Posted by Seth on April 22, 2010 under News | 
Back in December drug maker Cephalon was anxiously awaiting an expected approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to permit their drug Nuvigil to be prescribed to treat jetlag associated with east-bound travel. They were thwarted then, with the FDA choosing to delay a ruling by three months. Well, the new deadline came and went and the FDA still has not issued a final ruling on the drug. Even more concerning for the manufacturer is that such an approval still seems a bit of a ways off.
The FDA most recently issued a complete response letter indicating that the the new indication would not be approved at this time. The basis for the delay is that the FDA is not quite sure that the results of the trial as “robust” enough statistically to show a true benefit versus a placebo. The good news is that the Agency didn’t outright deny the application. The decision to offer the letter instead permits the company and the Agency to discuss further before a final ruling is issued.
I’m actually not all that surprised by this move from the FDA. I’d tend to agree that the questionnaires used in the trial were, well, lacking in many ways. But I didn’t design the study and I’m not experienced in clinical drug trials so what do I know.
No word yet on an expected date for any future announcements on the trial.
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Posted by Seth on April 22, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Dear woman at JFK T7 this morning:
Thank you for coming back at the very last minute and claiming the random black carry-on bag that had been sitting unattended near the TSA lines. I was particularly impressed with the remorse and fear you showed to the Port Authority PD officer who was busy roping off the area and moving people away from the bag. But next time, don’t wander off from the bag for 10 minutes. That really isn’t cool.
To the TSA folks, thanks for mostly just standing there and staring at the bag and not dumping the terminal. I’m quite happy that I didn’t have to miss my flight.
The whole incident does raise an interesting point, though. Having a bunch of people just standing around 15 feet from a potential danger isn’t really all that helpful. Better than 5 feet, I suppose, but still not great. Then again, odds of such a scenario actually playing out are low enough that I don’t mind at all that we didn’t all have to clear the building.
Posted by Seth on April 19, 2010 under News |
JetBlue appears poised to announce the launch of service between Bradley Airport near Hartford, CT and destinations in Florida, including Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando. The service is expected to launch in mid-November. The carrier has not made the announcement official yet but there have been reports that such service was under consideration and early on Saturday morning the new routes were briefly displayed on www.Jetblue.com. Also, the airline has a ferry flight scheduled to depart JFK for Bradley this afternoon, likely for the announcement. Service is expected to be twice daily to each destination with connections onward to the Caribbean and Latin America based on the schedules from the website.
Always good to see new service starting up. Hopefully it is successful.
UPDATE (3pm EDT 19 April): Now official based on the press release from JetBlue. Two aircraft involved with an alternating routing (one goes BDL-FLL-BDL-MCO-BDL and the other does MCO first and then FLL) based on the schedules.
Posted by Seth on April 18, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Booking the trip up to Maine for work this weekend there were not a whole lot of affordable options for flights home. The only thing that was at all reasonable was the 7pm flight back down to JFK. Not a huge deal, as we planned on doing some work on Saturday anyways. Well the work on Friday went really well and the delicious dinner (along with the couple bottles of wine) pretty much meant we weren’t working on Saturday. With nothing left to do – and miserable weather in Portland – it was time to try for the earlier flight home.
First step: Check the websites. The airline wasn’t selling seats and the inventory check suggested there was nothing available. Probably not a good sign.
Second step: Call the airline. On the phone the agent was a bit more optimistic, though in retrospect she was probably just more ignorant. She insisted that there were seats available and that there was a decent chance of making it on the early flight.
Third step: Ask at the counter. The agents put us on the list (after a bit of consulting with the guide for the correct commands) and then informed us that there was almost no chance of it actually working out. The flight was full and they didn’t expect that we’d clear.
They were correct.
So we didn’t get the early flight home. Not too big a deal as we found a bar to hang out at and pass the time. But the way in which we didn’t make the flight was a bit strange. As they were wrapping up boarding the agents were looking at their computers and only showed 99 passengers boarded. That should have meant one empty seat on the plane. But two different agents walked down the jetway to confirm that every seat was occupied. Who was the mystery woman in 21A? Finally one of the gate agents found the missing boarding pass so they closed the plane door and sent the folks on to New York City.
