Escape from New York: Five tips for leaving the city when flights fail you

by Tom Johansmeyer on

New York is no stranger to tourist and business travel. We get lot of guests here, and eventually, their trips must come to an end. When the weather turns harsh, this can be problematic. Spring may be close, but March and April snowstorms happen, and there are always spring showers to make getting off the ground at JFK or LaGuardia a pure living hell. Whether you’re traveling in the northeast corridor or need to get to a different airport to get home, there are options.

I came face to face with this problem around six years ago. I was trying to get back to Boston, where I lived at the time. I was in New York every week on business and by Friday wanted nothing more than to get home. I stepped outside at 2 PM and saw snow accumulating on the street, even despite the city traffic. I checked Delta‘s website and saw that nothing had been canceled. So, I high-tailed out to LaGuardia hoping for the best. After a two-hour cab ride, I hit the Marine Air terminal only to find that the website wasn’t being kept up to date.

I needed some options and the thought of another two hours of taxi rides in a blizzard didn’t thrill me. Back in Manhattan, I figured I could pick up a train on Amtrak from Penn Station (which wound up working out). Along the way, I learned some tricks that can help anyone traveling the northeast or looking for an alternative airport when hope appears to be lost.1. Don’t fear public transportation
There’s no subway to LaGuardia, but there are buses. Catch the Q48 from the main airport or the Q47 from Marine Air (if you’re taking the Delta Shuttle). Get off at Roosevelt Ave in Queens, where the F or 7 train will get you back to Midtown. From there, it’s easy to hit Penn Station (New Jersey, Amtrak) Grand Central Station (Connecticut and New York) or the PATH train (if you want to try your luck at Newark). From JFK, you can catch the Skytrain to the subway, but brace yourself for a very long ride – the fastest I ever made it to Midtown was around an hour and a half.

2. Rental cars are risky
First, when flights aren’t taking off, there will be no shortage of people with the same idea. So, supply will be limited. Also, nasty weather makes for nightmarish driving conditions. You’ll be extremely unhappy behind the wheel, a situation that’s likely to be made worse by traffic. If you want to try driving, take public transportation out to the ‘burbs and use a rental agency out there (call first to make sure they can help you out).

3. . Be mindful of the other side
Getting out isn’t enough: you also have to think about where you’re going. If bad weather’s pounding New York, there’s a pretty good chance the situation in Philadelphia, Newark and Boston is also pretty ugly. If you’re having someone pick you up, call ahead. Arrange for a taxi or town car in advance. Definitely check the situation on the ground if you’re trying one of these airports instead. During my trek to Boston during the blizzard a few years ago, I called a local taxi service and asked to be picked up at South Station – and requested that they ask for my name before letting anyone into the cab. Sound arrogant? Well, it saved my ass. I saw the driver turn at least four people away as I pushed through the crowd, and I have no idea how many people tried before I got there.

4. Giving up may not be an option
Sometimes, it’s tempting to quit and just get a hotel room for a night (or a few, depending on how severe the storm is). Depending on what’s going on in the city, however, this may be a pricey alternative. As with rental cars, you won’t be the only person to think of this. Also, a busy night or weekend can cut available rooms down to nothing fast. If you are able to score some digs, you could wind up paying a fortune. If you do decide to stay in the city, hunt for the boutique hotels that y may never have noticed otherwise: they’re your best bet.

5. Draft your friends and family
During my escape from New York, I called my wife and asked her to book my train ticket for me. Handheld computing has come a long way since then, but it’s still inconvenient to hunt for alternatives on an iPhone or Blackberry. If you have someone who’s sitting in a warm office or home, hit him or her up for a hand. They’ll be able to find hotels or other travel arrangements easier than you will. By the time you get from the airport back into Manhattan, you may have a plan that only needs to be executed.

Boingo introduces Blackberry connection app and $7.95 global Wi-Fi plan

by Scott Carmichael on

Boingo is no stranger here on Gadling – the Wi-Fi company was one of our top 25 best travel products of 2008, and they are continuously making Wi-Fi on the road easier to use.

Yesterday, Boingo announced a new plan specifically for Blackberry users. For just $7.95/month, customers with a Blackberry Curve 8320, Curve 8900 or Bold can access any of the 100,000+ Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots around the world.

This means you will no longer have to deal with pricey roaming charges or other nasty surprises when you get back home.

To make the connection process easier, Boingo has created a Blackberry connection and authentication application. This program tells you when you are in range of a Boingo hotspot, and it takes care of the entire login procedure.

