Seatguru.com

I was reading a magazine and came across Seatguru.com. This website has documentation on seat configurations for most airlines in the world, for all the different jets they fly and the different configurations.

I took a look and found that it was very informative, but not in the manner described in the article I was reading. Basically the article pointed out, correctly, that you could use the information from this site to figure out where you are going to be seated and perhaps ask for a better seat.

Frankly, any seat in most jets are terrible. The best seats I've ever experienced were on Singapore Airlines in First Class, and that's far from normal.

The information that I find useful has to do with power ports. I've found that there are three types of ports available on jets - cigarette lighter ports, EmPower and regular US 110 Volt sockets.

The last one is the best, and many airlines are beginning to offer them. However, the next best is the cigarette lighter style as there are many inexpensive adapters available. The EmPower adapter is the worst as the airline never has the cables required to use it, and buying one at the shop can be expensive with limited choices.

At the end of the day, I've found that the best thing to do on a flight is to sit back, relax and go to sleep.

The Race To Gain Status (Frequent Flyer, That Is)

In our democratic, capitalistic society, status is everything. The car you drive, the house you live in, even your spouse are indicative of status.

With airlines having their glut of issues, the only real status one has in the air is when they fly their own Citation jet, or the closest equivalent. Unfortunately most of us aren't so lucky or wealthy to have one of those so we have to settle for less.

Enter the frequent flyer program. What American Airlines started out as a marketing gimmick has grown into a whole economy. You can now earn, spend, gift, buy, trade, donate and do much more with your program miles.

The result of this is the race to accumulate miles. Sure, it's not a neck on neck race to the finish, but a race to gain a one up in the status ranking over the other frequent flyer. Towards this end, numerous methods have been introduced that allows the flyer to accumulate miles.

For those who don't fly often, the value of this status may be muted. With the security concerns of today and the finite nature of the day, every benefit offered by the program is well worth the effort.

Let me explain ... In a later post.

Boston Logan Airport (BOS)

"... And we have a 6 minute delay between each flight so we will be shutting down the engines as our take off window should be in about 58 minutes ... "

Who has heard that and not let out a sigh!? You're basically trapped in a metal cigar, not going any place, fast.

The US air traffic system is in trouble. Even when it does work, Logan airport is a mess on good days, and a disaster on bad.

This has a lot to do with the runway configuration. The main runway used can allow jets to take off and land either over the ocean, or over Boston. However, Boston has a law that bars the airport from operating city side except in emergencies. Therefore, when the wind changes and blows in from the city, an alternate, older, runway has to be used, which causes major delays.

Further, all flights, upon takeoff, have to turn left 140 degrees, so as to avoid the city. This means that each jet has to give the one in front of it 6 minutes to make the turn and get out of the way.

It looks like Logan's problem would only worsen over time.

Bottom line is if you have a flight out of Logan, expect delays and have a backup plan.

On another note ... Backup plans.

Delta's Two Jet Configurations

A few years ago, Delta Airlines had stared their discount carrier, Song. I spent some time wondering why it was called Song and I think I may have figured it out - "He had his wishes for a song".

I guess somewhere in the history of the English language, songs were equated with the cheapest form of compensation for a service. Regardless, Song went bust and they got fully integrated into Delta.

Apparently, the interior of those jets that had been designed to impress and they have done well.

In addition to a comfortable color scheme of blue and grey, these jets all have a seat back interactive entertainment system that, as it turns out, runs on the popular free UNIX like OS - Linux.

This system, very similar to the ones used by JetBlue, Jet Airways and Continental, has a high resolution touch screen that provides access to movies, shows, music, games and a flight map.

All in all, transcontinental flights are wonderfully short and comfortable.

Unfortunately, the standard Delta jets are only slowly being transformed into this format.

On latest observation, Delta Airlines has invested in redesigning some of their 767 jets. While the redesign doesn't add their entertainment system to the jets, it does freshen up the interior.

Primarily, the plastics have been changed, all the lamps are brighter, the lavatory lights, seatbelt lights and overhead nozzles are new, and most obviously, the boring brown seats have been covered with their blue and grey pleather material.

The most useful additions are the mini pockets, which are on the seat back pocket. These pockets are very useful for placing the iPod, Blackberry and other small electronics within easy reach without having to dig around for them in the seat back pocket itself.

The Bombay Ticket Counters

Bombay airport is called the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, formerly known simply as Sahar International Airport. Leave it to the Indians to keep things simple.

Fortunately, besides the long name, the airport has improved dramatically from the hollow shell that it once used to be. An ongoing development is recreating the interior to make it a world class airport.

The sister airport, also known by the exceedingly long name, formerly known simply as the Santa Cruz Domestic Airport, has transformed from an ugly stepchild to a wonderfully spacious and first class airport facility.

Most of this redevelopment has occured after the semi-privatization of the airports by the Government Of India. About time, considering the presence of India on the world stage.

However, the development is far from complete and this is obvious at the checkin counters. For starters, the construction is obvious, not so much by the fashionably colorful floor to cieling wooden boards all over, but by pails of concrete, ladders and dust near by.

