Business travel

Gulliver

  • Mobile travel sites

    The business traveller's cellular lifeline

    Dec 29th 2010, 23:22 by N.B. | NAPLES, FLORIDA

    HOW can you determine if people's habits are changing? Look at what they do in times of crisis. Take this week's massive snowstorm that crippled travel and business across America's north-east. Thousands of flights were cancelled and others were diverted. Some travellers were stranded, while others didn't know whether they'd be able to even get to the airport. Everyone's travel plans were in disarray. So where did travellers turn? To their mobile phones, apparently—and they weren't making calls. Ina Fried's "Mobilized" blog explains:

    The recent winter storms have sent a flood of mobile traffic to travel-related Web sites as those stranded scramble to reschedule flights and book hotel rooms from their phones.

    Usablenet, a company that powers the mobile Web sites of various airlines, hotel chains and Amtrak, said that traffic to its travel-related sites was up 200 percent over the past two days. [N.B.: This was written on Monday, during the worst of the travel disruptions.]

    Also of note, Usablenet said the most traffic came from iPhones and Android devices, marking the first time that more business travelers were using Android-powered phones than were on BlackBerry devices.

    Travellers' habits really are changing. Instead of relying on long-shot phone calls and already busy airline employees in times of crisis, we're becoming increasingly dependent on the internet functions of our mobile devices. There's a good reason for that: the mobile web has been getting a lot easier to use. Companies like Usablenet make the mobile web, well, usable, and new iPhones and Android-powered devices are getting better and better at bringing us the web in a form that's useful and comprehensible on a very small screen.

    There's no good reason to resist this shift. Why go through all the hassle of waiting in line for a ticket agent when you can change your ticket yourself from your phone? Why rush around looking for a arrival/departure board when you can have the same information in the palm of your hand? People do a lot of complaining about their friends and family spending too much time on CrackBerrys and iPhones. But we shouldn't let the addicts distract us from the fact that these devices can be incredibly useful. So next time you're stuck wondering if your flight is cancelled or worrying about whether you can score a last-minute hotel room, don't feel guilty about busting out that EVO or Droid X. After all, everyone's doing it.

    More: Mobilized | NYConvergence

  • Flying in the snowpocalypse

    Six ways airlines could communicate better

    Dec 29th 2010, 17:31 by G.L. | NEW YORK

    AS A relatively lucky travel victim of the recent American snowstorms (only 48 hours late, my flights ran on time when they weren't cancelled, I was able to stay at friends' places both nights, and I wasn't stuck on a runway for seven hours like one of my colleagues), my conclusion is that the airlines could have saved themselves an enormous amount of ill-will if they only communicated better.

    After all, this was, pardon the cliché, a perfect storm: a once-in-a-decade snowfall, at one of the busiest times of the year, and with airline load factors (the proportion of seats filled, a measure of an airline's efficiency) running at record levels. Under those circumstances, having thousands of passengers stranded is inevitable. But explaining to them what's going on is crucial. Based on my own experience and those of other people I spoke to, the airlines didn't do it very well. Here are some pointers for an airline wanting to improve its image during a weather crisis.

    1. Let passengers know in advance. United Airlines emailed me 24 hours before my flight from Los Angeles to New York to tell me to check in online. Why couldn't it email me to tell me the flight had been cancelled? I found out only because I did go online early to check in, something I frequently don't manage to do. Moreover, once I did, there was no information anywhere on the United website about the reason for the cancellation. This was on December 25th, a full day before the snow hit the east coast; I knew snow was forecast, but had no idea it would lead to hundreds of pre-emptive cancellations.

    2. Make sure your technology is resilient. I was given the option to rebook my own flight online. But the rebooking system was broken. At least one other airline, Continental, had similar problems. Whoever manages these firms' websites should get a rap on the knuckles at the very least. Broken websites means angry customers flooding phone lines. Which leads to the next problem.

    3. Make sure you have emergency phone support. For several hours, anyone calling Delta's phone line got a message saying something like "Due to the extreme weather conditions, we cannot answer your call at this time". I at least was told my waiting time to speak to someone at United would be 60 minutes, but it was the next day before I was in a position—somewhere quiet, no appointments, phone sufficiently charged—to spend 60 minutes waiting.

    4. Implement automated rebooking. If I had got an email telling me not only that my flight was cancelled but that I was already booked on another one, I might still have tried to change it—but knowing that at least I had a flight, I might just as well have shrugged and left it at that. Rebooking passengers automatically, while leaving them the option to change the booking themselves, would reduce the anger and the load on phone lines quite a bit.

    5. Put up an FAQ. Passengers waiting in lines do two things: if they have smartphones they browse the web incessantly, and when they're bored with that they start talking to each other. What they say tends to be grumpy rhetorical questions to which they couldn't find the answers online. "Why did they cancel the flight before they even knew how much it would snow?" "La Guardia's open now, so how come the flight's still cancelled?" "Why have they got no seats available until Thursday if my friend on Airline X got one for tomorrow?" "How come they can rebook me but they can't reroute my baggage?" There are good answers to a lot of these; for instance, a flight may stay cancelled even if its destination airport has reopened because the disruptions mean crews and pilots aren't where they need to be. Every airline should have a bad-weather FAQ posted at the top of its website's homepage, and particularly on the mobile web version.

