November 10, 2010 I’m sure most of us at one point tracked a flight a relative or friend was on and watched the little airplane move along the map.
Well, in the light of the Carnival Splendor incident, why not track it as it’s towed to shore, or any other ship just about anywhere in the world.
(Frank II)
November 9, 2010 T.S.A. officials declined to discuss their checkpoint screening procedures, but sent an e-mail statement: “T.S.A. is a counterterrorism agency whose mission is to ensure the safety of the traveling public. To that end, T.S.A. deploys the latest technologies and implements comprehensive procedures that protect passengers while facilitating travel.”
In other words, “We have terrorism in our name so we can do any d#@* thing we want with you and your body.” We subjects should be grateful to the benevolent, blue-shirted despots that rule and protect us. What is freedom without safety?
(Brad)
Frank@OBOW
Beltwayspeak: “Backscatter Back-story”
White House Office of Science & Technology Policy says not to worry about the scanner safety, they’re doubleplus unbad. Heck, I’ll bet they might even prove to be beneficial….for the oncology industry anyway.
Frank@OBOW
Frank@OBOW
Frank@OBOW
Flight attendants push back:
According to a union email obtained by ABC15, it tells flight attendants if they opt out of using the body scanner through security and are required to undergo a pat-down to ask the pat-down be conducted in a private area with a witness.
“We don’t want them in uniform going through this enhanced screening where their private areas are being touched in public,” said Volpe. “They actually make contact with the genital area.”
Some passengers have told ABC15 they’ve already encountered flight delays due to crew members having problems with TSA employees. - ABC15
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The new searches are done with screeners’ hands sliding over a passenger’s body. However, the searches require screeners to touch passengers’ breasts and genitals. And that’s prompting some fliers and the American Civil Liberties Union to question the policy’s intrusiveness and effectiveness. - USA Today
My 69-year-old mother, a very infrequent flier, was traveling yesterday. As much as it pained me to do so I told her to make sure her pockets were empty and go through the scanner rather than suffer this indignity.
November 9, 2010 Fly with these three and your holiday inflight wi-fi is free:
The deal will allow passengers on AirTran, Delta and Virgin America to access Gogo Wi-Fi Internet service for free between Nov 20 and Jan. 2, 2011. When signing in, users will be greeted by an ad page sponsored by Google’s Chrome browser.
Gogo, which normally costs $12.95 a day for flights over three hours, operates only on domestic flights. But the three airlines have outfitted their entire domestic fleet with in-flight Wi-Fi equipment. And the promotion will be available on more than 700 planes and to about 15 million expected passengers during the holiday season, Google says. - USA Today
(Brad)
November 9, 2010 With compaints against TSA rising, the solution may be with us…..again.
http://www.bizjournals.com/orlando/news/2010/11/09/clear-relaunches-at-orlando-airport.html
(Frank II)
November 9, 2010 Warning: While the sign is in German, when read as English it may offend some.
(Frank II)
November 8, 2010 If the stories of mishandled, lost, broken or theft regarding checked bags hasn’t gotten you to carry-on, this just might:
http://www.gadling.com/2010/11/08/heathrow-airport-sorry-after-drenching-passenger-bags-in-raw-s/
(Frank II)
November 8, 2010 Today’s headlines are:
“World’s Pilots Reject Naked Body Scanners Over Radiation Danger, Privacy Breach”
(Brad)
Frank@OBOW
Mmmm….no you’re not. (Old news, still maddening)
November 8, 2010 Here’s the largish, bargain-priced convertible carry-on recently discussed in the Forum (thanks to Desmond):
(Brad)
November 8, 2010 With travel budgets being cut, and the general economy forcing others to spend less on travel, it’s possible that FF miles might be lost. Our friends at Gadling have come up with ten ways to prevent that from happening.
http://www.gadling.com/2010/11/08/ten-ways-to-prevent-your-frequent-flier-miles-from-disappearing/
(Frank II)
November 8, 2010
November 5, 2010 
(Brad)
November 5, 2010 That’s the headline. I call that bad press for the boys and girls in blue.
(Brad)
Frank@OBOW
Frank@OBOW
Joe Sharkey of the New York Times on the perils of “opting out.”
“Opt out! We got an opt out!” one bellowed about me in a tone that people in my desert neighborhood in Tucson usually reserve for declaring, “Rattlesnake!”
Other screeners took up the “Opt out!” shout. I was marched from the metal detector lane to one of those nearby whole-body imagers, ordered to take everything out of my pockets, remove my belt and hold my possessions up high. Then I was required to stand still while I received a rough pat-down by a man whose résumé, I suspected, included experience at a state prison.
“Hold your pants up!” he ordered me.
What did I do to deserve this? Well, as I approached the checkpoints, I had two choices. One was a familiar lane with the metal detector, so I put my bag on that. To my right was a separate lane dominated with what the Transportation Security Administration initially called “whole-body imagers” but has now labeled “advanced imaging technology” units. Critics, of course, call them strip-search machines. - read more
(Brad)
November 5, 2010 Like many other cards, the Chase British Airways Visa Card charged a 3% foreign transaction fee on all purchases made in currency other than U.S. dollars.
Effective this month, Chase is eliminating the fee on that particular card and joining a few select other cards, like Capitol One, who don’t charge it either.
(Frank II)
Frank@OBOW
They’re currently running a special for people applying for the card—50,000 miles good enough for one transatlantic trip to the UK and parts of western Europe. You get 25k miles for signing up, and an additional 25k miles after charging $2500 in the first 3 months. BA miles can also be used on most of the other Oneworld airlines as well.
(Frank II)
November 4, 2010 TSA is having a hard time filling part time positions in the Washington, D.C. area. So difficult that they’re using unique methods to recruit.
