Grant Martin
- http://www.gadling.com
Grant is the Editor in Chief of Gadling.com, specializing in airline travel, trends, technology and stressing out. So far in 2009 he has slept two Fridays and one Saturday in his own bed.
Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Are the economics of Twitter airfares worth it?
More and more budget-travel tipsters are pointing towards Twitter, Facebook and social media outlets as the source for wild cheap airfares these days. And it's true, in a way. By subscribing to the pundit feeds online it's possible to get the inside scoop on a few good routes, often saving a few shekels on a future itinerary. Broad, dirt cheap fares (sometimes called bingos), however, are harder to pin down. You've probably heard about the one guy who got a $7 airfare to Iceland or the other woman who flew to Buenos Aires for $40. These (mistake) fares usually occur two or three times a year and more often than not, last less than 24 hours. Yet these are the tickets that fuel the pundit followers.
Now, with the proliferation of active Twitterers, Flyertalk and Slickdeals, bingo fares are becoming harder and harder to find. Rick Seaney (@rickseaney) is a great example. The CEO of Farecompare has access to a broad spectrum of ticket data before it gets sent to travel agents like Orbitz and Expedia and as such, has a virtual crystal-ball into airfares that are going to soon be available. Great position to Tweet from, right? But can't the airlines follow the same feed? Could they perhaps pay Mr. Seaney to find mistakes before we do? It's not unlikely.
On the road in Oregon with the 2010 Cadillac SRX
Earlier this year, Gadling ran a promotion challenging readers to define their perfect road trip. The winner of the competition won a two day road trip of their choice in a brand new Cadillac SRX, with fuel, lodging and airfare all covered. We had a wealth of excellent entries ranging from trips through the Florida Keys to leaf tours through the Northeast to jaunts down the California coast, but our lucky winner chose a long road trip through the great state of Oregon, beginning in the metropolis of Portland then working down the coast to Crater Lake National Park.
Dilligent bloggers as we are, we sent a team to follow in the footprints, documenting the journey and consuming the Oregon asphault in a similar SRX.
What emerged was more than a simple road trip through the Northwest. Two old friends on the hilly backroads of Oregon experienced one of the finest states that America has to offer, a perfect cross section of city, country, desert, forest, good people, better food and a few beers along the way.
A remarkable, moving experience, our journey began in Portland.
Gallery: Cadillac SRX in Oregon
Fun with your global positioning system: GPS drawing
GPS systems are everywhere these days, thanks largely in part due to ubiquidous iPhones and Blackberries. The technology, proper, isn't very cumbersome either -- one can get a GPS chip small enough to uplink into a laptop computer or even to tie to a dog. That's what Jeremy Wood did in the below video, creating a virtual map of two dogs running around a park in Oxford.
Me and You from Jeremy Wood on Vimeo.
It's all part of his project over at GPS Drawing where Mr. Wood has collected oodles of drawings created by adventurous GPS owners and a lot of spare time. Excellent examples are the Elephant in Brighton, UK and Mosquito (!) from Bangkok, Thailand. See if you can do better next time you're out on the road.
Continental moves to Star Alliance -- your impact as an everyday traveler
Continental Airlines finally made its big move to the Star Alliance last week, a long awaited, much talked about transition from its former partnership with Delta and Northwest Airlines. It's a move that will affect the way that you earn and spend frequent flyer miles across the board, but what does it mean immediately to the every day traveler?On the surface, not much. Continental will remain the best legacy airline in the country, with onboard meals, top notch service and a happy customer base just like before. Most routes and services wont change but for a few ads and partnership banners here and there. So the infrequent traveler who just wants to get from point A to point B has little to read further into.
For the more frequent traveler, its time to take another look at your frequent flyer account. Star Alliance's network is huge (especially overseas,) and there are now a wide spectrum of airlines and awards on which you can earn and spend your Continental miles. It's worth taking a look at the Star Alliance webpage to see which airlines are involved and how you can earn miles on them.
It's also important to check your current bookings to make sure that the proper frequent flyer number is loaded. Obviously, none of the Skyteam Alliance members will now earn miles on Continental, while flights on United and US Airways will. For the ten minutes that you spend proofreading your itineraries, you could earn a ton of extra miles, so go ahead and do it now. We'll be here when you get back.
Man reconstructs entire Pan Am first class cabin in LA condo
Airline nostalgia is a hobby of many hobbyists out in the travel world. I know that I've got an unwrapped deck of NWA playing cards from a 747 flight before the airline merged with Delta, and others I've met have collected things ranging from silverware to barf bags to life vests.Never, however, have I seen someone collect an entire first class cabin.
