Smalltalk with James Robertson

Someone at the FAA finally decided to look at the actual research, and not at some worry warts "feelings":

Last week, an FAA advisory committee recommended that airline passengers should be allowed to use smartphones, tablets and e-readers during takeoffs and landings. Now, it's added Wi-Fi use to that list.

With luck, that means I'll be able to read books on my iPad in peace as the plane takes off....

Tags: faa

Earlier this evening, I visited the Mall of America. It's impressively large - the Nickleodeon amusement park is in the middle, surrounded by the stores. I took a photo of that:

Tags: mall of america

Pretty stupid, as it turns out. I have pre-check status through my Platinum status on American Airlines. That means that within the bowels of TSA, I have a known traveler number, which means that I should be able to have pre-check regardless of what airline I travel on. Except....

• American doesn't have access to that number
• TSA says they can't provide it to me
• USAirways can't request it

In fact, USAirways tells me that I need to give them the number, which I can't get access to. If this isn't a modern day example of catch-22 in operation, I don't know what is.

Tags: tsa, rigidity

I was scheduled for a 9:15 PM flight last night, so I thought "I have platinum status, I'll go to DFW and see what I can get on earlier". I decided not to try the 5PM flight to DCA, since all they had left were middle seats in the back - the 6:45 to BWI sounded like a better idea. THis, as it happens, was a huge mistake. The 6:45 was oversold, and - even though I was first on the standby list - I didn't get on. Then absurdity began.

First, due to the bad weather in the midwest, some of the flight crew were late. They finally arrived, but then there was a mechanical issue... which dragged on, and on.. and on some more. We didn't leave until after midnight Dallas time, so I didn't get back to my house until learly 4 AM. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that we had scheduled a grocery delivery for 9 AM. I crawled out of bed, made coffee, checked my phone.... and found out that the delivery was delayed up to 5 hours.

I need a nap :)

I fly a lot these days, commuting to my job site in Dallas - I almost always fly American (since they have a hib in Dallas, it makes it easier to find direct flights). One of the reasons I like American is seatback power - they have it on most of their planes, and at most of the seats on those planes.

However - I think this is one of the things they are allowing to degrade during their time in bankruptcy. I've noticed the power not working in different seats on a number of planes, and this morning (I had the excitement of a 7:05 AM flight), the power was off on one whole side of the plane.

I hope this isn't a sign of them letting other, more important things slide...

We took a trip to West Virginia today - one of my wife's co-workers is getting married, and it's happening just across the MD border, way out on the panhandle. That sounded like a nice little getaway, before the huge, nasty thunderstorm. First, it was awful to drive through - driving rain, high winds, debris on the roads. Finally, we got past that, and could not find the hotel - Google was directing us out onto a private road. Fine - we stopped and asked - and after a bit more circling, discovered that the reason we missed the landmark (a huge Wal-Mart) was... no power. The hotel had no power either, and thus, no way to check us in (or issue keys). So.... off to town, where there's one other hotel.

That one was booked. Ok, off to Frostberg (some 20 miles north) to a Days Inn. Road closed, huge tree across it. At this point, we started wondering which sins we were being punished for :) We headed back to the hotel we had reservations in, figuring we could sleep in the van, hope the power came back, and maybe shower in the morning. My daughter went in to sit in the lobby, and we lucked out - the night manager remembered that he had left one room open after someone else decided they didn't want it, and we got in.

So here we are, in a room with no power, using glow sticks and my iPhone for light, and tossing this out using the phone's hotspot capability. Oh, and the shower has no flow power, so there's that, too :)

I suppose it's a sign of how jaded I've become by frequent travel - the flight I'm on as I write this (posted later, obviously) isn't giving me power at my seat (there's a plug, but it doesn't work). And it's a flight without WiFi. Yes, I know, that means I'm spoiled.....

When it rains travel annoyances, it pours. After a nice evening with my sister's family, I headed back to the hotel - and my key didbn't work. This isn't unusual; the electronic keys aren't all that reliable. I went downstairs, and the night clerk told me I had only reserved one night. Hmm - my hotwire reservation (and pre-payment) begged to differ. It got sorted out quickly enough, but after the endless saga of Monday's flight, I really didn't need more of that :)

It's going to be a tiring week, thanks to yesterday's travel awesome. It was a great flight - they boarded us, and just as the last people were sittingd own, they told us the plane was broken. Off we went, into a 3 hour delay. We left BWI just after 11 (which got us into Dallas after 1 AM). I finally got to the hotel after 2, and - gosh knows why - woke up a few minutes ago.

Is it too early for wine?

When you travel as much as I do, you're bound to hit bad weather every so often - and tonight I hit the jackpot. A line of storms diverted us to Houston for fuel, and then a second line kept us circling DFW for a bit. Then I had to wait in a long line at Avis - I hadn't updated my card with them, so even though I was on the "Preferred" board, I had to go talk to them.

One of those days....