Ever dream of flying in a glass bottom jet? That technology may not yet be available, but Delta Air Lines‘ new iPad app might just be the best simulation.
The Fly Delta app for iPad was released yesterday as part of Delta’s new $140 million commitment to technology, which includes upgrades to its website, mobile apps and airport kiosks. The app includes new tools to ease the travel experience, from booking your flight to advance check-in to figuring out what’s next on your itinerary.
But the app’s most exciting feature is the “Glass Bottom Jet,” which allows passengers connected to Delta’s in-flight Wi-Fi service to view visuals of the ground below the aircraft, enhanced with maps, social networks and Internet content. Read about the history of Mount Rushmore as you fly through South Dakota, check out photos of the Grand Canyon over Nevada or reach out to friends as you pass their homes. For geography geeks, it’s a pretty nifty way to pass time in flight.
An improved Fly Delta app for iPhone was also released yesterday, which includes iPhone 5 support and integration with Apple’s Passbook feature. An improved Android app is scheduled to be released later this year.
Having the right travel credit card can save hundreds of dollars via rewards, low interest rates, and credit-building capabilities. Knowing which one to choose is another matter. The right choice can make a significant contribution to our travel budgets. This week, online card comparison site Card Hub released its list of Best Credit Cards for 2013, a number of which are designed with travelers in mind.
Here are a few of the highest-rated cards that the experts at Card Hub say we should consider.
At the top of the list for travelers, the Capital One Venture Card, has long been one of the most popular and rewarding credit cards. This one provides those with excellent credit the equivalent of 2% cash back across all purchases. Spend $1,000 during the first three months to score a $100 initial rewards bonus. A $59 annual fee doesn’t take effect until the second year.
The PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Credit Card, also designed for those with excellent credit, has the miles equivalent of 5% cash back on airfare purchases, regardless of the airline flown. Unique to this card, benefits can be redeemed for either cash or travel. That’s a flexible option that not all cards offer.
“It therefore saves you from having to peruse rewards flights in order to see how much your miles are worth and provides far more redemption flexibility than most other cards in its class,” said CardHub in a statement.To get the PenFed Premium Travel Rewards American Express Credit Card, travelers with great credit will need to join the Pentagon Federal Credit Union (anyone can) for a $15 fee.
PenFed also has a Platinum Rewardscard that is one of the best gas credit cards on the market. Road trippers will like the equivalent of 5% cash back on every dollar you spend at stand-alone gas stations with no annual fee.
Not so “excellent” in the credit arena? There are cards for you too.
Travelers with limited or no credit might like Capital One Cash Rewards for Newcomers. This non-student card is good for consumers just starting to establish their credit worthiness, as it does not charge an annual fee but still offers 2% cash back on travel as well as 1% on everything else. That combination can often be hard to find.
In addition to generous rewards without charging an annual fee, the Journey Student Rewards card from Capital One also promotes good habits. On top of the 1% base rate you earn on all purchases, you get a 25% rewards bonus each month you make an on-time payment.
Bad credit? All is not lost. Secured or partially-secured cards can be the way back from dark credit days
The fully-secured Harley Davidson Secured Credit Cardis one of the best secured cards on the market. Normally marketed to people with bad credit, this fully secured card is unique in that it gives rewards and does not charge an annual fee. After 12 months of responsible use, cardholders may be considered for an unsecured credit card.
Capital One Secured MasterCard is actually a partially-secured card. Charging a $29 annual fee, making it the least expensive partially-secured card on the market, cardholders may get a credit line that is in excess of their security deposit, giving you more available credit and expediting the credit building process.
Before applying for any cards, be sure to know the details and limit the number of cards applied for. Excessive inquiries into your credit worthiness can hurt your ongoing credit score.
Looking for more sources of travel credit card information? CreditCardCouncil.com offers these suggestions:
Christmas Eve is one of those special days that you look forward to all year long. Visiting friends and family, rushing to get those last minute Christmas gifts and putting the final touches on plans for Christmas Day will keep us busy all day. With all of that hustle and bustle, it is easy to lose track of time but this is a night that you definitely want to be home and fit snugly in your bed on schedule. After all, you wouldn’t want to do anything that would cause Santa to not complete his appointed rounds, right? Fortunately, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, otherwise known as NORAD, is once again tracking jolly old Saint Nick this year, keeping us well informed of his location and progress all day long.
