Guest Blog: Oh Right ... a Vacation

Today we'd like to introduce the next guest blog in our new mini series: Remembering 2010 Travels. Our third guest blogger is Robert Mark, a man who wears many hats, edits the award-winning industry blog Jetwhine.com. A commercial pilot, he's also the CEO of CommAvia, an aviation marketing communications company based in Evanston, IL.

When you've spent most of your life climbing into or out of airplanes like me – I've been a pilot all my life - the adventure of jumping on one from Chicago's O'Hare for fun can get kinda lost sometimes. This year though, when my wife signed up for an August conference in San Diego, I decided it was time to throw caution to the wind, no more Mr. Boring. After the conference, we were taking THE family vacation.

All kidding aside, the idea really evolved when my wife Nancy and I realized our 16-year old daughter soon not want to travel anywhere with us. My wife is always up for a trip and this time, my daughter – a budding actress – bought the idea right away when I mentioned the first few nights would be in LA. After Los Angeles we'd head east toward the desert and the Grand Canyon then south to Sedona – where we spent our honeymoon - and finally on to Phoenix for the plane ride back home.

The trip to San Diego was easy on the airlines with plenty of options from Chicago, even though we used mileage points on American for everything. Out of Harrisburg it's US Airways through Philadelphia (PHL) or on Delta through Atlanta (ATL). We rented an SUV for the week or so we'd be gone and that truly was one of the most expensive parts of the trip – about $750. But it did offer us plenty of flexibility for sightseeing and dinners.

I've been to LA plenty of times, but never took a studio tour. We signed up for the visit to Paramount, home of Star Trek and Glee. The cost per ticket was about $40, but it was worth every penny. Tours were in groups of six maximum which offered plenty of time for wandering and asking questions. I had no idea, for instance, that this was the same place once run by Lucille Ball. Her presence – and her pictures - are everywhere on the lots. The place is also filled with memorabilia of the hundreds of stars we've come to love over the years. Much to the dismay of my daughter, the Glee studio was closed so they could await the arrival of Brittany Spears.

The trip to the desert was amazing as we sped east out of LA on I15 to connect up with I40 toward Mojave. Within an hour the mountains east of LA had become desert. Nothing prepared us though for the dust storm as we arrived in Needles on the California/Arizona state line. I thought it was a rain shower until it hit. Can't imagine how folks live there.

We made it to Williams AZ for the night where the hotel was, well, interesting to say the least. Suffice it to say that my choice of places to spend the night in Williams before making the trek to the Grand Canyon would be the railway hotel. The place is new, clean and inexpensive. Best of all, the train trip from Williams to the Canyon the next morning is an easy two-hour journey with entertainment enroute offered up by actors and musicians. Nothing quite prepared me for the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, a place I've flown over thousands of times but never actually visited up close. We had a fellow from China shoot our Christmas card photo with the canyon as a backdrop. The cafe on the east side of the canyon in the park near the railway station is awesome, although I'll be darned if I can remember the name of the place.

The next morning we headed east toward Flagstaff and then south along AZ 89 toward Sedona. Even in an SUV, the trip down the winding road from Flagstaff where the elevation is about 7,000 feet to Sedona's more comfortable 4,500 feet means an exciting trip around dozens of mountains on the way down. What's really spectacular is the road since it has no fencing along the way. Miss a turn and the trip would have ended rather abruptly. It was a toasty 90 or so in Sedona when we arrived. We headed right for the Pink Jeep Tour I remembered from 18 years earlier. Don't miss this ride out into the desert and up into the hills around Sedona. The scenery is nothing short of spectacular. I grabbed one of the Pink Jeep models to put on my desk back home. I like remembering trips when they're fun, even if I did drive most of the thousand miles we covered in our eight days together.

We all agreed this one was great as we left Sedona for Phoenix and the comfort of a real bed at the house of some friends before the airline trip back home. By next summer my daughter would be thinking about college and getting away from mom and dad. I think I already missed this vacation when I saw the Christmas cards go out a few months later. Now I can look over and smile at the Pink Jeep on my desk.

