Reaction to over-reaction

From Peter Hitchens’ blog: 

As for the response to the attack on Glasgow airport, I absolutely fail to see why cancelling dozens of flights, detaining passengers on their grounded planes, and forcing thousands of wholly innocent people to queue in the rain for hours did any good at all. On the contrary, it greatly increased the disruption caused by the attack. This is just trying to look effective, long after the event.

The same goes for the restrictions on vehicles approaching airports, introduced once more too late to do any good. Had it really never occurred to anyone before that airports might be targets, and that suicide bombers might drive up to them in cars? Well, of course it had.  It was a matter of proportion. It just hadn’t seemed worthwhile to do much about it, any more than most of us look up as we step out of our front doors each morning, to check that an eagle is not about to drop a tortoise on our heads.

While many readers will find themselves on the opposite end of the the political spectrum from Mr. Hitchens, it’s hard to argue with his logic here.   

Heathrow T4 evacuated

Heathrow’s Terminal 4 has been evacuated due to a suspect bag today, according to Reuters:

“In response to a suspect bag in Terminal 4, secondary searches are now being carried out on departing passengers,” BAA, which manages the airport, said in a statement.

“Contingency plans have now been activated,” it said. “We are working with the police to bring a swift resolution to the incident.”

A Reuters witness at the airport said the whole of the departure area of Terminal 4 had been evacuated and passengers were being told to go to the arrivals section.

Raise a pint to the baggage-handling hero

Who is John Smeaton? Only the toast of Scotland after helping police wrestle the airport carbombers who nearly turned the Glasgow airport into an inferno Saturday. He’s the subject of a fawning tribute website (which is a little hard to follow if you’re not Scottish) and worldwide media attention. You may never view baggage handlers in quite the same light again:

“As thousands of Glaswegians queued, moaned and sneakily sipped Buckfast on a rainy Saturday afternoon, one man stood vigilant outside the airport terminal. Baggage supervisor, hero, smoker. John Smeaton.

Little did he know, as he happily dragged on his fag, that two crazed al-Qaeda operatives were preparing to meet their maker. But they didn’t meet their maker. Instead they met BAA’s answer to Jack Bauer.

As the Jeep’s engine revved and the passenger started chucking the petrol containers out the windows like he was Santa in Shettleston, one man stepped in to help The Law take control.”

Don’t you love the Scots? The Scots love Smeaton. They’re campaigning to buy a 1000 pints of ale in his honor at the local airport bar. Our pint of Guinness is raised to ye John, with thanks that the traveler’s help often comes from the strangest places.

The BBC has a good story as well - fully in the Queen’s English. And click here for a selection of youtube videos.

Beat the lines with intelligence

From CNNmoney.com:

Many large airports have additional screening points that, while a little out of the way, more than make up for the inconvenience by being rarely used.

Log on to the Transportation Security Administration’s Web site, which lists security checkpoints at every U.S. airport and publishes average wait times by the hour at waittime.tsa.dhs.gov.

…At airports with one central security checkpoint (such as Denver), the shorter lines are usually the ones at the outer edges, away from where most of the traffic is funneled. And airports with hotels attached, such as Detroit Metro (the Westin) or Dallas/Fort Worth (the Hyatt), often have a separate security entrance for hotel guests, but anyone can use it.

Check out k-em’s comment below, which bears out the value of this tip…

Serenity? Stuff Marshmallows in your ears

I understand; you don’t want to spend a $100 (or more) for fancy noise-canceling headphones to make that next flight more serene. You’ll lose them in two months anyway, and serenity is important — but not $100 worth of important. JVC’s Marshmallow earphones are an appealing low-cost alternative for the traveler who just wants to block out a little noise and pipe in a little music which sounds pretty good. These earphones — which will work with any airplane jack, iPod, CD or MP3 player — block the noise with their soft, conformable earpieces (hence - Marshmallow) and deliver pretty good sound and bass response — if you shove them in far enough. They are comfortable, too. Mine were very pleasant on a couple of recent trans-Atlantic flights. Here’s a positive review of these ‘phones (which are available in stores and online from $10-$20) by someone who knows a lot more about audio than I do.

Celeb chef prefers Big Macs, one bag

Celebrity chef and London restauranteur Marco Pierre White tells The Times that airline food is so bad he prefers McDonalds. Lack of fresh ingredients is the culprit according to White. And White is a onebagger:

“I have one little bag and if I need anything, I’ll buy it out there. I can’t stand the fact that you have to wait at the carousel for your bag. If I’m in the baggage hall, my luggage is always the last to come out. You pay for business class, but it doesn’t guarantee that your bag will come any quicker. I think that’s a real flaw in the system.”

So, stuff a Quarter Pounder into that carryon and fly like the rich and famous. 

