Cellphones to replace boarding passes?

by Catherine Bodry on

In a three-month pilot program at Houston Intercontinental Airport, passengers will be able to board flights using only a cellphone or a personal digital assistant instead of a boarding pass.

Passengers boarding Continental flights will show a code on their screen that has been sent to their phone or PDA. A bar code stores the passenger’s name and flight information, and a TSA screener will confirm the bar code’s authenticity by scanning it with a special handheld device. Passengers will still need to show photo ID.

Air Canada has also been offering this service since September, and reports that “passengers love the new service.”

What do you think?

Foreigners To Give 10 Fingers to US Customs

by Iva Skoch on

Travel to the US will, once again, get a little bit more annoying for foreigners. Since 2004, the Homeland Security Department has been collecting their index-finger prints, gathering a whopping 90 million sets of prints. Is this ultra-private information safe with the US government? Who knows.

That was apparently only the beginning. The new security program, called US-VISIT, will require foreigners to get all 10 fingerprints scanned. Homeland security spokesman Russ Knocke said to USA Today that biometrics can be a game-changer: “They represent what terrorists fear most – an increased likelihood of getting caught.”

That’s very interesting, Russ. I thought the entire problem with the war of terror is that we have no idea what terrorists want. Clearly, we now do. They are petrified of getting caught. OK then.

By March, foreigners arriving at the following airports will have to provide 10 fingerprints:

• Washington, D.C. area (Dulles)

• Boston

• Chicago (O’Hare)

• Detroit

• Atlanta

• Houston (Intercontinental)

• Miami

• New York (Kennedy)

• Orlando

• San Francisco

Source: Homeland Security Department

Some happy news to start your weekend

by Jerry Guo on

Earlier this week I wrote about a 78-year-old woman who spent 10 years saving up for a cruise – and ended up missing her trip of a lifetime. Now she’s got the story of a lifetime.

Dozens of netizens have stepped in to help pay for her trip after the news spread on the blogosphere and in a front-page story in the Washington Post. One woman even wrote, “I have $9 in my account right now, but after I get paid I could spare $20. But where would I send it?”

More than $700 was raised, but apparently this money was just icing on the cake. An anonymous couple has arranged to cover the woman’s entire trip. ” “I just can’t believe it. It’s just the best Christmas present ever,” Almentia McKan said.

This is a perfect example of how much of a difference we can make through the web. Now, go enjoy your weekend.

More ‘Big Brother’ from your neighborhood TSA

by Jerry Guo on

News is just out that there’s plans from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to record and track more passenger information, including full names, birthdates, and gender for background checks. Almost everyone is against this, including the major airlines, travel agencies, and of course, the general public.

A 2004 law was passed that required transferring the control of passenger info from the airlines to TSA, so passage of this plan (or some variation) seems inevitable.

Now, why should you care? It does seem like every week we hear of another zany plan by the TSA to do more snooping. Well, first keep in mind the more records the TSA has its hands on, the more mistakes they’ll make. There’s already hundreds of horror stories of innocent civilians who are blocked from traveling, because they were mistakenly added to the national terrorism watchlist for instance. Then, there’s the security risk – of our private information being stolen. Again, many cases to cite on this.

What can we do? Go voice our opinions at the polls next November!

Would you pay £125,000 for this slogan?

by Jerry Guo on

“Welcome to Scotland.”

That’s right, Scotland has paid what I can only assume is a genius public relations agency £125,000 for this slogan. It’ll be plastered all over Scottish airports the next time you’re in town. Government officials are adamant that this slogan is a much needed improvement on their old one: “Scotland, the Best Small Country in the World.”

I guess when you think about the runner ups, perhaps you won’t cringe too much. They include:

  • “World Leader in Learning”
  • “First to Introduce University Education”
  • And my fave, “Home of Europe’s Fastest Growing Life Sciences Community

What’s particularly interesting about this whole rebranding campaign is that the Scots seem to love paying people money for this kind of stuff. For instance, Prestwick airport got itself the slogan “Pure Dead Brilliant” as part of a £3 million deal.