    6. Use social media better. I did an analysis of some of the main airlines' use of Twitter over the past four days. Received wisdom says there should be a correlation between how well a firm uses Twitter—both the number of tweets and the proportion of @-replies (responses to individuals)—and how many followers it has. To account for the wide variation in airline sizes, I used "followers per passenger" rather than absolute number of followers. For this four-day period, at least, the correlation looks weak, but the stellar performance of JetBlue suggests that making a real effort, rather than a half-hearted one, will reap rewards:

    Airline followers per passenger |  first tweet about storms |  no. of tweets since |  @-replies
    Delta 0.016 Dec 23 12:24 40 48%
    US Airways 0.024 Dec 25 14:10 12 0%
    American 0.026 Dec 26 13:07 19 84%
    United 0.040 Dec 27 09:40 11 55%
    Continental 0.043 Dec 25 22:27 53 34%
    Southwest 0.129 Dec 26 09:49 22 82%
    JetBlue 1.001 Dec 24 14:31 126 94%

    Sources: Twitter, Bureau of Transportation Statistics

    At any rate, for me as a Twitter user, the fact that United took a full day after the storm hit to even acknowledge on Twitter that there were problems definitely gave me the feeling that it wasn't on the ball. Even if it didn't take the trouble to reply to passengers, a few more updates and links to an FAQ would have made us all feel better informed and less likely to swamp the phone lines.

    In summary, the more information an airline makes available up-front, the less likely it is to be overloaded by angry phone calls and bad-mouthed by passengers for weeks aftewards. It should be obvious, guys, really.

  • Expatriates in Britain and China

    A tale of two expats

    Dec 29th 2010, 17:12 by A.B.

    A PIECE in this week's Economist examines expat life in Britain and China. Specifically, it details the experiences of a British executive in China and a Chinese freelance consultant in Britain, and explains why the former has it easier.

    Despite plentiful hassles, "Mr Smith" loves working in China, thanks to its people and food and his talented salesforce. Meanwhile Mr So, in London, finds that "differences in corporate etiquette are a minefield", and that "views of Chinese companies outside China are quite negative".

    Read the whole article.

  • December's big snow storm

    Digging out in the north-east

    Dec 28th 2010, 21:47 by N.B. | NAPLES, FLORIDA

    THE SNOW stopped falling, but America's north-east is still digging out from the massive storm that hit the region on Sunday and Monday. The area's most important airports—JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark, New Jersey—were all closed for about a full day. Thousands of flights were cancelled all over the world, stranded travellers slept on cots in airport terminals, and massive delays continue up and down the East Coast. (When Portfolio.com's Joe Brancatelli checked Continental Airlines' website earlier today, the carrier showed an average delay of 462 minutes at Newark.) Need to make a last-minute business trip to New York, Philadelphia, or almost any other major city in the region? Forget about it—flights are booked to bursting. 

    Perhaps the hardest-hit travellers were on international flights bound for JFK. CNN has confirmed that passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight from Vancouver, a British Airways flight from London, and an Aeromexico flight from Mexico City spent Monday night and much of Tuesday stranded on the tarmac.

    If those had been domestic flights, the carriers could have faced massive fines from America's Federal Aviation Administration. But the FAA's three-hour limit on tarmac delays doesn't apply to international flights, so Aeromexico, BA, and Cathay Pacific will likely escape formal punishment. Their reputations, though, should and will suffer: even a massive snow storm shouldn't require keeping people on the tarmac for 11 hours. Initial reports suggest the carriers themselves are to blame: they flew into New York before checking with airport staff to make sure that gate space would be available. You can't blame the airlines for the weather—but you can fault them for this kind of mistake. All three airlines should apologise to the passengers who were trapped overnight. Snow or not, this kind of thing doesn't have to happen.

  • The Northeast's big storm

    America, snowed-in

    Dec 27th 2010, 21:19 by N.B. | NAPLES, FLORIDA

    MY COLLEAGUE just spent three days in Brussels as a stranded air traveller and "rather enjoyed it." But here in America, where most of the the Northeast just got blanketed with well over a foot of snow (20 inches in New York's Central Park, 31 inches in Elizabeth, New Jersey), Gulliver was pretty eager to avoid putting a happy face on being stuck in an airport. Here's what happened.

    I was visiting family in Connecticut for Christmas and had plans for a short vacation in Florida afterwards. The storm was due to hit Sunday afternoon. To get out ahead of the snow, I had to catch JetBlue Flight 135, scheduled to depart New York's JFK airport for sunny Fort Myers, Florida at 11:40 a.m. Sunday morning. I was in no mood for risk-taking. We got to the airport at 9:25, breezed through security, and settled down to wait. But by the time we got to the gate, the situation had already taken a turn for the worse.