NORAD’s Santa Tracker is in its 57th year of operation and thanks to some nice technological advances, it is now easier than ever to follow his magical sled and eight tiny reindeer. In addition to the web version of the tracker, which is perfect for when you’re near a computer, there are once again apps for the more popular smartphones. You’ll find a version for the iPhone of course, as well as Android devices, and this year, there is even a version for Windows phones. That means no matter what flavor of mobile operating system you use, you’ll be able to track Santa as he draws ever nearer your home.
And for those who need just a little extra help, or have questions they’d like to ask, live operators will be standing by at 1-877-HI-NORAD. These volunteers take calls all day long, letting us know where Santa is at any given time and passing along updates on his progress to the children who are waiting breathlessly for his arrival.
Frequent travelers who like to stay connected while on the road will want to take note of this story. A company called Karma has launched a new pay-as-you-go data service that provides access to a high-speed 4G data network for laptops, tablets, smartphones and other devices. This isn’t exactly a new concept of course, but what separates Karma from the rest of the crowd is their social-sharing options that allow you, and those who connect to your Wi-Fi hotspot, to earn free data.
The concept is a simple one. New users visit the Karma website and purchase their own personal hotspot for just $79. The hotspot comes with 1GB of data to start you off, which is a solid amount provided you don’t stream movies from Netflix or listen to Pandora constantly. Each additional gigabyte of data will set you back $14, which is fairly competitive with the likes of Verizon and AT&T. But the data plans from those companies aren’t pay-as-you-go, which means if you don’t use up your data at the end of the month, it goes away and you automatically get charged for more. With Karma, you keep your data until it runs out, then you simply buy more as needed.
But Karma users also get the opportunity to earn free data just by being nice to those around them. The hotspot allows you to connect up to eight devices, so when you invite friends, family or strangers at the airport to connect to the service through your hotspot, you’ll both earn 100MB of free data. The more you share, the more data you get. That is your reward for having good data Karma with those around you.
The hotspot has a built-in battery that is good for 6-8 hours and can be charged via USB to keep you going as long as you need. It also weighs just 2.1 ounces, which means you’ll barely know you have it with you when traveling.
The Karma service provides coverage in more than 80 cities across the U.S. using Clearwire’s 4G WiMax network. It can provide connections at up to 6 Megabits per second, which is generally plenty fast for checking email, surfing the web, or even uploading photos to Facebook. It isn’t as fast as Verizon or AT&T’s LTE service, which is often twice that speed or more, but again, it is tough to beat Karma on costs, particularly if you don’t use a lot of mobile data. The service is also offered without a contract, giving you the option to discontinue using it at any time.
Karma’s approach to mobile data is quite an intriguing concept. I’ve used Clearwire’s network in the past and it provides surprisingly strong coverage in a lot of places. It is also consistently fast, although it doesn’t come close to the (more expensive) LTE service that I use now. But considering how affordable it is and the fact that there are no monthly fees, it is tough to beat for the traveler who only needs to connect from time to time. Add in the ability to share with others, something that happens frequently anyway, to earn free data, and you have a service that could be very popular.
There is no doubt that one of the best innovations in air travel in recent years has been the addition of in-flight Wi-Fi. Not only does it help us to stay more productive, but it is a great way of staying in touch with friends and family, not to mention keeping entertained on a longer flight. Of course, if you’ve ever used wireless Internet while on a plane, you probably know that the quality of the connection varies widely, ranging from incredibly slow to impressively fast – especially considering you’re in a flying tube 30,000 feet above the ground. Now, Boeing is promising to make the experience a much more consistent one thanks to a new method of testing and optimizing the Wi-Fi signal strength in a plane.
Boeing’s new testing process arose from a set of existing proprietary tools that they already used to ensure radio signals from Wi-Fi didn’t interfere with the aircraft’s instrumentation. While using those tools they discovered that they could be fine tuned to help optimize the signal of the wireless router for greater efficiency. They also managed to cut the time for testing down from two weeks to just ten hours, significantly improving an engineers’ ability to improve wireless performance in a short amount of time.
What all of this means for you and I as travelers is that we’ll soon have a much more consistent and useful Wi-Fi connection on longer flights. In their press release touting this improvement, Boeing stated that even people getting up and moving about the cabin could have a detrimental effect on signal strength, but with this new method of testing, they were quickly and more efficiently able to tune the router for better performance, greatly limiting these issues. That’s something that we can all appreciate.
Now, if the airlines would just hurry up and get Wi-Fi working properly on more international flights, I’ll be one happy traveler.