Missed Flight Connection

Monday evening my wife and I flew home from visiting my son in Ohio. We got to the airport with plenty of time to make our flight only to discover it to be delayed. Normally we try to get nonstop flights but a layover in Detroit turned out to be less expensive. It also worked better with my work schedule as I could attend early-morning meetings on Monday with India. Unfortunately our flight out of Columbus got delayed by an hour and we only had a 45-minute layover.

Before boarding the flight we had 2 options. The first was to take the flight and hope that our connecting flight to Salt Lake also had a similar delay. The second was to spend the night in Columbus and take the early-morning flight out non-stop to Salt Lake. I felt like the second option admitted defeat before we even tried to get home and opted to get on an hour-delayed flight.

We arrived in Detroit and could see our connecting flight had yet to leave. As we guessed, it also had a delay and for a moment, we thought we could make it. We didn't as it pulled away from the gate about 5 minutes before we got there. In all my years of flying, I have only ever missed 2 connections resulting in me having to spend an extra night on the road and Monday night turned out to be one of them. Considering I have flown over 2 million miles, that is not bad.

My wife and I walked to a Delta Airlines customer service center and immediately talked to someone who could help us out. He quickly found our travel record and saw that I had attached my mobile phone to it. He sent a text with a link that opened a webpage offering us a selection of hotels to choose from. The first one, I didn't recognize the name and skipped over it. The rest I recognized as familiar brands such as Sheraton, Marriott, and Hilton. I knew I would not get any frequent-stay points and so it doesn't help to choose one where you have status. I picked one close by and started walking out of the airport.

The hotel had a free shuttle bus from the airport and so we walked to the shuttle pickup location. I decided to call the hotel to make sure we didn't need to schedule it and was told the driver was on his way. Soon enough he showed up and we made our way to the hotel. Upon check-in, I only needed to provide the confirmation number given when selecting the hotel for the evening. Furthermore Delta provided $48 in dining credit that the hotel restaurant easily took.

I did all of this on my smartphone. Not once did I need to pull out my computer. I also didn't have any paper voucher that could easily be lost. It all just worked. My wife and I had an enjoyable stay in Detroit complete with a late-night snack.

The next morning we caught an 8am flight to Salt Lake and made it home without any more adventure. Sure my wife missed a doctor's appointment and I barely made it home in time for my first meeting of the day, but we got home. My wife rescheduled her appointment and I only had to move a few activities around. Would I give Delta high marks for taking care of us? Yes. Am I upset about the inconvenience of taking an extra day to get home? Again yes, but circumstances being what they were, we did okay.

I am making a mental note to pay a few extra bucks and take nonstop flights when available. I am also very pleased with how the airline handled the problem. I've had another airline not be nearly so accommodating for a problem they caused and have not flown them in over 10 years nor do I plan to fly them ever again. But that is a story for another time. 

Cyber Monday and the Wrong Flight

I am on a flight today headed back to Salt Lake City. I picked today to fly trying to avoid the tail-end of Thanksgiving travel. I also knew I could get some important work done on the flight with the help of in-flight Internet. I'm glad I planned to work as the plane's entertainment service isn't working. They've reset the system 3 times now without success. It is kind of annoying but it means I can focus more of my attention on getting work done. Sometimes you pick the right flight where there are empty seats next to you or something amazing happens. Today is not that day.

Today also happens to be Cyber Monday when all of the online stores have their biggest sales. Once again my e-mail inbox received a flood of messages encouraging me to spend money on potential Christmas gifts. Once again I am not really interested in spending money. It would probably be a good idea to come up with a list of gifts for those on my list before Black Friday and Cyber Monday roll around. Then I could take advantage of some of the deals. Fortunately the discounts seem to stick around up until the big day. Then everything really goes on sale.

One sale I knew would happen today is that from the airlines. I received a special e-mail from both Alaska and Delta as those are the two carriers I use the most. I'm sure I also got one from Southwest but skipped over it as I have not been flying them recently. Don't get me wrong, they are a great airline with spectacular deals. I just prefer nonstop flights and Southwest seems to have multiple legs whenever I want to go somewhere. That doesn't mean I don't check their schedule first as it serves as a great baseline price.