    First, the weather forecast kept changing—and the projected start of the stormy weather kept getting earlier. Early in the morning, weather.com only predicted a 30% chance of precipitation in the 11:00 hour. We were going to make it out ahead of the storm no problem. By 9:00 a.m., that was up to 65%. And by 11:00 a.m., of course, it was already snowing. Boarding was supposed to start at 11:10, but by the time 11:20 rolled around, all of the passengers of Flight 135 (including yours truly) were still waiting. One of the crew members had a last-minute conflict, change of heart, or some such business (maybe he pulled a Steven Slater?). So everyone had to wait for a replacement. These things happen. But with the snow falling fast and thick outside the JetBlue terminal's giant windows, the pessimists among us started to worry. 

    Eventually, the replacement crew member showed up. We boarded the plane and pulled away from the terminal shortly after noon. Then we sat on the tarmac. We weren't waiting in line for takeoff or taxiing to an open runway: we were sitting. Were we headed for the nightmare every air traveller fears? We've all heard stories about people being stuck on the tarmac for hours, only to eventually be brought back to the terminal—or to take off and be diverted to a run-down airport in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully, they eventually started de-icing the plane. We finally got off the ground just before 1:00 p.m. Even the pilot was in a good mood: he used the intercom to ask if anyone on the plane had seen the movie "Escape from New York." Later that afternoon, we landed in breezy, cool Fort Myers and drove to Naples. It's not quite beach weather here. But it's a whole lot better than what almost trapped us. 

    Some of the new check-ins at the hotel Gulliver is staying at (the gorgeous Ritz-Carlton Naples) moved up their flights so they could get out ahead of the weather. But many others weren't so lucky. On Sunday, the fast-falling snow and winds of 50-60 mph forced around 2,000 flight cancellations on the East Coast. Hundreds of flights headed to or through the New York-New Jersey-Philadelphia region were also cancelled. But the major New York-area airports (JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark) were probably the hardest-hit, with 1,444 flights cancelled on Sunday alone, affecting tens of thousands of travellers. Not everyone could find a place to stay, either: Hundreds of cots were set up in the airports so stranded travellers could stay the night. 

    The situation has barely improved since Sunday. Many major airports were closed for much of Monday, and another 1,400 flights were cancelled. Even the NFL, America's most-watched sports league, was affected by the storm. The Minnesota Vikings' Sunday clash with the division-leading Philadelphia Eagles was moved to Tuesday, and will be the first NFL game on a Tuesday since 1946. 

    Did any Gulliver readers get lucky and get out ahead of the storm? Did anyone get stuck? Tell us your stories in the comments.

  • Travel woes

    Stranded and happy

    Dec 27th 2010, 12:06 by A.B.

    A WRITER on one of our sister blogs describes his recent "holiday" in Brussels, where he spent unexpected time after his Heathrow-bound flight was rerouted. His take on the matter is unusually positive: "I spent three days as a stranded air traveller and I rather enjoyed it."

    Read the whole piece.

  • Public opinion about airport security

    What air travellers really think

    Dec 24th 2010, 23:35 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    LAST MONTH, Gulliver asked, "What do air travellers really want?" The controversy over new airport security screening procedures was raging, and everyone knew that some people were upset. But exactly how many people? And who are they? Should the opinions of the general public determine how we conduct airport security? What about the opinions of air travellers specifically? 

    On Tuesday, the US Travel Association released the results of a survey intended to answer some of those questions. Bottom line: American travellers think "there has to be a better way" to conduct airport security screening. My thoughts exactly! Other highlights from the survey results:

    Eight in 10 support a trusted traveler program that would provide alternative screening measures for American citizens who submit to a background check and meet other risk criteria. Respondents would take an average of two to three more trips per year if the hassle involved in flying could be reduced without compromising security. Those additional trips would add $84.6 billion in travel spending and support 888,000 additional jobs, according to research from the U.S. Travel Association.

    Unfortunately for all of us, air travellers seem to expect the government to solve this problem. A majority of survey respondents think the new Congress should make airport security a "top priority" starting in January. That's probably not going to happen. The incentives are all wrong. No politician wants to be blamed for "reducing security" (however stupid the security measure is) in advance of a terrorist attack. An act of Congress that makes air travel even slightly more tolerable is going to take the kind of political courage that too often seems in short supply in Washington.

    The US Travel Coalition is backed by a number of large hotel and tourism interests, such as Marriott, Choice Hotels and the Las Vegas tourism board, that have real power. But ultimately, they probably won't have enough leverage to force the TSA to make major changes. For real change to happen, the airlines are going to have to take a lead role. That hasn't happened yet. That's probably because airlines don't want to pay any more for airport security than they already do. If they start giving the government a hard time about how it's running the show, the government might just turn around and ask them to pay higher fees. So we seem to be stuck.  

    Anyway, one of the most interesting findings of the survey was that travellers hate taking off their shoes even more than they hate the new "enhanced" pat-downs. That's probably because everyone has to take off their shoes, while only a minority of travellers are subjected to pat-downs. But still, it makes me wonder: what's your least-favourite part of "security theatre"? 