UK incidents mean more air marshals

The US has stepped up security and added armed air marshals on flights to and from the UK in the wake of recent terror attacks acoording to the Financial Times:

‘Michael Chertoff, homeland security secretary, said: “Going forward we will be doing some elevated air marshal work and some other activities with res­pect to UK travel.” He said security would be increased at mass transit locations, ahead of the July 4 holiday.’

Obviously, travelers should be ready for anything — delay- and security-wise — if flying to or through the UK in the near future. One has to wonder if recent events will postpone the scrappng of the UK one-bag carry-on rule which was reported last week. The BAA may be reluctant to take any measure that might be seen as a relaxing of security at the moment.

Wheel wars, how we roll

“Rolling briefcases are one of those contradictory things,” said a Tumi spokeswoman who didn’t want her name attached to the words she said next. “They are hideous,” she said, adding, “our customers tell us they can’t live without them.” - The New York Times

What a terrific story on rolling briefcases - and by extension, suitcases. This is a must read. Another quote:

“The rolling briefcase,” Mr. Lopata continued, “is a symptom of a much bigger problem. Ever notice that the most efficient people are the ones with the least amount of stuff?

Yes! And, this is very interesting:

The American Medical Association warns that carrying more than 10 percent of your body weight can lead to injury, and the overnight appearance of low back pain led me to weigh my own workbag a few summers ago (back then, it was a satchel slung over one shoulder). It was about 25 pounds.

That’s why you should travel (and pack) very light. I weigh 160 lbs. and 16 pounds is the upper limit of comfort for my shoulder. Maybe there’s something to the 10-percent rule. Could be an excuse to gain some weight though…

Read the entire story here. 

Getting tipsy

The Washington Post harvests some neat travel tips from an airline website but those contributed by their readers were better still. A sampling:

•  Especially for men - carry an (empty) clear ziplock bag in your pocket. When emptying pockets of coins, keys, wallet, cellphones, wrist-watch, rings, etc for the X-ray - dump all into the ziplock bag. Eliminates standing there at other end of the X-ray fishing coins and other small items out of the little provided buckets/bins - just grab your zip-lock bag out of the bucket and off you go. (ed. - I might add, remove your belt before the security checkpoint and stow it in an outer pocket of your carryon or inside your personal bag.)
  

• Don’t assume that other countries follow the U.S. standard for passenger screening, like carrying liquids 4 oz or smaller  (ed. - 3 ounces actually) bottles packaged in ziploc. They chucked mine in the trash in Berlin’s airport, saying they have their own standards for protecting their planes. They also gave every passenger a good frisking, which TSA agents have told me in this country they are politically unable to do…

• Let the people that have the max size allowed carry on bag put their bag in the above bin before you try to squeeze by them in the aisle. If you want to get on the plane before me, get to the airport earlier…My flights are less then an hour, I don’t check bags because once I waited longer for my bag then my entire flight.

 OBOW welcomes any and all reader tips. There is wisdom in a multitude of counselors.

Jet Blues - hope they brought something to read...

A 2 ½-hour JetBlue Airways flight bound from Fort Lauderdale to New York on Wednesday turned into a 25-hour odyssey that finally ended Thursday afternoon, as a chain of problems left 150 passengers staggered by the mind-boggling delay.

- The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports on the flight from (or to) hell. 

UK lifting one-bag limit?

The one carryon/no personal item luggage rule that has plagued travelers transiting through the United Kingdom may be on the way out, according to The Times of London:

British Airways’ chief executive Willie Walsh believes the one-bag restriction on hand luggage is to be lifted within weeks.

In a speech yesterday morning to BritishAmerican Business Inc, an organisation that encourages trade across the Atlantic, Walsh said that the current limits on baggage are ineffective. “To be effective, security has to be credible. The truth is that the UK’s current one-bag rule is not credible. If it were felt to be a worthwhile security measure, it would be in force here in the US – and in the rest of Europe. It is not.”

“We recognise how irritating it is for people flying from the US, having carried on two items of security-cleared luggage at their home airport, to be told at Heathrow that they must check one item into the hold if they want to catch a connecting flight.”

Wow, a rare outbreak of common sense and reason! This is the biggest news for the carry-on/one-bag traveler since the liquid ban. My fear was that the “no personal item” rule would spread to other countries. Thankfully, this won’t be the case - for now.

An Element of Light Travel Style

William Strunk, Jr., author of the writing manual The Elements of Style, used to tell his students “Omit needless words! Omit needless words!” Strunk stressed economy of language; he said every word and phrase must pull its weight, pay its way. Similarly, the light traveler is well advised to “Omit needless stuff! Omit needless stuff!” Need - now there’s a weighty word.  What do we need? What can we edit? What can we leave behind? Packing stuff we need is not the same thing as packing everything we might need. We may live out of one suitcase, but we shouldn’t try to pack our entire life into that suitcase. Leave room for chance. Heck, get crazy — discover a new shampoo! Buy an umbrella in another country. Run out of underwear…just for fun.

