August 4, 2010
In a big city and want to know what your cab fare will be before you even hail the taxi? Then check out Bing’s Taxi Fare Calculator.
Select the region for which you’re searching. Since city cabs are usually regulated, Bing has a good idea of what the charge per mile will be. Enter your starting point and destination and you will get a map of the quickest route, along with a itemized list of what you may be charged for (initial fee, milage, waiting time).
I tried out a few routes that I’ve taken before in a taxi, and the cost seems spot on. Give it a go and let me know how accurate the fares are!
Posted by Carol Margolis under Current Affairs |
July 14, 2010
There have been numerous articles about wi-fi in the sky. One thing they have in common is a belief that the reason the flying internet option hasn’t “taken off” so to speak is because of price. I’m not so sure about that. Besides price, there are many reasons why the airlines and providers like GoGo can’t fill the seats with happy internet users. Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under Current Affairs |
December 16, 2009
Obsession with our mobile phones, that is. Just observe the people around you the next time your flight is getting ready to take off. When the plane door closes and we need to turn off our phones, watch how many people keep on talking and checking their emails. I feel sorry for flight attendants. They often have to ask people several times to turn off their electronics, and have to listen to rude comments by passengers.
I sat next to a guy in first class last week and he never did turn off his phone. He set it to airplane mode instead, telling me that studies have shown that cell phones cause no interference for the pilots and their systems. Is this the time to be disputing studies, right before the all-important take-off? Personally, I’d rather not cause any unnecessary risk to the flight, whether real or not, so my phone is always off. (My husband will tell you that I always follow the rules and I get upset with him if his bag is not fully underneath his seat.)
Read more of this article »
Posted by Carol Margolis under General, Safety |
December 3, 2009
The results of a poll taken by Business Traveller magazine show that less than 1 in 5 of us are using a mobile boarding pass. Since this is poll taken by a business travel magazine, the results reflect what frequent fliers are doing rather than the general public. When adding in all fliers, it is probably less than 2% that are using mobile boarding passes.
In fact, I asked a TSA agent at the Orlando airport this week as to how many people come through his line using a mobile boarding pass. He estimates only 2 people per hour, so I was 50% of his mobile boarding pass customers in the 7am hour. Since so many travelers coming through MCO are family tourists, it is not surprising that the number in Orlando is low.
However, I see about the same results in Houston’s Intercontinental Airport where there are a lot of business travelers on Thursday and Friday evenings. The TSA agent in Houston I spoke with also said that very few mobile boarding passes come through. Until recently, the mobile boarding pass machines were usually off in Houston, and needed to be turned on when I came through with my phone’s boarding pass. Today the machines were actually on, so maybe business is picking up.
I personally love using a mobile boarding pass. I do not have to worry about printing a boarding pass ahead of time, or getting it from a check-in kiosk at the airport. At the airport, my iPhone always connects successfully to the link. I do try to have the boarding pass displayed before I get into the security line, as it takes a few seconds or more for my connection to the boarding pass to display.
I have seen that other travelers have had troubles with the scan of their mobile boarding pass, and they have gotten sent back to an agent for a paper boarding pass. The TSA agents I talked with said that it is primarily the boarding passes on a Blackberry that have a problem. They can only be sized in one of two ways on the Blackberry, and even the larger size may have problems being scanned. They said that the iPhone generally has no issues because the bar code can be set to an easy-to-scan large size. I have never had a problem on my iPhone, so I happily use my mobile boarding pass whenever I can.
I also show my mobile boarding pass when I enter an airline’s club room. The boarding pass is simply looked at and not scanned in these locations.
Posted by Carol Margolis under Travel |
