Gadling’s guide to getting betters seats: restrictions and openings

by Grant Martin on

If you still can’t reach eden after checking your seat online and rifling through the seatmap, fear not, there is still time. Many airlines release bulkhead and exit row seats 24 hours before departure (that is, once the checkin window opens). Try checking in for your flight at the 24 hour window; regardless of whether or not you’re checking luggage or have means to print your boarding pass at that time (you can still check in and pick your seat at that time). Once you get to the airport you can always reprint your boarding pass or check your luggage.







Alternatively, the same airlines also release bulkhead and exit row seats to their elite members during normal ticketing. So if you’re able to achieve one of the elite tiered statuses that the airline creates, you’ll also have access to these seats. Frankly, that’s one of the best perks of obtaining “status”, as the frequent flyers call it: knowing exactly where you’re sitting on what plane on what itinerary, nine months in advance. It takes a lot of the stress out of flying when you know you’re going to be sitting in 23A on AF 332 JFK-CDG next February. It’s a great seat. Trust me.

The key is to get online, check early and be aggressive in finding your seat. Remember that half of the other people on the plane are playing with their seats as well, so availability will change frequently up to departure time. Be proactive in your quest for a better seat now and you’ll thank yourself when the time comes to fly.

Love the snow globe, but don’t hand carry it on an airplane

by Jamie Rhein on

While perusing the list of things not allowed as carry ons on airplanes, snow globes caught my eye. These are those items I usually associate with Christmas. Remember the one in “It’s a Wonderful Life” — the Jimmy Stewart classic holiday movie? The snow globe represented the main character’s idlylic town–all cozy and snowy in winter. Even if you had that snow globe– calling it an antique–a movie classic piece of memorabilia, TSA wouldn’t blink an eye before snatching it up and selling it on Ebay. (See Catherine’s and Neil’s posts.)

Okay, I remember a snow globe at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but maybe I’m making this up, and I just think I saw it. But, there was also a snow globe in “Citizen Kane” that crashed to the ground and broke at the end of the movie when the main character dies, right as he whispered, “Rosebud.” Either one, doesn’t matter. You can’t take it on the plane.

See, the water in the snow globe might not be water at all–and heaven knows what those white flakes or glitter that swirl about when you shake the globes might be made of. Plastic, sure. How about EXPLOSIVE plastic? Just kidding, I have no idea.

I’m actually not faulting TSA for putting snow globes on the list. I never would have thought of their possible use as a terrorist weapon. Seems mean to me. Clever, sure, but definitely mean. Snow globes are magic. They are where you hold a world in your hand that you can alter by turning it upside down or shaking it. They are like the best memories of childhood–like pudding. You can take pudding on the plane, but just 3 ounces or less.

So if you happen to be traveling for the holidays and pick up a snow globe in some gift shop, just remember, wrap it in a towel or something, and pack it in the middle of your checked suitcase–otherwise, maybe you can buy it back on Ebay like Neil suggests.

Military airspace opened for holiday travel

by Grant Martin on

If you’re one of the 27 million people flying over the next week, your flight may not be as miserable as you were planning for. Last week, the Bush administration authorized the partial use of military airspace along the eastern seaboard. This mean less congestion (in the skies at least) and better integration with Air Traffic Control across some of the nation’s busiest airports.

That doesn’t mean that you’ll be limited by runway time, landing slots or weather though, so don’t get your hopes up too high. This step is just one of many that are needed to ease the problems with the antiquated air traffic control and greedy corporate airline networks, as we wrote about earlier.

This week is one of the toughest out of the year to travel. Tensions run high as crowds surge through crowded airport lines and security screenings then cram into tiny aluminum jets. This Wednesday I fly from Toledo – Detroit – Amsterdam – Barcelona, so take it from a seasoned traveler: have a scotch before you leave, pack light and be patient and you’ll have a great trip. See you on the road.

How to buy goods confiscated by the TSA

by Neil Woodburn on

Last week Catherine pondered the question, what does the TSA do with your confiscated goods? Well, we learned that knives and cigarette lighters, for example, are donated to the Boy Scouts (um, just kidding about the cigarette lighters, folks!). Other metals are melted down and recycled.

But not everything is given away or destroyed. Many states save the confiscated items and actually sell them online.

So, if you’re wondering how to get back that Louisville Slugger you purchased at the Louisville Slugger Museum in Kentucky and thought you could take on the plane, check out Heather Eng’s recent Budget Travel article, Leftover Loot. Not only does she post links to sites that sell confiscated TSA goods, but she also reports on some of the “craziest items” routinely taken from passengers. For example, travelers in Illinois apparently like to fly with nunchucks. And furry handcuffs are all the rage with passengers in Pennsylvania. Go figure.

Related Link: Buying Other People’s Lost Luggage

TSA screeners fail to catch explosives at security checkpoint

by Catherine Bodry on

First, the Transportation Security Administration tipped off screeners to a “covert” security test (the company later denied that the email was a tip-off). Now, government investigators successfully smuggled liquid explosives and detonators past airport security. The Associated Press writes,

The investigators learned about the components to make an improvised explosive device and an improvised incendiary device on the Internet and purchased the parts at local stores, said the report by the Government Accountability Office. Investigators were able to purchase the components for the two devices for under $150, and they studied the published guidelines for screening to determine how to conceal the prohibited items as they went through checkpoint security.

The investigators concluded, basically, that it doesn’t take much to slip past security with all the necessary components for a homemade bomb.

The TSA defended itself by noting that there are many more layers of security beyond major checkpoints. Good point, but if you can make it through the x-ray machines and wands as well as the veritable strip search, it seems like you could probably make it through anything.

What do you think? Planning to fly anywhere over the Thanksgiving holiday?