Entries from December 1, 2007 - January 1, 2008
Brad
Late word from the BBC is that the strike planned for January 7 by workers at the UK’s largest airports (BAA-operated) has been averted. The two other “scheduled” strkes for the 14th and 17th are technically still on but are also expected to be cancelled as BAA and Unite union are expected to reach a resolution. The 24-hour strike would have resulted in a week-long cataclysm of delay and misery for anyone transiting through the UK.
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K.C. Summers of the Washington Post is, like me, a little dubious when it comes to the TripAdvisor site - where anyone can say anything as they rate hotels and the like. Check out the TripAdvisor ten funniest comments of 2007. Here’s my favorite:
“The neighborhood is filled with aggressive mimes, including one sitting on a toilet bowl (how creative). Room cards are changed for no reason and you cannot understand why you can’t get into your room. All in all it was a very unpleasant stay.”
Maybe any trip involving a mime encounter would be unpleasant. Quoth Summers on the TripAdvisor experience:
Words of wisdom from a nice Stupid American Tourist post about what to keep, what to scratch off that packing list.
I carried a lot of useless excess crap with me to Japan. It’s the sort of stuff you’ll see in a catalog, and think, “Wow, that looks really useful!” when in reality you may use it once the whole trip, and still end up lugging it all over the place.
“But it’s so small, and folds away nicely. It’ll hardly take up any space at all!” Sure, that one thing is small, thin, and light, but when you add 10 or 15 of its little friends together, they start to take up a lot of space and add a lot of weight.
Think logically, and take only what you absolutely know you’ll use repeatedly with you.
Transportation security agencies are talking, but is anyone listening?
In the thick of the holiday season when thousands are packed into Terminal One of Pearson International Airport, the buzz of their collective chatter is overpowered by a voice over the intercom, reminding travellers what they cannot pack in their carry-on luggage.
But the message seems to have become white noise to many passengers.
Each week, more than 600,000 containers of liquids or gels - one for each passenger passing through the airport - are confiscated, said Yves Ducharme, director of the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority. — Canada’s Globe & Mail
One confiscated item per passenger? Wow - I thought my kids had hard heads.
And - concerning the US 3-1-1 rule - here’s evidence of spotty enforcement and the trouble sometimes associated with unlabeled containers.
News of the imminent, widespread return of the personal item to carry-on travelers in the UK has been greatly exxagerated:
A plan to ease the one-piece cabin baggage restriction for airline passengers in January could lead to mass confusion, airport officials say.
The Department for Transport has said more than one piece will be allowed after 7 January, provided airports have purchased improved security scanners.
Yet airport operators say it is also up to airlines to decide if they want more cabin baggage on board flights. - BBC
Did you catch the poison pill? UK airports must have the new 3D-imaging x-ray scanners in place to allow the personal item. I’ll bet that means the change will come slowly to Heathrow and who-knows-when everywhere else. In the meantime assume that one bag really means ONE bag.
Do you know the difference between Cordura and ballistic nylon? What’s “denier”? This thread from the Tom Bihn forum is very helpful in explaining the mystery of common luggage fabrics. One point is made that I can back up from personal experience: Don’t just buy by the numbers. Good American-made 1050 ballistic nylon is much better than the supposedly heavier Asian “1680” stuff. One of my co-workers bought a 1680-weight laptop bag from Amazon and it was frayed in only a few months.