I also received a lot of e-mails from hotel chains that I tend to use for business travel. There are some great deals out there. Unfortunately, for my personal travel I have been scouring AirBnB for most of my overnight accommodations recently. For about the same price as a hotel, I can get a living room and a kitchen. It is only business trips where I use hotels any more. Since the company is paying for it, I don't mind staying in hotels and eating out at restaurants.

Speaking of business travel I should probably get back to work. There is a lot going on this week and I need to get ready for all of the events. Then I can wind down for the Christmas break.

Internet on a Plane

I have been traveling a lot with recent trips to Alaska, Mexico, and Hawaii. This has given me the chance to test Internet conditions for a lot of different environments including on a cruise ship. I spend all day working in front of a computer and while the device is important, an Internet connection is usually required to remain effective.

So why do I need an Internet connection? I spend a lot of time communicating with my fellow employees. E-mail is good for this but I also use Microsoft Teams and the messaging included with it. I can live without those connections for only a short amount of time before people begin to worry. I also spend a lot of time working on shared documents. While I may have a local copy that I can edit on a plane, it sure is nice to have my changes seen immediately by others working on the document also.

Delta Airlines has started offering free Internet connections to all of the passengers that are members of their frequent flyer program. You don't have be any special status to use the service, just a member of the program. I gave it a try on a recent trip and discovered it works well. Unfortunately you cannot make voice or video calls but you can use it for e-mail, instant messaging, and editing shared documents. Delta claims that it is fast enough to watch a streaming movie and so I don't see why one wouldn't be able to use it for video calls other than the FAA regulation that prohibits it. I did notice the service felt choppy in some instances and I am not sure how the upload speed is so it may be a prohibiting factor.

I also had the chance to check out Alaska Airline's Internet service on my recent trip to Hawaii. While I flew out on a Sunday, I returned on a Thursday and worked on the plane as I flew home. I made sure to let my boss know I wouldn't be available for a meeting during my flight time. Unfortunately the service is not free for everyone. As a T-mobile customer, I had an hour of free Internet service which I never tried. However I did set up texting from my phone and remained in contact with people during the flight.

The overall lesson learned from using Internet on a plane is that as long as I don't have any meetings, it is a viable option to remain productive. Unfortunately for me, I generally have meetings daily and so it is probably impossible to take a day to fly somewhere and count it as a work day. That is something I will need to remember as I make plans for future travel.

2021 Christmas List

It is that time of year when people are starting to panic about what to get that computer nerd for Christmas. My wife hates trying to guess what I will want for Christmas and so I have to present a list for her early in September. This year that is probably a good idea as the news keeps talking about supply-chain issues and if you don't order gifts now, they might not arrive before Christmas. So for those of you that have procrastinated getting that computer geek in your life something special, here are some things that I would like.

The Gift of Learning

Technology changes at a rapid pace and I am constantly trying to keep up with new advancements. Several years ago I received a catalog from The Great Courses and ordered a few DVD classes on the National Parks and some others on Photography. Since then I have picked up a guitar course and several others. For a few years, my employer provided me with an unlimited online subscription to all of the courses. My wife and I would sit down about every other night and learn about quite a few number of topics that we both found interesting. Early in my career, computers were also my hobby and so if you have someone like that in your life, I would suggest finding their interests and seeing if there are any courses that match their level of experience. There is a great introduction to Machine Learning course (Christmas special of $50 right now) but if your gift recipient is beyond the beginning level, I would look for something else.

The Gift of Experiences

I find that the older I get, the less stuff I want. This may be because I already have everything I want or maybe I am just tired of throwing technology away when it becomes outdated. In any event, I always appreciate the gift of experiences. My son is giving his children a trip to Disneyland for Christmas and my wife and I have been invited. Of course we have to pay for ourselves but we are looking forward to the trip and have decided that it will be our gift to each other for Christmas. While a trip may be well outside your Christmas budget, there are a lot of ideas to help reduce the cost of a trip for someone. You might give them a gift card to help with airfare. There are a lot of airlines that allow you to give gift cards. Southwest and Delta are my two favorite. You could also give gift cards that can be spent at a destination such as Disneyland.

One of the best deals you can get someone that is looking for experiences is an America the Beautiful pass. It is a card that lets a car-load of people into any of our National Parks and National Monuments. It is only $80 for a year and pays for itself after only 2 visits. This year I have visited Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea Lighthouse and Wildlife Refuge, and Yosemite National Park. I got it in May and will probably use it again for Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park before it expires.

