Guest Blog: In-Flight WiFi Availability on Airlines at MDT

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Dan Webb as the fifth guest blogger*.

Dan Webb, is sophomore at Bryant University. After a year of thinking, he decided to major in business administration, concentrate in finance, and minor in actuarial math and supply chain management.

He absolutely loves planes ever since his first flight from Boston on a Northwest Airlines Boeing 757-200. When he was young, he made an airport made out of Legos, and drew the “Dan Airways” route map in inflight magazines my dad would bring home from trips (he still collects them to this day). He actually keeps track of all the flights he's ever been on. He's fairly confident that he wants to enter the airline industry after college. His professional profile is available on LinkedIn.

You can find more about Dan and his aviation/travel interests at his blog Things in the Sky and by listening to his podcast Airplane Geeks online. You can also follow Dan on Twitter.

Today Dan will share with us the in-flight wireless internet availability on the airline partners at Harrisburg International Airport (MDT).

It really impresses me how quickly inflight Wi-Fi has been installed on aircraft across the country. I've yet to be on a flight with the service, but friends who have really enjoy it. Here's a summary on the availability of Wi-Fi on carriers that fly out of MDT:

Air Canada
Like many airports in the Northeast, MDT gets its Air Canada service from Air Georgian Becch 1900 aircraft, which have no Wi-Fi. Air Canada has been testing the service on flights to Los Angeles from Toronto and Montreal, but there's no word yet on if they will expand it to the rest of their network.

AirTran
AirTran was the second carrier to get Wi-Fi on all of its aircraft, so if you're flying them out of Harrisburg, you'll have the service! The only exception is flights operated by AirTran's partner SkyWest, but that's a small operation based out of Milwaukee.

American
It was simply fantastic news when American announced that it would be returning to MDT with flights to Chicago O'Hare in April. Unfortunately, none of the flights to MDT will have Wi-Fi as they will be operated by regional subsidiary American Eagle. Nevertheless, it could be available on a connecting flight. American has Internet service on all of its 767-200 aircraft, and some MD-80s and 737-800s. You can check if your flight has Wi-Fi with it's handy widget.

Continental
The airline is still figuring out what it's doing with Wi-Fi. It will be testing out Aircell's Gogo service (the industry leader) on 21 757-300 aircraft, while the 737-900s are getting a different service from LiveTV. So, we'll just have to see what happens. Commutair flights to Cleveland and Newark from MDT won't have the serivce, though.

Delta
Like other carriers, service to/from MDT won't have Wi-Fi has they're operated by regional partners, but the service could be available on connecting flights. But Delta has made great progress - pretty much the entire pre-merger Delta fleet has Wi-Fi. So if you're connecting to a mainline flight out of Cincinnati or Atlanta, there's a great chance of Wi-Fi availability. The airline is just getting started on the Northwest fleet, however, so if you're going through Detroit your chances aren't the greatest.

United
The airline has only installed Wi-Fi on its 14 757-200s that fly to Los Angeles and San Francisco from New York as part of it's P.S. (premium service) brand. There are no plans in place to expand the service right now, but that could always change.

US Airways
US Airways is planning on installing Wi-Fi on A321 aircraft this year, but that hasn't started yet. Currently, the airline doesn't fly that aircraft to/from MDT.

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Guest Blog: Issues that international travellers have with US airport security

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Darren Cronian as the fourth guest blogger*.

Darren, living in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, writes and rants about the problems that consumers face with travel. He is asked regularly is why he started writing his blog. Is is because In 2005, he visited a high-street travel agency and was not impressed with their customer service and felt that the travel agent had no interest in helping him find a holiday. He arrived home, annoyed, and wanted to rant, so welcome to the Travel Rants blog.

He has learned a lot about the travel industry, and continues to learn. Considering he had no working experience of the industry has been quoted in a number of national newspapers and interviewed on BBC Radio. He was filmed as part of a consumer programme that was aired in December 2009. Read more about Travel Rants in the media His travels include Australia, Malaysia, Norway, and Czech Republic. His favorite travel moments are snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, and climbing over Sydney Harbour Bridge.

You can connect with Darren on any of the following social media platforms, in addition to his blog. Browse his favourite sites and blogs on StumbleUpon, keep up to date with his travels on Dopplr, chat with him on Twitter, add your travel photos to his Flickr Group, become a fan of Travel Rants on Facebook, and watch his videos on You Tube.

