April 2006

The Guardian [reports on the arrest](http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1763398,00.html) of Snoop and five members of his entourage at [Heathrow airport](http://www.heathrowairport.com/) on Wednesday night after a huge brawl broke out after [British Airways](http://www.britishairways.com/) refused to allow the entire group into its VIP lounge. We’ve all tried to get upgrades, but if you’re Snoop, you give beat downs!

Among the astonishing number of amenities offered to those who fly the ultra-plush business class airline is an escort service. If you’re running late, a uniformed Eos representative will personally usher you past all the commoners other people waiting at security and directly onto your flight. In fact, on Eos you can arrive at the airport 45 minutes before your plane is scheduled to depart and still make it.

I don’t know about you, but if my company were paying $2,500 each way for a ticket from JFK to London, I would expect that kind of treatment, too.

Via Gridskipper.

A recent outbreak of mumps in the midwest apparently started when infected individuals boarded an airplane and infected the rest of the passengers. It’s sparked quite a conversation about the morals of flying while sick over at Fly Girl’s blog.

What do you think? When is someone too sick to be allowed on an airplane? Should airlines charge sick people to reschedule their tickets? What about providing sick passengers with surgeon’s masks, hand sanitizer and those tissues that trap and kill viruses?

I’ve actually made a makeshift one of these with an ordinary binder before, but according to the manufacturer, this can stand up to having a Land Cruiser parked on it - which is something I would never subject my binder to.

Why it needs to be that strong we have no idea…

Via The Lobby

JK on the Run has some great information about new programs that will protect you from having your laptop stolen, and will help you recover it in the unfortunate event that it is pilfered.

As if we weren’t packed in tightly enough when traveling, now there’s talk of a standing section on airplanes where passengers would be strapped to inclined boards a la Hannibal Lecter on his infamous gurney in Silence of the Lambs. Although such seats would likely only be used for short flights, there is no current regulation in place that would prevent airlines from using the “seats” for much longer stretches.

I suppose if they had some way of putting me in suspended animation for the entire flight, I wouldn’t mind being strapped to a board, but I can’t imagine trying to read a book, have a drink, get work done or watch a movie that way. Can you?

Via Tailrank.

Quote of the day, “In Finland, we have no Eiffel Tower, few real famous artists, it is freezing cold and we suffer from low self-esteem.” Followed by the even better, “Hey we are not all the Nokia-wielding people the government would like you to think we are!” Read more about self-expression via demon masks in the NY Times [profile of Lordi](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/24/world/europe/24finn.html?ex=1303531200&en=d2c01214c0985633&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss).

I’m predicting a Lordi meme and I can only hope to sit next to one of them on a flight!

New York-based firm Pure Solutions has a pilot project designed to decrease allergic reactions when traveling, reports DeseretNews.com

Like a lot of people, I suffer from allergies to dust and pollen and from asthma. But the only times I’ve ever had trouble with allergies in a hotel room is when I’ve somehow gotten stuck with a smoking room or on a smoking floor. I’d like to hear from readers - are these sorts of allergen-reduced rooms something you’d find necessary when traveling? Do you think they’d really make much of a difference?

Via The Lobby

Yesterday I sat next to a traveler with a smelly cast on his arm. He was a nice guy, probably unaware, but something either fell into his cast and rotted or he had it on for a very long time. I realized then, like my [cone of silence](http://inflighthq.com/archives/2006/03/cell_phone_wars.htm) to tune out the cellphone a-holes (now even more “a-holish” with those bluetooth earpieces), I needed to have a personal aroma zone. A little device where I could send wafts of pleasant lavender out to counter a smelly cast, the smell of Burger King grease burgers, or strong and cheap perfume.

It doesn’t operate on all browsers yet, but Yahoo’s AJAX-based Airfare Search does look pretty cool. In a nutshell, AJAX allows a Web page to load content in real-time instead of having to refresh the page in order to see new information like you need to with HTML. This means that you can watch the fare results coming in realtime.

I tested the search engine on three major flights from my hometown for the week of May 11 to May 18 - Seattle to New York, Seattle to Los Angeles and Seattle to Atlanta - and compared it with the results from Expedia and Orbitz.

