The 10 Best Travel Apps For Flight Attendants

by Heather Poole on
Photo: PartyMonstrrr/Flickr

1. FAAWait – During a creeping weather delay a flight attendant who also works part time as an air traffic controller told me about FAAWait. It’s his favorite app. One click and we knew which airports across the country were also experiencing delays, how long the delays were averaging, and what had caused the delays.

2. MyRadar: Recently a fearful flier on board one of my flights spent three hours watching the weather light up his iPad screen: blue, green, red – wow, so much red! He knew exactly when to expect turbulence, how bad it might get, and how long it would last. Knowing this kept him calm. At one point he even turned around in his seat to let the crew know it would be smooth flying from here on out. Two seconds later the captain called to tell us the exact same thing, it was safe to get up and finish the service. Since then I’ve been recommending the app to anyone who mentions they’re afraid to fly.

3. WhatsApp: An Emirate’s flight attendant from Bosnia based in Saudi Arabia told me about this app on a flight from Miami to New York. WhatsApp makes it possible to send text messages to friends and family out of the country free of charge. There is virtually no cost to stay in touch with loved ones. You can even share audio and video messages.

4. Twitter: Still the best way to get breaking news! You don’t need to “get it.” Just learn how to use the hashtags to find information as it’s happening. For instance, not too long ago I was at an airport that was being evacuated and no one knew why. That was my cue to search the airport code – #DFW. That’s how I found out there was a bomb threat on an incoming flight. I learned this from passengers who were actually on board the flight and tweeting about it as they taxied to the gate.

5. HappyHourFinder: Flight attendants don’t make a lot of money. In fact new hires start out making less than $18,000 a year. And yet we’re subjected to overpriced hotel and airport food on a regular basis. This is why we take advantage of happy hour specials, particularly ones that include half priced appetizers, which might explain how I ended up at Vince Neil’s Bar, Tres Rios, in Las Vegas two hours after learning about the app in the crew van on our way from the airport to the layover hotel.6. Instagram: Because when you travel there are just so many beautiful things to photograph. The app not only makes your pictures look ten times better, it’s easy to text and email your photos or post photos straight to Facebook or Twitter. What I enjoy most about the app is following people whose photos inspire me to travel, like @Lax2Nrt or even @Umetaturou who shares hilarious pictures of a Border Collie named Sora who can balance anything on his head. One of these days I’m going to fly to Japan and walk that dog!

7. Postagram: Remember when you used to send postcards to family and friends from around the world just to let them know you were thinking about them? Now you’re too busy to think, let alone search for just the right card to send. Not to mention all that time it takes to address and stamp it. With Postagram you can turn your cool photos into postcards by using pictures from your phone, Facebook or Twitter. Write a short message and Postagram will take care of the rest.

8. Yelp: Whenever I find myself at a layover hotel in a new city, the first thing I do is pull up Yelp just to see what’s nearby. I might use it to find a great place to eat, check out a tourist attraction, or locate a pharmacy within walking distance. Users post reviews and photos to help narrow down the search so you can determine whether or not it’s worth it to leave your hotel room.

9. HotelTonight: If you’re a commuter like me, this app will save your life one day. At noon each day HotelTonight offers great last minute deals on a couple of hotels near your current location. Get a $25 credit with your first booking, $25 for each friend who signs up, and $25 when a friend makes their first bookings. So … who wants to be friends?

10. GateGuru: Enter an airport code and up pops everything you could ever want to know about food, shopping, and any services offered, along with reviews, ratings and maps. Enter your flight number and access flight status, delays and weather conditions all in the same place.

Cyber Monday 2012: Our Favorite Airfare And Entertainment Deals

by Allison Kade on
Cyber Monday is the newfangled cousin of Black Friday, when the Internet bursts with the money-saving deals that Black Friday offers in stores the Friday before.

