Posted by: dylan555 | November 6, 2009

TSA Celebrity Treatment

I have not been posting here enough lately, but the TSA’s latest foul up with Brittney Spears should keep you amused. So apparently some liquids are ok if they’re frozen but not in big containers and so on and so forth.

While they’re busy clarifying and reclarifying, they still have not reacted to this excellent critique of their policies and practices.

Posted by: dylan555 | October 26, 2009

Recent Travel Observations

I could get into how the TSA is continuing to use poor logic to defend its inane policies but that’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Instead I thought I’d make a few observations from recent travel.  Let’s start with the good:

  • I recently stayed at the Good Hotel in San Francisco. The hotel is cheap, clean, and really kind of interesting. From the photo booth in the lobby to the environmental focus in the rooms, it was a nice place to spend a few days.
  • More and more taxis in NYC take credit cards. A little modern convenience in what used to be a cash only proposition.

The bad:

  • Despite what I’ve read, the calming of traffic around New York’s Times Square is a nightmare. It makes coming into the city harder due to redirected traffic and Times Square is more of a tourist nightmare than ever.
  • It appears that the Dallas airport (DFW) has signed an exclusive deal with Pepsi. I’m very glad that McDonald’s still offers Coca Cola, but the convenience stores should offer a wide variety of all food and drink. The airport shouldn’t be an opportunity to trap consumers into using your brand!
  • More airlines are offering WiFi. The look on passengers’ faces when they find out what it costs are great.

The ugly:

  • Ok, one shot at the TSA. They still have no clue what they’re doing. From rules being inconsistent and fluid from airport to airport, to long lines due to poor staffing they’ve become the worst part of travel.
  • Once again I’ve been vindicated for not flying Northwest. It’s going to come out that those pilots were at best incompetent and at worst asleep.

Travel has been picking up a little for me and beyond everyone charging more fees to try to make up for lost revenue, the decline in traffic has made the experience much more pleasant for me. What does everyone else think?

Posted by: dylan555 | September 23, 2009

Travel + Twitter = Twaller

Oddly, I had written and published a brief post on this and it vanished. The tags and categories were all there, but not the text…

So what do you get when you combine travel and Twitter? A new site called Twaller. The site posits that when on the road, maybe local strangers are better sources for where to go, what to see, where to eat, etc. than your existing followers and friends.

Mashable offers a little more detail here.

Has anyone out there tried it yet? Maybe I’ll sign up in advance of my next trip.

Posted by: dylan555 | September 1, 2009

New, Odd Flight Gear

If I hadn’t seen someone use one of these in the last month, I would have completely ignored this article, but like Practical Traveller I’m perplexed by the invention of Planesheets.

Planesheets (apparently endorsed by Tori Spelling on the Today Show, if that’s not a bad sign) are a piece of fabric designed to slip over an airline seat.  The benefit? According to the website they are personalization and cleanliness. From the Planesheets website:

PlaneSheets also offers an inexpensive, recyclable product that may either disposed of after the flight or washed and resused, if desired. PlaneSheets tranforms a tired,overused airline seat into a cozy, happy place.

Maybe it’s just me, but it would take a hell of a lot more than a colorful sheet to make me a) feel better about the amount of germs on a plane, b) make me feel cozy on a plane, and c) hold up the boarding process so I could slip it on. What surprises me too is that the manufacturers claim that this could be a one time use product.  What a waste!

PlanesheetI actually witnessed someone using one of these a few weeks ago (I believe the style pictures) and just didn’t get it. I’m sure it didn’t make the seat on our regional jet more comfortable or the recirculated air any cleaner.

Personally, I’d like to see someone make a better travel pillow or flight slippers that I could wear from security through my flight, making life a little easier or more comfortable.

Posted by: dylan555 | August 28, 2009

Does Congress Need to Mandate Carry On Sizes?

Congress is considering a bill to mandate carry on bag size AND provide personnel for inspecting carry on bags. Considering all the issues and problems faced by air passengers and the airline industry, is this really a needed piece of legislation?  Personally, I think several items are much more important, including:

  • A full Congressional review of the TSA and it’s lack of accountability
  • A passenger bill of rights to prevent airlines from kidnapping entire planes of people on a whim
  • Funding for airport and runway expansion
  • Funding for air traffic controller training and hiring

The last thing we need in this day and age is a federal employee measuring every carry on for approval. While there are many consumers who abuse the system, what about needed exceptions for emergencies, tight layovers, business people travelling with one of a kind equipment/samples/materials?

See more common sense complaints about this bill here.

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