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Tuesday’s USA Today ran an article on how fear of flying creates stress for many employees, on two levels: First, they fear the flying, and second, they worry that their fears will cost them their job.

Companies have fired employees who could not fly, says psychologist John Weaver, whose firm, Psychology for Business, consults for Wisconsin companies. Such a scenario may occur, he says, when a small company with an infrequent, fearful flier is bought out by a larger one, and the employee is asked to fly more frequently.

Of 95 companies surveyed this month by the American Management Association, 13% say that fear of flying has affected their business. Some of the companies say it’s been an impediment to developing talent, and some say it’s relegated some employees with solid sales or marketing skills to alternative jobs where they can stay put.

The article emphasizes treatments or seminars that help individuals overcome their fears of flying, but the links are all to programs that cost money.

A free, web-based alternative to consider, if you suffer from fear of flying, is Fear of Flying Help, offered by MD-80 pilot Capt. Stacey Chance. While he’s not a psychologist, he provides a helpful online course to aid in overcoming some of the most common fears.

While I’ve never been afraid of flying myself, and thus can’t speak to the course’s effectiveness from my own experience, I’ve seen Capt. Chance’s course help people close to me, so I can endorse it.

It’s certainly worth checking out as a start.

tags: travel | air travel | business travel | fear of flying

UPDATE: One of the sites mentioned in this post, SeatScorecard.com, has since been folded into Seatguru.com, following a series of lawsuits. See the second item in this post for the update.

For some time now, Seatguru.com has been one of my favorite travel-related sites. It provides invaluable advice on which seats to select, if you know which aircraft your airline is operating on your particular flights.

Seatguru is the biggest site for seat selection advice, but it now has competition.

Two other sites provide advice for a range of airlines. Seatexpert.com is a long-standing competitor, and SeatScorecard.com is the latest entrant, opening for business today.

I still prefer SeatGuru’s overall design, with its mouse-over information boxes and generally elegant layout. SeatExpert comes in second, though they really need to add more textual annotations to their maps. I don’t like the browse-feel of SeatScorecard, but it has a lot of potential. Adding information about specific seats, and not just ratings of average, below average, etc., would help.

The benefit of the latter two sites is their coverage: They provide annotated seatmaps for airlines that Seatguru doesn’t cover. However, a lot of gaps remain, both in terms of which airlines are covered, and which planes within airlines’ fleets. SeatScorecard, for example, list a number of airlines that they don’t really cover yet. (Air Mauritius seatmaps, anyone?)

The biggest challenge to using these sites is figuring out exactly which particular type of plane you’re actually traveling on. Is your Lufthansa 747-400 in a 16/64/310 seating configuration, or a 16/99/234 ?? You have to compare the seatmap available to you online (at the airline website during booking) to the SeatGuru/Expert/Scorecard maps, to see which one matches your actual flight. Or, call the airline and ask them.

In any case, informed seat selection is one of the easiest (and cheapest!) ways to improve the travel experience. Having more information on the web to help you make informed decisions is a great thing.

tags: travel | air travel | airlines | Seatguru | Seatexpert | Seatscorecard

USA Today’s Ben Mutzabaugh follows up the recent fracas over possible cellphone use in flight by contacting individual airlines and asking them what their policy on cellphones is.

The roundup:

AirTran: no to voice
Alaska: not sure yet
American: hedges, noncommittal
Continental: no comment
Delta: not sure yet
Frontier: hedges, noncommittal
JetBlue: yes to silent mode/texting, no to voice
Northwest: not sure yet
United: yes to wi-fi, no to voice
USAirways: not sure yet

Conspicuously absent from the list: Southwest. (The singing of “Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round” will remain permitted, encouraged, and complimentary, though.)

Consider writing to your air carrier of choice with your views on the matter, too. So many of these companies say they’re “listening to their customers,” so they need to hear from you.

tags: travel | air travel | cellphones | inflight wireless

The New York Times’ Joe Sharkey says he’s giving up on elite status, and calls those of us who try to keep status “looney tunes.” He doesn’t see the value of his Continental gold elite status anymore, and he offers a single attempt at booking a 7-day advance purchase transcontinental flight as an example.