Cyber Monday is probably best known for deals on tech and electronics, but the online shopping extends to airfare and other travel deals, as well. In fact, Gadling has already covered the best hotel deals for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Here’s a sampling of the best airfare and entertainment deals we’ve found to celebrate Cyber Monday. Find any awesome travel deals, yourself? Let us know in the comments.
Air Deals
LAN and TAM: Up to 40% off flights to Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
Cathay Pacific: Up to 15% off flights, plus a prize drawing in which 30 passengers are selected to win 10,000 Asia Miles.
Vayama: Special Cyber Monday rates on international airlines such as China Airlines, Emirates, El Al, Korean Air, TACA, AirEuropa and more.
PayPal airfare matching: From now until December 31, PayPal will match prices for airfare you purchase, if you find that the tickets are advertised for a lower price at any merchant within 30 days of purchase. If, say, you buy tickets for $200 and the price goes down to $150, PayPal will simply pay you the difference, with a maximum $1,000 total and $250 payout per item.
StudentUniverse: Planning to offer up to $65 off certain flights to locations like Latin America, South Pacific, within the U.S. and more.
Other Travel Deals
MSC Cruises: Offering special “Cyber Monday Sale” rates on select 7-night, round-trip Caribbean cruises from Fort Lauderdale, beginning at $399.
Mauiva AirCruise: If you want something rather untraditional, you can try a sky version of a cruise with Mauiva. They’re offering 20% off select departures as part of a Cyber Monday sale.
Crested Butte ski package: Airfare to Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado and 41% off the regular season rate, starting at $649 for four nights of lodging and three days of lift tickets (plus taxes and resort fees).
Goldstar deals on entertainment: Cyber Monday offers include 20% off all Goldstar gift certificates, 40% off Cirque du Soleil’s “IRIS” in L.A., 38% off the “Radio City Christmas Spectacular,” 60% off the Snowbomb Tahoe Platinum Card – which grants four lift tickets, ski rentals and two free nights at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno – and more.
Extra Tips
Check out airlines that have had Cyber Monday deals in past years: Many Cyber Monday deals aren’t announced until the day-of, so start by checking out airlines that have worked in the past. These include American Airlines, JetBlue, Frontier, Southwest and AirTran.

Follow them on Twitter: Often, airlines update Twitter with their most by-the-minute deals. Try following @Delta, @AmericanAir, @VirginAmerica, @SouthwestAir and @JetBlueCheeps.


[Image credit: Flickr user Mike Miley]

Around The World Without Flying, Irish Guy Wages War On Thoughtless Living

by Chris Owen on

Traveling around the world without flying, Ireland’s Niall Doherty quit his regular 9-to-5 job a little over a year ago, choosing to pursue his passions and help others escape mediocrity. Living a nomadic life ever since, Doherty has never stayed in one place more than four months and is quick to reveal his secret to breaking away and doing life his way.

“I work online, meaning I can work from anywhere with Internet access,” says Doherty on his website, simply titled ndoherty.com. “I make most of my money from web design, but a few other income streams include affiliate marketing, donations and an online course I created to help people overcome fear.”

It’s that whole notion of helping others overcome fear that caught our attention. Based on his book, “Disrupting The Rabblement,” Doherty brings key ingredients needed in any recipe for an extended trip around the world where self-reliance is required.Teaching readers “how to think for yourself, face your fears, and live your dreams,” Doherty builds on a 1901 James Joyce essay, “The Day of the Rabblement,” in which Joyce criticized the Irish Literary Theatre for abandoning true and good things and surrendering to the popular will.

Today, says Doherty, 30, people have become the property of rabblement by watching TV regularly, eating processed foods, obsessing with celebrities and other activities.

Sound interesting? Think an around the world trip is for you? Doherty tells all on his website, detailing finances, where he has been and where he plans to go for subscribers (free) to his blog.

How does it all work?

To complete the next leg of his world tour, Doherty needed a way to continue from India, found out that Costa Cruises Romantica was sailing over the weekend and sent Costa the video below.

Costa had the space available and Doherty is currently sailing and blogging his way from Cochin, India, for six days to Phuket, Thailand. Check his Facebook for details or follow @ndoherty13 on Twitter.


[Photo credit- Flickr user Artiii]



Trouble Booking Post-Sandy Air Travel? Try Using Twitter

by Jessica Marati on

The other day, a friend spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to rebook a trip from Orange County to New York City, only to have his request denied. But when we tried reaching out to the airline on Twitter, it took only 10 minutes for a response. After a few 140-character direct messages back and forth, we successfully switched flights within the hour.

Twitter can be a fast, easy and efficient way to get airline customer service, particularly in the aftermath of disasters like Superstorm Sandy. But not all Tweets are created equal. Here are a few factors that can help your message get noticed.

Using hashtags

Hashtags allow Twitter users to participate in larger conversations on topics and events. For example, a search on the hashtag #Sandy will bring up all Tweets related to the storm. Other useful hashtags include: #frankenstorm, #travel, #airlines, cities like #nyc or #boston and airport codes like #jfk and #ewr. If you include a hashtag in your Tweet, chances are your message will surface beyond your immediate network – which can be harmful to airlines if the sentiment is negative.Mentioning other airlines

It sometimes helps to stir up a little healthy competition. In this particular situation, we mentioned American Airlines in our Tweet to JetBlue, stating that American’s change policy included flights on October 28, while JetBlue’s policy started on October 29. We concluded:

@jetblue first time I’ve ever wished I flew @americanair instead. No way to change flights w/ fee waiver for a 10/29 redeye? #frankenstorm

Within a few minutes, we received a response from JetBlue asking us to send the confirmation code by direct message so they could see if we qualified for a change fee waiver, which we did. To boot, American Airlines sent us a cheeky Tweet asking why we had “cheated on them” and wishing us well.