As it turns out, it can be done. Anthony Toth, a sales director at United Airlines has been working on his mock-up of a Pan-Am first class cabin for twenty years. Reconstructed in his Los Angeles garage with original vintage and reconstructed materials, the model is a near replica of the Pan-Am cabins from yore, down to the flatware, seat covers and almonds.
Right now he uses the $50,000 investment to host friends and colleagues from United, but some day Mr Toth hopes to turn the mock-up into a museum. With the broad legacy that Pan-Am has left upon the current airline world, it would be a shame for it to be used otherwise.
Check out the Wall St. Journal link below for actual pictures.
Relive 1960's air travel with Plane Talk
It's fun looking back at the way that air travel used to be in the 60's. We all love to reminisce about the good old days of "space" in first class, three course meals, pianos and smoking lounges, but things as simple as the airline paint schemes, styles and strategies are always fascinating to revisit.
Watching this video about the industry, one finds himself marveling at the optimism and difference between air travel back then and today. "Why aren't you charging that man to standby on an earlier flight? What is this strange customer service that I see before me?"
Irrespective of your feelings for the new or old airline industry, "Plane Talk" is still an interesting and entertaining watch. Take a look below:
Watching this video about the industry, one finds himself marveling at the optimism and difference between air travel back then and today. "Why aren't you charging that man to standby on an earlier flight? What is this strange customer service that I see before me?"
Irrespective of your feelings for the new or old airline industry, "Plane Talk" is still an interesting and entertaining watch. Take a look below:
A closer look at Vintage America
Vintage America. It's a concept that many are familiar with but that few are experts on. Plugging the topic into Google brings up dozens of hits on a Nine West marketing campaign featuring faux fur boots and interlock stud belts -- not quite the dusty old streets and aging neighborhoods that the traveler has in mind.Today, Gadling is becoming the experts. Our nation is rife with history, culture and depth, thousands of small towns across the country relics from the industrial revolution, the gold rush, manifest destiny. Textile mills have risen and fallen the the Northeast, steel through the Midwest and logging through the Northwest, each boom brining a small fury of growth, prosperity and small facet of American history.
Today we'll be taking a ride through a few vintage corners of our American lives, roaming through film, photography and more than a few destinations along the way. It should be a great old-school journey through a country that once was and in many cases, still can be. We hope you enjoy it.
How do you prepare for your flight?
Everyone has their own pre-flight ritual to make the upcoming torture bearable. I personally wander over to the lounge, check my email and try to make sure that I'm top of all of my active projects. Others have a more, well, active ritual. This guy at LAX was drawing such a crowd that someone pulled out his camera to film the spectacle. Take a look:
Perhaps if we all did this before our flights we'd no longer have angry passengers and cranky flight attendants.
Thanks to the lovely Paula Berg at Southwest Airlines for the link.
Thanks to the lovely Paula Berg at Southwest Airlines for the link.
Road testing the Cranky Concierge
The concept goes sort of like this: most people hate booking and micromanaging their itineraries, figuring out where and how to catch and connect to their flights and lacing their travel together. As a self-professed airline nerd, The Cranky kind of digs it, and for a small fee, he'll do it for you and help you along your way.
So on the way to Portland last weekend for a (lovely) drive through Oregon, I agreed to take it for a test run.
Below I've detailed how it went. Note that despite getting the service for free, I reserve no judgment.
Original flight: Chicago O'hare – Salt Lake City – Portland – Seattle – Minneapolis – Chicago O'hare.
Day of departure, Friday, October 16th.
Cranky sent me an email yesterday asking whether or not I wanted my updates via SMS or email. Even though I have a web-enabled iPhone I chose SMS, as I don't have Gmail pushing email to my phone.
Expecting snow in Moscow this winter? Not so fast.
The Russians may be able to tell us that Dmitry Medvedev is in charge of the country and get away with it, but rigging the weather is just too much. Come on now. It's obvious that you're up to something.This year, Moscow's Mayor Yury Luzkhov is putting forth the proposition of seeding clouds to prevent large volumes of snow from falling on Russia's glorious capital city. The project, which would cost $10M to fund, could save money by cutting back on the $16M snow removal process currently in place -- not to mention the fact that the skies would be chipper and blue more often.
Perhaps the funniest part of whole exercise is that the process wouldn't stop snow. It would relocate it, directly depositing the white stuff all over the neighboring regions. It's as if Los Angeles saw a tsunami coming and said "Um, we have a parade this weekend. You take it, Las Vegas."
So if you find yourself in Red Square this winter snapping beautiful photos of St. Peter's against a perfect blue sky, don't send your thanks to Mother Nature. Instead, thank Mayor Luzkhov -- or more appropriately, the residents of Lyubertsy, Russia, who will be digging out from under twice as much snow this year.