Orbitz returned the lowest fares for all three flights: $274 with one stop on Northwest Airlines for the New York trip, $198 with no stops on United Airlines for the Los Angeles trip and $302 with one stop on Northwest for the Atlanta trip.

In terms of ease of interface, the Yahoo engine is by far the nicest. But based on my test, it’s still a good idea to shop around on the other airfare engines before making a purchase.

Via Digg.

Louisiana’s Daily Comet reports that a TSA-approved registered traveler program is well underway and should be available this summer.

Such programs have often sparked controversy in the past. I kind of went off about the whole thing back in January for a number of reasons that I won’t repeat here but that I think still apply.

I’m curious to hear what our readers think about a safe list. Is there any way to assure their safety, or are they the product of misplaced confidence in our ability to sort the good people from the bad based on a background check?

Citing the unforgiving online travel industry, the [Bradenton Herald reports](http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/14346259.htm) on the return of boutique travel agencies. As I’ve learned, Expedia et. al are OK for quick business trips, but the complexity of a larger trip is just well, too complex. If you need someone to call for help, a friendly voice at an agency is much better than voice mail routed to a call center somewhere.

This trend can also be seen [in the growth of airlines](business class market) catering specifically to business travelers.

Fly Away Cafe has a great tip for avoiding mistaken or fraudulent charges to your room. Make sure that when you add tip to a check, the cents column always ends in a 6 = $15.06, $27.66, etc. That way you can scan down your bill on checkout and verify all charges as correct by the last digit. If anything doesn’t have a 6, it deserves a second glance.

ZDNet came up with an interesting find on the job listings site mediabistro.com. Apparently, Google is hunting for personnel to facilitate a Travel Vertical - which according to the ZDNet article, “is often used to describe specialized content organized into a channel.”

Via TailRank

The Travel Goods Association has named Ricardo Beverly Hills Solutions Travel Luggage Collection as the Winner of their 2006 Product Innovation Award. The luggage features a built-In digital scale. Now “travelers can pack their bags and know that they have not exceeded the standard airline weight limitation” claims Ricardo.

Singapore Airlines has announced the addition of the in-flight Internet service on its 3 daily roundtrips between Singapore and Sydney. Another new route with Wi-Fi in the Sky is All Nippon’s Tokyo-San Francisco service.

Now, if we could just get a domestic carrier to offer the service!

According to the Economic Times section of the Times of India Delta and its pilots’ union have reached a tentative deal to prevent a strike.

The deal will be presented to union’s governing body in the coming weeks, which means that for the time being a strike is off the table.

The deal must ultimately be approved by the court handling Delta’s bankruptcy.

A little tip for all you travelers going through Seattle in the next few weeks. Cingular is in the process of selling their network at the airport to Wayport Access and the result is a series of very frustrating bugs. If you try to use the Cingular service, you can charge your card just fine, but you won’t be able to connect to the Internet. The result is that you have to call their 1-800 number to reverse the credit card charges, racking up long hold times on your cell phone minutes.

Instead of using Cingular, make sure to connect straight to the Wayport network off the bat. It’s actually less expensive than the Cingular network by about $3 for a 24 hour period. Always good to know.

I’ve been spending some time investigating what new services exist to benefit travelers, and am impressed with Skibonk. It’s a mashup of Google maps and a number of other resort-related data services. In one info-rich interface, it provides resort locations, slope conditions, trail maps, webcams, and weather reports. It can also overlay information on lodging and food. I am finding it’s now my portal for following conditions at the resorts I like.

I’ve been using it to keep tabs on the resorts we visited this winter courtesy of coloradoski.com. Looks like Keystone and Copper Mountain are holding up nicely, even late into the season–I’d sure like to fit in a few final runs of the year!

Delta and representatives from its pilots union are huddled up in a New York hotel in an effort to hammer out a deal that would prevent the pilots from striking.

Meanwhile, the FAA and the Air Traffic Controllers union are also at odds over proposed pay cuts for the average new Air Traffic Controller. The controllers say that the pay cuts will decrease the quality of new recruits, while the FAA says that the cuts are essential. The dispute is now headed to the Senate, where Illinois’ famous junior Senator Barack Obama has proposed a bill that the ATC union supports.