The Gift of Photography

When I found out I would be leaving Sony, I made a list of all the purchases I wanted to make at the online company store. I knew I would lose my discount and so I made sure to pick up a new television. Another thing I wanted was Sony's top-of-the-line digital camera. I have helped plenty of friends pick up cameras and lenses over the years. I figured I should get one for myself. I got a great deal on a Sony A7RIV. The only downside is I also needed to get lenses. I did a bit of research and picked up 5 different ones. I won't go into too many details but I am very happy with the purchase. Now if my wife would let me play with the camera before Christmas I could provide a nice review.

You don't need an expensive camera to give someone the gift of photography for Christmas. Perhaps they already have a great camera but could use an additional lens. My guess though is that a newer smartphone might be a better purchase. I generally go several years before upgrading my phone. Check with your carrier to see if there are free low-cost upgrades. While I have a spectacular camera, I use my mobile phone's camera a lot more. The cameras in the latest phones are nothing short of amazing.

The Gift of 3D Printing

My final gift idea for the year is that of 3D Printing. My youngest son got me into 3D printing while he completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering. Now that he has graduated, he purchased his own printer but continues to send me ideas of things to print. You can get your own 3D printer for around $200. If that special nerd in your life already has one, there are countless upgrades and supplies that would make great gifts. Just be sure to make sure any upgrades will work with the existing printer. You can also never have enough printing material and that you can find for around $20. Again, make sure it will work with the printer as filament comes in various sizes.

The Gift of Choice

I hate recommending generic gift cards as a Christmas gift but sometimes that could be the best choice. If you want to get some PLA for your nerd's 3D printer but are not quite sure of the filament size, just get a $20 gift card to Amazon and eliminate any worry about if you got the right stuff. It also allows you to tailor your gift to fit your budget exactly.

How to Beat the Unseasonably High Temperatures in the Bay Area

Today is one of those really warm days in the Bay Area and everybody seems to be dying from the heat. I don't have air conditioning on my boat and so I really don't want to spend a sweltering evening on the water waiting for the temperature to fall to acceptable levels. I could stay at the office and play video games. Instead I am going to spend the next several hours on planes gathering frequent flyer miles.

Every year I look at how many miles I have flown and what frequent-flyer level that puts me at for my most traveled airlines. Last year I lost all of my perks on Delta but didn't really care. When I went to Disney World in May, I just made sure the purchase first class tickets on Delta. Then I didn't need to worry about if I got upgraded or not.

I generally fly on Alaska Airlines between Salt Lake and the Bay Area. I discovered that I wouldn't make the most elite level this year without a little help. When Alaska ran a sale for really inexpensive flights between SFO and LAX, I snapped up a few round trips for $101. That will push me over the top and next year I will reap the benefits.

So how do I decide if making the next level is worth the cost in flights? Easy, I look at the perks and assign a price to each one. When the perks outweigh the price for these extra tickets, I buy some inexpensive round trips. It is important to assign accurate values to each of the perks otherwise you can convince yourself to spend $20 for $10 worth of benefits. One example is the bonus miles awarded at the higher frequent-flyer level. In my mind I figured it was worth about 25,000 extra miles for the year. That is the equivalent of a domestic ticket anywhere Alaska flies. Rather than use my estimation, I calculated how much the benefit was worth this year and it turned out to only be around 15,000 miles. That is significantly less than my initial guess.

There are all sorts of tips and tricks to getting frequent flyer miles and reaching elite levels for the various loyalty programs. You can't be an elite member in more than one (or for a very rare group of people two) so it is important to pay attention to what your travel will be like in the future. If I was to quit flying for my job then tonight's flight would be wasted money. Fortunately I don't see that happening any time soon.

Airport Flight Delays

I am at the Los Angeles International airport waiting for a flight back to Salt Lake and it is delayed by 2 hours. This whole trip has been plagued by travel delays and so I find myself in the airport wondering how best to spend my time. When I left Salt Lake on Monday afternoon, I finished my ham radio magazine due to a delayed flight. Last night I patiently waited an extra 2 hours for my wife's flight to arrive from Salt Lake so we could spend today at Disneyland. Fortunately I had a car and could drive to get some dinner nearby. I ate at the same coffee shop where they filmed a scene for the movie XXX with Vin Diesel and the food tasted amazing. I recommend it highly.

