London City Airport Is Creating The Ultimate Streamlined Passenger Experience

by Libby Zay on

Have you ever wished you could use one smartphone application to bring up your boarding pass, track your luggage in real-time, use a map to find your airport gate and step into a pre-booked curbside taxi? According to a report by the BBC, the possibility isn’t too far off – in fact, a technology is in the early stages of testing at London City Airport.

The concept behind the technology is what’s called the “Internet of Things,” which in essence allows a variety of devices or machines to communicate with each other. So long as these individual objects can connect to the Internet, it’s feasible that an overarching platform could allow them to communicate with one another, and in turn relay that information to people. Not only will this create a better overall user experience at the airport, but if you find yourself getting held up on the way to your gate and missing your plane, your luggage won’t be boarded. Saving travelers from hassles is as simple as that!

“Everything that’s uncomfortable, inconvenient or just a pain in the neck about traveling, we’re trying to turn into a more pleasurable experience,” Robin Daniels, a representative from Living PlanIt, the tech company leading the project at the airport, told the BBC. Although this machine-to-machine communication is still in development, we’re hoping this streamlined experience catches on at all airports soon.

[Photo credit: Flickr user ​johnno_oz]

Photo: A Thoroughly Befuddling Tent Tag

by Laurel Miller on


If you travel, without question you’ve had your share of experiences with “Chinglish,” or other corrupted forms of the English language. After all, there are books and websites devoted to this stuff. But while trekking in Bolivia last month, I discovered an entirely new form of linguistic weirdness, in the form of a tag on my (outfitter-supplied) tent.

It was a brand I’d never heard of, called Alpkit, and the tent had no information as to its origin. You can imagine my befuddlement upon reading this after a full day of trekking at 15,000 feet. I thought perhaps I was hallucinating.

Now that I’m home, I’ve discovered that Alpkit is a UK outfitter, and upon reviewing their site, I realize the above is entirely tongue-in-cheek. That doesn’t make it any less amusing. Here’s to more gear manufacturers having a sense of humor.

[Photo credit: Laurel Miller]

Hong Kong Harbor Invaded By Giant Rubber Duck

by Adam Hodge on


Hong Kong’s famous skyline was joined by a 54-foot rubber duck on Thursday. The duck, a traveling public exhibit by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman floated into Victoria Harbour with the help of a tugboat.

The project has seen giant ducks float into harbors around the world since 2007, stopping by New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Brazil and Netherlands, among others. It’s been well-received in Hong Kong, where local papers have been looking out for the oversized inflatable children’s toy for weeks.

Hofman describes the purpose of the duck as a way to relieve political tensions around the world. According to him, the duck knows no boundaries and “doesn’t discriminate.”

The exhibit will remain on display in the harbor until June 9, 2013. Next stop is an unannounced city in the United States.

[Photo: AP]

Flight Attendants Sit In For 40-Minute Pilot Break

by Libby Zay on

Two Air India pilots have come under fire after they took a 40-minute break from the cockpit and asked flight attendants to sit in for them. Their stunt almost ended in disaster when one of the flight attendants accidentally turned off autopilot, endangering the lives of the 166 passengers on board, The Mumbai Mirror is reporting.

According to the news outlet, the plane was 30 minutes into a flight from Bangkok to Delhi when First Officer Ravindra Nath asked a flight attendant to occupy his seat while he excused himself for a bathroom break. A few minutes later, co-pilot Captain B K Soni also decided to leave the cockpit, and asked another flight attendant to keep an eye on things. According to reports, the co-pilot spent a few minutes teaching the two flight attendants how to operate the aircraft (phew!) before leaving to take a nap in a business class seat.

It seems First Officer Nath emerged from the bathroom and decided to join Captain Soni for a snooze – that is, until one of the flight attendants accidentally switched off autopilot. The two wingmen jumped up and ran back to the cockpit to regain control, but their devious antics didn’t go unnoticed. A senior cabin crewmember who witnessed the dramatic events brought the incident to the attention of the airline’s management, and all four parties involved were de-rostered and later suspended pending an investigation.

[Photo credit: Flickr user Naddsy]

Galley Gossip: 10 Ways To Handle A Tight Connection

by Heather Poole on
Photo Credit: NewbieRunner

1. Book wisely. If you need to be somewhere really important, it’s probably not a good idea to book your flights with less than an hour between them. Even an hour is pushing it. An hour and a half is good. Two hours, even better. Whatever you do, don’t take the last flight out! Delays happen. So do cancelations.

2. Pay the extra fee. If you’re the anxious type and travel is stressful, pay the extra fee to sit closer to the front of the airplane and be done with it. Why start your trip out on the wrong foot and the risk a snowball effect. Because once something goes wrong, everything seems to follow suit. Better to be out a few bucks than to miss a flight! It’s worth it just to relax.

3. Check your boarding pass. Many airlines print the boarding time, not the departure time, on the boarding pass. Depending on the equipment type (smaller vs. larger aircraft), you can usually tag on another 30 to 40 minutes to your connection time. Read the fine print.

4. Switch seats. Ask a flight attendant if you can move closer to the front of the cabin on landing. Unfortunately, most flights are full these days and just because there’s an open seat up front doesn’t mean you’ll find a spot in the overhead bin for your bag too. If you’ve booked a tight connection, you might want to make sure your carry-on luggage fits under the seat in front of you.

5. Relax: I know, I know, easier said than done. Just know that while it might feel like it takes forever to disembark, the truth is almost everyone is able to deplane in less than 15 minutes. So take a deep breath and … exhale. Put in your earphones and play the most relaxing music you have. Then get ready to run. Here’s to hoping you wore appropriate shoes to sprint across the airport terminal.6. Call the airline. Don’t wait in a long line of passengers to talk to an agent. By the time it’s your turn to approach the counter, chances are the flight will have already departed. Get on the phone ASAP and call the airline’s reservation desk. Or try tweeting for an even faster response. Most airlines offer immediate feedback.

7. Hold the flight! Airlines don’t hold flights for passengers. On time departures are way too important. That said an airline might hold a flight if it’s the last flight of the day or for a large group of passengers traveling to the same destination. If it is the last flight out, rest assured the airline knows where you are and you’ll probably be booked on another flight before you even land.

8. Go, go, go! Don’t stop to talk to the agent meeting your flight. Run straight to your connecting gate and talk to the agent there, even if it’s past the departure time. Time is precious. Every second counts. Plus you never know if that flight might be delayed.

9. The thing about bad weather. If you’re delayed because you’re flying into an airport experiencing bad weather, chances are your connecting flight may also be delayed. And remember just because your departing aircraft is at the gate, doesn’t mean the outbound crew is on the ground and ready to go. They could still be in the air too. Sounds strange, I know, but we don’t stick with one aircraft all day long.

10. It’s not over until the airplane pushes away from the gate. I can’t tell you how many flights I’ve just missed only to have the airplane return back to the gate to remove a sick passenger or to fix a mechanical. I’ve actually gotten on flights airlines have brought passengers off of due to weight and balance issues that were later lifted after a creeping delay. Miracles do happen.