But they still couldn’t find that passenger on the flight manifest. They searched and searched and eventually one of them figured it out. The passenger was actually booked on the same flight we were, the later flight. She managed to get on the plane with that boarding pass and fly on the earlier flight without anyone noticing that it was the wrong flight until it was too late. Whoopsie.
I’m not all that upset about it in the end. There was only one seat and two of us. Plus, the beers as the Sea Dog Brewing Company bar just outside the airport were pretty delicious. But there were definitely shenanigans at play, preventing the upgrade list from being processed correctly. That’s never a good thing.
Posted by Seth on April 16, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I love lists, travel lists particularly. The fact that I just crossed Idaho off my US states visited list is exciting for me. But there are bigger and better lists out there, including one at www.MostTraveledPeople.com that covers states, provinces and countries to the tune of 872 possible places to cross off the list. Sure, the list is arbitrary in many ways. Why is Sudan split into three regions while Malta doesn’t have three entries for each of its islands, for example? But any list is going to have such issues. As best as I can tell the list at MTP is the most detailed of its type on the internet. The level to which it identifies states, provinces, districts, prefectures and regions is on the edge of alarming – and annoying – in its specificity.
On a recent flight from Phoenix to Chicago I happened to sit next to a guy who is nearing 600 of the destinations on the list. He’s in the top 10 overall on the site and has some great stories. He countered my tale of a day-trip to Hamburg with a similar story except that his involved driving to a resort 20km north of town, over-nighting and then taking a helicopter from the nearby heliport to Helgoland just off the coast (there is a ferry for folks on a budget) just to pick up another check-mark on the map. All in all some great conversation to pass the time on the flight.
It did bring up the discussion of what it means to actually have traveled somewhere. Does sitting in the airport count? What if you go outside the airport and come right back in? Or do you have to do something more? I’m of the camp that says you have to actually do something, not just be passing through, but that is certainly up for debate. And with some places having only once weekly service from a cargo ship that also rents out berths for folks traveling through, being able to call a place done without having to stay too long probably makes some sense. Still, I don’t consider myself having visited Colorado nor Utah yet as my only time on the ground was passing through airports in those states on connections.
I’ve played with the maps on PassportStamp.com and TravBuddy.com I’ve filled out profiles on FlightMemory.com (I haven’t updated that one for a while) and OpenFlights.org. Each has its pros and cons. And now I’ve got a different version of a world map to fill in. I figure I should have something near 100 of the destinations covered based on states and provinces visited (I’ve listed 85 so far and have a bunch more to enter once I figure out exactly where I was). And I’d have one more if I can convince them to separate out Gozo from the main island of Malta.
P.S. – The title of the post sounds better if spoken in the style of an XX commercial; the stories from that night are probably better in that context, too.
Posted by Seth on April 15, 2010 under Trip Reports |
At some point in the middle of last year I managed to cross a line in personal records, having now visited more foreign countries than states in the USA. I’ve got every state with a coast save one (Delaware) and a whole bunch in the interior, too, but I’m also missing a number in the middle of the country.Idaho was one of those, until this week. In my planning for the triple run to Spokane, Washington I did a bit of research and was egged on by Mike to consider visiting Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Had I done even more research prior to arrival I would have known that Montana is only another hour beyond and I probably would have gone for that, too, but there is enough worth seeing in Montana that I’m willing to make another trip back later to get that one. Still, it was time to cross Idaho off my list. So I booked a 26 hour layover in Spokane and got my Idaho on.
First surprise of the visit? No potatoes. Not a single potato farm to be seen, at least not that I recognized. Plenty of them sliced up, fried and served along with the sandwiches I ordered, but no farms. I’m guessing I was either in the wrong part of the state or just ignorant as to what a potato farm looks like.