    More: Press Release | Summary (PDF) | PowerPoint

  • Forbidden goods

    What to leave at home

    Dec 24th 2010, 12:34 by A.H. | TORONTO

    CANADA'S airport-security workers routinely confiscate dozens of bottles of water, lotions and booze every hour. Even maple syrup, an unofficial national treasure that is widely available for pre-boarding purchase at most big airports, can't make it through the carry-on luggage check because it's considered a liquid. But a coiled cobra in a bottle of rice wine uncovered at Vancouver airport? Even the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) thought that was an unusual find. The bottled cobra was just one of 10,000 banned items collected during a typical month and put on display on December 20th by the Vancouver International Airport Authority and CATSA. Among other notable items were a large sausage-maker, handcuffs and some rusty railway spikes, as well as more commonplace knives, bottle openers and lighters.

    Aside from the "wow" factor, there was a more sensible reason behind the unusual display. It turns out that the finding of even a small unusual item can hold up the security screening line by as much as five minutes. That makes for a lot of wasted time when you're confiscating 10,000 items every month. Of course, not everyone is trying to circumvent the system. Most people are probably just not aware of what they can and cannot bring on board an aircraft these days. Since the kind—and the size of—of banned items can change, CATSA is advising people to check before they fly.

  • Full-body scanners

    Which American airports have the new full-body scanners?

    Dec 23rd 2010, 20:46 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    WORRIED about airport security personnel seeing you naked? Worry no more. America's Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which runs airport security, actually provides a complete list of airports that have installed "advanced imaging technology"—a.k.a. the new backscatter "full-body scanner" devices. So now you (and the terrorists) can avoid the fancy new machines. Transparency is more than just a strategy for the TSA: apparently, it's a way of life. The agency's frequently asked questions page for "advanced imaging technology," which includes the list, is right here.

    Highlights of the FAQ include the exact numbers of full-body scanners in use at domestic airports ("486 advanced imaging technology machines located at 78 airports"), a list of other US locations where the scanners are used (three court houses and three state prisons, but not, say, the White House), and eight other questions designed to make passengers more comfortable with the new technology ("TSA is highly confident in its detection capability"). But what everyone wants to know is which airports have the full-body scanners in operation. As of December 23, 2010, this is the list:

  • The age of America's infrastructure

    Chart of the day: America's infrastructure

    Dec 22nd 2010, 21:24 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    MICHAEL MANDEL of the left-leaning Progressive Policy Institute posted this useful chart earlier this month:

    chart of average age of America's infrastructure

    This should be sobering for opponents of increased investment in infrastructure. As America grows, it's going to need more and better structures, equipment, and software. Yet existing capital stock isn't even being replaced quickly enough to prevent its average age from increasing. Some things—like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Hoover Dam—were built to last a long time. But that's not a good excuse: America still needs to make sure less-iconic structures are not only properly maintained but also eventually replaced. Innovation, productivity, and international competitiveness all depend on America's infrastructure being up to snuff.

    Head over to Mr Mandel's blog for an industry-by-industry breakdown and more discussion. Then come back here and let us know what you think.

  • Heathrow's chaos

    Snow go at Heathrow

    Dec 22nd 2010, 13:38 by A.B.

    EUROPE'S—and particularly Britain's—airports are starting to recover from the snowy chaos of the past few days. Heathrow, the worst afflicted of the facilities, is expecting to operate two-thirds of flights today. It saw its last snowfall on Saturday, but it was only yesterday evening that it opened its second runway (after apparently turning down offers of help from the army).

    Gatwick used to be owned by BAA, like Heathrow. But under its new owners, Global Infrastructure Partners, it has coped better than its London rival and is now fully operational. Part of the problem at Heathrow, of course, is that it operates at up to 98% capacity so small problems can have massive knock-on effects. But even so, the differences between snow-fighting provisions at Heathrow and Gatwick are notable, as the BBC has reported:

    Earlier this year, BAA published an investment programme of £5.1bn for Heathrow over five years, of which £500,000 was invested in snow and ice-fighting technology this year, with another £3m planned for the next four years.

    By comparison, reports suggest that Gatwick Airport, which is half the size of Heathrow and was sold by BAA last year, spent £1m on snow and ice this year and plans to spend another £7m next year.

    Heathrow's "snow fleet" is made up of 69 vehicles; Gatwick's is a reported 150.

    The Daily Mail reports that Gatwick's fleet is 95 vehicles strong, but you get the picture.

    Colin Matthews, the chief executive of BAA, said of Heathrow's response to the snow: "We were doing extremely well up to the middle of Saturday, then we were hit by snow which we have not seen in Heathrow certainly in my lifetime." It's a reasonable argument, but one weakened by the fact that Heathrow's neighbour had made more effective preparations.

    Heathrow recovered well from the disastrous opening of Terminal 5, which is now the jewel in its operations. The disasters of the last few days could have a more long-term effect. After all, passengers booking flights for next winter, and Christmas in particular, are going to think long and hard before trusting their travel plans to Heathrow. Nobody likes spending four nights sleeping on the terminal floor.

  • The real "War on Christmas"

    Al-Qaeda vs. Christmas?

