Overloaded hubs....

As you will see from my posts, my recent travel has been in and out of EWR and PHL. One of the disadvantages of both of these airports is that they are both effectively only 2 runway airports. And yes, I know that PHL has a small runway used by some commuter planes but most aircraft, including commuter jets use the 2 main runways. As both airports are also hubs (EWR = CO, PHL = US), this means that things can get very busy at peaks times. Any small weather problems can really mess things up. So on my recent trips to or from the NorthEast almost every flight has had more than usual delay.

Even when there are no weather problems, I have had bad experiences. About a week ago on a flight out of EWR there was an initial delay of 45 minutes, due to the later arrival of the incoming aircraft. Once we finally left the gate we waited over an hour before we could even take off. This on a day when there was absolutely no bad weather any where up or down the Eastern seaboard. In other words the delay was purely due to scheduling too many departures at the same time.

I wish there were a way that the airlines could be penalized for making these bad scheduling decisions. Oh, I forgot, they can....avoid those airports or airlines!

Delta Down on Information?

Dear Delta,
One of the benefits of flying on your airline is the ability to get information about stand-by and upgrade list status from the screens at the gates of many of your aiports. One quirk has been that your flagship international concourse E at Harstfield never had these screen. I always put this down to the fact that this concourse had been equipped just before the screens were available.

However, today I noticed that some of the E gates have been remodeled, and still no status screen. The only reason that I can think of, is that international travel does not involve as much stand-by and upgrade travel. But you still have quite a few domestic flights leaving from the E concourse.

I sincerely hope that this is not the start of the removal of the status screens from all of your gates. This is easily one of the most useful tools for frequent fliers and much appreciated by all of us.

Delta, please, say it ain't so....

StuffBak WORKS!

Earlier this week I was devastated to find that I had dropped my phone while travelling. I knew roughly where I had done so, so retraced my steps, but to no avail. I tried all the usual things, calling the phone, sending an SMS message and calling the 'Lost and Found' at the car rental where I dropped the phone. I was just getting ready to call ATT to order a replacement when I received a call from StuffBak, saying that my phone had been found and helping me arrange for its return. For those who do not know this service, StuffBak sells stickers, at electronic retailers, office supplies stores or online, which offer a reward for calling an 800 number (or accessing a website) if an item is found. Each sticker has a unique code number, which enables Stuffbak to relate it back to the owner. I my case, it was a Hertz employee who found it and called Stuffbak.

I have had these stickers on various items for a while now, unfortunately not on some items that I have misplaced over the last couple of years, so this was the first time I had actually lost a tagged item. Of course I was very pleased to receive the phone call as I had really given up hope. StuffBak claims a 75% success rate, and while I originally thought this might be advertising hype, I now believe them. In fact I am so happy about this that I am recommending that my employer join their corporate program.

Thank you StuffBak

N.B. More Kudos to Hertz as well, their 'Lost & Found' department voicemail promises only return calls if an item is found, but they did call me to say that my phone had not been turned in to them. Once again, great service from Hertz. It is this kind of service that keeps me coming back.

Misery at Liberty

As you will notice from my posts, I have been travelling with Continental quite frequently in the last few weeks. One of the reasons was it helps me avoid my least favorite airport, PHL. I am having to rethink my strategy though, as this trip, both out and return I had some bad experiences with the AirTrain monorail at Newark. On Sunday night, when the train runs as a single line shuttle, combined with technical problems, it took me over an hour to get from gate to rental car. On the return trip, again there were technical problems, so this time it took only 45 minutes to get from the rental car facility to the terminal.
On Sunday evening I sort of understand that they use the 'quiet' time to do maintenance, but why not start at 2 am as there seemed to be enough irate passengers arriving between midnight and 1. The troubles today were at peak time though, so should not happen.

I have always wondered why the Port Authority installed such a tinker toy type monorail anyway. They should have ordered the Disney monorail system. These sleek, reliable trains run 365 days a year, with hardly any problems. But they probably cost a lot more than the AirTrain.

You gets what you paid for......

Back to Old Fashioned Flying?