Your follower count

The higher your follower count, the wider the network your angry Twitter messages will reach. As a result, Twitter users with more followers may well have their messages bumped to the top of the customer service queue. The same goes for users with high scores on Klout, an engine that attempts to measure a person’s social media influence. Airlines already use Klout to issue perks like airport lounge stays and even free flights; it’s not out of the question that they use Klout scores in their social media customer service platforms too.

Perfecting your message

Set aside the impulse to be rude and aggressive, and feel free to shelve the emoticons while you’re at it. Twitter’s 140-character message limit forces you to pare down your request to the bare essentials, and it helps to be direct and concise about your needs. Try to avoid messages like this:

@airline i am so bummmmmmed that i can’t change my flight!!! ur customer service sux. :(

Instead try something like this:

@airline trying to change #LAX-#JFK fl 204 fr 10/31 to 11/3 bec #sandy. phone agent says no flights on 11/3 but i see flights online. help?

[Photo Credit: Flickr user Shawn Campbell]

Traveling With The Cloud: Do I Even Need My Computer On The Road?

by Chris Owen on

Over the last few months, I have made a valiant effort to put everything in the cloud. I had tried before and failed. It all started with Apple’s MobileMe that I really never did get to work quite right but ended with a Google Drive life full of wonder.

Now, I have spreadsheets, emails, photos and documents all in one place, safe and secure on my Google Drive – a free file storage and synchronization service by Google introduced last April.

So, when I travel, do I really need my computer? Can’t I just find an Internet cafe in Rome, Topeka or any other place I might travel that has an available signal and terminal?

We asked computer expert and certified Apple tech Christopher Rauschnot what he thought about cloud-based computing, the Internet access it would take to get to that cloud-based information and what to be on the watch for when traveling. What came of that interview are a number of tips that can make working from the cloud happen, and some reasons why that’s not always the best idea.

Just Because You Can, Does Not Mean You Should- While I probably could accomplish whatever it was I wanted to do, remotely, with the assistance of the cloud, it’s a risky proposition. “Using someone else’s Internet connection and computer, to work in the cloud, presents many issues such as security, accessibility and backup,” says Rauschnot of Las Vegas, Nevada.

One In My Hand Is Worth Two In The Cloud– If I chose to bring along a tablet or use a local Internet connection, that could work. But what about when I can’t get a connection?
“If you have a personal computer that you can take along on a trip, (you will have) the files needing to be worked on are right there in front of you, sans connection,” says Rauschnot who is fully vested with Google+, adding “But if your files are on Google’s Drive service for instance, you have to find a computer wherever you are and log in to the system.”

Big Brother Is Watching And Restricting– “Google is really good about preventing unauthorized access to people’s accounts from foreign connections, even if it is you, using the proper password,” warns Rauschnot, @24K on Twitter. So there is a chance that security protocols in place to protect you may prevent you from accessing sensitive material, safely stored in the cloud

You Don’t Know Where That Came From Or Where It Has Been– “The computers at cyber cafes around the world might have key logging software that records every keystroke,” explains Rauschnot, “or there could be screen sharing software recording what’s being visited.”

When Sharing Is Not A Desirable Social Skill– Friend or not, intercepting a photo showing where someone is in the world can open the floodgates of spam, if not identity theft. “Screen sharing software is especially sneaky because someone could be sitting at a computer thousands of miles away watching people visit social networking sites, financial institutions or anything else personal.”

B.Y.O.I. (Bring Your Own Internet) “Travelers should consider bringing along their own connection to the Internet,” suggests Rauschnot. “Companies are now selling Wi-Fi hotspots that operate worldwide.” Also suggested is something I actually do; “setup an international data plan on a cellphone and share the connection to the computer.” It takes some guesswork to get the plan just right, avoiding hefty overage fees, but it works.

Ask For Security- “If you must connect at a cyber cafe with their Internet connection, it’s best to ask for a hotspot that is secured with WPA2 level password, or use an Ethernet
cord,” says Rauschnot. This would cut out the opportunity for thieves to grab your signal out of the air. “To protect you while using someone else’s network, only log into websites that provide an https connection.”

OMG! Sharing With Friends Could Be Risky Business- “If you connect to Facebook while on your computer without the https connection, software is out there that allows almost anyone with a web browser on the same network as you, to take over the account,” warns Rauschnot. I know a whole lot of travelers who do that all the time.

Taking a moment to consider computing needs while traveling can eliminate a bunch of potential problems. As Rauschnot suggests, portable Wi-Fi hotspot data plans are a good choice to help with security, allowing us to access our cloud-based information. But having files along for the ride on our own computer allows access without an Internet connection.

“Personal computers may be bulky while traveling, but in this case, they can be helpful to secure your information,” concludes Rauschnot. “Use the computer you know and the cloud as a backup.”

One note: Google Drive gives users 5GB of space for free. Additional storage, 25 GB up to 16 TB, can be bought via a monthly subscription plan.

That’s one kind of Google Drive. Here’s another:

[Photo Credit: Flickr user kelsey_lovefusionphoto]