Baby, meet bathwater.

Maybe Joe should ditch elite status — on Continental.

While he is right that elite status on the major airlines is not the same today as it was even five years ago, it’s still a heck of a lot better than being a general member. My Star Alliance Gold status still gets me access to nice lounges around the globe, ability to reserve the better economy seats (without a fee a la Northwest), higher baggage allowances, faster check-in, and shorter waits at security lines. (Not to mention the bonus miles, which he says he can’t use.)

Joe mentions the difficulty of redeeming his miles for awards. This is another case where the specific airline may be the issue, not elite programs in general. Continental is notorious for limiting its inventory of saver awards, and its OnePass program has the nickname “Nonepass.”

Perhaps Joe should request a status match on a different airline and see how it works. Continental controls most of Newark, so other options might involve connections along the way, or a trip to LaGuardia, but if Continental isn’t giving him what he wants, why stick with them?

Getting a status match involves writing to an airline, with proof of your existing status on one of their competitors, and telling them you’d like to switch over to them. Each airline will generally only allow one status match per lifetime, so choose wisely.

An excellent Flyertalk thread on the subject, updated periodically with guidance on how to obtain that status match, is located here.

Free wi-fi hotspots are, of course, a beautiful thing, and online directories (like this one) have sprung up to provide travelers with a list of free locations.

But what do you do when you can’t get online to look up the nearest hotspot? If you’re in Europe, you can now call a toll-free number, and an operator will direct you to the nearest free hotspot. In your choice of English, German, Italian, French, or Spanish, no less!

The toll-free number: 00800 28 25 23 26

Now that’s what I call service! (How they make money is a mystery to me…)

Hat tip to Red Ferret, via Flyaway.

tags: travel | business travel | free wi-fi

Somehow I always figured that Southwest Airlines would be the first one to charge travelers by the pound, but a hotel in northern Germany beat them to the punch:

In the town of Norden, close to the Dutch border, guests now have to step onto the scales before moving into their rooms and fork out half a euro (35 pence) per kilogram (2.2 lbs).

What’s the logic? Innkeeper Jürgen Heckroth has your health at heart, so to speak (translation my own):

Skinny guests live longer and can come back more often — we reward that.

Very cute. And great publicity.

The airlines wouldn’t do as well on the PR front if they made passengers get on a scale at check-in. But, to play devil’s advocate for a moment: why shouldn’t they?

For the sake of the argument: Heavy things cost more to transport. The post office charges you more when you ship a heavier box. Even the airlines charge you extra if your suitcase is overweight. Why not take the passenger’s weight into account?

Heck, they already give discounts for infants. And they already charge extra for particularly heavy suitcases. Why not charge more for heavier passengers?

Any airline taking such a stand would certainly take a beating on the late night talk shows. Southwest already took the first step in this direction when they started charging “customers of size” an extra ticket if they couldn’t fit in a single seat. The policy has withstood numerous legal challenges.

The average passenger is indeed getting bigger. In the United States, the FAA recently increased their number for the average estimated passenger weight to 190-195 lbs. It’s not just an American phenomenon: In Australia, Qantas asked passengers to get on a scale (with their carryon baggage) two years ago, to “update [their] weight data.”

With the price of fuel high, and with airlines charging extra for premium seats, meals, movies, and heavy bags, are passenger-weight charges next? And would they be fair? Sound off!

Most airports’ dining offerings are pretty slim. Finding a decent glass of wine may be even harder.

The airport wine bar seems like a no-brainer, and the Wall Street Journal reported recently (subscription required) that they are indeed on the rise.

The article refers to three existing wine bars: at Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, and Washington-Dulles. I’ve seen the latter two in person. The Charlotte wine bar is really a tasting room in between concourses C and D, selling bottles or tasting-sized pours of North Carolina wines. At $1 a taste, it’s not a bad way to pass a few minutes between flights.