Have you spent any time vacationing on the West Coast, where would you recommend? Does Robert's post inspire you to head west?

Guest Blog: An Airport Can Be Part of the Travel Experience at Haneda International Terminal

Today we'd like to introduce the next guest blog in our new mini series: Remembering 2010 Travels. Our second guest blogger is David Parker Brown and he is the founder and owner of the blog AirlineReporter.com, which is based in Seattle, WA. David shares his passion for the airline industry and aviation in a conversational and informational way with his readers. You can catch his blog at AirlineReporter.com or syndicated on the Seattle PI.

Many travelers feel the airport is an undesired necessity of travel. However, not all airports are created equally. In October 2010, I had the opportunity to travel to Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan to check out their new international terminal. What I discovered was amazing. Haneda has traditionally been the domestic airport for Tokyo, while Narita has handled the majority of international flights. Recently this has been changing as Haneda has been increasing the amount of international flights they handle and opened a new international terminal to meet the expected growth.

The new international terminal was designed to become part of your journey, not just a place to catch your flight. If you arrive from the United States, to the new international terminal, it might not be so obvious why this terminal is different. Once off the plane, you will be presented with quite a few high-end shops in the terminal. I do not know many people who take a ten hour flight, to drop $10,000.00 on a Cartier watch. There must be people that do so, since there are plenty of expensive shops and products in the gate area.

Once you make it past security, the adventure really begins. You feel like you have walked onto an old style Japanese street with plenty more food and shopping options. Unlike seeing the high-end stores on the airport side of security, the shops on the city-side are geared more towards the average consumer. You can find places like an authentic sushi restaurant (with fish moving on a conveyer belt) to a huge Hello Kitty store (I managed to avoid that store thank you). If you had some time to burn, you could even check out their planetarium or get a quick meal in the planetarium’s café. If those do not meet your fancy, do not worry… there are five floors of food, shopping and airport goodness to check out.

Being an airline nerd, (I see that title as a compliment) one of my favorite parts of the terminal was the huge viewing platform. Actually, all three terminals at Haneda allow passengers to go to the rooftop and view the airplanes coming and going. I only wish that more American airports allowed passengers to do have viewpoints like that. Even for non airline nerds, I think it is a great way to connect passengers to the travel experience, instead of being in a building, walking down the jetway and just viewing the doorway of the airplane.

If you fly into Haneda or really any other airport, make sure to take the time to look around. Do not always assume the airport is a necessary evil. Think of it as a part of your adventure; you might be surprised with what you find.

Check out over 100 photos from the new International Terminal at Haneda.

Have you visited any airport terminals that have taken your breath away? What is your favorite aspect of the airport experience?

Guest Blog: Wyoming’s Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks: Wild America

Today we'd like to introduce a new guest blog mini series: Remembering 2010 Travels. Our first guest blogger is B. N. Sullivan the voice behind the AircrewBuzz tweets. You can learn more about Aircrew Buzz online. In today's post B.N. invites us to travel through Grand Teton National and Yellowstone National parks.

If you like wildlife and dramatic natural scenery, you would have loved my 2010 vacation -- a week-long driving trip through northwestern Wyoming to visit Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Each park is a destination in itself, but since the two are adjacent to each other, it is easy to visit both in one trip if you allow enough time.

The Parks

The scenery in both parks was spectacular: mountains, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls – and (of course) the geysers and geothermal springs for which Yellowstone, in particular, is famous. The

wildlife was plentiful and diverse. We saw lots of big animals like deer, antelope, elk, bison (buffalo), and grizzly bears – yes, really! We also saw many smaller critters, like coyotes, river otters, and ground squirrels, along with innumerable species of birds.