Even before I headed to the airport this evening I knew that this flight would be delayed simply because it is the last flight of the day and my experience with Southwest is that evening flights are almost always delayed. Unfortunately you cannot plan on the flight being late because if it isn't and you miss the flight, the consequences can be expensive and uncomfortable.

So how best to spend my evening? I have 2 smartphones and a laptop with a full battery as well as my PlayStation Vita. My first thought included using my laptop to write this blog entry. Unfortunately the free Internet connection at LAX is only good for 45 minutes and so I am trying to write quickly. Experience has taught me that when the 45 minutes is up, my network connection gets screwy and requires a fair amount of work to get reconnected. When I am done here I will take care of my work e-mail on one of my smartphones. Then I will pull out my Vita and play some Lego Hobbit. If I still need to entertain myself after that, I will probably be too tired to do anything more than listen to Spotify, Pandora, or stored MP3 files on my phone. Hopefully I will remain entertained.

Using a Smartphone for Calls

Saturday afternoon I boarded my flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles and patiently took my seat. About 10 minutes before our scheduled departure the pilot came on and informed us there was a slight problem with the plane's computer and that he was going to try to reboot it. For some reason, I pictured him typing CTL-ALT-DEL. Twenty minutes and a few announcements later, we were informed that the computer was not responding and that it needed to be replaced. The process would take 45 minutes. My layover in Los Angeles was only 45 minutes to begin with and we were already 10 minutes into that. I was going to miss my flight to Tokyo.

Missing my flight was not an option. I was scheduled to arrive at 10:30pm Sunday evening and I was hosting a conference at 8:30 am the following morning. Any delay would seriously jeopardize my attendance at my own event. An event that I had spent the previous 6 months planning. I immediately got on the phone with Delta using a special number given to their platinum-level customers. My mobile number identified me and there was no need to enter my frequent flyer number. I thought that was a nifty feature. Soon I was connected with a real person who immediately knew why I was calling. He told me to get off the plane and run to another flight headed to San Francisco. While I ran, he rebooked me on a different itinerary using another carrier for the leg from San Francisco to Tokyo.

I ended up sprinting through the Salt Lake airport and immediately boarded my new flight. Then I landed and sprinted through the San Francisco airport to the international terminal. I got a new boarding pass with my seat assignment and had the luxury of experiencing TSA security for the second time that day. Yes, that last sentence was dripping with sarcasm. For those that don't know me, I hate going through airport security as I do it twice a week, whether I want to or not. I sprinted to the gate and boarded the flight to Tokyo. Yes, I was stuck in a middle seat for the 10-hour flight but I was going to make my conference. In fact, I landed only a few minutes later than my originally scheduled flight.

Yes, Delta has a smartphone app that I could have used to help with my travel. However it wouldn't have booked me on a different carrier. Unfortunately my unique situation required human intervention. At those times, it is nice that a smartphone can also be used as a phone. After all, that is why I carry it.

Headed Home

I am at the Haneda airport in Tokyo, Japan waiting to board my plane back to the States. It has been a busy and successful trip but I am glad to be headed home. Now if my flight is on time, I might be able to make my connection from Seattle to Salt Lake City.

This morning I checked the Internet to see if my flight was on time and saw a red warning saying it was 45 minutes delayed. I want to know what algorithm Delta Airlines is using to determine my flight is going to be delayed 18 hours before I board it. I spent the day worrying if I was going to make my connection. I got online and mapped out an alternate itinerary so I could make it home without having to overnight somewhere on the West coast. Then I planned to get to the airport early so I could get the airline to change my itinerary.

I had to leave a celebration dinner early so I could have plenty of time to get to the airport only to discover trains were delayed due to an accident. Rather than take a direct train to the airport, I jumped on another one, made a connection, and got to the airport 20 minutes earlier than if I had waited for the direct train. I got up to the ticket agent and discovered my plane was now on time.

This is one of those times where computers actually complicate our lives. I spent the day wondering if I would make it home as scheduled only to discover that the computer was wrong. Every once and a while they need a little human intervention.