Sorry about the limited blogging but I am in midst of an unusually
busy travel time. In the 3 weeks leading up to this Friday, if all goes well, I
will have flown 18 airline segments on 6 airlines, and this site estimates my total at 26,143 miles. While
most of my non-flying time has been with clients or doing client related work,
I have managed to squeeze in meetings with 2 Irregulars – David Terrar in London, and Sadagopan in Hyderabad (who travels even more than I am
doing). Of course, I could have met most of the contingent this weekend at
Sapphire in Atlanta,
which is just 400 miles from where I live!
So far 2 delays – including one with a re-routing. And 2 reprimands for using my GPS. I am spoilt by Southwest – I must have used my GPS
on 20+ flights without any murmurs. But on Alaska Air, the airline magazine
specifically prohibits it as the flight attendant pointed out. Delta was a bit
stranger. Its magazine does not specifically prohibit it. Joe Mehaffey who tracks a lot of GPS matters including
airlines which allow usage lists Delta as a yes. But the flight attendant came
with red book in hand and showed me a section with says tethered GPSes are not
allowed (in my car the GPS talks by Bluetooth to my PDA. On a plane, it is connected by a USB cable to my laptop and rests under the plane window shade). On my way out I asked the pilot why Southwest is so accepting of it,
and his response “In that case they are breaking FAA rules”. In fact, as Joe
points out it is the captain’s prerogative - the FAA has nothing to do with it.
If it is unsafe, wish Delta would decide one way or the other not let
individual crews decide. I can tell you the GPS entertains every passenger who
sits next to me (it also means that flight is usually a write off in terms of
doing work). On my travels I sat next to an army guy headed to the Middle East, and a lady who has been to 116 countries. Even such seasoned travelers enjoy seeing the
trip progress on my laptop. And one was relieved that we flew over Blacksburg,VA
without an incident.
Back to my clients. They should be delighted my airfare for
all this travel is around $ 2,800 or little less than 11c a mile. Only two of
the flights were booked more than 2 weeks out. And four segments are upgrades.
May be I was too generous in offering the airlines a flat 12c a mile in this
post. Nah, keep the change. Just be safe and on time... and let me use my GPS -)