The number of international tourists to the United States totals over 56 million every year, so I suppose you can understand why US airport security is much stricter compared with other countries. The United States though is not seen as a welcoming country to tourists and this does put a lot of people off from visiting.

Grumpy TSA staff

You are flying to the United States for a family holiday to the sunshine state of Florida; all of the family is excited about the prospect of two weeks of sunshine and theme parks but that excitement quickly disappears as soon as you land and make your way through airport security.

Yes, welcome to the USA, where the TSA staff are grumpy, unfriendly and not welcoming. It is a shame that these people are your first experience of this great country. It doesn’t take too much effort to smile and there’s really no reason to be rude when all you want to do is jump in your hire car and find the hotel.

The endless queues

You have flown for seven hours; the kids are bored and just want to start your family holiday. Rather than making the final leg of your journey as stressless as possible you then have to spend ages queuing to get through airport security. You are stressed, frustrated and you cannot see the end of the queue.

Quizzed like a criminal

You finally get to the end of the huge queue to be made to feel like a criminal by rude officials. In the UK we have a saying, that you’re not guilty until proven otherwise. In the United States, as you pass through the security your guilty until proven otherwise. You would have thought that airport profiling would have made security easier, but that’s not the case.

Can you imagine what it is going to be like when full body scanners come into force? I really do not think that this will improve airport security; it longer to get through. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is important that airports treat security seriously, but I do think that some common sense could be introduced.

Electronic System for Travel Authorisation form

The ESTA application takes up to 72 hours to be approved, gives flyers prior approval for entry to the US. This is now mandatory for international travellers who are passport holders in 35 countries with US "visa waiver" status, Britain being one of those countries. Prior to ESTA you had to complete the green I-94 card in-flight, so maybe, hopefully, this will improve the time it takes to get through US airports.

I am interested to read your experiences with US airport security.

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Guest Blog: Codesharing Explained

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Brett Snyder as the third guest blogger*.

Brett is the President and Chief Airline Dork of Cranky Flier LLC. He self-describes as having the airline bug since he was young. As a kid, he never missed a chance to go to LAX and pick up airline timetables. His grandmother even took him to an airport hotel for my birthday one year so he could watch the planes land. By the age of 12, he had become a travel agent and soon after was volunteering at Traveler’s Aid.

Brett has worked in several places in the airline industry:

• USAir Sales Intern (1996-1997)
• America West Sales Intern (1997-1999)
• United Dulles Operations Intern (1999)
• America West Pricing Analyst/Sr Analyst/Manager (1999-2002)
• Eos Intern (2003)
• United Marketing Planning Product Manager (2004-2005)
• PriceGrabber.com Business Director of Travel (2005-2007)

Today, his main focus is his blog along with his Cranky Concierge air travel assistance service. He also freelances and consults for other companies. To see a list of everything Brett's doing today, visit his ethics page. You can also follow Brett on twitter, @CrankyFlier.

Today Brett will explain the a concept employed by airlines, Codesharing.

Codesharing. That word seems to strike fear in the hearts of travelers. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but for many, it is a great annoyance. Airlines love that they can sell tickets to people traveling from Harrisburg to Outer Mongolia all on one airline, but customers hate it when they find out that they aren't getting what they bargained for.

Not long ago, codesharing was confined mostly to regional relationships. You would book a flight on Northwest, but you might end up on a flight operated by Mesaba, for example. At least that plane was painted in Northwest colors, so you actually knew that this was affiliated somehow. But then, the airlines realized there was more money to be made.

Soon airlines began codesharing with other airlines. The practice has exploded now to the point where some airlines are finding they need more than 4 digits worth of flight numbers even though they operate nowhere near 10,000 flights.

Let's look at Harrisburg (HIA), for example. Theoretically, HIA is served by 6 airlines: Air Canada, AirTran, Continental, Delta, United, and US Airways. Do you know how many airlines actually serve the airport? Thirteen. Seriously. Only AirTran flies all their own airplanes to HIA. For the rest, it's a smorgasbord of fun. I pulled some random dates in January found this:

• Air Canada - all flights operated by Air Georgian
• Continental - all flights operated by Commutair
• Delta - all flights operated by Pinnacle, Freedom, or Atlantic Southeast
• United - one flight operated by United to Chicago, rest operated by TransStates or GoJet
• US Airways - one flight operated by US Airways to Charlotte, rest operated by Piedmont, Mesa, or Air Wisconsin

As if that's not confusing enough, you can buy a ticket on a US Airways flight under United's code. Heck, you can buy a ticket on Air France to Harrisburg but it's actually a Delta marketed flight operated by Freedom.

