Planes
On planes… often…
United’s Magic Trays
@United has new coach trays that are coated with a material that has an amazing coefficient of friction. They are not sticky at all—there’s no adhesion effect—it is all friction. Even low surface energy plastics don’t slide on it at all.
The approximately 75-80° angle in the picture is the point at which the cup topples over itself. It isn’t adhered to the surface and it doesn’t appear to slide at all before toppling.
This would be the perfect coating for a smart phone pad in a car. I never managed to find out who made it.
Lufthansa Business Class
I’ve occasionally had to buy business on poorly planned Lufthansa intra-Europe flights. While Lufthansa long-haul premium seats are possibly the best in the business, on short-haul/intra-Europe flights, LH business class seats would seam a little mean in most carrier’s coach sections.
There is no difference between coach seats and business class, none at all. In business all middle seats are blocked out, but that isn’t that hard to find in coach. It is efficient to scale business, it involves only moving a rack-mounted divider that is the only obvious differentiation in the classes.
In both the seats are substandard to the amenities one usually expects, especially on a long haul flight:
– little padding on the seats
– cramped seat pitch (worse than econ +)
– typical economy seat width
– no in seat power (not even a usb port)
– no personalized IFE
Such limitations would be cheap in economy, but in business they are, perhaps we should say “disappointing.” Neither the economy nor the business class zone is going to leave the passenger well-rested (IST-FRA is a long enough flight that rest matters); such a flight is a grim endurance test for everyone. But it is very egalitarian in shared suffering, though not particularly egalitarian in pricing. And were LH business not priced competitively with other carrier’s business, the disparity in services wouldn’t seem quite so jarring.
LH is, of course, efficient and well organized, but every other airline I’ve flown that has a business class has far, far better business class, even those that can’t really manage the basics.
Windows Sucks
While I have run into development cases where windows was effectively required, any developer that builds from scratch on such a crappy foundation saddens me.
Make the world a more secure and reliable place: open source software on open source platforms just works better.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
USAir, not my favorite airline…
Carolyn and I were flying from LGA to DCA early this morning. I booked an award ticket through UAL on USAIR, but mine was a connecting flight through PHL as there wasn’t any availability on the direct for award tickets. On UAL this means you have a confirmed flight on the less optimal route but if there are seats at the gate the agent will get you to your destination the most efficient route available, which is also the lowest CO2 emission route and the lowest cost route for the airline: everybody wins.
I called US air the night before to verify that I could fly standby (no problem, I was told) and that there were seats (looks like plenty, I was told). No problemmo.
But not with US-Air. Not that they weren’t friendly enough, but as my booking class was “X” and they didn’t have any “X” seats left, they couldn’t book me even though there were plenty of open seats. I tried with the gate agent, the supervisor, all to no avail. I called UAL but they don’t have any visible inventory because US-Air doesn’t share it with them. US-Air tells me UAL has to get me into one of their open seats. UAL shows no open seats.
So I figure I’ll just go to the gate. Gate agents have special powers over last minute seating. I show them my ticket and they immediately hand it back “no, we already called United, they won’t put you on this flight.” I’m thinking there must be a note on my ticket – but no, apparently the counter had called the gate and specifically told them not to let me on the flight. I get on the phone with UAL and they tell me “I don’t understand why they won’t just accept your coupon.” No budging.
I thought maybe I’d take the shuttle over to JFK and fly direct to IAD, but Carolyn pointed out there was a UAL express flight from LGA-IAD. As I have to get back to IAD later in the day anyway, it is a better option (pick up a rental car and drive myself into DC and back out). UAL got me on it no problem. I bus myself over to the UAL counter, and a very cool and very knowledgeable agent at the counter tells me about his family in Italy and his recording business in Rome while he gets me a very good seat on the LGA-IAD shuttle and clears my upgrade and tickets me for tonight’s flight back to SFO. Friendly agents, premium seating, no hassle, expedited security line.
UAL win: USAir Fail.
Glad I’m not causing a transfer payment after all. Lesson: it is worth flying a less convenient route on UAL than a more convenient one on USAir.
Taking a risk…
Sushi from the JFK RCC int 1st club before a transcon. Hmmm…
Frankfurt Finally Gets Civilized
For a decade a I filled out complaint forms every week at United Red Carpet Clubs explaining that they were being short-sighted charging for internet service, a service they could provision for a few hundred dollars a month and would have drawn customers to them. They finally got around to fixing their stupid contract about the time airports started giving away wifi for free in the concourse, making the lounge the tier 2 place to be for a business traveler.
Finally, Frankfurt has realized the same thing. Oddly, Munich has been giving away access cards for years now, but Frankfurt was always a dead zone for an international traveler. today I was very pleased to see this slightly oddly worded greeting.
Cordless Mice?
Apparently the FAA has decided that cordless mice with their nanowatts of transmit power represent a risk to airplanes. Discussion forums contemplate that the FAA is concerned they could be used to trigger explosives in the hold (when they outlaw cordless mice, only outlaws will have cordless mice). Perhaps they found a cordless mouse that used a spark gap transmitter and so banned the whole class.
BTW, this is being posted via gogo inflight, the wireless radio on my laptop also uses 2.4ghz unregulated and could be 200mw and who knows who made it (same frequency band, 3 or 4 orders of magnitude more RF power).
While I’ve dealt with worse, I am on occasion reminded of just how awesome the air bureaucracy in this country really is.
Cell phone/changing room
This is totally awesome.
People actually used it too – a small, lockable, private room in a public place? Amazing! No “look at my feet” slot under the door either, no evidence of a camera in the room. There was a small desk and power for a laptop and if you were having a noisy conversation or needed to change you could lock yourself in.
It wasn’t completely soundproof, so not quite the unguarded utility closet of Six Feet Under, but still a very nice asset and productivity was enhanced by other people using it rather than entertaining me with their conversations.