terms of legroom.”

I’m sure it will change over time, but I’ve made my list of what I need to keep me happy on an airplane. Super cushy seats and high-class cutlery are not on the list.

For now, it looks like I’ll stick to the main cabin. Of course, if premium economy came with free wi-fi…

The Wall Street Journal decided to test out some of the luggage services that have been gaining traction recently.

What luggage services? (you ask)

According to the Journal there are companies that offer to pick your bags up at your door and deliver them to your destination—the door, again—so that you don’t have to deal with airline surcharges, hassles of luggage claim, security, or anything else the FAA might invent between now and next Tuesday.

How did the tests go? Are the services worth it?

The good news: No service failed the point-A-to-point-B test. The bad: Prices were so steep, from $122.19 to $198.23, the services can’t really be considered practical for frequent fliers or families with lots of luggage. (Procrastinators should also take note: Even if you opt for the higher-priced overnight service, you’re still stuck with the issue of having to pack and ship your bags ahead of going to the airport.)

And the real surprise: Four out of the five companies sent Federal Express or UPS to pick up our bags. Which begs another question: Why not just call the carriers on your own instead of paying for a third party to handle the task? For example, for that same $198.23 fee that our priciest shipper charged for a suitcase weighing up to 55 pounds (and insured for up to $1,500), FedEx quoted us a rate of $38.58, and UPS, $70.08.

So if you’re thinking about skipping the $15 luggage surcharge, try a different airline first