January 2007

A federal jury in Boston has awarded a Portuguese computer consultant $400,000 for his being “profiled” by American Airlines. Passenger John Cerqueira was ejected from a Boston flight bound for Fort Lauderdale on December 28, 2003. The plane’s pilot, Captain John Ehlers, claimed passengers said Cerqueira was making inappropriate, suspicious comments in the boarding area and onboard the aircraft. Cerqueira was escorted off the flight and questioned. He was not permitted to reboard. This is the first case of its kind to come before a jury since 9/11.

American Airlines recently lost a $400,000 lawsuit against a Florida man who was removed from a flight from Boston’s Logan International Airport. The man claimed he was removed from the flight for no other reason than that he appeard Middle Eastern.

This is the first lawsuit to be resolved in the debate between civil-rights and security that has raged since the attacks on September 11. It may have serious ramifications on airlines and airports, particularly given the rather large size of the award.

I just saw an ad for Orbitz.com’s new TLC services. I like their TLC alerts service in particular, because it allows you to designate up to six people to notify if your flight is delayed or diverted.

Remember a few months ago when airlines cracked down on laptop computers after Dell’s exploding laptop fiasco? Well, don’t be surprised if it happens with cell phones after the exploding-cell-phone-gives-California-man-second-and-third-degree-burns fiasco.

Since your phone will be turned off anyway, you might want to think about removing and stowing the battery during transit.

Currently, the FAA and FCC do not allow for the use of cellphones on planes. However, this ban might be disappearing soon, as these two agencies are currently studying cellphone use on planes and considering reversing their policy.

Cellphones have already been allowed on Dubai-based airline Emirates, which has flights to New York, starting next month. It is currently estimated that at least four cellphones are left on per flight, and one is used per flights. If cellphones are allowed on planes, those who have modem capabilities would be able to surf the web at 30,000 feet.

Flying seems to be fraught with a new hassle every few months; the newest annoyance is the 3-1-1 policy. For those of you with a few extra bucks in the banks and feel like going through Airport Security is starting to feel like a bad fraternity initiation, I suggest checking out private jets.

I know that private jets are expensive. But there is a way to get them deeply, deeply discounted. Because so many jets fly back from their destinations empty, OneSky.com is working to fill these return flights at tremendous discounts; between half and one-quarter of the normal cost. So the next time you are traveling with a few business associates, and want to make a good impression, consider skipping the checkpoint paddling, and have a look at a few private jets.

If there’s one thing photographers really understand, it’s versatility and ease of use in a bag. Neither of these Kata bags from Bogen Imaging is intended to schlep a lot of stuff, but if what you need is a superior structured bag for all your carry-on essentials that will easily slip under the seat in front of you, these two models are right up your alley.

The bags are made out of a neoprene blend, which makes them easy to carry, but provides structure and padding for your electronic goodies. They also feature fuzzy yellow interiors that make it easy to find little things that might otherwise be doomed forever to obscurity at the bottom of a black travel bag. They also have luxuriously padded straps to save you from chafing.

Another cool feature that could come in particularly handy for female travelers is the small zip-up pouch. It’s originally designed for film canisters, but it could easily be used to carry a few select makeup products or discreetly stash tampons. It attaches to the interior with little strips of velcro and comes out easily in case you need to run to the lavatory mid-flight.

Both bags (the Prism and the Sensitivity) are priced at just under $100 and have room for a laptop.

US Airways increased its bid to takeover Delta today by 20 percent to about 10.3 billion dollars. Northwest Airlines has also jumped into the fray and is making a move to takeover Delta.

A Northwest takeover of Delta would be considered preferable as the routes of the two airlines overlap significantly less than US Airways and Delta. The potential US Airways takeover has been strongly fought against by Delta managers and pilots who risk losing jobs in competing routes if the deal goes through.

A couple of years ago, Grand Central CEO Craig Walker stepped off a five hour flight and spent the next half hour checking voice mail messages. He had to call three separate numbers just to find out who all was trying to get hold of him while he was in the air. He decided that he wanted an easier way to keep track of missed calls, so he started GrandCentral.

Basically, GrandCentral is a friendly Web-based service that takes all of your existing phone numbers, organizes them, and gives your friends, family and professional contacts one phone number to call. Your voice mail is accessible from your phone and from your browser. You can even set it up to give different voicemail greetings to different contact sets, so your friends can leave a message for laid-back, casual you, while your colleagues get a crisp, professional greeting.

