A Different Kind of Parking Lot

I've always enjoyed Scott McCartney's weekly column in the Wall Street Journal, but yesterday's was particularly good. His article, the "Parking Lot Where Pilots Sleep," describes a parking lot next to LAX where commuting crews are allowed to live in RVs for a monthly fee (and being able to prove that the RVs can actually move).

The article is a very good overview of the lives of commuting airline crews - one that many travelers might not know about. All airlines have crew bases, and they are quite often hubs or large focus cities. For example, you'll find US Airways bases in Philadelphia, Charlotte, and Phoenix. But that doesn't mean that all crew members live in cities - many commute for one reason or another. In his recent book, Capt. Sullenberger of US Airways Flight 1549 noted that he lived in California but is based in Charlotte. That's because he started out as a PSA pilot, but that airline was merged into US Airways. He didn't want to move, so just commutes to work by flying free on US Airways or other airlines. So many airline crews do what's done in LA or have a "crash pad" at the base that is shared by a few crewmembers to save on cost.

You can read the whole article here. It really is well-done.

Vegas Joins the Social Media Club

I read yesterday that Las Vegas Airport has launched official Facebook and Twitter pages. I'm very happy about this a it's a good sign that more large airports are starting to get involved in social media. So far, it's really been the smaller airports that are taking the lead here. Richmond Airport, for example, has 25 times more Twitter followers than Vegas, even though Vegas has 11 times more passengers! One possible reason for small airports being dominant in this area is that social media might take a bit less work when you have less passengers - so you would (hopefully) be dealing with less passenger comments. Second, smaller cities often use Twitter as part of a way to help advertise new service. Vegas has to fight a bit less to keep domestic nonstops than other cities, I think.

But I think the airport will find Twitter and Facebok really useful, though fortunately Vegas doesn't often have to deal with one of the best uses of social media for airports -  updates on bad winter weather. But social media is a great way to let travelers know about backups at security, the availability of parking, if there are any cancellations, and it can also be used to promote airport businesses.

Below you can see a couple of screenshots of what they've been saying. The airport has only been doing this for a couple of days, so the key here is that they keep up with it out a regular basis.

A Very Handy Tool From Jaunted

To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of the blog Jaunted. It's probably because I'm an airline geek - I love the nitty-gritty details of the industry while Jaunted is more geared to the casual traveler. But today I discovered a really fantastic tool - a constantly updated map of airport Wi-Fi. As one might expect, it has the most data for American airports but it has data for the entire world. This is very handy when planning a trip. For example, the map tells me that Wi-Fi is free in Philadelphia for college students like myself, which would make a layover there more bearable.

Anyway, take a look here.

Most in US are OK With Body Scanners

Yes, you read the title of that post correctly!

A new survey performed by Unisys found that 90% of respondents from the United Kingdom would be willing to use body scanners present at airports. What about across the pond? About two thirds of Americans are also willing to submit to body scans, and 57% are fine with using biometric data like fingerprints during security checks. Actually, only two of the countries surveyed, Mexico and Hong Kong, had only a minority support body scanners.

Meanwhile, 72% are willing to submit additional personal information ahead of time. That's already being done, really, with the TSA's new SecureFlight program that requires passengers to submit their name exactly how it is on their ID, as well as providing their date of birth and gender.

This move is not just to enhance security - it is also makes the watch list more accurate, helping those who unfortunately have names that are close to a terrorist's. For example, an old history teacher of mine has the same name as an IRA member, often resulting in extra hassles at the airport.

But anyway, this survey does show that while there has been plenty of vocal opposition to body scanners here in the States, most are willing to submit to these scans. The only hope now is that travelers are giving up some privacy for a good reason - actual enhanced security.

An Interesting Parking Promotion in Seattle

Last week, the Seattle Port Authority announced an interesting promotion for the Seattle Mariners' first homestand - half price at its Terminal Direct lot. What do airport parking and baseball have to do with each other? Well, one can take the light rail from the airport to the Stadium stop next to Safeco Field. The airport station is located on on the Central Link line, which just opened this past July. So the airport can grab some extra parking revenue from those going to the game, while promoting light rail usage.

Though, I've never been to Seattle, so haven't had any experience with the light rail system. A couple of commeters on a blog entry from the Seattle PI aren't convinced that half price makes the parking cost-effective, so your mileage may vary. If there are any Seattle locals reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Harrisburg’s Chicago Challenge

Harrisburg's airport has a unique challenge - attracting passengers. Of course, every airport needs to deal with that, but it's a bigger issue for Harrisburg because of its proximity to other airports. Baltimore is 70 miles away, Philadelphia is 84 miles from the airport, and both Washington airports (Dulles and National) are 94 miles away. All of these airports have plenty of nonstops and can be considered to be hubs in one way or another. And low-cost-carriers already have strong presences at Baltimore (it's a big Southwest focus city) and Philadelphia.

