Some interesting reads from the past few weeks:
- Top Car Dealer Says High Gas Prices Are Good for the U.S. Auto Industry (WSJ) — The CEO of AutoNation views high gas prices as just what we need to spur innovation on new technologies. After decades of convincing Americans that they should pay for size and power, he’s now trying to convince them that they should value fuel efficiency. That argument is made easier by $4 gas.
- Hotels upgrade their ‘no-stay’ lists (MSNBC) — Every frequent business traveler has hotels they’d never stay at again. I hated the Hyatt Rickey’s (now gone) and likely won’t be back to Sheraton Gateway Suites O’Hare. But hotels are also keeping a list of people they don’t want to see again. They’re using chainwide databases to blacklist problem customers who trash hotel rooms or constantly complain about service and ask for comps. I hope my complaint about $80 in erroneous minibar charges from the Westin Bellevue doesn’t land me on the list. It’s a great hotel otherwise.
- Exploring the neurochemistry of fairness (Ars Technica) — “It’s not fair!” is a common refrain from childhood. Apparently, as a species we have an innate sense of fairness. We do things against our own interests for a “fair” outcome. Participants were asked to play the Ultimatum Game, in which they were offered a percentage of a pool of money by another participant. If they agreed to take it, they’d get that percentage. If they didn’t agree, neither party got anything. The economically rational thing to do is take any percentage offered. Even 1% is better than nothing. That’s not how it played out. And the results could be changed by manipulating serotonin levels.
- In a Restaurant Row, Drive-Through Charity (New York Times) — One of the toughest things about visiting India is seeing the staggering amount of poverty throughout the country. The Times reports on “restaurants” where homeless sit in rows outside waiting for people to drive by and offer some money that can be used to purchase food. If someone comes the group goes inside and eats. via Chamath Palihapitiya
Google’s Panoramio has launched one of the most exciting advances in online pictures since flickr added geotagging. A new “Look around” feature shows you when pictures are available from other angles.
In the screenshot below, you can see the dome of the Taj Mahal highlighted. Clicking on that takes you to a picture of the dome. (Shown in red on the right.)
The UI is a bit confusing. For example, in the screenshot there is a blank image in the middle. I assume that means something, but I haven’t been able to figure out what. The same goes for the overall arrangement of thumbnails. Regardless, it’s a lot of fun to play with.
The feature is only available for sites with lots of pictures. Try the Brooklyn Bridge, Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Tower of London and the Ponte Rialto. I had an easier time finding places to explore in Europe than in the United States. (This could reflect the fact that Panoramio is based in Spain.)
Microsoft’s Live Labs has been demoing similar technology called Photosynth for more than a year, using images of the Basilica di San Marco. Photosynth offers a spectacular 3D overview. I’d love to see it out of the labs.
Until then, I’ll be playing with Panoramio. Check out their take on the Basilica.
Read more on Panoramio’s blog.
Disclosure: I work for a Microsoft subsidiary.
Some interesting reads from the past couple of weeks:
- The Airport Security Follies (New York Times blog) – Pilot Patrick Smith takes a look at the idiocy of our airport screening processes. Smith argues (and I fully agree) that airport security is a charade designed to persuade people that the government is doing something, when in reality most of those measures have zero impact on safety. Part of the reason we tolerate this is that those who are most impacted by this idiocy are a small fraction of the population: pilots, flight attendants and very frequent fliers. Even the media largely ignore it, despite the billions in lost productivity. (This piece didn’t run in the paper.)
When they do cover it, it’s for the theatrics: It never fails that when an idiotic measure is announced that the local TV news has a grandma who flies twice a year talking about how she’s willing to fly naked if that would improve security. The media love scare stories because they get people to watch. A CNN promo running this weekend intones “What if a hurricane hits, gas skyrockets to $10 a gallon and everything collapses?”
Comment #3 to the entry, from another pilot, is also worth reading. via Adam Lasnik
- So far, so good for Midway Airport’s new screening system (Chicago Tribune) – I was stuck in the metal detector line at SFO last week behind a guy who tried to go through wearing a bulky sweatshirt, a backpack and a baby. I’ve long wondered why airports don’t offer beginner, advanced and expert lanes. Chicago’s Midway now has security screening lines that uses ski resort-style lane designations to sort travelers. In theory, it would also benefit inexperienced travelers and families: “Shannon Spicer, who was traveling with her 2-year-old son, Liam, said she liked being able to take her time without other travelers breathing down her neck.” Marketplace’s Kai Ryssdal reports similar signs at Cincinnati’s airport aren’t working well: “The TSA agent at the checkpoint said the signs look nice but they don’t help much. Everybody, she said, thinks they’re experts.” At least there are still the elite security lines at hub airports.
