We here at Gadling are airplane nerds. We take pictures of the view from the gate, our inflight meals, and even take portraits in the bathroom. Even my daughter has become an airplane nerd before the age of 2, stopping in her tracks and pointing to the sky at the sight of a plane flying over. Naturally, this Instagram shot caught my eye, for the view from the wing of runway traffic at Jakarta airport and variety of planes in the queue. An airplane nerd might look at this and start daydreaming about where the other planes are going, how spacious their seats are, and what they might be having for lunch.
Under the premise that searching for a flight online is a time-consuming and annoying task, travel buyers have been presented with a number of solutions. As new technology moves from the lab to the street, we see it being applied in helpful ways that do indeed make life easier and save us time.
Searching for flights online, buyers commonly visit multiple websites, see something they like on one, look for it on another, cross-check with the airline site and so on. When the time comes to pull the trigger and buy, those flights are often unavailable or priced differently. It can be a frustrating task but one that has to be done to find a flight that works with our travel plans – until now.
Say hello to Pintrips, a new online tool that allows business and leisure travelers to “pin” and see flights they’ve found across the web in one spot. Find something you like on a Pintrips-enabled website? Pin it with a click on the pin button next to each flight and Pintrips saves the find, constantly tracks price changes and enables easy comparison.
Stop right there and Pintrips is a win, consolidating all the good stuff we see while searching and putting it in one place. But going a step further, Pintrips pulls in the results of similar searches done by others in a crowd-sourcing sort of way that might eventually be worth considering.
Called “Public Pinning Boards,” this new feature provides “a fast track to pinning by providing the latest pins from the community as well as latest deals,” said Pintrips in aWall Street Journal statement.
Pintrips does have its limits; capability is currently available only on American, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United, US Air and Virgin America airline sites and search sites Google, Expedia, Kayak and Orbitz. But new sites are being added every month and users can request sites too.
Easier yet, Cheapair has a new voice-activated flight search travel app.
Basically, we don’t have to lift a finger with this one to find an abundance of flight information. Using the new CheapAir app available for iPhone and iPad, say a request like, “Orlando to Los Angeles, May 5th to the 10th” or “L.A. to Vegas tomorrow coming back Sunday” and up pop the results – no form to fill out.
Still, finding the right flight can be much like looking for a needle in a haystack; there are just so many different options. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just use our brains to narrow down the results, find the perfect flight, priced right, and be done with it?
Applying the flavor of recent research at University of California, Berkeley, that day may come. Scientists have discovered that when we embark on a targeted search, like looking for a contact lens on a bathroom floor or a car key in a bed of gravel, that various visual and non-visual regions of the brain mobilize to track them down.
“Our results show that our brains are much more dynamic than previously thought, rapidly reallocating resources based on behavioral demands, and optimizing our performance by increasing the precision with which we can perform relevant tasks,” said Tolga Cukur, a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at UC Berkeley in a RDMag article.
We look forward to more results from that research but know that the world of travel apps is constantly changing, as we see in this promotional video for the Travel Channel To Go app from 2008.
When a 7-year-old lost the thing he treasures most in the world, Delta employees went above and beyond – even searching in the trash – to get it back to him.
ABC News in Fargo, North Dakota, broke the story of Cole Holzer and his treasured T-shirt. The shirt wasn’t just an expensive gift or a favorite thing for the young boy to wear, but actually an article of clothing his father had been wearing when he tragically passed away following a freak accident while he was putting up Christmas lights.
As Tonya Holzer, the boy’s mother, explained: three years ago her son was inconsolable at the hospital after his father’s death, and said he wouldn’t leave until he had the Nike T-shirt in hand. So Tonya went in and retrieved the shirt, and it’s been Cole’s security blanket ever since. That is, until it was forgotten during the rush to leave the plane on a flight to California.
In the car, Cole realized the shirt was gone and became hysterical. Not knowing where to start, Tonya called Delta’s 1-800 number. By the end of the conversation, both the mother and the customer service agent were crying. From ground crew to ticket agents, Delta employees began searching for the worn T-shirt, which they called “the daddy shirt.”
Eventually, the Holzer family got a call from Delta assuring them what once was lost was now found. “Efforts made to reunite this very special shirt with Cole and his family is another fantastic example of Delta people going above and beyond for our customers,” a Delta representative told the news outlet.
Sure, no one likes to pay luggage fees. But $800 for an oversize bag? That’s the international air fee from Lufthansa for a checked bag that weighs in between 73 and 100 pounds. Over 62 inches? Those jumbo bags are $800 too. Lufthansa ranks at the top of the list for fees on international flights, but they are in no way the only airline standing by with sky-high fees.
“The flying experience has definitely changed over the last few years,” says Alicia Jao, Vice President of TravelNerd, a website dedicated to saving us money. Taking another look at fees charged by airlines, TraveNerd came up with some surprising numbers.
How about €70 ($91) for printing a boarding pass at the airport? That’s the fee at RyanAir, the discount airline that allows just one small carry-on bag. Want to bring a cello, guitar, violin or viola? RyanAir travelers can do that, if a seat for it has been reserved and the appropriate fare paid.”While some international carriers are still known for great customer service, there are numerous regional budget carriers that have strongly adopted the fee model,” says Jao.
A recent TravelNerd study found that international carriers commonly have baggage fees on international flights that are even higher than those on domestic flights. While individual airline fees vary, the study found that booking online is almost always less expensive than calling an airline to make a reservation.
Here are some other fees being charged right now by airlines for international flights from the TravelNerd study.
When “Airport 24/7 Miami” took off last October, the Travel Channel show delivered to viewers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at one of the busiest airports in the world. We watched as an army of Miami International Airport (MIA) staff moved 100,000 travelers a day through the facility like clockwork.
Handling everything from lost luggage to drug smuggling and terrorist threats, viewers saw a real, unfiltered look at the people who work every day to keep planes and people moving. Coming up later this month, “Airport 24/7 Miami” returns for a second season with all new episodes.
Starting April 30, fans will reserve Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT for 19 weeks of all new episodes. Each week, viewers will have an all-access pass inside the intense and dramatic world of MIA. This season, “Airport 24/7 Miami” promises even more unprecedented behind-the-scenes footage.In the season opener, MIA staff works together when two passenger planes collide as we see in this sneak peek video:
Can’t wait until April 30? Need an “Airport 24/7 Miami” fix right now? The Travel Channel has a photo gallery, video library and an “About the Staff” intro to some of the key people who run the airport every day.
Want to know what happens while moving 38 million people every year through MIA, an spot considered a prime terrorist target and Category X airport? “Airport 24/7 Miami” has the stories, people and events we don’t see on the news or read about online … well, except for here, that is.