Let's say you're a Mozart fan and you want to fly from HIA to see his home in Salzburg, Austria. I found one option on United 8035 connecting to United 8833 and then United 9484. Guess what? That first flight is operated by GoJet, the second by Lufthansa, and the third by Austrian. Not one is operated by United itself. It's enough to make your head spin.

So what are you supposed to do about it? The good news is that if you pay attention, it's easy to figure this out. Airlines are required to disclose who is actually operating your flight. Once you find who is flying the plane, you can then do some research to see if it's an airline you actually want to fly.

• If you're worried about comfort, go to a site like SeatExpert or SeatGuru.
• You can also try SkyTrax for more info on service.
• If you're concerned about safety, go look up each airline at the Aviation Safety Network

Remember, if you don't like what you see, then keep looking for another flight. Happy travels!

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Guest Blog: Tips for Evacuating an Aircraft during an Emergency

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Beth Blair as the second guest blogger*.

Her strong online presence includes penning the monthly USATourist News Magazine and, in the blog world, co-owning TheVacationGals.com where she blogs about her travels and offers valuable insight and tips for hitting the road (and skies). Her blog posts have been featured on major news websites including Travel Meredith, Fox and NBC affiliates, Reuters, Chicago Sun Times, and others. She writes regularly for Fodors.com and Homewood Suites' SuiteTrip.com.

A former flight attendant, Beth enjoys sharing her insider’s perspective and knowledge on all aspects of travel. She is frequently quoted in the media, including Chicago Tribune, FoxNews.com travel, RealSimple.com and Woman's Day magazine and is a PBS SproutforParents.com travel expert. Beth also appeared on ABC-15 Sonoran Living Live in Phoenix, Arizona. Follow Beth on Twitter @BethBlair.

Today Beth will be sharing her tips on how to evacuate an aircraft during an emergency.

January 15th is the one-year anniversary of US Airways Flight 1549’s Hudson River ditching (aircraft water landing). The fact that every passenger and crew member on board survived stunned the world and made Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger a household name.

It’s true that the majority of airplane accidents are survivable - especially if passengers can escape within the first 90 seconds, also known as the “golden period.” Of course, the possibility of your flight actually being involved in an airplane accident is very unlikely; however, tell that to the crew and passengers of Flight 1549 and they may have a different opinion – because, despite statistics, they know it can happen.

What if you were to find yourself in such a situation - would you know what to do? Here are some basic tips every air passenger should know before boarding an aircraft:

Wear safe shoes. The trend these days is to wear easy-off shoes to get through security quickly; however, ensure the shoes you choose will protect your feet during an evacuation. You may be facing anything from freezing water, fire or snow.

Know how your seatbelt works. As silly as it sounds, passengers struggle with their seatbelts under normal circumstances. During an emergency, when seconds count, struggling with a seatbelt could become a nightmare. Fasten it low, snug and practice its easy release feature when you first sit down.

Know where the floatation devices are located. Keep in mind that not every aircraft has a life vest, but your seat does double as a floatation device. If you end up with a life vest on, never inflate it while still in the aircraft. If the plane becomes submerged under water you will not be able to lower yourself through an exit with an inflated vest.

Study your exit. This is especially important if you are sitting in an emergency exit row as not every exit is made the same. Some 40 pound exit windows are a “pull in and throw out” while others have a pull handle which pops the exit open. Also, don’t forget to look behind you for your closest exit. It is human instinct to exit through the door you entered – even if the closest exit is directly behind you.

Look outside before opening an exit. Don’t open an exit if there is smoke, fire, water or any other obstruction that could make exiting through that escape route unsafe. If the exit is blocked, direct your fellow passengers to another exit.

Never return to the aircraft. After flight 1549 passengers were quoted saying that they almost returned inside the cabin to retrieve belongings or were asked by other passengers to do the same. Never take that risk.

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Guest Blog: Get Rebooked Quickly & Stress Free When On A Delayed Or Cancelled Flight

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Steven Frischling as the first guest blogger*.