- The Future (We Hope) of Journalism (Poynter Online) – Former Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll offers his take on the transition from lucrative virtual monopolies to rapidly shrinking competitors. Like many in the old media, Carroll takes potshots at bloggers: “Although blogs have contributed much to the national discussion, they offer only a rare flash of original reporting. For fresh information, the blogs remain deeply dependent on the old media, which they simultaneously deplore and utilize extensively.” Never mind that bloggers were instrumental in holding the old guard accountable in cases like Dan Rather’s erroneous National Guard story and the L.A. Times’ very similar fiasco about an assault on Tupac Shakur. Or that journalists frequently fill air time and ink by interviewing bloggers like Michelle Leder of footnoted.org. Or that the old media are “deeply dependent” on press releases and political operatives.
- Doing Business with the Semi-Permeable Corporation (Greg Cohn’s blog) – Blogs and social networks have made it much easier to reach out to key decision makers in large corporations. But they haven’t erased the rules of business. Yahoo’s Greg Cohn provides a look at the good and the bad of openness in a large public corporation.
The Honolulu Advertiser has done an absolutely terrific job with its saturation coverage of the abrupt shutdown of Aloha Airlines. The coverage is exactly what local papers should be doing on big local stories.
In addition to in-depth news stories, the coverage includes extensive photo galleries and videos. Relevant historical stories are highlighted. There are active reader forums as well as tips for travelers and a job search board with ideas for laid off employees.
Some interesting reads from the past couple of weeks:
- Hulu: Great Product, Still Screwed (Silicon Alley Insider) – The much-hyped video site from NBC and News Corp. is now out of beta. Hulu offers free access to full episodes from many NBC and Fox shows, plus a few free full-length movies. Hulu has decent quality video, is easy to navigate and does a good job of suggesting related content. (Hulu’s search feature can use a lot of help with its poor indexing and cryptic snippets like “Season 2 : Ep. 10″.) Despite all this, analyst Henry Blodget thinks Hulu will have a hard time making it due to constraints imposed on it by its corporate parents.
- Kara Visits Tellme (aka A Little Bit of Microsoft in Silicon Valley)! (All Things Digital) – Kara Swisher visited Tellme recently and talked to General Manager Mike McCue (my boss’ boss). The video offers a glimpse of life at Tellme. In another video, Mike talks about trends in speech recognition. (The videos didn’t work for me in Firefox; if you have trouble, try IE.)
- Slum Visits: Tourism or Voyeurism? (New York Times) – It’s not my idea of vacation, but apparently a new trend in tourism is organized tours of slums in cities like Mumbai and Rio. Are these tours exploiting the poor in the search for profit? That’s a good question. I was surprised how quickly organized tours of hurricane damage developed in New Orleans. I’ve been to New Orleans twice since Katrina and have refused to go on them.
- How to Deal With Layoffs and Buyouts (AAJA) – What’s glummer than a gathering of AOL employees at layoff time? A gathering of journalists discussing the future of their business. As newsrooms across the country rapidly contract, young and mid-career journalists face tough decisions on whether to continue to play musical chairs or get out of the business altogether. The Asian American Journalists Association held an informative discussion offering advice to journalists on how to cope in troubled times. Although much of the advice is specific to journalists, there is also solid financial advice for anyone facing layoffs.
“The Spirit of Pigcinnati,” Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Kentucky. Creative Commons image by flickr user richmanwisco.
USA Today reports that the government is wasting $110 million each year flying empty planes, another great example of Congressional pork. The “Essential” Air Service program provides substantial subsidies to regional airlines to fly routes that aren’t economically self sustaining. The subsidies sometimes provide $1,300 per passenger to save them a two hour drive.
Even the people paying the bills don’t like it:
The subsidy program has drawn steady criticism — namely from DOT administrators, who say it wastes money by providing what amounts to luxury travel to people within driving distance of a larger airport. But the subsidies have expanded in recent years, thanks to strong backing from Congress, airlines and airports.