    Dec 21st 2010, 21:43 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    Umar Farouk AbdulmutallabIN AMERICAN political discourse, the phrase "War on Christmas" is most often used to denote a supposed campaign by liberals and secularists to eliminate Christmas and Christians from the general culture. If you don't watch Fox News, you may not have heard about it, but it's out there, manifest in the myriad little jabs progressives are supposedly taking at Christmas—especially when people say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" or retailers don't display Christmas trees in December. This year, however, the "War on Christmas" rhetoric seems to have cooled somewhat.

    Perhaps that's because people got a taste of what an actual "War on Christmas" might look like. Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab, last year's alleged aspiring "Christmas Day" or "Underwear Bomber," is now cooling his heels in federal custody, awaiting trial on charges that include attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and 289 counts of attempted murder. So is al-Qaeda actually targeting the holiday? Stars and Stripes reports:

    Does the danger of terrorist attacks go up during Christmas because al-Qaida understands the holiday’s religious importance to Christians?

    Perhaps.

    Yes, says terrorism expert Peter Bergen, who noted that Islamic militants attacked churches on Dec. 24, 2000, in Indonesia. The year before, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the future leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, planned attacks against tourist sites in Jordan linked with Christian saints, such as John the Baptist.

    "These guys are religious fanatics and this part of their calculation," said Bergen, who has interviewed Osama bin Laden for CNN.

    It's a bit more complicated than that, though. As Stars and Stripes notes, there's little evidence that Abdulmutallab picked Christmas for any reason other than convenience. The most sophisticated terrorists (although Abdulmutallab doesn't necessarily count) pick their attack dates based on the likelihood of success and the impact the attack will have. Symbolism only goes so far—after all, devastating terrorist attacks, like the ones of September 11th, become well-known dates automatically. Still, the danger posed by self-radicalised amateur terrorists—especially "homegrown" ones—can be significant, and such individuals may be more likely to strike on dates they see as significant. "You might see a Christmas Day attack," Philip Mudd, a former CIA officer and counterterrorism analyst, told Stars and Stripes. "I think it would be more likely some kid who decides, 'That's my way of joining this al-Qaida revolution.'"

    Read the whole piece. And stay safe this holiday season. 

  • Hong Kong

    Hello Hong Kong

    Dec 20th 2010, 19:23 by M.A. | BEIJING

    THE first time Gulliver went to Hong Kong a decade ago it left him cold. The fact he was visiting from Tokyo possibly contributed to his response. Yet more concrete illuminated by neon. Hmmm. And what if office towers did rise like cliffs of concrete out of the water, as though competing with the mountains above? He had seen it all on telly. The "Pearl of the Orient" struck him as a gaudy paste pearl.

    Neither did subsequent life in mainland China encourage respect for a place positioned as a trade and financial hub where China meets the world. If Hong Kongese look down on supposedly coarse mainlanders, this stance is mirrored among hoi polloi across the border. "What do those stuck-up Hongkies really know about how China works anyway?" is the attitude. "They barely speak proper putonghua (Mandarin)." Gulliver soaked up a drop or two of the cynicism.

    Yet on recent trips Hong Kong started to get under his skin. Seen through the eyes of a surrogate Beijinger, those high-rise waterfront views, green mountains, blue(r) skies, teeming crowds of sharply dressed professionals, cosmopolitan vibe and bright lights began to look alluringly sophisticated compared with drabber, dirtier, dustier Beijing. (Admittedly, the better legacies of Empire—the availability of uncommon ales to complement a Yorkshire pudding and stew, for instance—do not diminish its charm.) A move southward began to seem a not entirely offensive prospect.

    The progression has not been linear, but in a few months Gulliver will indeed head to Hong Kong, giving him the chance to put his infatuation to the test. He follows in the footsteps of several Chinese and British friends—financiers and journalists, bilingual, cosmopolitan types—who have made the move from mainland China. Two others of the same ilk are in talks with employers to follow suit.

    Doomsayers prophesied that Hong Kong would dribble away after its return to China's embrace in 1997, while in recent times Shanghai has posed a threat as it aims to be an international financial centre by 2020. But Shanghai's brash dreams provoke scoffing among some old China hands: for now, it can't compete on some of the softer factors that might make a city "international", let alone lure droves of pin-striped types to "transition" with their families to China proper. Shanghai doesn't yet compare in terms of the accessibility of English-language schooling, for instance, or indeed general competence in the lingua franca. (Sadly, in Gulliver's experience ale on tap is not readily available, either.)

    When it comes to the rule of law and transparent, clean government, Hong Kong remains in a class of its own in China. Among Chinese friends drawn to Hong Kong, the intangible appeal of freedom appears to play a big part: the curious, casual freedom to buy any book you want, to surf the net without having to scale the Great Firewall. Paradoxically, though Hong Kong depends on China's economic robustness for its continued success, its appeal lies in capitalising on the mainland's weaknesses.

  • High-speed rail and the culture war

    Why all the whingeing about high-speed rail?

    Dec 20th 2010, 12:30 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    THE ESTIMABLE Ryan Avent (who also writes for our economics blog, Free Exchange) has written an important essay about one of Gulliver's main hangups: America's failure to build any meaningful high-speed rail. The essay is an attempt to respond to Megan McArdle's charge that "the bemoaning of America's lack of high-speed rail seems out of proportion to any possible benefits." (Ms McArdle, the business and economics editor at the Atlantic, is a former Economist blogger as well.)