Vino Volo, which opened in September 2005 at Dulles Airport, is more of a real restaurant, with tasty-sounding menu options paired with wines. I didn’t have time to stop in between flights, but this small storefront, in the C-concourse, looks like a great option. And this model, run by Doug Tomlinson, is the one that’s set to expand:

Mr. Tomlinson’s San Francisco company, Taste Inc., hopes to open five more airport wine bars this year — he won’t say where, as negotiations proceed — and then continue to expand.

Bring ‘em on. It beats the wine selection at the Red Carpet Club, I assure you.

tags: travel | air travel | airports | wine bars

Some free advice: Next time, try marketing to a niche with money to spend.

SkyCommuter Airlines of Great Britain is shutting down its “academic” flights, connecting Cambridge and Oxford twice a day in 8-seat aircraft.

Ironically, Oxford to Cambridge flights had previously been on the books (sorry…) for another airline, Alpha One Airways. That company, run by a 19-year old dubbed the “Baby Branson,” never started the route.

Honestly, I’m not sure which is funnier: a teenager running an airline, or an airline catering specifically to an academic clientele.

tags: travel | air travel | Cambridge | Oxford | baby Branson

$1500 of sex toys were stolen from the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel in Jacksonville this past weekend, the AP reports.

As reported earlier, hotels have been removing minibars from rooms or replacing the traditional refreshments with more… adult fare. Romance is apparently also a dish served cold. (Who knew!)

Hiding the stash in the refrigerator is the next logical step. Someone phone in the tip to the Jacksonville police!

tags: travel | air travel | sex toys | minibars

Flying from New York to London? MaxJet is selling their all-business class flights for less than competitors’ coach fares: $750 *including* all taxes. As I’ve posted before, it’s not a state of the art business class experience, it’s flying to Stansted instead of Heathrow or Gatwick, and you’re not earning miles toward status or those tickets to Tahiti. But it’s still a really good deal.

Departure or return has to be on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, though. Book by March 27, fly by December 31. Use Promo Code JFK06. Details here.

Via Airfarewatchdog.

I was thinking more about Northwest’s new policy of charging for exit row seats and “prime” aisle seats.

The positive spin on the change is that it allows last-minute business travelers to get the premium seats. For those flyers, the best seats are often already taken by those who were able to book earlier. The Northwest plan would work for those travelers, since it essentially leaves a few of these premium seats open until the last 36 hours.

But besides the exit row, the “premium” seats Northwest is selling aren’t particularly special.

Sure, they’re closer to the front of the plane, so you’ll be able to exit more quickly than the guy in the last row, but that’s really all you’re buying. The screenshot on Northwest’s own page (image above) explaining the policy shows the seatmap from one of their Airbus 319s. Compare that to the Northwest Airbus 319 seatmap that’s published on Seatguru.com. 6C and 6D, the premium aisle seats costing an extra $15 each, are just plain ol’ regular aisle seats. Except for the exit row, none of the aisle seats on this plane offer any more legroom.

Before you consider paying the premium, check all your options — premium and regular — against the Seatguru.com map. You might find a decent seat for free.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) rehashes the recent report that cellphones cause interference to aircraft navigation instruments. (previously discussed here and here)

The real nugget in the article, though, is this:

Do travelers really want to gab inflight? Of 8,000 comments to the FCC when it proposed dropping its ban, only two or three were in favor. The rest, except for the 50 or so technical reports, were from travelers vociferously opposed, arguing that airplanes should be a refuge from calls and emails. Flight attendant unions are also opposed, fearing obnoxious phone habits could lead to air-rage incidents.

That’s quite a supermajority opposed to cellphones inflight. Count me in, unless the loud talkers are relegated to a private area in the back of the plane.

The opposition to e-mail doesn’t make as much sense to me — if planes are equipped with internet access, passengers will have the choice to read/write e-mail, or not. It’s not really any different than typing a manuscript on your laptop, and is hardly intrusive on your neighbors. Phone conversations are a different matter entirely.

tags: travel | air travel | inflight cellphones