Additionally, the software allows all calls to be forwarded to a temporary number, so if your cell phone happens to get lousy reception at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Boise, you can temporarily forward all of your calls to the room phone.

Grand Central also offers some robust filtering features. If your annoying ex-girlfriend keeps calling, you can tell the software to give her a “this number has been disconnected or is no longer in service” message. If a telemarketer keeps pestering you about vinyl siding, you can flag his number as spam and never have to take a call from him again. Of course, it would be a bad idea to do this to creditors.

GrandCentral offers two levels of service. A free public beta and a $10.00/month service that allows more granular features and longer saving of existing voice mail messages.

The biggest drawback I saw in the software was the lack of ability to easily import an existing number to make it all-access. I’d like to take my existing home number and make it my GrandCentral number so that I don’t have to make new business cards and tell all my friends that I have a new phone number. That would be really annoying. Walker told me that this problem should be solved by this summer, and that making a phone number from another service portable is possible, but currently a little complicated.

For those of you who are worried about trusting such an important part of your lives to a startup that’s still in public beta mode, keep in mind that they raised $4m in venture capital from Halsey Minor and are likely to get a second round of funding. Hopefully, that means they’ll be around for a while.

It can be tricky, but the Travel Post Insider has a great list of tips and tricks. They also recommend totally Jewish Travel for more information.

Obviously I’m late to the game and the whole blogosphere is already going nuts over it, but the iPhone is a reality. A walking, talking, badass reality.

I have a two-year contract with T-Mobile, but I may just have to pay to get out of it, switch to Cingular, and buy myself an iPhone before I explode all over the place in gooey, fangirl fashion.

The coolest part of this whole thing for business travelers will be less crap in your pocket. No, that’s nothing new. There are other products out there that integrate camera, phone, mp3 player and calendar etc., but none that are as easy to use and integrate into your existing systems. If Apple built it, chances are it’s user-friendly and plays well with other devices. It doesn’t have EDGE like my current phone, but it looks like the internet feature will allow me to blog and access the Web directly from the phone, which is even better than having to drag out my laptop if I want to write a blog post on the go.

All in all, I’m pretty freakin’ excited about this thing. Can you tell?

If you often find yourself “warwalking” on business trips, then the Digital WiFi Detector from Hobbes Innovation might be for you. Not only does it sniff out WiFi networks, it tells you whether they are encrypted and if so, how. It’s also small enough to carry around with you.

Via GearLog.

According to the latest Vogue (yes, the one with Angelina Jolie’s ever-fabulous face on the cover) Lisa Hoffman has come out with a new line of travel-size skin care products. She’s always traveling about with her husband (Dustin Hoffman) and until recently her “life revolved around packing and unpacking my toiletries.” She wanted something easy and fast that would keep her looking as well-preserved as her dashing husband.

I’ve never tried her skin-care products before, so I can’t attest to their moisturizing or anti-wrinkling powers. But the idea of high-quality cleansers, creams and serums in one-does ampoules really appeals to me. I’m always and forever having to check my bags because Laura Mercier doesn’t package moisturizer in anything smaller than a 4 oz container, so I’ll have to check out these new goodies before my next business trip.

The cosmetics are available at Bergdorf Goodman later this month.

The blurb on Hoffman’s new line can be found on page 134 of the January 07 Vogue.

Last night, after a quick flight and a nice meal, Steve and I headed to our respective rooms on the Strip side of the 19th floor in Harrah’s Carnival Tower for some much needed pre-CES shut-eye. Just as I was shutting down my processors, the band started up.

Below our windows, they were playing “Blister in the Sun” at an obscene decibel level. A quick call to the front desk confirmed that they were playing at Harrah’s own Carnival Court and would be continuing until the wee hours of the morning.

So we moved to new rooms that turned out to be much nicer and much quieter.

So if you’re planning a stay in Las Vegas and you happen to be staying at Harrah’s, you should plan on asking for a room away from the Strip if you’re staying in the Carnival tower.

According to CNet News, Avis could soon be pairing up with Autonet Mobile to provide WiFi transmitters in its rental cars.

Of course, they assume no liability for accidents while surfing…

Homeland Security has recently received a masive influx of passport requests due to the January 23 requirement of passports for all travel in the Western Hemisphere between the US and other countries. Previously, a driver’s license was acceptable. As a result, Homeland Security is now offering cheaper passport cards that fit in a wallet and are limited to use for travel between the U.S. and Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and Bermuda.

The cards would cost $20 for adults and $10 for children, with a $25 processing fee. For more information, check out travel.state.gov/travel.