No allergy medication necessary?
Growing trend in hotel rooms: Hypoallergenic rooms. Sure, fine. Of course, it could be directly canceled out by all the scents that hotels are pumping into their public spaces. Can we maybe get some quietly-closing doors first, please? (Yes, I’m flogging that horse again.)
The key to in-room power
Some European and Asian hotels have the presumably eco-friendly but otherwise irritating habit of requiring a key card to be inserted into a power socket in order to release the flow of electricity. However, you don’t need to use your key card — any card will do. Leave your room and charge your laptop with impunity. (via Gridskipper)
Breakin’ all the rules
The Airbus A380 may have been on its American tour this week, but the FAA has certified only 11 airports nationwide as capable of handling the mega-plane. The airports: Anchorage, Denver, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Louisville (cargo only), New York-JFK, Memphis (cargo only), Miami, Ontario (California — cargo only), Orlando, and San Francisco. This means the A380 wouldn’t have been allowed to land at half the airports in the U.S. that it visited this past week. (Note that Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles aren’t on that list…)
Transit woes:
The ever-peripatetic Tyler Brûlé gets stuck at Miami Airport and misses his connecting international flight because he’s undergoing a lengthy TSA questioning. Even passengers who aren’t planning to actually enter the United States, and are only transiting, are treated as if they’re entering the country. Frustrating, but largely a function of airport design. Once you’re in the airport, you can easily leave the secure area and enter the country, after all. But the fact that this is the reality of transiting the U.S. makes American ports of entry less and less desirable. Bad for business!
Far stupider: I went through customs and immigration at LAX once on a domestic flight. It’s true! I traveled from Honolulu to Los Angeles, connecting to Newark. Why the passport control? I was flying Air New Zealand HNL-LAX. Domestic flight, but international airline. Idiotic. Almost missed my connection. (Luggage didn’t make it.)
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March 26th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
For some time I have carried a spare hotel card for just the purpose of activating the power while out of room. Most times I don’t need to use it, but in some climate extremes it can be very handy having the aircon or heater running. Unfortunately some hotels have wised up to this trick and now require their hotel card rather than any old card.
US immigration process while in international transit is a pet peeve of mine. Not many countries require this. Even same aircraft services are not exempt, not even if passengers are kept in a secure airside holding cell (like Air New Zealand’s London Heathrow to Auckland service). Crazy, and the main reason Air New Zealand last year started flying London Heathrow to Auckland via Hong Kong.
As for clearing immigration on domestic flights, that isn’t as unusual as you may think. Many airlines operate a domestic leg at the start or end of an international flight, which leaves from international terminal and requires immigration processing. Fortunately in most places they are set up to handle domestic only passengers (eg in Australia they have “D” stickers and separate lines at immigration), and so the main effect on the passenger is an earlier check in requirement. Some people even go out of their way to fly these flights for the improved seating, food, service.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:04 am
So I guess next time I arrive at SFO from Europe or Asia I’ll try to tell the immigrations officer “No, no, I just came from Hawaii, that’s why I only have a passport”.
March 27th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Make that “… only have a drivers license” instead of “passport”
June 4th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I will be traveling to asia on several trips this summer. Does anyone know if United will allow discounted upgrade to biz class at check in? and if so how much per one way?
June 4th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Try looking here:
http://www.upgradetravelbetter.com/2007/02/07/reader-mail-how-much-do-paid-upgrades-cost/