    Mr Avent says part of the widespread whinging over America's dearth of fast trains is attributable to a "real technocratic frustration" with the country's degraded infrastructure, near-useless planning and funding processes, and short-sighted and divided Congress. But most of it, he notes (echoing an Economist article on the subject) is due to the fact that high-speed rail has become part of America's never-ending culture war. This, Mr Avent says, "feeds back into" the technocrats' frustration, because it's yet another problem that America is unable to deal with because of fiercely divisive identity politics.

  • Airport gun rights

    Bringing loaded guns on planes

    Dec 19th 2010, 18:27 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    AMERICA's Transportation Security Administration was under fire again this week—this time for letting a passenger with a loaded .40 caliber handgun waltz right through airport security and onto a plane. Houston's KTRK (which I can only assume is Houston's news leader) had the story first.

    Before I go any further, the TSA's "Blogger Bob" would probably like me to note that the incident in question took place last year. A lot of the follow-up coverage has missed that point. (The BoingBoing post describing screeners as too busy "ogling" the passenger's penis to notice the gun, for example.) But now, in the wake of the "Don't Touch My Junk" controversy, almost any story about airport security can go viral—even if it's a year old. People will see this story and talk about it, so it matters, and we're going to cover it.

    Anyway, here's what happened: a Houston businessman named Farid Seif (more on that in a minute) made it through screening at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental airport last Christmas with a Glock .40 caliber handgun in his carry-on luggage. He didn't realise he had the weapon until he arrived at his destination, where he immediately reported the incident to security officials. Mr Seif says there was "nothing else" in his carry-on besides the weapon. Yet the screeners at America's eighth-busiest airport missed it entirely. But here's the really scary part (via KTRK):

    Authorities tell ABC News the incident is not uncommon, but how often it occurs is a closely guarded government secret. Experts say every year since the September 11 attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert tests of airport security.

    A person briefed on the latest tests tells ABC News the failure rate approaches 70 percent at some major airports. Two weeks ago, TSA's new director said every test gun, bomb part or knife got past screeners at some airports.

    Now, Gulliver is a long-time airport security sceptic, but even I didn't realise the situation was this bad. Time for me to re-read my Bruce Schneier. (He's the security expert who says almost all of airport security is "a waste of money and time.") Here's KTRK's report on the incident:

    If we can take any comfort from all this, perhaps it's that racial and ethnic profiling is not as bad as some people think. Mr Seif is reportedly Iranian-American. Many people are under the impression that Iranian-American men with names like "Farid Seif" always get enhanced screening at US airports—especially at ones named after members of the Bush clan. That's apparently not the case. The fact that Mr Seif is the CEO of a local oil services company may have affected how he was treated at the airport. But as Mother Jones' Adam Weinstein points out, Mr Seif's job probably not going to stop "pro-profiling conservatives" from asking why his ethnicity didn't cause him to receive extra scrutiny. Rush and Glenn, start your engines!

  • Instant translation

    Word Lens: This changes everything

    Dec 18th 2010, 22:06 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    IN THE THREE DAYS since it was posted it to YouTube, this short video demonstrating Word Lens, a new iPhone app, has received nearly 1.4 million views. You'll understand why right away:

    "This is not science fiction," writes Atlantic blogger Andrew Sullivan, whose link on Friday was a big early traffic driver to the Word Lens demo. But if this isn't science fiction, it is a sign that at some point there, we started living in the future those sci-fi books and movies from childhood always promised us. This is the sort of augmented-reality technology that sci-fi writers have envisioned for decades. And it's another reminder of [Arthur C.] Clarke's third law: "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

    Perhaps the most surprising thing about Word Lens is that we haven't seen it in military applications first. On the other hand, maybe the US military does have stuff like this, and I just don't know about it. Either way, the Pentagon should really get working on Arabic, Dari, and Pashto versions of Word Lens, stat. 

    BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin says she "would not rely on this app to accurately translate important signs on my next trip to a foreign nation"—"'Do not touch nuclear waste!," for example. And the New York Times' Sam Grobart wasn't too thrilled with the results of some tests he ran on the software. But these sorts of technologies improve over time. (More on that in a bit.)

    My biggest regret right now is not owning an iPhone. If I did, I could try this for myself. Alas, I have a Droid Incredible, and a Droid version of Word Lens doesn't seem to be available quite yet. But Ms Jardin, who has tried the app for herself, has more on the long-term implications of this sort of software:

    [W]hat matters to me is the significant first step this represents. Early voice recognition and text-to-speech software were klunky too. And remember the early days of Babelfish, or the even crappier translation programs that preceded it? All grew more refined as new iterations come to pass.

    This is magic. And magic needs time to evolve.

    Have any readers tried Word Lens? Will QuestVisual let me in on a beta test of their (I hope forthcoming) Droid app? Am I making too big of a deal out of this? Let us know what you think.

