June 2006

Sayeth the TravelPost.com Insider.

I say, boo! I wanna blog from 30,000 feet.

Apparently, Josh Hallett had a truly bad experience with the Sprint PCS WiFi at Salt Lake City.

I personally hate paying for WiFi at airports. I understand paying for it on a plane because it’s really expensive to provide, but the airports should give people WiFi free of charge. Just like hotels should.

Anywhere but in the air, it’s like charging for hot and cold running water.

I just wanted you to know that if you’ve been puzzled about the lag time between commenting on this site and seeing your comment published - it’s mostly because the spammers are in full-out attack mode at the moment.

Legitimate comments are being buried underneath piles and mounds and heaps of atrocious ads for Viagra and online poker. It’s really a mess.

At any rate - if there is a comment you’re especially concerned about, feel free to email me at teresa at blogbusinesssummit dot com.

Oh Sony Micro Vault Tiny, how can I lose you?

Let me count the ways:

• You could fall through a hole in my pocket and slip between the elevator and the door on the way to ticketing.
• You could fall out of my wallet when I go for my ID at the security checkpoint.
• You could slip out of my pocket during a trip to the airport bathroom before boarding.
• You could become stuck underneath the metal apparatus affixing my seat to the floor of the airplane when I drop you during turbulence.
• I could leave you in the taxi on the way to my hotel.
• I could drop you in the lobby while juggling my room keys and luggage.

You get the picture.

Why anyone would want to carry up to 2 GB of ostensibly important information on something the size of their thumb nail is really beyond me.

Lest you pull a Rush Limbaugh and get detained while officials try to determine what the pills are and why you have them.

This applies more for people returning to the US from overseas than anything else, but as we’ve recently seen, suspect pills can be a problem anywhere.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Northwest Airlines will install additional boarding lanes for its preferred customers at most U.S. airports soon. Northwest recently moved to an open boarding system (which they claim saves an average of seven minutes over the old process.)

The additional lane will be in place next week in Detroit, Phoenix, Portland, Bismarck, and Fargo.

View from the Wing has a great review of the new airline check-in kiosks being offered at major hotels across the US. Assuming that you haven’t checked any bags, it’s easy to print your boarding pass in the lobby on the way out the door, and skip that cumbersome line at check in.

Given how much easier it is to travel without checking luggage these days, I wonder what new tricks, technologies and tips will pop up in the next few years to enable people to pack more clothing in less space.

I’ve heard of travelers using those airtight garment bags to seal clothing down tight, allowing them to pack a week’s worth of clothes into their FAA-approved carry-on rollie bags.

Boeing will be fast-tracking its evaluation of the Connexion by Boeing service ahead of possible big changes to the business model.

According to a release posted just a few minutes ago, no decisions will be made until the company has a thorough discussion with its customer base.

Stay tuned for more information.

Andy Abramson is a road warrior. He travels frequently to Europe on business, and uses Connexion frequently when he does.

His opinion about the potential loss of Connexion services is pretty clear:

The fact that the financially troubled US airlines can’t see the value in this for passengers is downright old school thinking. That’s the same kind of thinking that the record industry took about downloads as a way to sell music in my view, and we all know what happened there.

He also cites the relief of knowing that when he steps off an airplane, he is totally caught up on his e-mail, his RSS reader, and the blogosphere at large.

Via TailRank.

Got a color-screen iPod? Rough Guides is providing downloadable “eating and drinking guides to ten of the world’s great cities.”

You might want to pick up one of these babies if you’re looking to totally freak out and confuse the flight attendants on your next flight. Is it merely a watch/camera - or do you have to turn it off on the plane because it’s also a cell phone? They might be so confused that they skip you altogether while doing their pre-flight rounds. Or maybe they’ll just see the antenna and tell you to shut the darn thing off.

I think it looks a lot like the wrist dealie that Leela wears on the now-defunct show Futurama.

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Boeing is considering whether to shut down or sell their much buzzed-about Connexion service (which sponsors this blog).

According to the company’s official statement, “the system is performing well and we know we have a useful product, but we are trying to determine how good a business we have. The decision ultimately will be based on a disciplined market analysis, financial analysis and discussion with customers. No decisions have been made.”

I personally think that losing Connexion would be a real blow to in-flight connectivity. It’s a truly cool service and one that I hope to have the opportunity to use. I certainly can’t see us going back to a world without in-flight Internet access - but we’ll just have to see how it all pans out.

The Wall Street Journal has a couple of interesting stories today about how travelers are facing a difficult summer. AirTran Airways’ recent computer glitch (subscription only) forced travelers to form long lines at check in. In some cases, travelers even missed their flights because of the problem.