So Harrisburg must work to convince travelers to use them instead of one of the larger airports. So it has created a campaign focused on its code, MDT, which stands for the money, distance, and time saved. For money, the airport reports that its average fares have been shrinking (especially thanks to help from new service from AirTran), but it also notes that passengers need to look at the total travel expenses, not just airfare. For distance and time, the airline suggests how travelers in central Pennsylvania will save time by driving the shorter distance, and claims that the time spent driving more than compensates for having a connection when flying out of MDT versus a nonstop from Philadelphia. In fact, the airport even has a calculator page to show how passengers can save money by choosing MDT.

The airport recently expanded this promotion to really show how MDT can save travelers time. This week, American Eagle came to the airport after a 16-month absence, and is now flying three roundtrips to Chicago O'Hare. So the airport decided to have a "Chicago Challenge," giving two local radio personalities the opportunity to fly to the Windy City for the day. The airport gave each a set of tasks, and wanted to see who would get back home to Harrisburg first - the one who flew from MDT or the one who flew from PHL. Not surprisingly, the former won.

Anyway, kudos to Harrisburg for getting creative here. So far, they've been doing  a great job of attracting new service. Let's hope that will continue.

iPad – Does It Need Any Special Screening?

While to TSA is usually everybody's favorite agency to love to hate, I have to give them kudos this time for preemptively answering questions about the world's new favorite gadget, the iPad. With already hundreds of thousands sold, people are already bound to be traveling with it. So this begs the question, "What do I do with my iPad at security?" This question comes up because while the iPad isn't a laptop, it is a tablet  computer.  Currently travelers are required to remove their laptops from their cases for screening, except if they are using a TSA-approved laptop case.

Fortunately, the TSA is already answering that question for it. The agency appears to have learned that staying aware of the latest electronic devices can help avoid issues at checkpoints. For example, the MacBook air received some scrutiny by TSOs because it looks different on the inside compared to other laptops.

So what's the verdict on the iPad? Accroding to the TSA's official blog, it can stay in your bag. This includes all smaller electronic devices like Amazon's Kindle, or even netbooks. Only electronics larger than the standard laptop (unfortunately the TSA does not identify that magical size) need to be removed for screening.

So, kudos to the TSA for clearing this up quickly. But the big question is if policies will be properly enforced across the nation. From my own experiences, I feel that won't be the case.

Photo Credit: Yutaka Tsutano via Flickr

It’s Like “Weekend At Bernie’s,” But For Real

Well, this is one of the strangest travel stories I have seen in a long time. Two German women tried to check-in their elderly (91) relative for an easyJet flight from Liverpool to Berlin a few days ago. What?

Apparently, these two women, two children, and the aforementioned old relative decided to fly to the United Kingdom to visit with family over the Easter weekend. During the trip, the relative died on Good Friday, which is of course, unfortunate. And the man dying in another country adds another wrinkle - a fee needs to be paid for the body to be repatriated. And the family wanted to avoid that fee, hence trying to check-in a dead man for a flight on Saturday.

And, in full "Weekend at Bernie's" style, the two women placed sunglasses on the man and tried to convince others that he was sleeping, not dead, though the airport employee who pushed the man's wheelchair figured it out and called security.

I have to say, this is either the most morbid or hilarious story I've read all year. Maybe a combination of both. Read the whole news report here.

Logan Discounts Parking at Off-Site Lots

New England Cable News reports that Logan Airport is offering some deep discounts for parking at its Logan Express lots that are located in Braintree, Fraimingham, Peabody, and Woburn, all about 30-45 minutes away from the airport. From yesterday to the end of the month, parking from two to fourteen days will cost only $22. Considering the regular weekly rate is $66, that's a pretty darn good deal! But while the parking might be cheaper, travelers will still be paying the same fare for the bus to/from the airport. A roundtrip ticket costs $22 for an adult.

So why is Logan doing this? The NECN story seems to be pushing the idea that Logan wants to continue the trend of gaining passengers while other New England airports are seeing lower traffic. But I disagree and think the big factor here is parking capacity. While Thanksgiving is the busiest in terms of passenger traffic for the airport, April is busiest for parking, primarily due to school vacations. So I think this big goal of this promotion is to provide some relief for the parking that is available on-site.

If you're interested in trying out Logan Express, you can find more details here. Though, I still think the easiest way to get to Logan is with MBTA mass transit. The Silver Line (bus rapid transit) stops at each terminal, and a free shuttle bus is provided at the Airport stop on the Blue Line.

Long Beach Improvements Moving Along

The Long Beach Press-Telegram provides a quick update on the upgrades going on at Long Beach Airport, which have really gotten going this month. The current large task is the construction of a $49-million new parking garage that will provide additional capacity while reducing congestion.

But the most important upgrade, I think is a terminal expansion, which means that the current double-wide trailers utilized by JetBlue and other airlines will be gone over the next few years, a move that will make both airlines and their passengers very happy. In fact, the delays on airport upgrades have made JetBlue, the airport's biggest tenant, pretty angry.

On the green front, the airport will also be electrifying its parking stands, allowing aircraft to use the airport's own power by plugging then in. Currently, aircraft use their auxiliary power units, or APUs, to power things like air conditioning while the plane is on the ground. That's good for airlines because it cuts back on jet fuel usage, and therefore reduces fuel cost for airlines and the aircraft emissions in the community.

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