  • Beating the airport scanners

    Scanner-defying pancakes

    Dec 17th 2010, 23:29 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    ON SUNDAY, Gulliver told you about how the new backscatter imaging devices being installed at airports worldwide can be beaten by pancake-shaped explosives. On Wednesday night, satirist Stephen Colbert—who plays a boneheaded, angry conservative commentator on his Comedy Central show—took on the subject. Much (somewhat juvenile) hilarity ensued:

  • The Malmö rail tunnel

    Making commuters' lives easier

    Dec 16th 2010, 22:58 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    EARLY this month, a massive new railway tunnel opened for the first time. It was finished six months early and nearly 10% under budget. So by now you know this didn't happen in America (or Britain, for that matter.) No, this feat of modern engineering (and good government) was completed in the Swedish city of Malmö, just across the Oresund bridge from Copenhagen, Denmark.

    The project transformed Malmö Central Station, which is actually in the northern part of the city, from a dead end where trains had to reverse course into a through station. The former terminus is now just a stop on a large circular route that cuts underground through the center of Sweden's third-largest city. The construction of the tunnel was accompanied by the construction of two new stations—one in the actual city centre, and another south of the city, in an area targeted for future development. Here's a map:

    Malmö CityTunnel Map

    Official travel times aren't much reduced, but commuters who work in the city centre will no longer have to disembark at Malmö Central. Instead, they can use the new underground station at Triangeln, cutting a transfer to a bus or cab out of their daily grind. And as the area around the new, southernmost Hyllie Station develops, the benefits of the project should become even more apparent. Railzone's Daniel Sparing explains:

    This new link virtually makes Malmö and Copenhagen a single conurbation, [making] commuting from one city to another even easier. Copenhagen airport is also extremely well connected to central Malmö and the new development area [south of the city].

    (Mr Sparing has more on urban rail tunnels here.)

    When's the last time a rail project of this size was completed ahead of time and under budget in America? And if the Swedes can do it, why can't the Americans? The answer to the second question, at least, was in The Economist earlier this month.

  • Virgin Atlantic

    Virgin considers a link-up

    Dec 15th 2010, 21:20 by A.B.

    IS VIRGIN ATLANTIC going to get hitched? For years there's been something rather lonely about the British airline, which flies outside the comforting embrace of the big three alliances, despite the 49% stake owned by Singapore Airlines, a member of the Star Alliance. That could be set to change, though, with Virgin having now admitted to receiving "a number of lines of enquiry". According to Sky News, one of the interested parties is Delta Air Lines, a member of the SkyTeam alliance.

    There's something rather inevitable about a deal for Virgin. With British Airways, its big rival, working ever more closely with American Airlines, and the International Air Transport Association predicting a tricky 2011 for European airlines, Virgin's continuing survival as a lone operator just seems too shaky.

  • Annoying air travel

    Confessions of an angry traveller

    Dec 15th 2010, 15:09 by A.B.

    STEPHEN WALT shares five reasons why air travel annoys him. Security theatre, obviously. Marginal pricing. Nanny statism in the air. Loud news programmes in the departure lounges. And over-large carry-on luggage.

    Granted, none of these complaints are as significant as issues of war, peace, national prosperity, and the like, and I'm sure I'll be less grumpy when my jet lag wears off. I fully realize that it's a hell of lot easier and safer to visit far-flung places now than it was a few decades ago, to say nothing of a few centuries ago. So I'm genuinely thankful for what transportation technology has wrought. But now I'd like some geniuses to get to work on making the whole experience a little less corrosive to the human spirit.

    The difficulty, of course, is that those geniuses need to ensure that any process that makes the whole experience less corrosive also makes the airline money. Otherwise, it just won't fly.

  • Air New Zealand

    The modern flyer at her best

    Dec 13th 2010, 17:11 by A.B.

    HERE'S the best story I know I'll read this week, and it's still only Monday. It's the harrowing tale of one business-class traveller's brave trip to the toilet in the face of almost inhuman difficulties. Linda Perez, Gulliver salutes you. Read the whole story.

  • Business-travel tips

    Fill in survey, earn upgrade

    Dec 13th 2010, 15:31 by A.B.

    AT THE weekend my colleague shared a new list of tips that will supposedly improve the business traveller's lot. These included the unusual suggestion to bring a flask containing coffee or even, horrors, whisky on business trips. Well, because it's the time of year for such offerings, this Gulliver has also found a few more tips, courtesy of American Express Business Travel. The company recently surveyed over 500 business travellers about their travelling habits. The results were somewhat predictable: people have become more conscious of the cost of business travel since the recession; more employers are promoting the virtues of video-conferencing; the current “age of austerity” is predicted to last for two years; etc.

    But the survey also produced its share of tips. Among such truisms as "travel light" and "use loyalty cards" was the nugget that filling in hotel surveys increases your chance of an upgrade. I'm assuming we're not talking about surveys with "please fill in this form to earn an upgrade" marked on them. So does anyone have experience of this? Is it really worth playing the marketing men's game? Or is this American Express Business Travel's way of encouraging people to fill in their own surveys?

