Most of us are familiar with the long wait at airports: your meetings ended and now you have nowhere to go but wait on a plane. In the old days, there wsn't much you could do, besides shopping. While many passengers consider this a good thing to go for shopping, for frequent travelrs waiting for your 4th longhaul in 2 weeks, the urge to buy stuff really dissapates.

Slowly the times begin to change for us frequent travellers. More and more airports are now considering our needs to do something usefull for our economy without spending a small fortune in tax free shopping. A couple of days ago I was in Ottawa airport: they offer free WiFi throughout the terminals, as well as specific seats with power outlets. Schiphol Amsterdam Airport recently allowed passengers to use free WiFi for an hour, which is a huge improvement over the $12/hour they used to charge for any use of WiFi. Trouble of Amsterdam is that power outlets are only very slihtly provided, so you reguraly have to depend on the ones placed at the oddest places for cleaning purposes. Seattle Airport also provides free WiFi throughout the airport since a year now, still completely depending on the odd power socket in the terminals placed there for the cleaning crews.

This progress is a very good sign. It allows us frequent travellers to do something usefull in our travel time without the need to pay a lot for WiFi access. In my opinion, the airport just has become a better place to work.

Posted on Sunday 27 of February, 2011 [15:50:00 UTC]

It had to happen sooner or later: I checked in on-line for a flight the next day but my printer is out of ink, so it refuses to print it. Annoying and it can be stressful to find a printer at the last minute. During check-in I discovered that Swiss used paperless checkin. They send you a SMS containing link to a digital boarding pass. No paper needed, just a phone with a webbrowser.

Initially the experience is quite good: when you are required to show your boarding pass, you just show your phone and the problem is solved. Both security and customs allow the digital boarding pass without any problems. There was one exception: Swiss themselves. Their airline counter couldn't scan the GSM screen, making them to write down the ticket number by hand. Not the best solution when you want to process a large volume of passengers.

Nonetheless as a concept it is a great solution: you get your ticket without the need to have a printer somewhere. Especially abroad internet is easier to get than a printer. So this might be the future of boaring passes.

Posted on Tuesday 19 of October, 2010 [22:47:22 UTC]

I travel a lot using mass transportation, be it trains be it planes, but in my daily trips I encounter a lot of people. I consider it one of the big benefits from my travelling about: you encounter a lot of people. It is also a moment where I can observe people's behaviour, which sometimes is puzzling.

One of the things of any kind of mass-transit is that when you get in or out, a lot of people generally have the same idea. In trains it is a bit easier than in planes, but the idea is the same: everybody has to be squeezed through a door, finds his/hers route and finally get a place to seat (if available). This always was a bit stressfull moment, because it invloves a lot of people in a small space all trying to move in a short time.

Recently, I discovered a worrying trend: some people are more occupied with their phone than with getting on with what they are doing. You probably know what I mean: people who are getting in or out, still being glued to their webbrowser or movie on their phone. They walk around a airport or trainstation without even looking away from their phone. Getting in is like watching for a second and back to the phone again. They don't mind the people around them that have a higher pace in life and get blocked.

To me and a lot of fellow passengers this kind of behaviour is frustrating: these people really slow down the line when getting out. People really should pay more attention to their environment instead of their phone....

Posted on Friday 09 of April, 2010 [23:05:48 UTC]

Most people recognize the firm words about turning off your phone. While there still might be a pretty lively debate among field experts about the effects of mobile phones on the electronics inside a plane, this is somthing you don't want to mess around with. It is a legal requirement and this is one of these occasions where you rather want to be safe than sorry.

Oddly enough, most people don't turn off their phone during take-off and landing. Personally I attribute this to unfamiliarity with the device: most people don't realize that simply pressing the power-button doesn't turn off the phone. What does happen is that the phone will enter a sleep-mode, which still can be active for GSM-signals. Even when phones are put into flight mode, they still might be harmfull during take-off and landing. To guarantee a safe take-off and landing, you really need to turn a phone off completely.

Oddly enough, the way to turn off a phone has become a defacto standard. By pressing the power button for a couple seconds (usually around 4 seconds) the phone will ask you to initiate a shutdown procedure. This will guarantee that your phone will not pose a threat to the plane while flying.

Posted on Monday 15 of March, 2010 [23:20:43 UTC]

I see a lot of airports and I do see some of them on a regular basis. During those visits you see the small changes that happen over the years. Sometimes its a revamped area, it might be a new restaurant. Small changes, but interesting. One of the changes at Seattle airport is the introduction of free WiFi. A great service that not many airports provide. To me it is great progress because it will allow me to work and hook up before there will be a longer black-out in communication. It makes life just that little bit easier when you are travelling. SEATAC did score some points there with me.

However, one issue is still not resolved: I need to have electricity to work as well. Airports are designed in a horrible way when it comes to working: there are no tables, no power plugs in convenient places, no nothing. That is annoying. It is a form of insensitivity that frustrates me. Even modern airports like Heathrow completely ignore my needs as a travelling business person. I like to work, and to (keep on) doing that throughout my travel I require electricity. People will seek it, making them do anything to get it, like this:

So airport management, please provide us with some power in a convenient way.

Posted on Saturday 20 of February, 2010 [01:33:08 UTC]