One of the most amazing aspects of wildlife viewing in both parks is that the animals are right there!! In many instances, we didn’t even need to get out of our car to get a good look at them. We saw a huge grizzly bear poking around at the edge of the forest, right beside the road. It was so close I did not dare roll down my window, much less get out of the car. Twice we had to stop to allow herds of bison to amble across the road in front of us. They took their time, some even pausing directly in front of our vehicle to stare at us while we stared back.

At one point, we pulled over to the side of the road so I could photograph the lovely autumn scenery along a bend in a river. I walked to a spot not more than 20 meters from where the car was parked. I could still hear cars passing occasionally on the road behind me, while in front of me there was a family of otters playing on the river bank, and migratory ducks gliding along the river’s surface, pausing occasionally to preen. It was magical. We did some hikes on established trails in both parks, but in truth you really don’t have to stray very far from the roads to see lots and lots of wild creatures going about their business.

Nearby Towns

We chose Jackson, Wyoming as our base for the first few days. Jackson, which is south of Grand Teton National park, is a charming resort town in the area known as Jackson Hole*. Jackson is a magnet for those who like outdoor sports: skiing and snowboarding in winter; fishing, hiking, mountaineering, and kayaking during the warmer seasons.

While we used Jackson as a base for exploring Grand Teton National Park and the southern end of Yellowstone, our base for the last few days of our trip was Cody**, Wyoming. From Cody we ‘commuted’ daily to the central and northern parts of Yellowstone National Park.

Quite by chance, we also discovered a real treasure in Cody itself. The weather was fine and clear during our trip, save for one morning when we awoke to a drizzle. Rather than drive to the park in the rain, we decided to find something to do in Cody for the morning. We had noticed a facility called the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, down the road from where we were staying. It appeared to be some sort of museum, so we decided to drop by for a look. We ended up spending the entire day there, and even at that, we did not get to see everything there.

Before we arrived in Cody, we had never heard of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, but since spending a full day there, we have been telling everyone about it. Not at all a trumped up ‘tourist attraction’, it is a real, top-notch museum, with extensive, carefully curated and wonderfully displayed exhibits. There are five themed exhibits, each in its own hall, and each of which could be a stand-alone museum: Western Art; Greater Yellowstone Natural History; Plains Indians (history and cultural anthropology); Firearms; and, of course, one about William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, his life, and the times in which he lived. It is a remarkable place – an absolute ‘must see’ in Cody, Wyoming.

Logistics

There are plenty of organized tours available for visiting these and other National Parks, but we like to travel independently. We rented a car for the duration of our stay, affording us maximum flexibility to go where we wanted to go, and to spend as much or as little time as we pleased at each spot.

There are overnight accommodations within the parks -- lodges, cabins and campsites – but our preference was to base ourselves in nearby towns from which we could venture into the parks daily to explore. Both Jackson and Cody have a full range of accommodations, ranging from relatively inexpensive motels to more upscale hotels, and plenty of places to dine, and shop. We enjoyed coming back to the relative ‘civilization’ of these towns in the evenings after full days of driving and hiking.

Tip regarding park entrance fees: It costs $25 per car to enter the parks each day, but if you are going to visit the parks for more than two days, it’s best to purchase an annual pass for $50 or, if you are at least 62 years old, a senior pass for only $10. Holders of those passes can enter both parks as often as they like with no additional entrance fees.

Have you been to either of these National Parks? If so, what aspects of your trip to the park(s) were the most memorable? If you've not been to the park(s), will you plan to visit one or both in 2011?

* Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) is served by American Airlines; Delta Air Lines; Frontier Airlines; United Airlines

** Yellowstone Regional Airport (COD) is served by Delta Connection and United Express.

Happy New Year!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for following our blog posts for the last 2.5 years! We trust that you find content in it's posts that are helpful and applicable to your air travels. If there is content that you'd like to see covered that we've not yet touched upon, please do let us know!

