Travel

Aug
29
2010

Getting there

us_airways_767-200.jpg Arriving at Boise Airport this morning I checked the board for my flight. While it wasn't listed yet something surprising was. US Airways has a flight listed on the board from Boise to Boston. How could I have missed this?

Immediately thoughts of being able to get from Boise to Boston in a matter of four or five hours sprang to mind. Gone are the stopovers and hours in the airport lounge. All with a simple change of airlines. And since both United, my frequent carrier, and US Airways are in the Star Alliance the benefits of accrued mileage and accruing more miles will all be transferrable. What good fortune.

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Feb
28
2009

Stealing from the airlines

Yesterday there was a story on the news about voice being given to the thought of pay toilets on airlines. Now we're all certainly tired of fees and some airlines, like Southwest, are taking advantage of that to advertise their lack of fees.

An exchange this morning on the flight has me thinking about how we think about the airlines.

Economy Plus

For some background you need to understand Economy Plus. United has implemented this "tween" class. It is basically economy but for a fee you get seats with extra legroom. It costs more and you get something for it. The "extra" amount isn't as much as business class or first class, but it is a higher priced ticket. Generally these sections are the front of the economy section from the exit rows forward.

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Feb
28
2009

Getting to Drupalcon

On the trip to the airport I was reflecting on just where Drupal has taken me. On one hand having chosen nearer the beginning of the decade to use this open source PHP-based content management system was a short-term decision. I had websites and they needed to be done. The solution was easily Drupal. Sure there was the roll-your-own option. But I've been there and there is little way to get around the idea that proprietary website management is for the birds.

In a literal sense Drupal has powered travels across the country. The wonderful thing about Drupal travel is the community.

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Feb
15
2009

Looking in all the wrong places

Some recent unbookings for Las Vegas meetings have Sin City tourism officials concerned. Last year's meeting revenue was off 5% before the recent spate of backlash.

Having recently traveled through McCarran airport it seems that Las Vegas tourism officials should be considering other problems as well. In short I've never been in a place so filthy. Every corner of the C-terminal that wasn't filled with a human was covered with litter. Each of the windows held a random collection of used tissues, drink cups and to-go containers decorating the sill. The rows upon rows of seats that make up each gate had similar collections of detritus under each seat.

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Jun
21
2008

Happy people are reading more but...

Today was a conference day and then a travel evening. Stopping through the time zones across the country some of those pesky little nits about the way rude people travel come to mind. Leaving Baltimore the plane was fairly full but not completely. In the exit row we had an empty seat and we're taxing towards the runway. As the flight attendants make their sweep through the cabin to ensure we're all tabbed-into slotted and fastened low and tight across our laps they notice a seat in the row behind me isn't in the upright and locked position. Turns out it doesn't go up. So the solution is to have the shoeless passenger move up to the empty seat.

If you haven't flown a lot it may not be immediately clear than when somebody moves into the seat next to you by passing their shoes up first it will be a long flight. As the captain came on to explain the weather-related delays, both in departing and en-route the seat was filled with a book-reading passenger. In fact the book seemed so good he couldn't take his eyes off it, even while moving. Now I should be thrilled to see people reading more. The thing is I prefer those cases when they read in their seats and not so much in mine. Airplanes are small and cramped these days for sure. But when the large person next to you chooses to read their book by taking up the whole row it gets annoying.

Perhaps when it comes right down to it my annoyance was furthered by having read in an in your face sort of way.

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May
11
2008

Portland Airport (PDX) and the right way to do Wifi

PDX Wifi map At the Portland airport today traveling after an excellent Portland DrupalCamp. The day got busy yesterday and I fell behind in updating my post but that will come later. In the meantime it is worth sharing how an airport does Wifi the correct way.

So the first thing is that WiFi, yes even in airports, should be free. This is not a service to offer only to those who will pay for it. It is a way of making sure people like your airport and your city so they will come back again. Boise, Portland, Las Vegas and others get this. Unfortunately San Francisco and Denver are amongst the airports that don't realize this.

Some airport WiFi seems to work marginally. Portland on the other hand has a very solid service at PDX. In addition when you sign in instead of a generic page you get a very useful map showing what part of the airport you are located in and where other access points are.

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