March 2008

Last week there was an article in the New York Times about business travelers who found inspiration for their current work while on business trips. The idea is simple: who gets ideas when they sit in a drab little cubicle? People need external stimulation:

Creative inspiration often strikes at the most unexpected times — in the shower, while out for a walk or lying on the sofa — and with depressingly less frequency at the office when workers are actually paid to generate it. But business travel can be fertile ground for discovering creative ideas for work or even a new business, many travelers say.

While I don’t spend most of my time sitting in a cubicle, and while I do find a lot of airport architecture to be pretty amazing, business travel is not usually creative time for me.

Is it creative time for you?

Business 2.0 has an awesome piece up about how to mitigate, deal with, or beat various snags that will inevitably turn up in the schedule of any seasoned traveler.

Some of the tips are more obvious than others (like traveling with a wi-fi card instead of relying on hotspots), but some of the services, numbers, and tips are pretty original. For example:

There are no federal regulations governing how airlines should help passengers affected by delayed flights, so take matters into your own hands. Dial the airline’s customer service number while you’re in line to change your ticket; you might find an open seat before you reach the counter. Another option is to head to the frequent-flier lounge. Even if you’re not a member, you can buy a one-day pass and make use of the less harried lounge staff to rebook your trip.

Go poke through the whole article for the complete set of tricks.

Over at Macworld there is a great list of applications that come in handy for people who use their laptops as their main machines (yes, granted, they do mean Mac laptops).

When I bought my MacBook Pro just over a year ago, I moved all my work related stuff over from my desktop. Now my desktop is just for games and occasional heavy-lifting (some video processing, etc). I’m sure that many travelers road warriors also rely on their laptops as their primary or only computer.

Why does this matter? MacWorld explains:

You interact with a laptop in different ways (relying more on the keyboard and using a trackpad, for example), and you may use a laptop for different tasks. So the software needs of laptop users are different from those of their desktop counterparts.

If that sounds like you, go check out the list.

Remember when I told you about the TSA experiment to split the security lines by level of experience?

Peter Kim tweets about the practical result:

New Logan TSA expert line = full. Family line = empty. The real “experts” drop their ego and go through the faster line.

I remember reading an article by Douglas Adams that, he claimed, was composed in the bath tub on his PDA. The wave of the future, he said, as long as the keyboards got better.

I know that even using an iPhone or a Blackberry, my typing speed on anything smaller than a regular keyboard is reduced by a good 300%. What’s the solution? Laser keyboards, of course.

ThinkGeek has this Bluetooth Laser Keyboard, which can also makes clicking noises when you type with it, for $150. Not too shabby.

I’ve heard about these existing, and I’ve never used one (although if they sent me one to try out, I wouldn’t complain), but it does look freaking cool. If you’re looking for a productivity device that will make people ask if you’re from the future and you’ve come back in time to save Sarah Conner, this might be the one.

Milemaven is a Web site that lets you search for bonus mile promotions that are available based on the route you’re taking. I just checked it for a rather obscure flight to remote Idaho that I’m contemplating, and sure enough, no fewer than 8 bonuses on 2 different airlines were displayed.

These included (from Alaska Airlines…) Retain your MVP Status by Flying 4 Segments, Retain your MVP Gold Status by Flying 8 Segments, 1,000 Bonus Miles when Booking Online with Alaska Airlines Card, etc….

Remember when the TSA had their big snafu about not letting a MacBook Air through security?

The official guess from the TSA blog was that the MacBook probably didn’t make it through because it looked significantly different under an X-ray than any “normal” laptop. Screeners are trained to look for irregularities in objects, since that’s usually when something nefarious is going on.

It looks like the folks over at the blog recently got their hands on an actual MacBook Air and ran it through a machine to see if their theory was correct — it looks as though they were right.

The post comes complete with a video. If you’re curious, go check it out.

According to a recent article on Forbes.com, the Denver and Las Vegas airports owe their high placement in the “Wired Airports” rankings to their free wi-fi:

In an increasingly data-dense world, travelers will soon be able to surf the Web from the skies. Until then, however, the next best thing may be to fly out of Denver or Las Vegas: They represent two of fewer than 10 major airports around the world that offer free wi-fi Internet access throughout their public areas. That’s landed them at the top of Forbes.com’s first ranking of Wired Airports.

The fact that there are fewer than 10 major airports in the world that offer free wi-fi is kind of ridiculous.

Increasingly, that will change as cities and airports catch on to the fact that people (I have done this) will route their stopovers through airports where they CAN get online instead of where they can’t.

If I’m flying from SEA to LAX or BUR and I have to sop, I’ll stop in Vegas instead of San Francisco because I know that I can spend my layover online, for free.

Seriously, check out the picture to the right, snagged from one of DealMaker’s Road Warrior segments.