It is our pleasure to announce that we'll be debuting a guest mini-series that will highlight the favorite travel events and destinations from around the world of the guest bloggers! Each of the bloggers will share what it is about the destination or event that struck them as memorable. Maybe you'll read about a destination or event that strikes a chord with you and have an idea for a new trip for 2011.

If you've resolved to travel more in 2011, but your resolution is traveling on a budget, check out these 11 ways to cut costs on your 2011 travels.

Have you already saved money on a 2011 trip you've planned? What tips can you share on saving?

Time for another Facebook Giveaway!

Hey fans, friends, subscribers, tweeps, and MDT social networking community! We've put together another giveaway just for you! What's the scoop you ask? Our Facebook fan page has been seeing weekly increases in fans joining our social networking community and "liking" what we're doing and we're super appreciative. To show just how much we appreciate our fans we're giving away a $50 restaurant gift card and a free parking voucher when we reach 2,500 fans. At that point out, all of our fans* become eligible for the giveaway.

The gift card is redeemable at Varsity Grill here at MDT and the parking voucher is for use in our onsite parking garage. But, it doesn't stop there... if we reach 3,000 fans we'll do a 3rd giveaway of another $250 airfare gift certificate! Congrats to Jim M. and James F. the first two winners of our Facebook Flyaway giveaways!

This is one of the ways we'd like to thank you for your continued support of our social networking community and the airlines serving HIA! Did you know that you can connect with our social networking community from our website? Be sure to let us know what you think of the new integration!

*If you are an employee of Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority, tenant or an airline serving SARAA/HIA, you and your immediate family members are not eligible for these giveaways.

Ho Ho Holiday Travel Tips!

When preparing to travel, lay out all
your clothes and all your money.

Then take half the clothes and twice the money.
-Susan Heller

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

The key for a successful and less stressful trip is to be prepared. By following these simple suggestions, traveling to/from Harrisburg International Airport (MDT), or any airport for that matter, will a bit easier and more 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 your airline’s website.

3) Arrive at a MDT parking lot about 90-minutes before your scheduled departure.

4) Follow the signs and park in the Long Term/Economy lot. Shuttle buses run (24 hours a day) every 8-10 minutes from the numbered shelters in the lot and brings you curbside at the terminal building.

5) When picking up a passenger arriving at MDT, please use our free cell phone lot until your passenger arrives. 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.

6) Regarding the holiday gifts and food you want to travel with: 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 the TSA's policies for how to travel with holiday foods.

For a full run down on our holiday travel tips visit our website.

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.

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 Beatrice and her world famous fruitcake as stress-free as possible! Although, you'll have to buy your own roll of Tums to help digest that fruitcake!

Guest Blog: Flying With Kids

Late last week we asked a question on our fan page wall about flying with children and if parents enjoyed doing so. We received a quick positive response from fan Jessica J.W. Baker and she also had a plethora of helpful tips for making flying with your children enjoyable. We asked her to put all of those tips into a blog post, happy reading! And, thanks to Jessica for this insightful and practical information.

When Harrisburg International Airport (via Facebook) posed the question, “Do you fly with your children, and do you enjoy doing so?,” I immediately replied “Yes and yes.”

In response, HIA asked if I had any tips to share with parents who might be traveling with children for the first time this holiday season, and my mind raced!

Our 5 year old daughter (who first flew when she was 10 months old) loves to fly as much as we do, so it’s never really been a challenge for us to hop on a plane. In fact, as she loves to observe and learn, my “teacher-brain” tends to kick in, and we use the trip as an excuse to explore something new.

So, here are a few ideas you may find helpful when preparing to travel with children.

1. Whenever possible, give the child a window seat!!!

2. Prepare a special bag of "dollar store-ish" finds (like bags of birthday party favors, a new paperback book to read together, etc.) that are to be opened on the plane, one-by-one, [periodically] throughout the flight(s).

3. For even more fun, wrap the surprises in coloring book pages (or online find print-outs), and make the first present the child opens be a pack of crayons or colored pencils.