On my flight up to EWR last night, I felt like I had taken a step back into the past. Due to weather in the North east we had to wait on the ground in Orlando, and stayed parked at the gate. I was surprised to see the Captain coming through the cabin, handing out flight crew (wings) pins to all the children on board. I can remember when I was young that getting such a pin was a big deal. Of course, flying is not the big adventure that it used to be, but it was nice to see Captain Beattie bringing back some of the magic.

Paperless Check-In

For a while I was jealous of Continental's trial at IAH for paperless check-in. This involved displaying a special 3D bar code on your cell phone, which could be read by both TSA and at the gate. Well, I have to wait no more. CO have recently extended this facility to include departures from Newark (EWR), as well as Washington national (DCA).
It is really fantastic to be able to take out your phone and be scanned through. On my latest trip, someone in front of me at the TSA line used his phone and a number of people were asking the TSA officer about it. Even the gate agent was pleased to be able to do this, obviously not a lot of people are doing it,.....yet!
It finally looks like the US is catching up with Europe, where cell phone check in has been available for quite a time. Now just to hope that this capability spreads to other airlines (Delta, are you listening?) and airports all over the US.

Update: The day after this posting, I read in USA Today that NWA are starting paperless check in at Indianapolis. Begs the question why not at Minneapolis or Detroit. So maybe DL will get this functionality via the (merger) back door.

Even more penny pinching? Award travel price hikes!

I am afraid that my favorite airline, Delta, has blotted its copybook. This concerns the 'junk' fees that are charged for the so-called free, award travel. I happened to be looking for flights to Europe, using Delta's excellent award travel calendar. Having found some flights I noticed a major discrepancy in the extra fees, depending on whether the flights were actually booked on Delta, or one of the SkyTeam partners, Northwest or Continental. In the past I remember paying about $50-70 per ticket to Europe, so I was very surprised to see that DL is now charging over $200 in extra fees. NW and CO flights were still at the $50-70 level, for the same itinerary.
So, is this an underhand way to reduce the cost to the airline of award travel? Come on, DL, not the way to treat your hard travelling supporters.

The dreaded PHL curse strikes yet again

This evening, as I drove through the airport to the car rental returns, I noticed that there was a major backup of traffic approaching the terminal. Not wanting to spend 20-30 minutes in the shuttle bus to the terminal, I decided to use shanks pony (foot power). The Avis lot is just across the road from the Marriott and I had seen signs in the terminal pointing to the Marriott. So I figured that would be the way to go. I should have known better! Still, I did get a good exercise session out of it. It turned out to be quite an odyssey, with not real route and very little in the way of signage. The few signs which I saw were also pretty confusing. So 15 minutes later I finally arrived at one of the terminal A security checkpoints. The silver lining to this cloud was that I had found such a little used route that the checkpoint had absolutely no line at all; it was hidden away in a corridor.

The, further to the JD Power survey, boarding through Delta's gate A13 was a total disaster in terms of layout to accommodate anxious passengers and a very poor PA system, which made almost all announcements virtually unintelligible.

Sorry JD Power you got it wrong

Nifty site for mobile data users (kudos to CO)

Hats off to Continental for their mobile web site pda.continental.com . In addition to all the usual things you would expect, you can also check on the status of the standby and upgrade lists, as well as taking a look at the seat plan, to check if that seat next to you has stayed empty. I have always been please with Delta's policy of displyaing the upgrade and standby lists at the gate, if they have the plasma screens installed. But not every Delta station has this equipment. The Continental site means that you can get that information at any airport.

Of course CO is also at the forefront of switching to paperless check-in. In IAH, DCA and soon EWR you can check in on your mobile, receive a barcode on your phone and then have TSA check your details through a scan of the barcode. The gate scanners also read the barcode, so ...no paper. Of course there is now a very strong argument for making sure that you keep your phone well charged.

Well done Continental, you are well tuned to the busy, mobile traveller.

More penny pinching

AA have just announced that they will be charging $15 to check the first suitcase. This is in addition to the $25 that was already in place for the second bag. So now the "full-service" airlines are beginning to act like the discount airlines like RyanAir, who charge extra for about everything except the air in the plane. I know that the current fuel prices are causing a crisis in the airlines, but why not just bite the bullet and increase ticket prices. Instead AA is trying to collect more money via a sneaky backdoor because so many people check bags nowadays, due to TSA security.