Steven, aka: Fish, and founder of The Travel Strategist, is a globe trotting photographer and recognized airline travel expert who has a knack for making sense of detailed, complex travel scenarios and understanding the intricate nature of the commercial airline industry. In the interest of sharing his in-depth knowledge of travel logistics and the intricate workings of business travel, Frischling founded the popular travel blog Flying With Fish in 2006. Flying With Fish offers regular travel tips for "Those Who Fly & Those Who Want To Fly Smarter." You can follow Steven's daily aviation and travel-related tweets on Twitter.

Today Fish will be sharing his tips on efficient and stress-free rebooking for those travelers affected by delayed/cancelled flights.

Winter is the time of year when travelers fear the weather and unfortunately are most likely to deal with unexpected delays, cancelled flights, rerouted flights and 'unforeseen' weather affecting their travel plans.

Whenever a flight is significantly delayed or cancelled there is usually a chaotic rush to be the first people in line at the gate-area counter. A planeload of passengers vying for limited amount of rebooked seats is often a slow and irritating process. This process is not only frustrating for the passengers, but the airline personnel as well. Delayed passengers tend to be angry and take their frustration out on the airline gate agents and this further slows down the process.

Should you be on a significantly delayed flight or a cancelled flight you have options to reduce your stress. Everyone wants to catch the next flight and you can increase your likelihood of a favourable rebooking while also saving yourself the irritation of standing in line only to be told "There are no more connections tonight to Portland via Detroit." So what can you do? You can always make sure you have the following information with you:

1) Always have the phone number to the airline you are flying with handy. If the airline has multiple phone numbers, find them and fly with them. The less time you spend fumbling for this basic information, the more likely you are to get yourself traveling again.

2) Know your alternate travel options for both your airline and their airline alliance partners, or code-share partners on the route you need to fly. You can get this information easily on the airline's web site, the website of their airline alliance or other online airline reservations sites. Knowing your options will save both you and the airline you are working with a lot of time and legwork.

3) Always have the itinerary of your current travel information. This information needs to include not only your intended flights, but also your PNR/Record Locator. This information is found on every airline reservation, and is emailed to you even when you book through sites such as Travelocity & Expedia.

With this information you can skip the long angry line of passengers and find a quiet place to sit down, call the airline, endure the irritating hold music and wait for an agent to rebook you on the phone. Very often agents on the phone have more options to help displaced travelers and if you are calm, polite and patient they are also often able to compensate you with a few extra frequent flyer miles if you are a member of their frequent flyer program.

Once the agent on the phone rebooks you, walk to the next gate and get ready to fly.

Happy Flying!

-Fish
http://www.flyingwithfish.com/

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Delayed at MDT? Suggestions for Passing the Time...

Are you currently delayed at Harrisburg International Airport waiting for some hopeful news about your flight? While you wait, why not pass the time with these practical or silly suggestions?

Practical Pastimes:

• Plane or Snow Equipment Spotting: On the third floor of the terminal is an observation deck with a great view of the runway. Try to spot our various pieces of snow removal equipment as the crews busily work to keep the runway, taxiway and apron clear of snow. If you're lucky you might just spot an occasional plane today too!
• Enjoy a Hot Beverage: In the food court pre-security is a McCafe and a Hudson News Euro Cafe, both offer a great selection of hot drinks. On the B-concourse (post-security, boarding pass holders only) is a Starbucks, also featuring a wide variety of hot drinks to choose from!
• Surf the Web: Enjoy our free WiFi through out the terminal. A great way to keep up-to-date on the status of your flight and the weather forecast. Who knew we'd be getting this much snow?!
• Relax with a Massage: Massage chairs are located on the secured side of the airport, enjoy a 1, 5 or 30-minute massage. Almost as good as the real thing.
• Take some Time to Eat: We have a great selection of concessionaires to choose from: McDonald's, Varsity Grill and Hudson News Euro Cafe (all located pre-security), along with Capital Cafe and Starbucks(B-concourse (post-security, boarding pass holders only)).

Silly Pastimes:
Our suggestions for how to keep the kiddies entertained! Or the young-at-heart too!