…
“Clearly, what we’re doing now is not working because the list of cities getting the (subsidized) service is growing,” says Andrew Steinberg, the DOT’s assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs. “The goal here should be to get sustainable solutions where the marketplace provides service. Unless we change our approach, the cost will go up.”
I nearly rolled over in laughter at this line: “‘It helps the city’s image. It helps our possibilities of continuing to recruit Fortune 500 companies,’ Jackson [Tennessee] Mayor Jerry Gist says.” Um, yeah, that’s what is holding them back.
The story points out the incredible ROI on Congressional bribery lobbying: Mesa Airlines created a lobbying group for $837,000. It’s share of EAS subsidies increased from $6.3 million a year to $15.4 million. Mesa’s CEO calls it a “good investment.” I’ll say. I’d love those kind of returns.
Two other side effects of this wasteful spending are ignored: the effect on global warming and the effect on our air traffic control system.
Those empty planes have to land somewhere. That somewhere is usually a congested hub airport. It takes similar amounts of ATC resources to land a jumbo jet with 300 people as it does a regional jet with 2 people. Congress’ flying pigs unfairly hog our limited air travel resources.
via Robert Franklin
Since I wrote earlier about the difficulties I had using search engines to find deep dish pizza, this blog has become the number one Google result for the query “deep dish pizza at O’Hare.” In the interest of serving my valued readers, I conducted some on-the-ground research.
Although you can’t find the cheesy goodness at O’Hare, you can find it nearby at Gino’s East on Higgins. The adventurous can take the El for $4 roundtrip. (That’s what I did.) The less adventurous can take a cab. The sneaky can try boarding the shuttle bus to the Marriott O’Hare next door.
You should have 3 1/2 hours between flights if you want to do this by El. My gate-to-gate time, with minimal security lines, was just under 3 hours. You can cut that time by calling your order in and taking a cab. Here’s a photo of the menu. More pictures and a map are on flickr.
Directions by El:
- Follow the signs at the airport for “Trains to the City”
- Arrive at the El station under the airport
- Pay $4 for a fare card
- Take the El two stops to Cumberland
- Cross over the Damn Ryan toward the Marriott
- As you’re crossing the bridge, notice the Bearing Point building on the left; that’s where you’re headed
- Walk through the Marriott parking lot to Gino’s East
- Order beer and a pizza
Note that the Theatrical Security Agency has started extra screening of food and pie-like substances. Fortunately, they didn’t confiscate my leftovers. But that may depend on how hungry they are.
I’ve spent much of this year in airports and on airplanes. (Including 11 hours at O’Hare on Sunday for a fruitless trip.)
Over the years, I’ve developed strategies for coping with the hassles of air travel. I hope you don’t need any of them on your travels home, but just in case:
- It’s not about you. Don’t take flight cancellations or being involuntarily bumped personally. No one is out to get you. Running an airline is an incredibly hard business even on a good day. Add in miserable weather and high loads and a lot of people are going to be unhappy. As much as their decisions might inconvenience you, there’s usually (though not always) logic behind the decisions. Decisions take into account numerous factors including number of passengers inconvenienced, crew availability, availability of alternate flights and aircraft positioning.
- Life’s not fair. The airline business is a business. It’s not always first come, first served. If there’s a long standby list, the 100k mile traveler who walks up 5 minutes before they start clearing standbys will get the seat over someone who flies once a year on cheap tickets and has been waiting 45 minutes. Although the rules vary by airline, priority lists typically take into account things like frequent flier status, class of service, previous inconvenience, whether you are in a connecting city, fare paid and time of check in. At least three times this year, I’ve watched as airlines denied boarding to people who booked their tickets months earlier and checked in well ahead of time.
- OK, it’s a little about you. Despite these priority rules, gate agents do have some discretion to change your priority. If you’ve got a solid reason, it can’t hurt to ask. Customers who were bumped from previous flights sometimes get this kind of treatment.
- Always call the airline when your flight is canceled. Usually the gate agent will tell you go to the customer service desk for help. Don’t do it. At least not before you call the airline. Get on your cell phone with reservations and ask them for help. Ideally, you’ll do this while you’re walking toward customer service or standing in line. It’s a good idea to have the phone number in your speed dial so you don’t have to fumble for it.