So it will not be long before there will be charges for: carry on bags, soft drinks, peanuts, window seats, aisle seats, exit seats....seat belts?

Who did they ask?

The local Philadelphia radio and TV stations were crowing this week about a JD Power report that placed PHL as the number 1 airport in customer satisfaction. Who did they ask? Or were they handing out cannabis cookies? While the new terminals are a major improvement over the old concourses, there are still many problems, e.g. traffic and the disorganized car rental lots. So #1 seems a little strange.

Further erosion of frequent flyer rights (UAL)

United has decided to remove the 500 mile minimum for mileage and elite qualification mileage. This means that only actual mileage will be accrued. AA also has the same rule, probably for longer that UA. This will be interesting to see whether my favorite airline, Delta, decides to follow suit. It will actually be difficult for them to do so, since UA and AA both use miles or segments for elite qualification. Delta got rid of segment qualification when they introduced MQM, and if they try to follow UAL's lead, there will be a lot of very unhappy campers, who used to make elite status on short flights, that will now miss that privilege.

Change to FAA rules, or safety violation?

I have been flying Continental recently, as this gives me a direct flight to NJ for my current project. As I am not eligible for upgrades, I was glad that I could get my second favorite seat, in the exit row. I was surprised to notice on both the flight up, as well as the return flight, that not of the cabin crew came to the exit rows to give the usual (FAA mandated?) exit row pep talk. On one flight this would have been useful as it would have alerted the crew to the fact that the passenger next to me, luckily only two of us on this side of the plane, did not have her seat in a fully upright position during take-off.
Kind of makes you uncomfortable when you see that the crew are a little slipshod in their attitude.

Scheduling Inflexibility

The dreaded PHL curse strikes again. On my first return flight from my new project I arrived at PHL about an hour before my flight. Hoping to relax for a few minutes I went off to find the Crown Room. To my surprise I discovered that the club was about to close, even though there were still 60 minutes until the departure of the last Delta flight.
You would think that Delta could have adjusted their opening times to close 30 minutes later, in order to incorporate the passengers of that last flight.

Sorry Delta, time for another 'soduk'

A week later I managed to arrive 20 minutes earlier, so did make it into the Crown Room. Once inside though, the food and beverage service had already been closed down, although one of the agents kindly went into the closed kitchen and brought me a soft drink. I also found out that the opening hours have not been chaanged because effective July 1st the last flight will be leaving at 7 p.m. Still showing you inflexibility DL-PHL.

Blowing My Own Trumpet?

A while back I blogged about the free WiFi available at airline clubs, decrying the lack of free access at the Delta Crown Rooms. You will also see that I did have to eat crow, after getting a reply from Delta to my email to Customer Service. In this reply, they indicated that free access had been available on request since some time last year. I thought that I must have missed a communication from Delta somewhere, but a week or two ago I received a general marketing email, highlighting....free WiFi at the crown Rooms.

Did my email to Customer Service (including the link I put in it to this blog) cause Delta to realize that they needed to publicize this benefit?

TomTom Traffic Rocks

When I switched to my Treo750m I treated myself to Palm's GPS solution. this includes a matchbox sized (for those of you who can remember matchboxesu BlueTooth GPS receiver and TomTom software. As consultant who often visits different clients, travels to different client locations, having a tool that helps me find my way is indispensable. The small GPS receiver does have one disadvantage, it is so small that it is easy to fforget about it. I did in fact leave it in a cab on one occasion; luckily was able to reach the driver who brought it back. All it cost me was a big, fat tip.
In addition to the standard voices, I have downloaded, for a nominal sum, driving instructions read by John Cleese. So my journeys now have Fawlty Towers touch.
Recently I noticed a new bar and icon on the side. On tapping it, I discovered that it controls TomTom Traffic. This week I was using the GPS on my way back to the airport, and was surprised to be directed along a different route than I had seen when checking directioms back to the airport earlier in the week. Pleasantly surprised, ecause it was taking me along the road recommended by locals in the office to avoid traffic jams. Initially I though that this was just coincidental, and that the new route was shorter. However, as I approached the airport, I was warned that there was a traffic jam ahead. The instructions showed that I should take the next exit off the highway, to follow an alternate route to the airport. As it was, I was coming off a bridge and could see that the traffic jam had resolved itself. But it is nice to know that the navigation program is looking out for you. In that not what technolgy is all about?