In India, prior to checking in your bags, you have to get them sealed with a plastic strip. A rather large machine operated by a crew of a half dozen men screens and then places a strip around the bag. While it appears to be a security measure, in reality, it's probably a mechanism to keep those men employed. Most airports have three or four of these machines. That's 24 people with a job.

Typically, if you are unaware of this procedure, you will likely find out, much to your frustration, after having stood in line for some time and finally reached the counter, only to be sent to the back of the line.

The Continental Airlines counter is basically an Air India counter with Continental printed cards all over. On the day I traveled, service had only been a week old, and the staff were only just being trained.

There were several personnel from the US overseeing the Indian personnel. While they tried to be discreet, it was next to impossible as the average black or white male is quite a bit larger than the average Indian male, let alone an Indian female.

Security was tricky as I was part of the education program for the staff. The Indian guy asked me a battery of questions with an obvious lack of surety in his eyes, and then cross checked with someone who it turned out was the chief of security for the flight.

Since they haven't started advertising the flights in India, the flight was almost empty and checkin was smooth.

One note is that only one hand luggage is allowed, regardless of the airline's own policy. This is an Indian rule that's enforced in a very ad hoc fashion. It appears women can take up to three bags without being questioned whereas men can't. While being highly irregular, it's very annoying so be warned.

CO 48 and CO 49

Continental Airlines has recently started their EWR - BOM flights. The flights are so new that their Bombay staff haven't yet been trained.

Judging from the number of passengers, Continental hasn't started promoting the flights in India as yet.

They appear to have two 777-200s on this route. The flight attendant told me these were 777-200LR jets, but I'm highly suspicious of that claim there wasn't any indication of such, as well as the fact that I've had the opportunity to closely examine both jets and this one looked like a 200, not a 200LR.

The jet on which I flew out was newer than on the return flight.

Continental doesn't do complimentary upgrades on their international routes. Their economy class seats had been tagged as regular and premium on their seating chart, but in reality, they were the same.

The seat back entertainment system was the best in the business, with over 300 movies, many hundred shows, thousands of songs, games and the option for INTERNET access for the future.

Each seat cluster had two US/Japan/Taiwan power socket, making it easy to charge your Bose headphones, which you may have to do on such a long flight.

777 jets are the smoothest and so the flight itself was wonderful. Seat pitch wasn't great, but it was far more than on most domestic flights.

Food on the outbound was above average, and far below average on the return. Also, the outbound flight was packed, whereas there were about 100 people on the return flight.

Both flights flew at around 33000 feet near the US but at the maximum cieling of 40000 feet over Afghanistan and Central Asia. This resulted in accelerated dehydration of the body, which most passengers don't realize during the flight.

Both crews hadn't been to India before. I felt pretty sorry for them. Anyone who's done the India tour from DXB, SIN or KUL will know that it's the worst bus ride you can take. However this set of passengers were only marginally rowdy and once everyone had tucked in for the night, all was quiet.

More on Bombay ticket counters after the break ...

Delta's Revamped Website

Those of us who were once Delta customers probably recall how aweful their service was. In fact, I'd wager a guess that many of us were pleased when we heard the news of their possible demise.

Now that they are out of bankruptcy, they've done a tidy job of improving everything about their operations. Most notable is their website. It allows you to do everything regarding your flight online, and in my experience, has very reasonable fares, albeit with connections.

In addition, like Continental, they give you 24 hours to cancel a web ticket with a full refund.

Then comes the obvious question - what about their flights?

I suspect their website had a bug earlier this year as there was a certain behavior that has ceased to appear. If I tried booking my tickets too close to my date of travel, when I used to book discounted coach seats, I'd also get First Class seats at coach prices. For most of this summer, I flew Delta first class at full coach fares. Sadly, this has stopped.

Delta has two configurations for their jets.

More on that shortly ...

Continental's New Flights to Bombay

Not too long ago, I was surfing the web and came upon the new India flights from Continental Airlines. It didn't come as a surprise, as Delta and American already had their direct flights.

What did come as a surprise was the destination - Bombay. For me, this was great news as that's a city in India that I'm familiar with and, for all intents and purposes, its the New York City of India.

So I decided that I must check it out.

The first, most important, aspect of this flight is the schedule.

CO48 - Outbound from EWR to BOM, leaves at 8 pm and arrives at 8:30 pm, 14 hours later (give or take an hour).

CO49 - Inbound from BOM to EWR, departs at 11:45 pm from Bombay and gets in at 5:30 am, about 14 hours later.

Both flights fly a polar route with flights over Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I flew on October 12th, which was only a week after their inaguration.

More after the break ...

Introductions

We have all traveled at least once in our lives. Let's face it, in this day and age, it's hard not to. And all of us have had our fair share of stories to tell.

Not unusually, my job is what makes me travel. I travel a lot. 100% of the time. My wife hates it. I don't hate it, but it has its drawbacks.

In my travels, I've learned a bit about airlines and aircraft, as well as what to do and what not to do when chaos erupts.

Here's my blog.