Gadlinks for Friday, 1.8.2010

by Katie Hammel on
Happy Friday, faithful Gadling readers! Here are a few more travel tidbits to send you on your way to the weekend.
‘Till Monday, happy travels!

More Gadlinks here.

How to sneak a third bag onto a plane

by Annie Scott on

We all try to travel light and avoid those pesky baggage-check fees, but it can be difficult to cram all your goods into your suitcase and “small personal item” (which, for most people I know, has become a pretty big bag). So, when I received a SCOTTEVEST/SeV jacket to try, my hope was that it would be the ultimate, wearable, third carry-on of which I’ve been dreaming.

The “technology-enabled clothing” from scottevest.com has a lot of secret pockets, from attractive casual men’s shirts with 3 hidden compartments to superjackets like the Scott Jordan Signature System combo (which our own Scott reviewed last September here), which features a fleece and jacket with a total of 52 pockets, many of them specific to particular items like water bottles or pens, and a patented “Personal Area Network for earbud wire management.” The jackets also have a “Weight Management System” which helps distribute the weight of all your worldly belongings evenly on your shoulders.

You probably have the same question I did: “How much can it really carry?” Not only could this jacket potentially save you money at the bag check, but it could also mean no more carrying a bag (or dreaded fanny pack) while sight-seeing, or even replace a backpack on a hike.

I decided to test out the 18-pocket, $120 SCOTTEVEST Women’s Essential Travel Jacket by attempting to load everything from my gigantic handbag into it (thus freeing up my hands for a whole other “small personal item”). Check out my findings in the gallery below.
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Virgin America considers new boarding: baggage-free passengers first

by Alison Brick on

It happened to me the other day. I had my plane ticket in hand and stepped aboard the soon-to-depart airplane, but couldn’t sit down. Why? Because of the 15 people in front of me who needed to find spots in overhead bins for their carry-on suitcases.

We all know that the boarding process has slowed down because of baggage fees. More people are opting to stow their suitcases as carry-ons rather than check them.

Virgin America is testing a way that might speed up the entire process.

It would mean that anybody without carry-ons would board first. Then, everybody with carry-ons would board second.

I think it’s brilliant. Fewer people would be in the aisles, meaning that the folks with bags might be able to find overhead space more easily. And hey, fewer people would be annoyed. It has the potential to work, and I’m glad to see that an airline has the foresight to consider it as an alternative to the norm.

That said, I might personally choose to stall, if given the choice. I usually prefer to be one of the last people on the plane (I’d rather spend my time standing in the airport than sitting on the plane). If others rationalized the delayed boarding in the same way, would that just negate all of the positive aspects of this new system?

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EU rules on liquid carry-ons may become “fluid”

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Grab a drink, if you feel inclined … in Europe, at least. The European Union is getting ready to lift the ban on liquids in carry-ons. The target date is still pretty far in the future, because the technology the EU plans to use isn’t widely available yet. Originally, the prohibition was supposed to expire in April, but now it’s looking like no later than 2014.

Okay, so don’t rush to celebrate the change.

That being said, the EU’s transportation officials are pressuring the technology companies involved to move quickly.

The rules against liquids in containers larger than 100 ml and not in clear bags have been in effect for three years, after a terrorist plot was uncovered in Britain. The perps were planning to use liquid explosives in soda cans.

Now that everyone’s safe, we’re also free to gripe about what we can’t take on board – not to mention longer waits at security checkpoints. Progress may be slow, but at least it’s happening. Let’s give a nod to innovative thinking, with a technological solution being devised to give us back some of our time without compromising our security.

If you need action sooner, there’s a chance that the rules may be eased a bit for duty-free liquids bought outside the EU.

Bag too big? Check with Congress

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Every carry-on could become a federal case, so to speak. Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-IL, has proposed legislation that would cap the size of each carry-on. Right now, airlines are left to their own devices, leading to a bit of confusion for fliers who use several carriers throughout the year. Since a de facto industry standard hasn’t emerged, Lipinski feels it’s a job for the folks in Washington.

Lipinski is quoted in USA Today as saying, “It’s clear if anything is going to be done, it’s going to take an act of Congress to do it.” The airlines aren’t enforcing the restrictions that they’ve enacted, he continues.

As with anything regarding Congress – and, for that matter, airlines – the public is divided. Supporters are glad to see a proposal that would keep oversized bags out of overhead spaces, seeing it as a safety measure or simply an increase in available space (they fill up quickly with large bags). Of course, on any flight, you’ll find people on the other side, passengers who refuse to check luggage and would cram a compact car into the overhead bin if they could.

Available space in the overhead compartments has become a problem recently. With airlines cutting flights in an effort to reduce costs, the remaining flights are becoming more crowded – as are the storage spaces.

The Air Transport Association, an industry trade group, doesn’t see overhead storage spaces as a matter for Congress. Instead, he believes it should be left to the airlines to decide.