Updates for Outlook

After the problems with the Delta updates for Outlook I found that Orbitz, which I was using because I could not get Delta only flights for my upcoming trips. While I am not too keen on the format, at least they provide individual items per day, unfortunately not per segment. I also found that Avis and Marriott provide Outlook updates for reservations at their sites.

Save a lot of typing.

Philly Stake

In my new job and new project I am "blessed" to have the opportunity to fly through Philadelphia. I had my first trip this week, and was wondering how the aiport had changed compared to my experiences a number of years ago. In the past I found that PHL was pretty much the worst airport to fly through. Not just the terminal, but for some reason the support facilities, specifically car rental, also match the airport in terms of my rating.

After deplaning (USAir, which contributed to my negative demeanour) I was optimistic as we had arrived at the new terminal A. Everything looked quite good, until I stepped out to for the rental shuttle. The pickup lane was packed with parked cars, sorry, waiting cars so that the rental and parking shuttles were having to line up to collect their passengers. When building such a nice new terminal I would have expected that a better solution for private and shuttle pickups would have been incorporated into the design.

And then, not contrary to my expectations, I had to wait almost 20 minutes for my Avis rental shuttle. In that time two or three of the competitors' buses passed by. But of course, if I had booked a car with any other company, its shuttles would have been delayed. There is just something about PHL and I that do not mix.

Hopefully on my way out my bad luck will have run out. Again I am optimistic, especially since I noticed that Delta have moved from the old E terminal to the new A terminal.

My Review of Case it HIP-15 Case-it Hip-15 Neoprene Cd Player Case (Case It HIP15)

Originally submitted at Beach Audio

Accommodates Most Personal Cd Players ;stretchable Neoprene Forms A Snug Fit With Player Case That Prevents Skipping ;large Pocket Accommodates Jewel Boxes, Leads, Battery Packs, Headphones & Accessories

Case it HIP-15 Case-it Hip-15 Neoprene Cd Player Case (Case It HIP15)

Not bad for the price

By DisneyDude from Celebration, FL on 4/18/2008

 

3out of 5

Pros: Versatile, Durable, Easy to Use

Cons: Not well finished

Best Uses: Travel

Describe Yourself: Value Oriented

Primary use of this product: Business

I am using this product in a different way than intended, but it does what I need. I needed the stretchy fit, but did not need the belt part - so I cut that off. I was not too impressed by the overall finish, but as this item will spend most of its time hidden in my briefcase, it does not matter for me. If you were using this as intended, i.e. to carry a CD player around on your waist, it should look more finished off.

(legalese)

Photo Ringer

On the Palm Treo 750 which I use, there is a feature to associate pictures with a contact, so that the picture appears when a call is received from any of the numbers stored for that contact. I found out that one of the advantages of switching from Lotus Notes & mNotes (previous employer) to Exchange server (current employer) is that the pictures are also stored in my contact list on the server. In the past, if I carried out a hard reset on my phone, I had to go in and reconnect the pictures to all the relevant contacts. Now it is done automatically

Even better, my new employer has an application on their intranet site, which can be used to look up information about colleagues, and includes a picture. As a new employee, connecting faces and names can be difficult, but now I get a reminder any time the person calls me. I just download the picture from the intranet and connect it to the contact on my phone. I can do this either directly on the phone, or in the Contacts function of Outlook on my laptop. In eithercase a quick synchronization brings both sides up to date.

P.S. One other advantage - in Outlook displaying an email also shows the contact photo, if available.

Tumi case repair

A few weeks ago, I noticed one of the zippers on my 12 year old Tumi briefcase starting to 'unravel'. Taking the advantage of working at home for a couple of weeks, I took the bag into the local Bags & Baggage store, who are listed on the Tumi site as official repair agents. I have taken this and my suitcase for repairs on a number of occasions, and even with expedited processing, it takes 3-4 weeks before it is returned. This time I was very pleased to receive my bag back in just over a week, and even better, it was delivered directly to my home address. Kudos to B&B for such speedy service.