• 1 Tile, 2 Tiles, Red Tiles, Blue Tiles: Why not try to count how many tiles are in the Star Mosaic located on the 2nd floor of the terminal, pre-security. If that idea doesn't strike your fancy, perhaps try to guess what each of the scenes represented in the Mosaic actually are. (Hint, hint: each scene represents a part of the region that MDT serves!)
  If you really want to know, email us at Info@SARAA.org and we'll send you the answers!
  
• Rockaway Baby: If there are several people in your party, see who can rock the rocking chair the longest before they lose count of how many times they've actually rocked!
  
• O, Tannenbaum: Did you take notice of the 14' Holiday tree located pre-security? It has a lot of red, blue and gold balls on it. Bet you can't count how many are on it!
• Harrisburg Where Art Thou?: The words "Harrisburg International Airport" appear multiple times through out the terminal. How many occurrences can you find?

We admit, these are some corny ideas, but it sure will help pass the time! Have we missed any pastimes that you think should be added to the list?

Travel Tips, Revisited

For those of you traveling to visit family between now and the end year, we have a few more helpful travel tips to fly your way!

Regarding holiday gifts and food:

• Gifts packed in your carry-on and checked luggage should be unwrapped.
• Don't pack snow globes in your carry on luggage, please pack them in your checked luggage.
• Please be sure to review how to travel with holiday foods.

For a full run down on HIA's holiday travel tips visit our web site.

What do you still have questions about that we've not covered? We hope our tips contribute to making your trip to Tulsa to visit Aunt Bea and her world famous fruit cake as stress-free as possible! Although, we you'll have to buy your own roll of Tums to help digest that fruit cake!

Making Holiday Travel Bearable

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. -Susan Heller

Travel tips to help you breath a bit easier during your holiday travel experience.

The key for a successful and less stressful trip is to be prepared. By following these five simple suggestions, traveling into or out of HIA, or any airport for that matter, will be easy and convenient:

1) Know the security rules before you pack. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has a 3-1-1 campaign to educate travelers on the carry-on baggage restrictions. For specific details, visit www.tsa.dhs.gov before you pack your bags.

2) Call your airline’s toll-free flight tracking phone number for an update on your flight before coming to the airport. Flight status information is also available on each airline’s website.

3) Arrive at an HIA parking lot about 90-minutes before your schedule departure.

4) Follow the signs and park in the Long Term/Economy lot ($7.00 per day). Shuttle uses run every 8-10 minutes from the numbered shelters in the lot and bring you directly to the terminal building.

5) When picking up or dropping off a passenger, park on the second or third floor of the garage. The garage rate is just $1.10 for the first hour (additional rate information). Federal security mandates prohibit parking along the terminal curbside. Only the active loading and unloading of a vehicle is permitted in front of the terminal building.

Finally, we ask that you remember to bring a smile and be patient. Generally the weather looks good nationwide for the upcoming holiday travel week, however delays can happen at any time. The airlines want to get you to your destination safely and on time, while the TSA has a responsibility to make sure that everyone getting on an aircraft is doing so without any prohibited items.

Have we missed any tips that you think would be helpful to other travelers? We'll include your feedback and suggestions on our travel tips section of our web site as well.

Stories for the Road...

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine

Having just finished listening to Exploded by Tom Bodett (long-time Motel Six spokesmen) while on the road, I am inspired to find out what keeps you fueled while you're racking up mileage.

I found myself transported to Homer, Alaska to Tom's living room as he -surprisingly the consummate storyteller- wove an auditory journey overflowing with humor and local metaphors. Listening to his audio book made my typically mind-numbing highway travels quickly slip by as his stories engaged my brain with verbal play.

Either by train, plane, automobile or any other form of transportation; what pod casts and audio books are on your play list or in your changer? Or do you prefer a good old paper back read?

Wherever your travels take you, hopefully you find that where you end up has left the light on for you.

Corporate Intrusion or Customer Service Department Extender?

A number of you are active on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social networking sites. Much of online social networking revolves not only around our personal contacts, but also our favorite local and national brands and businesses as well. However, some folks find the business use of online social media to be a 'corporate intrusion,' as one woman deemed it.

Do you find business use of online social media to be offensive, an intrusion into your social networking zen? Or, do you find it an easily accessible extension of a business or brand's customer service?

What brands and businesses, based on your experience, are dominating the social media waves with great customer service and relationship building? And, which do you feel are merely barraging you with self-promotion messages, videos, podcasts and tweets?

Please share your thoughts and feedback to our facebook profile or as a comment on this post.