Recorded in the Philadelphia Marriott after a hectic travel month with two trips to Europe and a bunch of travel up and down the US East Coast. In this episode, I talk about a bit of multi-modal travel — some planes, trains, and automobile trips. We have a trio of stories about playing “travel roulette” to avoid flight delays, and some listeners offer their favorite iPhone apps. I then share some non-obvious, intermediate-skill travel tips — a sort of Road Warrior 201-level class and close with some thoughts about enjoying the fall colors from up above. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Autumn is the only time I willingly book a window seat. Today’s approach into Newark had us flying over the Delaware Water Gap on a clear sunny day. The leaves are beginning to change — I saw dots of yellow and orange and red bursting out of a field of green. It made me reach back for into some old neurons for the word “pointillism“, which I learned on a grade-school field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago standing in front of Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte“.
I don’t take the window on every Fall flight. It’s only a Northeast/Upper Midwest thing. You need maples for those vibrant colors. The oaks down South are more brown than bright. And the tree breaks that Plains farmers plant between their crop fields aren’t wide enough, aren’t broad enough to fill your field of view with color.
Even in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, not every airport serves up the colors. I’ll always take a window flying in and out of White Plains/Westchester County (HPN) and Detroit (DTW). However, the eastern approaches into Milwaukee and Chicago over Lake Michigan — usually among my favorites — don’t do anything for me in Autumn. It’s often said that Fall colors are Nature’s way of paying us for the dreariness of Winter. For those of us flying, perhaps it’s a way to pay us forward for the snow delays we know we’ll start living through after those leaves fall.
Mika Pyyhkala, a long time TravelCommons listener who works for the National Federation of the Blind of Massachusetts, dropped me a note about a problem he recently had with some new technology installed in New York City cabs.
“I was in NYC last Sunday and I took a taxi from La Guardia airport to mid town Manhattan. I noticed that the credit card payment terminal is a touch screen visual-only interface. The taxi driver had to get into the back seat to read and operate the system for me — I could not tell what was on the screen. You cannot just swipe the card; you have to press the touch screen a number of times to initiate and complete the transaction, including pressing an area to select your tip amount. The driver told me the tip options were 20% or 25%, but I am sure it also has an option for 15%.”
There’s an uncomfortable situation — trusting your cab driver to select his own tip before he’s pulled your luggage from his trunk. I’ve used these credit card terminals and they’re one of the worst payment interfaces I’ve experienced — a complete pain for someone with good eyesight. I’ve stayed with cash ever since. Mika’s note, however, suggests a challenge to the travel industry’s broader moves toward self-service. As airlines and hotels work to move more transactions to touch screen kiosks at the same time as an aging population’s eyesight dims, good accessibility design will become critical to the success of these self-service initiatives — a lot more important than a pleasing color palette.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after a month of travel to and from the East Coast. In this episode, a spur-of-the-moment train trip bypasses a huge air traffic control problem. A listener story gets us talking about theft after you entrust your luggage to the folks behind the curtain. I have fun saying the word schadenfreude — German for “taking pleasure in other’s misfortunes” — while talking about the need to use iPhones and BlackBerrys to check the status of delayed flights. I also give my thoughs on the iPhone after traveling with it for a month. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
Labor Day is the traditional start of US political campaigns and the associated silliness of political speeches. Evan Sparks’ Aviation Policy Blog pointed to a speech by Barack Obama in which he lauds Chinese investment in travel infrastructure — airports, train systems — and asks “Why aren’t we doing the same thing?” It’s a good question, if lack of money was the only thing delaying needed improvements in the US.
Let’s look at one example with which Obama should be familiar — the long delay in starting the desperately needed runway expansion of Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The start of the O’Hare Moderization Program was delayed by competing proposals from two Obama backers — Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley and Obama’s national co-chairman US Rep Jesse Jackson, Jr. The dispute was all about control of patronage dollars. Daley wanted to expand O’Hare while Jackson wanted to build a third Chicago airport in the far south suburb of Peotone, IL– run by an airport commission controlled by Jackson’s allies. The O’Hare program is now delayed by legal fights — one about relocating a 159-year-old cemetary that sits in the middle of a new runways, another about 500 of the 2,500 homes in neighboring suburbs that must be torn down to make way for the new runways. The O’Hare delays haven’t been about money. They’ve been about political clout, and allowing citizens to exercise their rights to appeal eminent domain decisions.