At first, they advertised on pizza delivery boxes. Now, they’re plastering gas stations with posters saying the jobs come with x-ray vision and benefits.
You’d think with high unemployment, they wouldn’t have so many openings. Starting TSO’s make between 27 and 43K. Is it the low salary or the job itself keeping the unemployed away?
Of course, TSA could always go the way of big business and outsource to another country.
(Frank II)
November 3, 2010 Skooba announces a new bag…just don’t think you have to wear a leisure suit with it.
(Press Release) Rochester, NY, November 2, 2010—Skooba Design has added a unique new “hybrid” travel/laptop duffel to its award-winning line of laptop bags and accessories. The company calls the all-new Weekend Warrior™ a first-of-its-kind tech/travel carry-on bag, ideally suited for leisure travel. The duffel is designed to eliminate the need to carry a separate laptop bag—especially for overnight or weekend trips—reducing the air travel “bag burden”.
The Weekend Warrior boasts over 2-dozen pockets and other storage spaces, starting with a cavernous main compartment, large enough to hold two days of casual clothing and travel necessities. Two huge side cargo pockets hold shoes, toiletries or other bulky items. But that’s where the similarity to any other duffel bag stops. Inside the main compartment is a padded laptop sleeve that fastens to the side wall and has security strap to hold the laptop in place. The duffel is available with either small (15-16” laptop) or large (17”) sleeve included, and the sleeve—with its own stowaway flap cover—can be removed and used on its own or in another bag or backpack.
Adding to the tech-friendly design of the duffel is a front organizer compartment with storage for every portable gadget and accessory imaginable. Stretchy pockets protect and secure compact camera, iPod/audio device, phone, chargers, adapters, cables, pens, pencils and more. There’s even a special, labeled slot for a USB thumb drive. Yet despite its generous capacity and substantial assortment of pockets and features, the Weekend Warrior tickles the scales at only 49 ounces.
According to Skooba’s Bryan Hammer, “many leisure travelers take their laptops and gadgets with them, but would prefer not to carry a separate laptop bag or traditional business case. The Weekend Warrior packs it all in one easy-traveling carry-on.” Hammer also points out that the challenging state of airline baggage restrictions make this all-in-one solution even more useful and desirable.
The duffel is one of many products in Skooba’s new Techlife™ collection—a unique assortment of casual/sporty bags for netbooks, iPads, laptops and gadgets of all kinds. The Techlife collection offers stylish, colorful, ultra-lightweight bags with highly-protective laptop/netbook/tablet compartments and plenty of pockets and organization features.
The Techlife series also includes messenger bags and neoprene skins for iPads and netbooks, a compact messenger bag designed for 13” MacBooks and similar-sized laptops, a slim zip-around laptop case, and the Digital Daypack® 2G laptop backpack in 2 sizes. All Techlife products are made of durable, water-resistant nylon twill in a variety of color combinations. The bags are designed to be ultra-lightweight and travel friendly. Skooba’s Hammer says, “We don’t know of any bags of comparable quality, features and capacity that weigh less.”
Techlife bags range from $19.95 to $124.95 suggested retail. Full specs at www.skoobadesign.com.
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(Turns out this is a pretty chunky bag at 24x12x12 — might not fit all sizers since it’s over the 45” limit of most airlines.)
(Brad)
Frank@OBOW
Gadlilng has a review of this bag:
http://www.gadling.com/2010/11/03/review-skooba-design-weekend-warrior-duffel-bag/
Personally, considering its size, I wouldn’t try to use it as a carry-on. Too big.
(Frank II)
November 3, 2010 American Airlines, Delta, and Air Canada are petitioning the TSA to allow passengers to “tag” their own checked luggage. In addition to printing your own boarding pass, the airlines want to let the customers also print out and affix their own bar coded luggage tags.
Currently, some foreign carriers allow passengers to do this but none in the U.S. The airlines claim it cuts down on time and cost. Really? After affixing the tag, the passenger still has to get on a line, albeit a dedicated one, so an airline agent can check your ID, scan the tag to make sure it’s correct, and put in on the conveyor belt. All they’re not doing is printing out and affixing the tag.
I’ll stick to my one carry-on bag. It makes life so much easier.
Airlines may test do-it-yourself traveler bag tagging
(Frank II)
November 2, 2010 10% off all ExOfficio orders for a limited time during their warehouse closure. Coupon code is CAS2010.
(Brad)
November 2, 2010 I knew the Tom Bihn Aeronaut was a great bag. Now it can put “photo model” on its resume:
Seems Allegiant Air is using this image on their bag sizers (Source: Tom Bihn blog)
(Brad)
November 2, 2010 It was inevitable and bound to happen. We knew the government would have some type of knee jerk reaction but I never thought it would go this far. Heathrow Airport was the first to implement and I’m sure TSA is close behind. Brace yourself. Here it is direct from Heathrow’s website:
In response to an attempted terrorist attack involving the concealment of explosives in printer cartridges, passengers are no longer permitted to carry any ink or toner cartridge over 500g in hand baggage.
Think about it. Fedex had their planes searched last week. Fedex owns Kinkos. A Conspiracy? You be the judge.
(Frank II)
Frank@OBOW
Laughing about no laughing matter with a UK spoof news website’s post titled “I think my printer is a terrorist”:
MI6, however, believe the terrorists have also developed a photocopier bomb and have warned against drunken attempts to photocopy your arse at this year’s office Christmas party.
Head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, said “We realise arse-photocopying is a staple part of British culture, and not doing it could be seen as giving victory to the terrorists.”
“But at least you’ll be able to enjoy your Christmas dinner with your genitals intact. - NEWSARSE
(Brad)
