Occasional Observations

My week-long trip to the Pacific North-West of the US concludes with a trip out to Sequim (pron. "Squim") on Washington State's north coast - facing out over the Juan de Fuca over towards Victoria in Canada's British Columbia, and the San Juan islands. The windswept beach provided a great opportunity to test Microsoft's Photosynth - with a 360-degree panorama compiled from 200 individual images.

Although Photosynth did not manage a 100 percent "synthy" this time around, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Labels: tech, travel

After all the bad press, I wasn't looking forward to Terminal 5 at Heathrow on my return flight to Munich today - so not only was I pleasantly surprised (especially after the slooooow arrival process) but also I was actually quite impressed.

My passage through departures was as smooth as a Teddy Boy's flicknife action. Having checked in online, but not printed a boarding card, I was out of the Tube, up the elevator, and logged on to a machine within a minute - and then straight through Passport control (#1) and security without any hitches. In comparison to LHR T1 ... twice as good, at least.

There's a good selection of shops and it wasn't too far to the A-series gates - and when I got to the gate there was a good wifi connection ... so good work all round.

Labels: misc, travel

There is an airport, not too far from London, which specializes in budget flights to tourist destinations. It sucks for business travel, especially when you?re trying to get through the metal detectors etc, since there always seem to be the people who have never flown before (or even been to a big city?) who don?t realize that getting through the machines means removing your coat, your hat, your belt, the metal items in your pockets, etc.

But I digress. Arriving at said airport, where the lines are long for check-in, is enough to merit the mental ?Abandon hope, all ye who enter here? signs that I always seem to imagine at the entrance to the check-in hall. And let me share a little secret: with a rather well-known and brightly-colored airline, it?s absolutely possible, without fear of recrimination or even funny looks from other passengers (unless they?re within earshot), to pick the shortest line and check-in there. Regardless of your destination and what it says on the board above that check-in desk. So Malaga = Munich = Belfast = anywhere you?re going, as long as you actually have a ticket with that airline, that is.

Aha! You exclaim. Queuing is done only by those who are off the grid. Indeed, I agree ? however when one is travelling with more than a laptop and mobile charger and one night?s essentials, especially on the way back from a trade fair, when one?s bag is likely to be stuffed with Bling / CPS / Chotskys, then a bag is sometimes essential? and no, this airline doesn?t yet do bag-drop only desks.

So today, despite the monster teenagers-sitting-in-circles-on-the-floor-around-their-bags queues, I was in luck ? there was one check-in line that was shorter than the others. And lo and behold, it was even the ?one? for Munich, my destination. Somehow, that didn?t seem right. What really confused me , through, was the lady in front of me. She was going to Dublin, a destination that my airline de jour doesn?t actually serve ? on a different airline.

That, I didn?t get

Labels: odd, travel

Labels: rant, travel

"That's the peril of traveling with lots of gadgets!" said a colleague in response to the news that I'd mislaid my E61 mobile at Chicago O'Hare airport yesterday. Here's the back-fill, I was actually at the airport in good time ... in good time for the thunderstorm that swept off the plains and across the Mid-West, also delaying the departure of my plane from its previous destination (St Louis) to Chicago.

Three gate changes and three hours later we were finally ready to board. I'd been camped out on the wi-fi at the original gate, and had placed my phone on my jacket. When I grabbed my jacket the phone must have tumbled to the floor.

I didn't notice until 15 minutes later, on board, when I remembered I hadn't switched it off ... er, what phone would that be??? No phone - and too late to get off and find it. So I borrowed a phone from my friendly seat-mate and activated the E61's emergency lock feature that I'd set up, but never tried. We were about to taxi so there was no time to call the phone and ask the person who answered to hand it over ...

This is a simple and ingenious idea - on receipt of a keyword via SMS from any phone number, the phone automatically locks down, requiring PIN and lock code (they're different) to reactivate. It even goes into offline mode so it can't receive calls. This worked a treat since anyone calling my phone went straight to voicemail.

Called the American Airlines lost property office this morning and got voicemail ... explaining that they only call back for items that have been turned in. Oh no. Left a message anyway, in the vain hope that someone would call back. Ten minutes later (max) the callback came in. The phone was handed over, and by the time I got the call, they'd already made arrangements to hand it back to me when I fly back through Chicago in a few days. Now that's customer service!

So, whoever found the phone and handed it over - thank you. I hope to be able to do the same for you one day.

Labels: mobile, travel

As my dad likes to say: Time to spare, go by air. It seems to be getting worse every time I fly. LHR was almost unbearable: the longest queues I have ever seen there, and the slowest crawl through security. Now having an O'Mare at O'Hare ... with the aircraft for my flight not even here yet.

Labels: rant, travel