On the beach in Coeur d’Alene
Second surprise of the visit? Coeur d’Alene was stunningly beautiful. I was expecting it to be pretty nice. My expectations were WAY exceeded. I made it into town around 3pm, checked into the hotel and then set out to explore. The downtown is tiny – maybe 10 blocks long and two wide – but full of bars, restaurants, shops and mostly nice folks. I had no idea what to do or see so I did something that I believe I only have done once before. I walked into the tourist information center and asked for help. The wonderful woman there gave me a ton of information and a ton of grief for only having 24 hours in town. But she absolutely pointed me in the right direction for something to do that afternoon. I was going to hike Tubbs Hill.
One of the many stunning views from Tubbs Hill
Tubbs Hill is a peninsula that sticks off the edge of downtown Coeur d’Alene. It is about 120 acres and is public land, purchased by a trust a while back and developed with trails and beaches that are accessible without too much effort. The main trail is a mostly flat two mile loop that is generally well marked and a pretty easy hike. There’s also a trail that goes up over the top of the hill, adding about 400 feet of elevation to the trip. In addition to a couple random tourists walking around on the trail I was passed by a number of locals who use it as a jogging path. Branching off of the main trail are a number of smaller paths that head either up into the hill or down to the waterfront and small sandy beaches. The beaches ranged from tiny to small. They aren’t going to pack in huge crowds – and no crowds out on the day I hiked due to the weather most likely – but I can see them as being a relatively private escape from the main town beach area crowds in the summer. Plus, they’re stunningly beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful, I made a point of booking a round of golf at the Coeur d’Alene resort during my layover. The course is most definitely one of the most beautiful I’ve ever played and it is the only one where I’ve had a caddy assigned to help with the round. Among other things, the course is known for its 14th hole, a truly floating green. In my case the other two golfers who I was paired up with no-showed due to the misty weather. That left just me and the caddy. I was given a choice of having him play as well or just caddy. I chose to have him play and it was great to have someone else at about my skill level on the course with me.
The course is most famous for its 14th hole, a par three to a green that is actually floating out in the middle of the lake. It is attached to a track underwater so that it can be repositioned but it also floats naturally in the lake with tethers to the track keeping it in relatively the same place on any given day. Alas, it was beyond my skill to actually land a ball on the green 175 yards away, but I did have fun trying (and on the boat ride to and from).
Coeur d’Alene is mostly a seasonal town, swelling up with visitors in the summer. I was a bit early for the 2010 season which was good and bad. The golf was a bit less expensive but the weather was also a bit cold and wet, plus not so many folks in town. Dinner-time downtown was like a ghost-town except for one place, the Coeur d’Alene Brewery Pub. It was packed. The beer definitely was better than the food, though the latter was passable. But the beer was delicious. Sadly, I was driving so I only got to taste a couple of them.
So I was there off season and the weather wasn’t the best. Still, Coeur d’Alene has a ton going for it and is definitely a place I’ll have on the list of worth returning too, likely for more than 24 hours next time.
More pictures here.
Posted by Seth on April 14, 2010 under News |
The in-flight internet connectivity market has lost a competitor with the news that the Kiteline product is officially shelved. Kiteline was initially launched as a lower bandwidth cellular solution to in-flight connectivity, essentially the same concept as the Aircell gogo product, but with limited features – only certain websites would work – and a lower price point to both the airlines and the end-users. Since the launch of the original plane with the product, JetBlue’s BetaBlue, several years ago the development of the product has languished in development. Despite an announcement of a trial in Q2 2010 with Continental Airlines an updated the product has never seen the light of day. The Continental trial was delayed indefinitely and now the Kiteline project is, by some accounts, dead.
Ultimately the problem with the product came in the inability for LiveTV to source an antenna to mount on the aircraft that would meet the performance, weight and cost requirements.BetaBlue operates on a legacy Airfone antenna that was hacked together to provide data connectivity to the aircraft. It was functional enough to prove the concept but not viable in the long term. That’s where the need for the new antenna system came into play. That effort was contracted out to a Canadian company. That company, however, was unable to deliver a working model. Ultimately, after a number of delays in the development cycle, the contract was terminated. No further development is expected in the near-term. The future of the frequency allocation that LiveTV holds for the service is uncertain at this time. LiveTV officials offered no comment when queried.
