Category: Travel

An Idiot Abroad

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There is a new documentary coming out on Sky1 in the United Kingdom called “An Idiot Abroad”. Ricky Gervais has taken a non-traveler and sent him to explore the Seven Wonders of the World. Hilarity ensues.

In some of my travels I have encountered people like the subject of this show. They’re not really idiots, they just do not have the desire to travel or leave their comfort zone of their home country. I’m sure some of it has to do with self-preservation and not putting oneself in harm’s way. Going abroad is intimidating for a lot of people, so I don’t hold it against this guy. The show does look hilarious though.

[A warning – there is nudity and foul language in the previews below]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUTH1coLIWE
An Idiot Abroad – Preview Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TChZa-GfAtA
An Idiot Abroad – Preview Part 2

TSA Doing Bag Checks on NYC Subway?

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This news from Gothamist is bothersome. The TSA has partnered with NYPD to provide the New York transit system with “random and unpredictable security measures, like mobile screening in rail environments and at mass transit stations across the country”. The last few words are the most interesting, “across the country” implies that the TSA will be rolling this out across the U.S.

Yes, this is the same TSA who had an agent leave their post unattended, resulting in Newark-Liberty Airport being shut down for six hours. Can we imagine for a minute, what would happen to any of the transit systems across the country if the TSA had such a breach at one of them? It would be pandemonium, people looking for ways to get home and finding no options.

The big question I have is whether or not the TSA actually has the authority to conduct such searches. If they don’t, then hopefully someone stands up against this on a legal base. If they do, then I’d like to know who granted them such authority.

Frequent Flyer

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I occasionally get asked why I fly so much or why I go to Europe for the weekend. Well, a few months back a documentary was made about my slight obsessive compulsive behavior when it comes to flying. It is a hobby, just like any other, except it goes around the world at 600 mile per hour. Flight has always been an interest of mine, but it was not until college and then traveling for work that I became interested in doing it for fun. There is just something about knowing that the furthest points of the Earth are only a flight away that fascinates me.

On the scale of how much I fly, I am a lightweight compared to some of the people in the movie (and know a few of them). Just like the video says, there is a whole community devoted to mileage running and travel. Watch and enjoy, maybe you’ll learn a little about my obsessive compulsive desire to travel.

My Year in Cities, 2009

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Here is a list of cities that I visited last year. There were good chunks of the year where I was not traveling and then spurts of nothing but travel.

  • Marfa, TX
  • Alpine, TX
  • El Paso, TX
  • Portland, Oregon*
  • Dallas, TX
  • Austin, TX*
  • San Antonio, TX
  • Chicago, IL
  • Baltimore, MD
  • West Palm Beach, FL
  • Miami, FL
  • Las Vegas, NV
  • Quito, Ecuador
  • Frankfurt, Germany
  • Brussels, Belgium
  • Paris, France

One or more nights was spent in each city. Cities marked with a * were visited multiple times on non-consecutive days. Here are my lists from 2008 and 2007.

TSA Picking on Bloggers and News Reporters

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I apologize for my many posts on the TSA and the current security issues at airports but the situation has deteriorated so quickly that it is hard to keep up.

Over the past couple of days a couple of bloggers and news reporters have been served subpoenas because they published TSA Security Directive SD-1544-09-06. Both Steven Frischling and Chris Elliott were served subpoenas by the DHS to learn the identity of the source who had provided the TSA directive. Mr. Frischling believes that the TSA is taking security seriously and that is why they want the name of the source. I agree with him, but the methods that the DHS and TSA have used seem extreme. Most of the directive is just procedural stuff and would have come out as people flew, so why all the fuss?

The TSA wants to make sure they close as many holes in their organization as possible to insure functional security. If people are leaking things that will eventually become public what is to keep them from leaking confidential information? In that regard I understand the need to know the identity of the leak. However, coming down full force on these reporters is not the way I would go about it.

Hopefully the hassles from the TSA will stop and this administration will realize that making “Top Secret” documents public is not as much of a priority as having safety cover the different methods of travel. Mr. President, fire the TSA.