Helpful hyperlinks

Doug Dyment of onebag.com has kindly added OBOW to his travel links page which is not to be missed by the serious traveler.  His travel products suppliers page is also excellent.

Flying monkeys & customer service casualties

An airline consultant says that bad service, long delays, and cramped cabins won’t stop passengers from buying air travel on price:

“It doesn’t change the fact that consumers have the attention span of a monkey,” Boyd said. “The next time they go to Fort Lauderdale, they’re going to book whatever seat is the cheapest.”

This story explains what has become obvious to air travelers: Airlines are now profitable because they’re cramming more passengers into fewer planes on tighter schedules. And the “self-loading freight” finds itself all to often in the razor-thin margin of error. Read the Reuters story here. 

Tempest in a todder's cup

Most have now heard the story of the poor mother who was hassled recently over her toddler’s sippy cup at a TSA checkpoint at Washington’s Reagan National Airport. Much was made by the blogosphere of this “incident” but the TSA’s video seems to prove that she was the one who lost it. She does not appear to have been mistreated. This brings up an important point: While many of the airport security measures are ridiculous, the TSA is not always wrong. And their employees are not evil; they are human — which means some are better than others and none of them are perfect. No matter how ridiculous the security procedures are, the fact remains that being polite, patient, and cooperative is the best way to get through. Write your congressman if you don’t like the TSA, but be nice to their employees if at all possible.

Warm weather wooly ones

The warm weather traveler would do well to consider wool socks for four-season use. Even in the summer mid- to lightweight wool socks provide an excellent combination of durability, blister prevention, natural odor protection, and comfort. This is something most hikers, bikers, and runners already know. The key is wool’s moisture wicking qualities means you feet stay drier, which helps prevent blisters. I did a June trip where I walked about ten times more than normal without a single blister. But aren’t they hot? Not in my experience, but as with all travel clothing you should test your gear before you go — under similar conditions if possible. Socks designated as “light hikers” are usually appropriate for summer.  I find that about three pairs of wool socks will get me through a trip of any length. And if you like to look snazzy, Smartwool makes some really cool color combinations.

Review news & stuff on the way

Within in a week I’ll receive two interesting bags for evaluation. One is the elusive MEI Voyageur. This convertible carry-on pack is the Unicorn of the luggage world. Everyone’s heard of it (thanks to onebag.com but most people have never seen one and don’t know where to find it since the company that makes it has a minimal web presence. From Tom Bihn is coming the Aeronaut with a slew of accessories. We’ll check out the hip and shapely ‘Naut in the next three weeks.

On the review front, the folks at Red Oxx have been very kind, reprinting my Air Boss review with these comments:

“Wow! We don’t think we could have written a more complimentary and brutally honest review if we tried. This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We’ll certainly take the criticisms to heart and do some “product development.” Thanks again, One Bag, One World has our travel philosophy to a T.”

Actually my criticisms were more like suggestions, and I strive for honesty without the brutality… A side note to the Air Boss review: I hadn’t been off the the airplane 30 seconds at Heathrow before I ran into another guy with an Air Boss. He professed to be very pleased with the Boss. He was only a little weirded out by the fact that I wanted to take his picture.

The inevitability of Heathrow

“The depressing thing is the relentless predictability of it all. The interminable delays at security. The shuffling crowds in search of somewhere to sit as yet another flight is delayed. Worst, when you eventually escape you know the reprieve is only temporary. You will soon be flying back to broken travelators, long queues at immigration and mayhem in baggage reclaim. Welcome to Heathrow.” — The Financial Times commiserates with the legions of the miserable at London’s Heathrow. LHR can certainly be rough but the O’Hare/United combination can be even worse in my experience.

More legroom, mile squeezing for pond crossers

Roger Collis of the IHT has en excellent article which reviews the services of three air travel experts who specialize in trans-Atlantic carriers. For a premium they provide inside information on fares, upgrades, and creature comfort for pond crossers.

Carrying on with an all-American trio

There are three great American companies who still make quality bags one at a time. Red Oxx, Tom Bihn, and Tough Traveler are about as different as can be, but for around $200 each of them will sell you a quality hand-made carry-on bag with a real lifetime warranty. And chances are, you could call any of them and have the owner on the phone in a couple of minutes. I’ve reviewed the Red Oxx Air Boss and hope to review Tom Bihn’s Aeronaut and Tough Traveler’s TriZip or BiZip soon. No one design will suit every user, but I’m confident that one of these companies has the bag for you - if you’re serious about light travel.

About the Aeronaut: Some reviews from The Gadgeteer, Imago Metrics, and khemani.com

Doug Dyment of onebag.com loves the Tough Traveler (and suggested improvements which were implemented) and helped design the Air Boss!

A note: All of these bags are at or near maximum legal carryon dimensions (45” combined). This size may actually prove too big for you if you’re an ultra-light traveler. There is a dearth of slightly undersized carryons.