Environmental impact statements, citizen NIMBY (not in my back yard) lawsuits, political interference — these are the issues delaying expansion of our airports, not lack of investment. Will a President Obama reduce environmental regulations, limit citizens’ (and their lawyers’) access to courts, or reign in members of the Democratic-controlled US Congress? I don’t think so — anymore than a President McCain would. The point Obama makes earlier in the clip — “[Chinese ]ports, [Chinese] train systems, [Chinese] airports are vastly superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business, you’re starting to think, ‘Beijing looks like a pretty good option.’” — is exactly on target. The inability to meet the demand for new transportation capacity impacts our nation’s economic health. In an earlier podcast episode, we talked about the FAA’s FACT 2 study which predicts 18 airports and 7 metro areas will need additional capacity by 2015. Money is important, but it’s not the rate-limiting factor here. Obama is a smart guy and I’m sure he understands this. I just wish he wouldn’t pander to the silly season’s need for sound bites and instead talk about some real solutions to these real problems.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after a couple of weeks in Thailand and Singapore. In this episode, I talk about some of my experiences in Asia, including a few travel (mis)adventures. We also talk about losing laptops in airports — comments on a study claiming that 12,000 laptops are lost in airports every week, and thought on one particular lost laptop belonging to the Clear registered traveler program. And a listener gives his in-flight impressions of Singapore Air’s new A380. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
The Ponemon Institute claims that over 12,000 laptops are lost every week in US airports, two-thirds of which are never recovered. In research sponsored by Dell Computer, which used the study’s findings as a key selling point for their new laptop tracking and recovery service, Ponemon surveyed airport officials at 106 major airports to come up with this headline-producing number. LAX tops the list with 1,200 misplaced laptops a week; Miami is second with 1,000. Extrapolating the study’s findings (12,255 laptops lost/week * 67% never recovered * 52 weeks/year) says that over 425,000 laptops are lost in US airports every year. With these numbers, you’d think that someone would’ve noticed the growing stack of laptops a bit sooner.
The second phase of the study surveyed 864 business travelers in “the airport environment”. Only 1% of these travelers had ever lost a laptop. You’d think with 425,000 of them lost every year, the surveyors would have a better hit rate. I’ve never lost a laptop and I don’t know anyone who has lost one in an airport. I know people who’ve had them stolen out of rental cars, who’ve left them in a plane’s overhead bin, but no one who has lost one in an airport.
One thing I have seen is people picking up the wrong laptop. At the back end of security screening, it can be a race to grab your PC before it gets pushed off the conveyor and onto the floor by the constant stream of gray bins burping out the TSA’s x-ray machine. More than a few times, I’ve seen someone grab a ThinkPad that doesn’t belong to them. Personalizing that black matte finish with a business card or a sticker or even a large gouge can help prevent a mistaken adoption. Of course, not having to pull your laptop out of your briefcase would be an even easier solution. Of the 864 business traveler surveyed, only 12% of them agreed that “checking my laptop or notebook computer separately from other carry-on tems increases passenger safety and security”.
Today’s Chicago Tribune gave front page coverage to a US Department of Transportation consumer forum on air travel. The story’s title, You Are Now Free To Take A Flying Leap, says it all. The reporter’s conclusion is disheartening realistic — “airline passengers received an unapologetic warning at the forum that customer service will continue to diminish and consumers more than ever need to fend for themselves at the airport”. The airlines’ ever expanding set of nickel-and-diming fees are less about generating additional revenue and more about cost reduction — reducing the demand for services that aren’t directly associated with keeping a jet in the air. American Airlines’ $15 charge for the first checked bag is really all about reducing fuel costs — incenting passengers to bring less luggage, reducing fuel consumption through reduced load weight.
Comparing passenger jets to “flying buses” is not an exaggeration. The airlines are redefining themselves, shrinking the boundaries of their responsibilities. They no longer sell a travel experience; they sell transport. And they’re walkingrunning away from any service that doesn’t directly involve transporting passengers through the air. Is this a business opportunity for another company — say, for one of the private airport operating companies? Hmmm, not sure the result will be any better if BAA’s stewardship of London Heathrow is any guide. The real question, though — are regular coach passengers willing to pay for anything more than being hauled from one city to another?
I’ve re-uploaded Podcast #65 correcting an editing error. For some reason, Adobe Audition slid the TSA Theme Song clip forward (couldn’t have been user error). For those wanting to listen to the Bar & Grille Singers’ masterpiece uninterrupted, here’s a direct link to the podcast file. Thanks to Jess Green for pointing out the editing error.
Recorded in the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago after taking a month’s break. We see if there’s anything to the TSA’s recent attempts to reduce security line waits — the Clear Registered Traveler and the Diamond Lane Self-Select programs. We also take a look at Southwest’s attempts to attract more business travelers. A listener story on traveling injured causes us to look into the cost trade-offs of air ambulance services, while another listener points us to the perfect song for the summer travel season. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file.
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