I have a bit of a layover in Las Vegas today and was happy to find that the entire airport has free WiFi. That's really cool. Considering what a small investment it is, I'm surprised more hub airports don't just give it away for free. I wonder what the infrastructure for setting up and running (or letting someone else run) a pay-per-use wifi network really costs vs. the benefits of making customers happy by just giving it away...

I've never flown RyanAir before, opting for EasyJet when I lived in London. But now I've gotten to experience them in all their glory and I have never been nickled and dimed and subjected to more humiliation in my life as a traveller. These guys make Southwest look like a first class cruise. I bought a ticket from London to Montpellier for about $65, which is actually very expensive for RyanAir (who are known for giving away tickets for free), but it was the best I could do.

First things first, immense lines full of sullen and hungover English folks, then a general irritation that I did not write down my confirmation number. Who writes that down? They had to spend an extra 12 seconds looking up my reservation by my last name and they were not happy about it. My mistake, no big deal.

Then, they baggage fees. 15kg is the limit. Most airlines will give you 30kg, or 50lbs in the US. But I had 21kg. Bam! £27 fine. Then they almost made me check my laptop bag - no way I was going to allow that.

The flight itself was fine, and I knew in advance there would be no free food of any kind (at least Southwest gives you peanuts and Coke). On Ryan Air, they only serve name-brand junk food, which they presumably get for free from the Mars corp, and they will even charge you for water. Later, they come around and try to sell lottery tickets. Ok, these are technically for charity, but still!

But the ultimate demonstration of their cheapness came when we landed in a blinding rainstorm in Montpellier. RyanAir is too cheap to pay the fees to have the jet bridge extended to the plane. So we pulled up to the gate, within about 20 feet of the jet bridge and had a staircase brought to the plane. Everyone had to run about 100 yrds through the rain and an inch deep river to the terminal. People where falling over on the tarmac and droping things left and right. Hilarious.

My hands are still covered with some horrid glue that got all over my suitcase from the cheap (now soaking wet) tags they stuck all over it. Anyway, what can i say? You get what you pay for, but I paid too much!

test

I just flew from New York to Milwaukee on board what is becoming the new standard in aviation for short(ish) flights - the Regional Jet. In this case, the Canadair RJ. Basically, these are small jets designed to serve markets more frequently and more cheaply than full sized airliners, which are both fine goals. The problem is they stink. There is virtually no legroom, your head hits the ceiling if you approach 6ft, the overhead bins are so small you can barely fit a laptop in, and the things will produce claustrophobia in even the most seasoned flyer.

In a radical step, possibly never seen before, I walked to the Reno airport this morning. It was about 2 miles, so not very long, but there was something especially satisfying about getting there in an entirely non automotive fashion. I did have to jump over a small fence, but it otherwise went quite smoothly.

Stupidly, I left my camera in my luggage so once again missed the opportunity to take photographs of some very interesting sights, including a spectacular vista of the Yosemite valley. I saw half dome from an angle I've seen it before.. it's actually way narrower than I thought. Then over the southen part fo the vast central valley of California where you can see the transition between desert and irrigated farmland. There seem to be a tremendous number of either chicken or hog farms down there, rows upon rows of long white sheds among the farm fields. In certain areas, salt is visible on the surface - the result of overly agressive groundwater pumping, straight out of Cadillac Desert.

And of course the spectacular final aproach into the ultimate megalopolis, LA. Next time my camera remains in my pocket.

Odd things happen when you´re semi-employed. I have started an airline review section of this website to satiate my enthusiasm for aviation and writing. Feel free to contibute. If you´re really interested I´ll give you a log in.

Also, I had to turn comments off for a while because of constant spam. Another chapter in the cat and mouse game against spammers emerges...

Having moved my never ending quest for free plane tickets to Europe, I am finding the project infinitely more difficult due to the dearth of methods by which one may attain "miles", the frequent flyer currency, as well as the insidiously miserly attitude British Airways has toward coach class passengers. That's another long story. The interesting thing I accomplished this evening was a calculation of the approximate worth of one BA mile: 0.61 Pence, that's just about 1 US cent.

How? By mock-booking numerous flights in various price ranges and comparing them to available mileage flights, I divided the prices I was offered by the number of miles that I could have used. Taking tax into consideration, the average popped out at just about 0.61p per mile.

This number is useful when calculating how much one would benefit from getting a mileage earning credit card, which pays you 1 mile per pound spent. For every £100 spent you therefore get about a 0.61 61 pence return, which is pretty pathetic really, but still justifies the Amex card I got because it has no annual fee. So I win, but barely.

The bottom line is that it is never worth paying extra for BA miles, unless you're receiving them at a price significantly lower than 0.61p. If the credit card has an annual fee, that's probably enough to destroy any benefit from it.

This is the kind of crap I think about. [more info]

A prediction: In the next 6 months, there will be a "Frequent Flyer Panic", particularily affecting United Airlines. As people fear the airline's demise they will start burning through frequent flyer miles in fear they may be soon worthless. This will further hurt the airline's revenue, which will most likely lead to new restrictions on the use of miles, and possibly worse.

United is trying to avoid this by acting cool and offering double miles in hopes people will be be tempted to earn and not spend. Problem is, this is like printing more money to solve a financial crisis. Might work, might not! Too bad I don't have any vacation time at the momment, I for one am ready to spend... but dont say it too loudly.

This is just tooo cool. A live map of the bay area showing all aircraft currently in flight. You can watch 'em line up at various airports. [link] You can actually click on each plane and see what airline it is, and all sorts of info about it's altitude and heading. Definitely a major acomplishment in terms of online interfaces.

Vicente Fox wants to build a massive new airport outside Mexico City to replace the dilapidated and overcrowded current one. At first I was surprised to hear the protests of people who's land would be bought for the airport. After all, if you're a dirt poor peasant, what could be better that a massive government land buy-out? But the people say they won't move at any price. That impresses me. What kind of life could these people live with a few thousand dollars each? Most would move to the city, and though a few might manage to do something new, most would probably just fall into the slums, and they realize this. Unlike the USA, Mexico seems to respond to semi-volient revolts with hostage taking. I suppose that's can be a good and bad thing. At least they seem to be listening. It will be interesting to watch what sort of compromise gets worked out.
[Article]