- Look at the departure boards for other flights to your destination. If your flight is canceled, look to see which gate the next flight to your destination is going out from. If it’s in the next hour, high tail it to that gate and ask the agent to get on that flight. Again, be on your phone with reservations as you’re walking and standing in line. (A handsfree kit is great for this.) If your flight is a few hours away, chances are no one is working that flight yet and you’re better off in the customer service line.
- Look for an empty gate with an unoccupied agent. Gate agents can help you with other flights, but won’t do it if they’re busy running their own flight. Be polite, ask respectfully and you might save yourself a long wait in line.
- Be flexible. If you’re traveling to an area with multiple airports or airports within reasonable driving distance, consider taking flights there. If the change was the airline’s fault, they’ll usually pay to get you where you should’ve been. If it was weather or air-traffic control related, you’re on your own.
- Be nice. People want to help people who are nice to them. The fastest way to get an agent to not help you is to start making demands, threaten to sue or start swearing. I witnessed one passenger in Las Vegas call an agent a “bitch” under his breath as he walked away. She called the gate he was going to and told that agent about it.
- Call your friends. If you’re stuck and have a well-traveled friend, give them a call. I have a couple of people I can call when I get stuck to look up flight availability, hotels and other alternatives. Because they’re not dealing with dozens of other people, they can look at a wider range of options. Although they can’t rebook your flight, they can give you a good picture of what your choices are. With options in hand, you become a gate agent’s friend by making their job easier. If I’m already on your speed dial, feel free to call me when you’re stuck.
- If you have a really sticky problem, try FlyerTalk. FlyerTalk is the ultimate travel resource. It’s populated by ultra-frequent travelers. Many of them know more about airline reservations and ticketing than the typical reservations agent. Do a search to see if your problem is already covered. If it isn’t, pick the appropriate forum for your airline and post your question. Be sure you provide all the pertinent information, but don’t post things like confirmation numbers.
- Sign up for your airline’s text messaging service. Many airlines these days offer text message alerts. In normal travel, this will send you flight status information including gate assignments. As airlines automate their service recovery, they’re using text messages to communicate flight information. When United cancels a flight they can often rebook you automatically. Your new flight information gets sent to your cell phone. (This doesn’t work in the case of mass cancellations, but I’ve found it to be useful.)
- Don’t put too much stock in the flight status boards. When there is extreme weather and a lot of cancellations, the flight status boards are usually fiction. The times shown are best guesses and can change frequently. It’s important to know that they can also become earlier. This Sunday, I saw a flight go from a scheduled 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. back to an on time departure. It actually left at 11:00 p.m., so the people who relied on the 12:30 a.m. time missed it. If you leave the gate area, use your cell phone or laptop and check on the flight every 15 minutes or so.
- Keep your cell phone and laptop chargers in your carry on. If you suffer long delays, there’s a good chance you’ll run out of power. You might need these tools to help book your next flight. Because every gadget seemingly has its own style of connector, these are hard to come by in an airport. If you find that you are running out of power, look for a “power save” mode, which usually lets you eke out some more use by dimming the screen or throttling the processor.
- Keep a pair of headphones in your laptop bag. With a laptop, headphones and Wifi, you can amuse yourself while you wait for your next flight. I spent one recent delay watching crappy television at fox.com. It won’t make your delay any shorter, but it will feel like it.
I’ve been waiting at O’Hare now for five hours now. I still have at least three hours to go, assuming United doesn’t cancel my flight. My scheduled 5:45 p.m. flight is showing an estimated departure time of 10:33 p.m.
It’s been a windy day in the Windy City, with winds gusting up to 60 mph. This significantly reduces the number of flights that can take off and land.
As much as I wish it were otherwise, I know I’m not important to United today. Although they haven’t said so, it’s clear what they’re doing. They’re pushing the brunt of the delays and cancellations on to passengers headed to minor destinations or on flights with low loads. Flights to major cities are on time or have 1-2 hour delays. Flights like mine are delayed for hours.
It makes perfect sense. Why inconvenience 150 passengers when you can inconvenience just 50?
Update: United did indeed cancel my flight. With my options left to spending all day Christmas Eve trying to get on the sold out flights or taking a confirmed seat on Christmas Day, I ended up taking a flight back to Baltimore. 22 hours of travel to end up back where I started!
If the city you’re going to begins with P-Z, move the giant stocking out of the way.