Full Body Scanners Go International

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The New York Daily News is reporting that Amsterdam-Schipol International Airport will start putting full body image scanners in place in the wake of the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. On top of that, the Dutch are pushing for the full body scanners to be deployed in airports across the 27 countries that make up the European Union.

While the average traveler sees these machines as a necessity to prevent terrorism, and yes, in this case they may have worked, I see them as a nuisance. Even more annoying than the machines are the people who want them in place but do not want profiling of any kind to be used at airports. So, it’s alright to look at someone nude on a computer screen but picking people out of a line because they fit a profile is horrible?

Where do we stop though? If a terrorist is able to carry out an attack after passing through the machines, what’s the next step? Does everyone have to have every article of luggage and every part of their body searched before the get on a plane? What about airport workers? At some point, the searches and nuisances will get so bad that people will just stop flying… Then what?

An Update to the TSA Directive

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It appears I clicked the “publish” button just a little too quickly on my post about the new TSA rules. A few minutes after I posted that, a new post appeared on KLM’s blog documenting the changes. The biggest change? No more 1-hour before landing rule. From the looks of it, the TSA decided that requiring passengers to stay seated with no entertainment during the last hour of flight was just stupid.

Bags will still be physically checked at random gates and passengers may be patted down before the flight. This too is kind of dumb but I would rather go through the pat down than be stuck in my seat during the last hour of the flight.

What does this move really mean though? It means the TSA is playing a guessing game on how to prevent attacks and that they really have no idea what to do. Ignorance is bliss when it is someone else undergoing the treatment I guess.

The New TSA Rules

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After Christmas Day’s failed attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 the TSA has announced new security procedures both at airports and in-flight. The procedures are supposed to make us safer while we travel but they seem to be heavy handed and overkill.

The domestic changes include more security personnel and screening of passengers at gates. While neither of these things seem like a big deal on the surface, the screening of passengers at the gate is a time intensive undertaking. This means that flights may be later and people may miss their flights due to the increased screenings.

Where the real restrictions come into play is international flights entering the United States. The rules now state that for the last hour of flight all passengers must remain seated with nothing in their laps, including blankets, pillows, magazines, and computers. Also, no electronics are allowed during that last hour flight. There have been confirmed rumors that airlines are turning off the in-flight entertainment for the entire flight because of the map feature. Another rumor, though I am not sure it has been confirmed, is that passengers will not be allowed to access their luggage in the overhead bin.

Maybe I am a rarity but I think these international rules are complete “theater” for the sake of us as an audience. No in-flight entertainment because of the map? If people know how long a flight is, they can kind of guess where they are, plus there are tools that map the most efficient routes for planes to travel.

The last hour of the flight is when people are most restless, they need to use the restroom and they are just ready to get off the plane. Keeping people in their seats for that last hour may seem like a good idea but what’s to keep a terrorist from doing their bad deed four hours before landing? Does no one else see the uselessness of this rule?

I am fine with not being able to use electronic devices that last hour, but not being able to read a magazine or cover myself with a blanket is not security, it’s paranoia mixed with the notion that we can keep people from doing bad things at all times.

What this boils down to is you, as a passenger, getting closer and closer to just becoming a body on a transport plane. When they announce that they are blindfolding everyone before boarding, I’m done flying.

[UPDATE] – Scott McCartney has a great write-up on this lunacy at The Wall Street Journal.

NYT Article on Mileage Running

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The New York Times has an article on mileage running, the practice of flying around just to attain a status with an airline. It is a good look at what a typical mileage run is like for me.

I am actually starting out 2010 with a couple of mileage runs, most notably a mistake fare that Continental filed between Washington D.C. and San Francisco for $78 one-way.

Denver to Singapore in Five Minutes

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This video has been on the internet for a while but it still intrigues me, maybe because the guy has a love of travel similar to myself. He setup his camera to take a picture every minute or so and then compiled it into a video. The best part is, he flew Denver to Singapore for a weekend. Right up my alley.

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/7410637[/vimeo]

Next time I find some crazy routing or have a couple of long flights, I’m going to see if I can compile something like this.