Back in the San Francisco Marriott after my Swedish vacation, we play an ode to SkyMall magazine, talk about the amazing number of lines in Heathrow airport that were between us and the start of our vacation, and how with all these new boarding schemes, airlines are paying attention to the wrong things. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Here are the show notes from TravelCommons podcast #42:
- Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
- Recorded in the SFO Marriott
- Back from the car-pick up vacation in Sweden and back on the road between Chicago and San Francisco
- Bridge Music — SkyMall by Jonathan Coulton
- Listener talks about using the usually dreaded “SSSS” on his boarding pass as a ticket to the security express lane
- Ed Vawter of the Searching The Internet podcast talks about how moving overhead luggage pushes passengers to the edge
- Allan Marko points out Hilton Hotel’s announcement about new clock radios that allow MP3 players to be plugged directly into them
- Bridge Music — Car Crash by Small Town Sleeper
- My wife’s observation — “This was a perfect vacation — except for the flights at the beginning and the end”
- An amazing number of lines at Heathrow airport stood between us and the start of our vacation in Sweden
- Only the last delay didn’t bother me because it let me order another pint
- Bridge Music — Hide and Seek by Lorena Mire
- 8 out of 8 US airlines have reported profitable second quarters
- But much of the recent mail to TravelCommons has been about changes to airline boarding procedures
- America West airlines started it off by using some mathematical models from Arizona State University to design their new approach
- But Northwest Airlines has gone the other way, allow everyone to board at once
- They both claim the same results — saving 3-5 minutes in boarding time. With so little benefit, perhaps they should be spending their time improving the flying experience instead, say by adding another flight attendant to busy flights or another ticket agent to cut down check-in lines.
- Closing music — iTunes link to
Pictures of You by Evangeline
- Bridge music from the Podsafe Music Network
- Feedback at comments[at]travelcommons.com, the comment board on podcastalley.com, or right here in the comments section below
- Direct link to the show
6 comments on “Podcast #42 – Waiting For A Good Time, Paying Attention to Boarding”
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I know how you hate to check baggage so I thought you would enjoy this story.
I just had a trip to Africa with 9 others. We brought school supplies with us so we each had 2 checked bags. Since we had a 7.5 hour layover in London I was glad we had checked as much luggage as possible. We managed to get out of the airport to Windsor for a couple of hours which was a nice break. But the luggage? 11 of the 20 bags did not make it to Tanzania with us. 10 showed up the next day. One has not been seen since.
moral to the story: all of those who were told they could book their luggage all the way through to Tanzania got their luggage, those who were told at SFO by the next counter agent that they would have to pick them up in Nairobi and check them in again had to wait that extra day.
Welcome back Mark! Good to hear your show again.
Hey Mark, good to have you back.
I was blundering about digg tonight, and I happened across what seems to be an excellent travel resource. It’s at http://seatguru.com and it is a guide to the seat configurations for aircraft types as flown by the major airlines. It also details amenities and inflight services. I checked the charts for Northwest, and they seem to agree with my seating experiences. It’s worth a look.
Please allow me to flog my blog, “This Blog Title For Sale”. Thirteen months and going strong. Perhaps I can petition for a link? Thanks!
Mark,
Surfed over here from HotelCoffee a week or so ago and have really enjoyed the podcast. I spend a lot of time on the road here in Japan with about 2.5 hrs to and from work daily. So, I’m always on the lookout for something to keep my mind occupied. I’ve really enjoyed the perspective of a “true” business traveler, as well as the other links that you provide through the podcast and site. I’m currently working through them all from the beginning.
If it’s OK, I’d like to link to your site from ours over at Sand and Tsunamis…We’ve been overseas for a couple of years now, blogging about our lives.
Thanks for the regular entertainment and highly informative podcasts! Looking forward to the next submission.
Dave
Mark
Heard the podcast and your comments about more cars having at least an accessory jack for an iPod. You said something about carrying the wire to connect them. if you use Bose headphones ( the later generation ones) you already have one. Pull the plug out of the left phone and it presents a standard miniplug. I used to do just what you described- carry a “dubbing cable” with two male plugs. But in an effort to shed the amount of crud I have to carry on travel I found this to be a great solution. So far no damage to the cable or phones.
Hey Rick (comment 3). I talked about Seatguru and some other seat mapping websites in my “Searching the Internet” podcast episode 5 (http://www.qdinformation.com/searching/2006/06/01/searching-the-internet-episode-005/). The whole episode deals with travel related sites. If you don’t want to listen to the podcast, you can still check out the links to the sites in the show notes.
Ed Vawter