passengers

Work/Life: Say It Ain't So, Shoeless Joe

Owen Wild — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:59:31 -0400

"Shoeless" Joe Jackson got that nickname for taking off his shoes once in the second game of a doubleheader in 1908.

One hundred and one years later, TSA is still making Shoeless Joes of us all with the apparently immutable requirement that we remove our shoes when entering the airport's walk-through metal detector.

Work/Life: What Are Your Chances of Getting Bumped From Your Next Flight?

Owen Wild — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:05:26 -0400

Bumping is the nemesis of the business traveler. Leisure travelers often have a certain amount of latitude as to when they need to arrive at a destination. Not so with the road warrior, who is a clockwork captive. While it is highly unlikely that any flier will be bumped from a flight for which they are holding a printed boarding pass, that pass, in reality, is no guarantee that you'll board your plane.

Work/Life: What Are the Chances for a Passenger Bill of Rights?

Owen Wild — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:29:02 -0400

When the founding fathers endowed us with certain inalienable rights I would have hoped they had the foresight to assume these truths would have been self-evident even when sitting on an airplane.

Unfortunately, it seems like the folks who decide how long is too long to sit cooped up inside a plane on the tarmac never read the Bill of Rights. Following the high-profile flier imprisonment incidents of the past few years, it's clear that the policy which spells out travelers' rights once they cross the threshold of the jet way need to be formalized.

Work/Life: The Bus Also Rises

Owen Wild — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:51:22 -0400

Anne Marie Chaker of The Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent review recently of the new bus services that have come onto the scene to cater to business travelers. Her story includes a charming video of her trip to Baltimore on Greyhound.

She calls her article "Planes, Trains ... and Buses?" I think it is beside the point to note that in the movie John Candy indeed boards a bus to get home — along with taxi, plane, train, rental car, delivery truck, semi, and subway.

Work/Life: Is the Cutback on Business Travel Cutting Into Business?

Owen Wild — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:40:14 -0400

Business travel is the oil that lubricates the wheels of business. I've always felt that companies that cut back on travel for business are cutting back on their business's prospects. Now several surveys say that while technology can help, nothing really can take the place of face-to-face meetings.

Technology: Mobile Boarding Passes: Convenience, or Technology for Technology's Sake?

Robert Buckman — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:09:29 -0400

When new software is introduced, such as whiz-bang applications for mobile devices, technology reviewers tend to focus whether it is the latest, greatest, or coolest thing to hit the market. Less often do you see reviewers take a step back and ask the forest-for-the-trees question, i.e., Do we even need this technology? What's driving it? Is it fixing something that is not broken? The big one for me is, Is it going to be more trouble than it is worth?

Work/Life: Take My Breathe Away

Owen Wild — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:20:58 -0400

I'm sure it comes as no news that spending time in a sealed, pressurized aluminum tube at high altitude is probably not the most healthful thing you can do to your body. For that reason, one would think that fliers might have something to say about the quality of the air up there.

Work/Life: Let's Make Fixing the Air Traffic Control System a Priority

Owen Wild — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:01:30 -0400

It gets pretty cloudy in Juneau, Alaska. Constant overcast, plus the fact that the airport there is surrounded by mountains, has caused many flight delays and cancellations. Fifteen years ago Alaska Airlines (AA) came up with a better idea. The airline worked with the FAA and Boeing to design flight paths into the airport that curved instead of running in a straight line.

Work/Life: Carriers Need Wings. And Credibility, Too.

Owen Wild — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:46:51 -0400

Enough is enough.

On July 17, I blogged about Ryanair's announcement that it was mulling the idea of requiring passengers to pay to for potty privileges.

Ryanair has now topped itself. It now is floating the trial balloon that it can lower prices further by squishing more passengers into cabins made roomier by ripping out two of the three toilets. Frankly, I cannot imagine the condition of that single restroom. Nor can I imagine the waiting list for that restroom. They'll have to hand out deli numbers.

Work/Life: Back Up There

Owen Wild — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:22:31 -0400

Okay, I have a confession. For the past several months I have been a "virtual" road warrior. Like many of you I, too, have been affected by corporate travel restrictions. As a result, today I crossed the jetway threshold for the first time in a long time. Even with the intentional emphasis on hyperbole here — it was a very interesting experience.

Work/Life: All A-Twitter About Airborne Pay Potties

Owen Wild — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:07:21 -0400

Most travel experts think Ryanair's announcement that it is considering charging for bathroom access on the plane was purely a PR ploy. But I think it was more in the nature of a trial balloon.

Yes, Ryanair is justly regarded as a publicity hound; but it seems to me the carrier is merely carrying the ancillary revenue business model to its logical conclusion. Unfortunately, in this case their logic escapes me.