4. Glow in the dark figures (we have a tendency to go with packs of glowing dinosaurs) are great. Turn on the overhead reading light, hold the animal up for a few seconds, then allow the child to curl up in the corner of the seat and "peek" at the toy in the dark. Then they turn into great toys to play with and read to, as well as provide the child someone else to “teach” about all of the cool things they are learning on their trip.

4a. Make sure you also pack a few extra Ziploc bags, in case the packaging is not reusable. Don’t want the little creatures falling all over the floor and all through your carry on when you disembark!

5. DEFINITELY take advantage of "early boarding" if available, and,

6. Once you get to your seat and stow all items, head to the bathroom of the plane and let the child check it out and use it. Then, if the child needs to go during the flight at some point, all aspects are familiar and he/she is already familiar with the feeling from being there while on the ground. It's such a different experience, too, that it's often like a mini-field trip during the middle of the flight - great when restlessness sets in.

7. Before takeoff, ask the flight crew if they have five or six extra, "prepackaged" hand wipes. Inevitably something will hit the floor or get shoved into some little crevice, and you'll want to give it a quick wipe-down before the child resumes playing with it. If you can't take your own due to lack of storage in your carry on, etc., the flight crew is usually willing to give you a few.

8. Instead of making the flight simply a "way to get somewhere better," make it sound like the biggest part of the adventure. Take a map of the area over which you will be flying and share what is under/near you as you travel. Explore the nooks and crannies of the plane, let the child make a list of questions to ask the flight crew (even if they want to write them a note and ask the steward to fill in the answers and give it back if he/she has time), and ENJOY IT TOGETHER!

9. Use the available in-flight magazines as a source of a game. Perhaps a "scavenger hunt" for select letters, words and/or pictures (dependent upon the age of the child), or - one of our favorites - "If You Had All The Money In The World, What Would You Buy For...?" Randomly name a friend or family member, and look through the magazines together, searching for something that you would buy for that person – really matching it to his/her personality and interests. If you're on a REALLY long flight, your surprise bag could include index cards and a glue stick, and the child could tear out each selected picture/item and make a card for each person, writing about why he/she chose that specific gift. Upon arrival, the child will have something to give to that special person…or even mail as a postcard! :)

10. Remember to plan and pack things for the trip home – before the trip even begins! Don’t depend upon having extra time to pull something together during your trip, and don’t depend upon exhaustion to bring sleep on the flight home. Flight delays do occur, and you will save A LOT of time and money by planning a few things (like those listed above) “just in case.” Also, catching a glimpse of a bag labeled “SURPRISES FOR THE FLIGHT HOME” gives the child something to look forward to throughout the trip, and you’re less likely to encounter your child’s “evil twin” as you pack up to get back on the plane.

Your trip’s itinerary should not start when the plane arrives at your destination and end when the plane takes off to head home. As soon as you leave your house, the adventure begins, and the more you make of it, the easier it will be…for everyone!
____________________________________
J.J.W. Baker
December 4, 2010

Have you used any of these tips that Jessica recommends, or something similar? What more can you add to her suggestions?

Air Travel, Socially Speaking with @AAAESean

Introducing the 6th guest post in this new fly HIA blog mini-series, a discussion on how social media has altered the way we travel. Today’s guest blogger is Sean Broderick, a career aviation journalist and public relations pro who currently handles external communications for the American Association of Airport Executives, whose members represent some 850 airports. His responsibilities include managing the association’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Airports Shifting From Just Providing Connections To Making Them

One day this past July, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) suffered a partial power outage in two of its three terminals. The outage lasted about 90 minutes and affected certain key functions, including ticketing and concessions.

During the brown-out, followers of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Twitter stream, @DCAirports, were kept abreast of the situation, including whether boarding passes could be printed on-site. They also were told that MWAA’s Web site was down, and that flight status checks should be done on individual airline Web sites.

