Create high resolution maps of all your trips with Flightmap

by Scott Carmichael on

It’s raining outside, so this morning was the perfect opportunity to sit down, browse through all my boarding pass stubs and enter them in a new application I’m testing.

Flightmap is a flight logging program that keeps track of every flight you have taken. You can log the flight number, aircraft type, airline and geeky things like the aircraft registration number and your seat number. Frequent fliers can even keep track of their award and status miles.

The application has an internal database that calculates the distance between all airports in the world, and naturally, it can also convert airport names into airport codes.

Once you have entered all your flights, you can view a summary that displays your most frequently flown routes, the longest and shortest flights you’ve ever taken as well as your most popular airline.

The best part of Flightmap is the ability to generate high resolution maps of your flights. In fact, Flightmap can generate stunning maps up to 32 megapixels large, which is great if you want to print them as a poster. If the built in map colors don’t interest you, then you can even export your flight history as a Google “KML” file, which can be imported into Google Earth (which is totally useless, but oh so cool looking).

Once you have created a map, it is fairly easy to save the image file and set it as your new desktop background so you can show all your colleagues what a well traveled individual you are.

Flightmap is a very slick, easy to use application and the interface is nice and clean. You can view a guided tour of Flightmap here. The application costs 19.90 EUR ($30) but a try before you buy version is available on their site, albeit with several limitations; maps are “defaced” and you can only export your first 10 flights.

All in all, it’s been great to finally have a nice place to save my flights. There are some other services with similar features, but this is the first one I’ve come across that is not web-based (which means it’s easy to take along with you). Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got some more flights to enter!

The hunt for the missing dog in Dulles continues

by Grant Martin on

For those of you following the story of the the solider’s dog that was lost by United Airlines earlier this week, you can now get updates on the unfolding events on the website helpfindjeddah.com or via a Twitter feed that they set up.

Apparently, enough people had caught wind of the story via the web such that there’s a serious movement towards finding the animal — well over five hundred people are now following the feed, garnering enough attention to get the Washington Post to run an article this morning.

In it, we learn some new facts about the debacle, including the interesting note that the owners only fed the dog people food and are concerned about her ability to fend for her self on her own.

Judging from some of the intense comments we got on our earlier story, there seem to be two schools of thought on the attention and resources that this search is getting: either you think we should shut down DC tomorrow and form a human chain across the the metropolitan area or you think we should sack up and let things sort themselves out — haven’t you ever seen that movie Homeward Bound?

I personally am a bit divided. I do hope that we find the dog quickly and think that all of the effort that people have put into finding her is quite touching. At some point, however, we’ll probably need to stop consuming resources and leave the rest up to fate.

Daily Deal – Half price unlimited Wi-Fi access from Boingo

by Scott Carmichael on

My deal of the day today is a way to get more than half off unlimited nationwide access to the Boingo Wi-Fi service.

With Boingo, you can access wireless hotspots from iBahn, T-mobile, AT&T, Wayport and Sprint. With unlimited access to these services, you’ll be able to get online from virtually every paid hotspot location in the country, including McDonalds®, Starbucks®, Barnes & Noble® and most hotel chains and airports.

The Boingo unlimited service normally costs $21.95 a month, but with this deal, you’ll be able to signup for just $9.95 a month. This rate is not a promotional rate, so it stays this low as long as you are with Boingo.

Many airports charge for Wi-Fi access, so if you have been a regular user of these services, you’ll easily earn that $9.95 back. The deal is also quite attractive for people currently subscribing to other Wi-Fi providers. The T-Mobile hotspot service is $19.95 per month, but since it is included in the Boingo unlimited package, you can see why it would make sense to pick Boingo instead.

To learn more about Boingo, and the locations they offer their service follow this link. A more comprehensive hotspot search site can be found at JiWire where you will also find an iPhone version of their search engine.

To signup, follow this link or go through their normal sign up procedure and use code UNL01090USD0 in the promotional code field.

Source: Flyertalk.com

Say “I do” at the airport

by Abha Malpani on

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get married, but if I do, I’m clear that I’d want it to be as quick as possible, a couple of minutes is what would work best for me. Being Indian, a wedding under four days is sacrilege, but oh well.

A registered wedding at the court was what I thought the only option, a super boring option indeed, until I read in USA Today about quickie weddings possible at the airport!

At Los Angeles International Airport, a man called “The Officiant Guy” can marry you without witnesses and in full confidentiality. You don’t even need to be an LA resident! At Sweden’s Stockholm-Arlanda Airport, you can arrange to be married in the airport church or by a registrar; last year the 500 couples got hitched there. “Say Yes and Go” marriages sound awesome too — say “I do” and jump straight onto a plane, a common wedding style in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

However, if that’s too simple and you want a bit of a novel themed wedding, you can tie the knot inside a parked Concorde Airplane at England’s Manchester Airport, and Schiphol Airport has a wedding planner who will organize it the way you want at the airport (boarding pass style invites? Air crew uniforms as outfits?). The airport will even allow you to have a champagne brunch, and should you want to take all your guests on a trip straight after, a special “Ticket to Paradise” package deal can be sorted out.

So if you are looking for a different, cheaper, and quicker way to get married, you might want to ring your nearest airport!

That’s a weird airport story. Check out these weird airplane stories:

Reward for missing dog at Washington Dulles

by Grant Martin on

If you happen to be riding around in one of the Moon Rovers at Washington Dulles in the next couple days, keep your eyes peeled for any four legged creatures running around the tarmac.

John and Ronia Weisner, two owners of a dog that was traveling with John, an active member of the armed forces, en route to Saudi Arabia, were horrified to find that their pet was lost at Washington DC‘s Dulles airport, not an hour after they turned her over to United Airlines‘ airport authorities for luggage check in.

The culprit, they suggest, is the substandard cage that the FAA required them to use — apparently the new kennel that they purchased had to have screws in it but was still not structurally sound enough to handle the baggage system.

But how did the dog escape? Once the dog and cage went down into the luggage system, it appears that something struck its side and the dog broke free. As to whether the dog could have broken itself free, the Weisner’s state:

“There’s no way, no something hit it, bended it inward.”

Now, in an effort to find the missing animal and restore peace to John and Ronia, the two have offered a $2500 reward, while United has put up another matching $2500. The pair have been scouring the tarmac with escorts looking for the dog and apparently have still yet to find the animal.

My bet is that it will show up in someone’s luggage in Abu Dhabi.

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