This is not from your favorite 1960’s Kubrick Classic. This is an actual first-class airport lounge in Sydney, Australia. And you want to talk about luxury? Listen to the description:

The lounge boasts entertainment areas with plasma TVs and a leather-floored library stocked with newspapers and magazines. A captive could play dominoes with those just passing through, or fire up a PlayStation. Wherever you are, the staff will fetch your drinks (gratis, naturally) from two fully stocked bars.

It features a restaurant with a celebrity chef (Neil Perry), leather chairs, floor to ceiling windows, options for massages, etc, etc, and so on.

The next time I fly First Class, I’m totally making a stopover in Australia.

David Willaims, at least, calls it “flight induced brain drain,” and when he says it he means something slightly different than the definition listed in Wikipedia.

The New York Times briefly chronicled his mental meanderings the other day, where he wonders what has happened to the brains of normally intelligent, frequently lonely people:

Recently, while I was waiting to board a flight to Los Angeles, I noticed a young professional man stealing glances at a young professional woman every time he could peel his eyes away from his BlackBerry.

As luck would have it, the woman, also an avid BlackBerry user, was seated next to me on the plane. So I stepped in, hoping to save the day, by offering my seat to this fellow. He accepted my offer, but then was too scared to mumble a “hello” during the entire three-hour flight.

It was unbelievable. I gave up my seat, gave him a shot and he didn’t make the most of it. What was he thinking? He could have at least said, “Nice BlackBerry.”

I guess the lesson here is: productivity on a flight doesn’t always mean hitting the keys. Spare your brain some grueling work-work, and spend some time talking to the people around you, or at least paying attention to what’s going on.

Maybe you’ll end up a little bit sharper at the end of the flight.

In case you’ve missed it over the past few days, the TSA had a bit of a PR snafu when they prevented Michael Nygard from catching his plane because he was carrying a MacBook Air.

It ended up all over the blogosphere (as you would expect) rather quickly.

Over at Blog Business Summit I called on the TSA to respond on their own blog, which they finally did yesterday (and I’m sure they did it just because I asked them to).

The upshot? That TSO’s (the people working the X-ray machine) are trained to look for irregularities. Given that the MacBook Air with a solid state drive X-rays like practically no other laptop, it’s not surprising that it would cause some surprises.

Go read their post for the full response.

But only to the really, really important people.

According to Business Traveller, the German airline Lufthansa is offering PAs to it’s primo customers for assistance through security on departure, and through customs, etc. on arrival—assuming you depart or arrive in London. The site says:

The service – which is available to eligible passengers departing, arriving or connecting at the London airports – has been trialing for three months at Heathrow’s Terminal 2, where an average of 50 passengers per day have been using it.

How do you become eligible for such service? Either fly First Class, or become a HON member on the airline, which requires more than 600,000 miles in a two year period. It’s a snap.

I happen to think this is a pretty cool idea.

There are all different types of travelers, and they all go through security at different rates. There’s the woman who somehow simultaneously empties her pockets, removes her shoes, and places her laptop in a separate bin.

Then there’s the bumbling but kind-looking man who can’t seem to figure out that he’s still wearing sunglasses, two watches, and has a chain linking his wallet to his pants (actually, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy).

The TSA is experimented with segmenting lines based on how “experienced” a traveler thinks they are at getting through security. From BTOnline:

TSA last month introduced the lanes at Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport, with three separate checkpoint options for families and people requiring special assistance, casual travelers and expert travelers. Screening levels and procedures are identical across all lane types. Passengers are not required to go into a specific lane, TSA spokesperson Carrie Harmon said.

Cool!

The New York Times wrote yesterday about the air shuttles that have traditionally run on the hour (or half hour, depending on the airline) from New York to Boston and Washington.

The two carries that run the air shuttles, US Airways and Delta, have both decided to start offering certain perks to justify the high ticket price and to bring customers back from the trains that travelers have recently defected to:

US Airways now offers a first-class compartment, a change partly born of necessity, since the airline wanted the flexibility to move aircraft between the shuttle and its mainline operation. On the day of departure the airline allows fliers to upgrade from coach for $50.

US Airways also allows fliers to reserve seats in advance, while Delta has an open-seating policy in its cabins. Both offer free wine, beer, coffee and snacks, more generous legroom and dispense free newspapers and magazines in their boarding lounges.

Any which way you slice it, the travel industry has been hurting in various places ever since 2001. Business travel has traditionally remained strong, which may explain why they’re betting that high prices and perks is a better choice than cutting options and ticket costs.

OK, this is genius: StashCard.

I’ve had three laptops, and I don’t think I’ve used the PC Card slot in any one of them (you can get USB adapters for things like the Verizon mobile internet card).

This little cartridge lets you load up a PC slot with SD cards and cash, safely out of sight.

I know, I know: why would you stick your valuables inside of your bigger, more obvious valuable? Two reasons:

1. You’re going to feel like James Bond
2. It won’t get pick-pocketed

Just don’t do it while you’re going through the security checkpoint. It might start some searches you’d rather avoid.