This is but one real-life example of what Steven Frischling astutely notes is a shift in airport attitudes—a shift that is perhaps most visible on social media platforms. As he said in a blog post earlier in this series, “Social media has finally allowed airports to…have a voice of their own,” rather than relying on “the voices of others around them speaking for them.”

From my perspective, social media’s evolution hasn’t so much created this attitude shift as help expedite, illuminate, and solidify it. For years, airlines were the air travel industry’s principal brand-builders and loyalty-creators. From frequent flyer programs to dedicated business-class lounges, it was airlines connected with passengers. Airports simply provided a place for passengers to connect.

For a list of reasons long enough to fill another blog post, those days are over—and I think that’s a good thing. For everyone.

Airports are working diligently to onnect with their customer base, often in tandem with airlines. In the social media arena, for instance, market-specific fare sales are pushed via airport Facebook pages, which is logical. If you live in Harrisburg, does it make more sense for you to seek out good travel deals on, say, Delta’s Facebook page, or on HIA’s? Put another way, which one of those Facebook pages is better equipped to deliver information that’s relevant to Central Pennsylvania residents?

As for the airlines, they now have permanently rooted local partners—the airports they serve—cultivating meaningful relationships with existing and potential customers. What better way to jump-start a new route, promote a fare sale, or simply strengthen a connection than to tap into this pipeline?

Passengers—the most important part of the travel equation, of course—are finally getting recognized, catered to, and served by the one variable in their own travel equations that’s sure to remain constant: their local airports. Think about it: for the last 40 years, the greater Harrisburg community has been served by dozens of airlines, but only one commercial-service airport: HIA.

So how can passengers benefit from this shift? Social media is a pretty good place to start. “Like” the Facebook pages of airports you frequent, and follow them on Twitter. Yes, this basically grants them permission to market directly to you, and the smart airports will. But the really smart ones will go well beyond the sales pitch—their marketing and communications plans will incorporate customer service, partnerships with tenants (like airlines and concessionaires) that have useful information for you, and the type of general relationship-building effort that makes airports valuable partners, not just self-motivated service providers.

Most importantly, remember that social media is, well, social. Provide feedback, both positive and negative, via the channels that airports use. Participate in the process, and they’ll be obliged to reciprocate. The result will be a better-informed traveler—and a better travel experience.

Which airports and airlines are you actively engaging with on Twitter and Facebook? Where are you turning to to find answers to your air travel related questions?

Guest Blog: No Wine Needed at Your Final Destination

Today we'd like the feature the 2nd guest blog of it's kind. A few weeks ago we put out an invitation for our Facebook fans and Twitter followers to author a guest blog post. An avid & active fan and follower, Mandy Arnold wrote the following customer testimonial post about her recent experience of flying from another airport in our region. Mandy is a local midstate resident with a plethora of travel experience and passion for her local community, marketing and more.

As a pretty loyal HIA user for the past six years, it wasn’t until recently when I did not fly HIA that I realized how much I really appreciated it. My time entails a pretty decent amount of planes, trains, and automobiles mixed in with a ridiculous amount of meetings across seven states. Navigating this kind of schedule means that every minute of my day counts. I stupidly lost sight of this concept when I decided not to fly HIA on a trip to the Mid-West. Well, it didn’t take much more than my super early wake up alarm at 4:30AM, which was a necessity in order to have any chance of making a 9AM flight in Baltimore. That’s right. A 9AM flight required that I leave my house at 5AM. As I sipped my coffee in an effort to awaken my senses, I kept thinking, “What am I doing not flying HIA? I could be in bed right now. I mean, who gets up this early? Not me.”

So, I continued in my zombie state, still hitting traffic on my way into Baltimore which thickened at even 6:00 in the morning, only to arrive at BWI at 7:15AM. I was again reminded of my temporary lapse in judgment when selecting an airport as I had to park nowhere near the check-in. Lugging my gear, which included my laptop, oversized purse and suitcase, I clumsily made my way to a bus station that seemed to be miles away. I’m sure it wasn’t, but after sitting in traffic and being sleep deprived, I was not in my best form.