  • Backscatter scanner vulnerabilities

    Beating the full-body scanner

    Dec 12th 2010, 19:13 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    BOINGBOING's brilliant Cory Doctorow has dug up a paper (published in the Journal of Transportation Security) outlining how easy it would be for terrorists to beat the new backscatter "full-body" imaging scanners that are being installed at major airports worldwide. Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson, two professors at the University of California, San Francisco, submitted their paper, "An evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image characteristics" (PDF) on October 27, way before the John Tyner/"Don't touch my junk" incident pushed the controversy over airport security rules into the cultural mainstream. The findings are pretty clear-cut: a smart terrorist could defeat backscatter units (or "pornoscanners," as Mr Doctorow dubs them) with relative ease:

    It is very likely that a large (15-20 cm in diameter), irregularly-shaped, cm-thick pancake with beveled edges, taped to the abdomen, would be invisible to this technology, ironically, because of its large volume, since it is easily confused with normal anatomy. Thus, a third of a kilo of PETN, easily picked up in a competent pat down, would be missed by backscatter "high technology". Forty grams of PETN, a purportedly dangerous amount, would fit in a 1.25 mm-thick pancake of the dimensions simulated here and be virtually invisible. Packed in a compact mode, say, a 1 cm×4 cm×5 cm brick, it would be detected.

    The images are very sensitive to the presence of large pieces of high Z material, e. g., iron, but unless the spatial resolution is good, thin wires will be missed because of partial volume effects. It is also easy to see that an object such as a wire or a box- cutter blade, taped to the side of the body, or even a small gun in the same location, will be invisible. While there are technical means to mildly increase the conspicuity of a thick object in air, they are ineffective for thin objects such as blades when they are aligned close to the beam direction.

    It's possible, of course, that airport security officials have figured out a way to patch these vulnerabilities. But at the very least, governments that are backing increased use of backscatter technology owe travellers a response to the Kaufman/Carlson study. Has America's Transportation Security Administration tested its units to see if they have the sorts of problems outlined in the Kaufman/Carlson paper? Or were they just counting on potential terrorists being too stupid to figure this stuff out?

    (h/t: Slashdot via BoingBoing)

  • Bringing alcohol on business trips

    Time for a tipple?

    Dec 11th 2010, 23:42 by N.B. | WASHINGTON, DC

    REUTERS recently republished an AskMen list of the top 10 ways to improve business trips. Most of the pro tips will be really old hat for Gulliver readers: pack light, get a good travel bag, never check luggage, stay healthy, wear comfortable shoes, etc.... But one of the suggestions caught me a bit off guard:

    7. Bring a flask. Another way to stay warm is with coffee... or whisky. One of the most humiliating events in travel is when the flight attendant offers you a little cup of apple juice or viscous coffee -- just because you're travelling like cattle doesn't mean you can't maintain some dignity. Bring a small flask to fill up with your favourite tipple after passing through security. You could also take a thermos to replenish with coffee on morning trips. These items take up minimal room in your luggage and make a big difference in your quality of living.

    As a professional journalist, I am pretty much duty-bound to follow this sort of advice. After all, as Slate's Jack Shafer argues, "booze and cigarettes are essential to good journalism." But even we scribblers have been seeing a reduction in drinking on the job in recent years. Shafer's column defending whiskey in the office was prompted by a memo issued by Cincinatti Post editor Mike Philipps forbidding employees from bringing booze into work on the paper's final day in existence. Shafer writes: "If Post staffers, who were all scheduled for dismissal, did bring flasks to work, what was Philipps going to do if he caught them? Fire them?" It's a good question.

    The point of all this is to note that there are many industries these days where becoming known for bringing a flask with you on business trips is probably not the smartest career move. My sense is that while it's still something you might do, it's definitely not something you'd let your colleagues know about. Americans are almost certainly more prudish about alcohol in the workplace than our cousins across the Atlantic. What's your experience with booze on the job? Are you still having Mad Men-style three-martini lunches? Is your industry (or workplace) totally dry? Something in between? What would you boss think if he knew you had a habit of filling up a flask every time you headed to the boarding gate? Let us know in the comments. 

  • Aviation security in Canada

    Secure in the knowledge

    Dec 10th 2010, 18:08 by A.H. | TORONTO

    THE Privacy Commissioner of Canada is planning an audit of the government's use of full-body scanners at airports. Although Jennifer Stoddart, reappointed recently for a three-year term, says much of her office's attention will be on the online world, she will also continue to look at the "potentially grave privacy implications of national security and law enforcement measures".

    Full-body scanners certainly have the potential to intrude on someone's privacy, given what they reveal. But governments claim they are needed to detect ceramic weapons, liquid or plastic explosives, and drug packages that can pass through conventional metal detectors. However, the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority promised to minimise privacy intrusions when it introduced the scanners across the country at the start of 2010 by agreeing that image records and any personal information such as the passenger's name or passport number associated with those images would not be kept. The audit will also look at how surveillance cameras are used at airports, and how personal information, such as the bar codes on boarding passes, is being managed.

    The privacy commissioner's office has been scrutinising the privacy implications of the scanners since the first one was tested in 2008 at an airport in British Columbia. It is also studying the government's proposal to give officers from the Canada Border Services Agency more powers to strip-search airport and port employees as part of a bid to crack down on drug smuggling.

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