Free WiFi for AA Admirals Club members

AA has joined the ranks of United, NWA and Continental as Admirals Club members now have free WiFi access in the clubs. Although AA uses T-Mobile Hotspot service, like Delta, they have arranged for their members to have free access. Unfortunately Delta still expects us to pay for club membership and then also to pay T-mobile for internet access, not just WiFi, but also on the desktop computers or broadband access at the work areas. Hopefully Delta will think about changing this soon....

I stand corrected, as Delta has just let me know that, since 6/17/2007 complimentary day passes for T-mobile WiFi and wired access are available from the Crown Room attendants, for members only.
I must of missed the email, but will try this out on my next visit.

DAL-NWA merger on back burner?

It has been very quiet on the DL/NW merger front, so it looks as if it will not go ahead. Based on a discussion overheard at the airport, it seems that the pilots have problems with agreeing on common ground. A Delta captain was telling someone that the NW pilots, who recently negoitated a pay deal that included lower salaries but retention of pension rights, wanted to keep the pension rights in a merger but match the Delta salaries. Delta pilots has recently given up their pension rights in exchange for keeping higher salaries, so they see the NW suggestion as having the cake and eating it too. This is even without bringing in the other major issue of how to merge the seniority lists.
As long as safety or flight availability are not affected, as passenger I do not mind what goes on, and whether they are able to get together or not. Except for the selfish reasons mentioned in my other blog.

***yet again, I stand corrected as the DL-NW merger has been announced. Of course, we have to see if the pilots all accept it, and the FAA, SEC, FTC, etc. allow it to go through***

Delta Update for Outlook

Since changing employers, and having returned to using MS-Outlook as calendar tool, I needed a way to quickly enter my travel data into my calendar. In the past I have used a tool (Infotriever) provided through the company travel agent, but as my current company encourages us to book directly at the airline sites I thought I would see what Delta has to offer. I found out that there "Outlook update" does not actually work very well. NWA has a similar capability, using '.ics' files that works much better.
In Delta's case, I found that the following issues occurred:
My four segment itinerary was loaded into Outlook as three items, two outbound and only one inbound.
The two outbound items overlapped, i.e. one item was for the origination to intermediate segment, while the second one covered origination to final destination. I really expected the second one to be intermediate to final destination.
The reminder on all items was set for a day ahead. This only makes sense for the first segment (on-line check-in), I prefer to set the reminder to 30-45 minutes prior to departure - time to leave the Crown Room and head to the gate.
Hopefully Delta will read this, and take a look at the software that generates the '.ics' files. maybe they can "borrow" the NWA version, if the merger goes ahead.

Bluetooth NR headset

Over the last few months I have been using the nXZen BT headset. I chosse this headset for its very strong noise reduction capabilities. At the time the main competition was the Jawbone headset, but I had read that while the Jawbone has good noise reduction, it does rely on having the headset correctly seated on the ear so that a critical part is pressed against the head (or actually, the jawbone). The nXZen relies on two microphones to exclude background noise and I was impressed by the sample recording on their site. One feature I really like is the fact that the set has two separate operating controls, in addition to a volume control switch. This allows for a wide range of actions, without having to take the set out of the ear and look at flashing lights. I am also very happy with the battery life and the USB charger cable, supplied in addition to a normal 110v charger. In practice the set has worked well for me, but there are a couple of negatives.

1. In the beginning I lost a number of the ear buds, as well as the ear loops. The buds seemed to fall off very easily, and the loops are not too strong and break quite quickly. However, by being a little more careful I have been able to keep the current ear bud and ear loop for a couple of months now. I must add that the vendor has been very good in sending replacements of both buds and loops, when I contected their customer support group.
2. Although I would have expected wind noise to be excluded as well as other background noise, on one particularily windy day outdoors I had to mute my phone as the other parties on the call were hearing a lot of noise. Covering the headset with my hand while talking helped, but I had hoped for better wind noise reduction.

All in all I am reasonably pleased with this product, but would I buy it again if I needed a replacement? Based on the small issues mentioned above I think I might give a different set a try. Would I recommend it? If you are looking for a solid headset with very good noise reduction, except in windy conditions, it is a good product. It is not as small as some models on the market today, but the size allows for easy to use controls. battery life is good and most important the voice communication is clear, in both directions.