You can even sign up for the service through the software, or if you prefer, you can enroll on your own PC. The $7.95 plan is only for mobile devices, but this also means anyone with an iPhone, Android powered phone or any other Wi-Fi enabled mobile device can sign up. If you’d prefer to connect using your laptop or netbook, you’ll pay $9.95/month for a US plan, or $59 for a global plan. With hotels regularly charging up to $20/day for Internet access, this can easily be a money saving product.

Five ways to make long flights more productive

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Every business traveler has said or heard: “I’ll get to it on the plane.” By the time your bags are stowed safely overhead, however, it occurs to you that the flight won’t be long enough for everything on your list. The problem I’ve seen is that most business travelers don’t use this distraction-free environment as effectively as they could. If you could get more out of your flights, you’ll have more elbow room in your schedule when you touch down. So, here are five ways to help you get the biggest bang for your time on board.

1. The flight starts at the gate
While you’re waiting to board, find a power outlet, and plug in. pick up a wireless connection, and take care of e-mails. This seems obvious, but distractions can encroach. When you’re going through your inbox, focus on anything that seems most likely to matter when you’re on the plane: reassess your priorities. The unimportant can wait (or be addressed via Blackberry when you’re waiting for the door to close).

2. Get an extra battery
I’m still amazed at how many times I’ve seen business travelers shut down because the juice is gone. Ask your employer for an extra battery – you’ll have a few more hours of high-octane work time.

3. Print what doesn’t have to be electronic
This is especially true if you can’t score that extra battery. Do on paper what can be done on paper, and save the battery life for work that must be done on your laptop. You’re effectively increasing the value of your battery.

4. Set goals
Don’t try to deal with everything. Determine what you want to accomplish on the flight, and zero in on it. If you have time left over, you can work on other things (or, better, sleep). Be realistic when you define your objectives. If you aren’t, you’ll be perpetually frustrated.

5. Know when to stop
If you’re close to exhaustion or just can’t get your mind to work, take the hint. A plane isn’t the ideal office environment). Close your laptop. Put down your pen. Ask for some pill water, and let someone else suffer at your expense for a change!

Slacker radio comes to every Verizon Blackberry Storm

by Scott Carmichael on

Here at Gadling, we’ve been huge Slacker fans for ages – their personal radio player even won a spot in our top 25 travel gadgets of 2008.

Apparently we were not the only ones to notice the power of Slacker, because Verizon Wireless just announced that they would “push” the Slacker player to every single Blackberry Storm. This means millions of Storm owners will have access to the awesome radio channels in the Slacker lineup, as well as the ability to create their own personalized channel.

The Slacker player for the Blackberry Storm even lets users purchase tracks from the V Cast Music store. One of the most powerful features of Slacker for the Blackberry is the ability to cache music to the storage card, which means listeners won’t be without music when they are outside the coverage area. Of course, since Verizon offers the largest 3G network in the nation, this means you’ll need to be on a plane or in a tunnel to take advantage of cached streaming!

Expect to see the Slacker player icon show up on your Blackberry Storm in the next couple of days, but you can of course already take advantage of the service by heading to Slacker.com and checking it out in your browser.

Business travelers: five pre-flight rituals

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When you take that early Monday morning flight, you know you’re kicking off a marathon. If you’re a business traveler, you’ll have five days of meetings, late nights and team dinners that deprive you of sleep, push your personal relationships to the periphery and generally dominate every ounce of your life. This is the path the business traveler has chosen. So, any measures that reduce anxiety and otherwise make life easier are priceless.

For me, this meant developing a pre-flight ritual that brought me a little more sleep-time, helped me remember to pack everything and ensured that I’d have nothing to worry about once I stepped out the door.

1. Pack to run: Don’t put off packing your bags. Get everything ready the night before, and leave your luggage by the door. Put your wallet, keys and cash in a place where you’ll remember them. I used to put them on my laptop keyboard. Since I checked my e-mail before leaving, I knew I’d see these important items.

2. Check in the day before: You’ll probably get a better seat, and you’ll save time at the airport. Print your boarding pass at home, and put it with your keys and wallet.

3. Get your cables together: Laptop power supply, iPod cable, Blackberry or cell phone charger … bundle them all up in advance. Forgetting this stuff isn’t a disaster, but it is a colossal annoyance.

4. Develop a path: Retrace your steps every Monday morning. For example: bed to coffee maker (turn it on) to shower. Grab coffee after shower, and take it to living room. Get dressed, drink coffee, check e-mail. Pack laptop, and pick up bags by the door. Leave.

5. Stick to your usual transportation: Find one town car company and learn to love it. Use it every week. The company will get to know you, leading to the predictability you crave. And, as it develops a track record with you, you’ll trust it more. That’s one less thing to worry about!