Category Archives: travel

Where does DC want to go today?

Posted on December 16, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was playing with Kayak and found a feature that’s interesting to explore – a map of where people want to travel. You enter an airport and it will show you the top 25 searched for destinations from that airport. … Continue reading →

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Round and round the carousel goes; where your bag isn’t, the airline knows

Posted on September 27, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I hate to check bags. I hate the wait to see if the airline has lost my bag. And the wait to talk to the overworked agents who have to deal with grumpy customers. Because of the idiotic new “security” … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, terrorism, travel | Comments Off on Round and round the carousel goes; where your bag isn’t, the airline knows

The TSA’s big show – breeding insecurity

Posted on September 17, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I went through security at the airport in Dublin behind someone with a bottle of water. I didn’t even have to take off my shoes. On board the flight to Frankfurt, a Lufthansa flight attendant armed me with a metal … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, travel | 4 Comments

Using Caller ID to improve customer service

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

Whenever my cell phone rings, I know who’s calling. And I usually know what they’re calling about as soon as their picture (or name) appears on the display. I’d like to see companies do this for customer service. I ranted … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, customer service, travel | 1 Comment

Can you understand me now?

Posted on August 15, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was traveling a lot last week and ended up calling United frequently for flight information. They use a voice recognition system to provide that data. Horrible idea. In a previous job, I worked on speech recognition systems and know … Continue reading →

Posted in airlines, customer service, travel | 5 Comments

Delta answering questions before they’re asked

Posted on August 2, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I was stuck at Laguardia yesterday and had the opportunity to stare at the flight information display at the Delta gate. The monitors show a rotating array of information, including: Arrival time and origin of the next flight to that … Continue reading →

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Lighting the way to the throne

Posted on July 24, 2006 by Rakesh Agrawal

I stayed at the New York Hilton this weekend in one of their renovated guest rooms. One piece of technology in the room caught my eye: a sensor-activated light. You step out of bed and LEDs at floor level automatically … Continue reading →

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