Work/Life: Carriers Continue to Cut Capacity

Owen Wild — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:54:26 -0400

With no sign of a recovery in airline travel, and with aviation gas costs ramping up, the major carriers are continuing to cut capacity, led by Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. What this indicates is that we are not out of the woods. The travel outlook is continuing to deteriorate, although several indicators say the downward trend is slowing.

Work/Life: Just Plane Kids

Owen Wild — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:53:42 -0400

Before you criticize someone you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. Yes, it's an old joke but I'm reminded of it when I fly with kids - whether the kids in the plane are mine or not. Unless you never see yourself being in the position of traveling with children, it is best to be careful what you say or do. You may one day be in those shoes.

Technology: Transparency in Pricing Means Technology in Practice

Robert Buckman — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 16:51:52 -0400

Fliers increasingly are warming up to the concept of choice, aka à la carte, meaning paying only for those services you want in the airport or on the plane. But going à la carte comprehensively, that is, across hundreds of airlines around the world, is not as easy as it seems. New real-time booking technology is required to make that a reality.

Technology: The Wild Green Yonder

Robert Buckman — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:54:05 -0400

In January, Continental Airlines became the first U.S. airline to test biofuel in a jet engine. The Boeing 737 used a B50 blend of jet-A, jatropha, and algae - so it was 50 percent conventional jet fuel and 50 percent bio-oil.

Work/Life: Whole-Body Scanners Aren't a Peep Show

Owen Wild — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:31:24 -0400

Whole-body scanners will replace metal detectors, in a little-noticed policy shift at the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). This means that instead of walking through the familiar security portals that stand next to the conveyor belts where your carry-ons, coats, and shoes are scanned, you will now enter a 9-foot-tall glass booth.

Work/Life: "Secure Flight" Takes to the Air in August

Owen Wild — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:32:00 -0400

Travelers will see an added layer of security when the TSA finishes implementing "Secure Flight" officially on August 15, 2009.

Travelers will also see an added security hurdle because Secure Flight requires that all of your identification match. Yes, that's right: match.

Work/Life: If You're a Hotel, the "AIG Effect" Is Real

Owen Wild — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:15:40 -0400

Reflecting concern at the thought of a road warrior indulging in luxury, corporate travel departments have cancelled an estimated $1 billion worth of industry conferences in the first two months of 2009.

Work/Life: Fleets Are Shrinking As Planes Are Mothballed

Owen Wild — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 22:07:15 -0400

The downturn in air traffic is leading to a major makeover in air carriers' fleets. Flight capacity demand among cargo and passenger carriers has deteriorated faster than expected, according to the IATA (International Air Transport Association).

Technology: When Is a Cola Not a Cola?

Robert Buckman — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:08:13 -0400

This month, Northwest Airlines' identity is merging with that of Delta Air Lines, starting with abandonment of the old Northwest uniforms. FoxBusiness.com reports that baggage counters, gates, and luggage claim areas are all being redone in Delta's flagship hues of red, white, and blue. But it will take until the end of next year to repaint all of Northwest's planes.

Work/Life: Business Travel and Social Media

Owen Wild — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:59:13 -0400

Do you really want people to know when you're not home? Or where you are going to be? You need to consider that if you are using online tools which circulate that level of detail to a social network.

Work/Life: NextGen Would Boost the Economy

Owen Wild — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:07:24 -0400

With all the talk about using taxpayer funds to stimulate economic growth, you'd have to think that someone in Washington would have remembered how important air travel is to a healthy economy.

Right now corporate America is rationing travel. Travel, in turn, is only getting more costly. But travel is integral to the growth of business, so you can only limit business travel so much in the short term before lack of business travel affects your business's long-term growth prospects.

Work/Life: No More Downtime

Owen Wild — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:53:44 -0400

The actual in-flight experience has had little to recommend to it since it stopped being a luxury characterized by attentive service and turned into a bus in the sky. Yes, that was sometime in the last century.

Technology: Destination Moon

Robert Buckman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:23:33 -0500

Travel technology is taking one small leap for mankind in this moon walk anniversary year. It is, after all, forty years this July 20 that the Armstrong and Aldrin set down on the moon. It is also the year that the private suborbital space tourism industry, highlighted by start-ups like Virgin Galactic, really ramps up.

Work/Life: As If Your Life Depended On It

Owen Wild — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:30:05 -0500

How frequently do you think about what you put on the line every time you travel? Probably not often, because doing anything as remarkable as zipping 30,000 feet into the stratosphere inside a metal tube with wings over and over again adapts the reality out of the experience.