Says the Journal:

This could be a frustrating summer for travel as U.S. airlines pack more people onto fewer planes, while charging higher fares. With domestic U.S. capacity down and demand strong, airlines are expecting this summer to be their busiest since the agonizing summer of 2000. Load factors, or percentage of seats filled, are projected to peak at a record 85%.

Fortunately, the technically savvy traveler can mitigate their woes with a handful of tips and tricks that the WSJ has compiled courtesy of other road warriors. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Use products from PacSafe to protect your gear. One savvy traveler uses a steel net made by the company to secure his laptop and other goodies when he’s not in his hotel room.
• Use WiFiFreeSpot.com to find the nearest free WiFi to check your e-mail and post to your company blog between meetings.
• Check HotelChatter.com to find out which hotels in your destination city have the best WiFi access, to ensure that you stay in touch at all times.

Southwest Airlines will pilot several methods of assigned seating (subscription only) in the next few months to determine if they should permanently give up the “cattle call” system that now gives them some of the fastest turnaround times in the industry.

“We want to make sure that we have studied all the possibilities and aspects of assigned seating before we make any change to what has been a very successful formula for the past 35 years,” Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly told The Wall Street Journal. “This evaluation is an important step to determine the feasibility of assigned seating, but this is only a test.”

No matter what the airline determines, it’s unlikely that they could integrate assigned seating into their operations nationwide before 2008.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Singapore Airlines has added in-flight WiFi (subscription only) to flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong and on to Singapore as well as Los Angeles-Tokyo-Singapore.

Why the WSJ failed to mention Connexion, which sponsors this blog, while including their pricing scheme is beyond me. Still, cool for Singapore Airlines and cool for Connexion.

I just posted over at Blog Business Summit about how The Wall Street Journal loves us and wants to marry us (subscription only).

Here’s what they wrote:

This blog, published by the Connexion by Boeing service, a unit of Boeing Co., says its intent is to provide “tools, tips, and techniques for being productive at 30,000 feet.” But the blog covers just about anything flight-related. Recent posts discuss ways airlines claim to have improved boarding speed and service.

In between pragmatic posts, the blog occasionally takes a comedy break. “Hilarious Flight Attendant Quips” lists a few of the more surprising comments to come over the in-flight intercom. For example, as a plane slowed to a stop at Reagan National Airport in Washington, “a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: ‘Whoa, big fella. WHOA!’ “

We would like to set the record straight on one matter. inFlightHQ is not actually “published by” Connexion by Boeing, though we do love them very dearly. Connexion is our exclusive sponsor. Basically, they make it possible for us to continue to bring you tips, tricks, and snakes on a plane. They decided to do this in order to reach out to those who log long and often difficult hours on the road each week.

So yeah, we love Connexion. They love you guys. The Wall Street Journal loves us. It’s almost overwhelmingly warm and cozy in here. Almost…

In the book Steve and Byron wrote, they describe Wikis thusly:

A Wiki is Web site that multiple authors can control. Imagine a bunch of chefs working on a casserole. One is in charge of tomatoes, one the meat, and the other the cheese. After putting all the ingredients in and before it’s baked, a chef can jump in and add more spices, or remove some cheese, or whatever they feel will make the best casserole, even if it’s not their recipe. In other words, everyone has access to the file, and can change it to reflect their input.

Wikipedia is one of the coolest and most highly trafficked public Wikis out there. But the folks at Gadling are all aflutter about another one: WikiTravel.

Basically, it’s a guide for travelers written by other travelers. Want advice about staying safe in Tel Aviv or want to understand why everyone is laughing at you in Rome? That’s the sort of information you’ll find, along with a lot of touristy and non-touristy information about where to stay, where to eat, and what to see.

Happy travels!

There is almost constant speculation about which company might soon make a device that can rival the popularity of the iPod. This week, the buzz is almost completely focused on Microsoft whose chairman Bill Gates announced yesterday that he would end his day-to-day involvement with the company in 2008 to focus on his charity work.

According to insiders, the new device would couple with Microsoft’s own version of the ever more popular iTunes store. But does it even stand a chance at chasing down Apples monumental market share in the integrated .mp3 player and store arena?

Via TechMeme.

What business services can I expect during my 3-hour layover at Honolulu? Is there anywhere my boss and I can sit down for a teleconference with a client while we’re laid over in Dallas on the way to meet with another one?

For the answers, check out USA Today’s review of the business-oriented services available at major airports throughout the US.

Via Export Focus.

Export Focus’ travel arm has some interesting news about Delta today. After cruising out of a dispute with its pilots’ union, the airline is introducing a new level of service for international passengers.

The service, entitled BusinessElite will include upgrades in food, wine selection, entertainment and the popular sleeper chair.