This trip continued in a downward spiral of inconveniences that amounted to more money spent, more time required and a not-so-happy Mandy coming home three days later. My trip came to a grand finale in true non-HIA fashion when I landed late and had to drive home from BWI in rush-hour traffic after a long week. Let’s just say the wine was uncorked and awaiting my arrival.

Why am I telling you all this? I’ve learned that the best way to travel is to not make the same mistakes I see the guy ahead of me making. For instance, don’t get behind anyone who doesn’t already have their shoes untied or their computer bag already unzipped by the time they hand their ID to the last checkpoint before choosing their preferred security line. Think through what you are really getting into when you fly and what kind of experience you really want.
Learn from my appreciation of HIA’s ridiculously close parking, in-and-out processes, and security staff that could only be nicer if they handed me cookies and coffee after completing the security scan. It doesn’t get much better than this.

So, whenever someone asks me what airport to fly through, I always say fly HIA. You’ll save time and your stress level will be about half of that if you flew elsewhere. No wine needed at your final destination.

Air Travel, Socially Speaking with @BLBoitson

Introducing the 5th guest post in this new fly HIA blog mini-series, a discussion on how social media has altered the way we travel. Today's guest blogger is Brenda Boitson a local writer from right in MDT's backyard! Brenda's writing which covers a wide range of topics, including travel, can be located at Associated Content.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon the site http://www.airfarewatchdog.com. I was thrilled to be able to use it to find cheap tickets for a 2 stop, two week trip to San Francisco and Seattle. Now, I can access Airfare Watchdog’s latest and greatest rates just by reading my Twitter stream. While I have not had much time to travel by air in the past year, it has been a great resource to find cheap flights on trips I may want to take in the future.

This is just one of the ways that social media has brought air travel to the forefront of my mind when booking a trip. I have thoroughly enjoyed following two heavy tweeters, @HIAairport and @Runwaygirl to name a few, to see what is happening in the air travel industry, and at my favorite local airport. I can find out about the latest improvements, new non-stop flights, the greatest new planes on which to travel, and better yet, I have been able to win a few goodies too!

In the past year, I have enjoyed three writing travel weekends, all within the state of Pennsylvania. In the near future, however, I am working to book more writing weekends in Vermont, Harper's Ferry, and Montreal. While some I can access just as easy by car, I am looking forward to using my social media resources to book the Montreal trip in particular. With just a click to HIA’s Facebook page, Airfare Watchdog’s twitter stream, or connecting with sites that offer promotional flight deals, I should be able to find a great fare at the right time to complete my journeys.

Traveling via air has often left me feeling alone. When I did my multi-leg journey to San Francisco and Seattle, I traveled alone and did not get a deep sense of appreciation for being a customer of those airlines. With social media access, I can tweet directly to the airline representatives and get a near-instant response on questions I have about flights, baggage, meals, and extra fees I want to be aware of before takeoff. Even if I’m sitting in the waiting area outside of my gate, I can tweet or comment on the carrier’s social media pages, and take care of any concerns I may have.

I spend countless hours on the phone at work, so to be able to use social media to eliminate that extra phone call, means less stress for me. It is often easier for me to type up a question for a company, and check back for a response when I have the next opportunity to check my replies via Twitter, or my wall on Facebook. It saves me lots of time, energy, and makes me feel much more connected than being put on hold.

Social Media is the new wave of customer service. If done right, air travel questions and concerns can and have become exponentially easier to handle for everyday travelers. It is a great way to connect with your customers on the good and bad things about traveling, to resolve issues immediately, and also to receive feedback on things that may be improved. Carriers and airports can continue to learn much by connecting with their clients through social media sources, and I believe customers will feel a greater sense of appreciation for giving them their business.

Brenda mentions that she can get customer service issues resolved quickly with the advent of social media. Have you an experience of getting an question, complaint or issue resolved by a company employing social media?