So, what’s next in the world of in-flight connectivity? There’s still Aircell, the leader in the US market, with deployments active in roughly ten airlines. Row44, leveraging a Ku-band satellite solution is still in the market with their Southwest deployment in progress though, much like AIrcell, the business plan that they are operating under seems somewhat questionable. There is also the Panasonic Ku-band solution that Lufthansa has committed to for its long-haul fleet.
And then there is the dream of a Ka-band solution. Promising significantly higher speeds and dramatically lower costs versus the Ku-band options Ka seems to be the holy grail. Of course, no one has a functional product out there yet, but the idea continues to draw interest from various parties and is the target of perhaps the most R&D efforts at this point. There is nothing stopping the folks at LiveTV from moving into the satellite-based service space, though they haven’t made any formal announcement of such a change.
It is always a shame to see a competitor drop out of the market, especially when they promised so much. Then again, perhaps it was such bold promises – particularly with no history of developing a similar product – that should have been a red flag on the Kiteline dream. Hopefully they come back with another option in the future. Gogo is great but on the expensive side and the market adoption still lags when it isn’t being given away through a promo of some sort. When only 20% of the passengers are using it on flights when it is free that is not a tremendous vote of confidence in the commercial viability of the product.
So, what’s the next big thing in in-flight connectivity? Hard to say for certain, but it looks like a terrestrial-based product from LiveTV is not in the cards.
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Posted by Seth on April 13, 2010 under frequent flyer, News |
US Airways has announced an apparently targeted (though I got the email) double miles promotion for the spring. It includes both reward and elite miles, a first in this type of promotion in recent memory. The promo applies to newly-issued tickets for travel between April 13 and June 15, 2010.
Registration is required.
This promo is even more desperate than the Southwest double Rapid Rewards promo that just launched as that one didn’t cover their A-List status in the bonus points. The inevitable debate on which other airlines will match has begun. Hard to know which other carriers will take US seriously on this sort of thing. I guess we’ve got a few days to wait it out and see if anyone else blinks.
Update: Most definitely not targeted.
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Posted by Seth on April 13, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Always fun to fly over a city at an altitude that it is reasonably photogenic. I had just that opportunity a couple weeks back and snapped these shots, one of the airport and one of the downtown area. Can you identify the city? Bonus points if you can figure out where I was headed when the pictures were taken.
Oh, and was it the airport or the skyline that gave it away for you?
Posted by Seth on April 13, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Third consecutive morning where the alarm rings at 5am or earlier. Not good at all. But it was OK because the line for TSA screening at O’Hare Terminal 2 was only 30+ minutes long. I actually got to skip the line thanks to flying in first class, and they were opening an extra lane as I passed through, but that would really have sucked.
On the plus side, the flights from Spokane to Chicago, via Denver and Houston, were just fine. There was one rather bitter agent in the Denver Red Carpet Club complaining to a passenger about how United Airlines’ new upgrade scheme for elites means that not only did his upgrade not clear but that she “would never get to sit in first class ever again for the rest of my career here.” She also predicted that the program would lose the company too much money and that they’d eventually switch back to a scheme that requires instruments for upgrades. I almost said something about being on a paid first class ticket but I decided not to egg her on.
And then I was in Chicago and off to dinner at Shahi Nihari in the suburbs (there is also a location downtown). It may have been the only time I’ve had Pakistani food but I’m quite certain it was the best I’ve ever had. The Nihari they served was delicious, with the sauce having just the right amount of heat in the flavor and the meat tender enough that it was easily pulled apart with the naan. Or, perhaps I should say the freshly made right as we ordered it naan. Forget the uniform, round doughy disks that come in so many Indian restaurants. These were obviously homemade, showing variety in their shape and size, and they were steaming hot, fresh from the tandoor. Delicious. Add ridiculously cheap. Dinner for two for $25, with plenty of food left over. Cannot beat that.
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