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  • Podcast #88 — New Travel Goodies; Losing Elite Status

    Podcast #88 — New Travel Goodies; Losing Elite Status

    Full House, Platinum over 1K
    Full House, Platinum over 1K

    I’m getting ready for a stint of international travel — a couple trips to the UK, a vacation to Venice, and then bouncing around southern India. I visited the 2011 Travel Goods show in Chicago for a preview of the new travel goodies I’d be seeing in the shops this spring.  Wading through a front room stacked with luggage, I hit the gadget room with the interesting stuff and interviewed some of the company owners. I also talk about the growing number of wireless WiFi hotspots I’m seeing in hotels, and about the different ways Marriott and United Airlines dropped my frequent flier/frequent sleeper status after my traveling patterns changed.  Also, a listener tells us about a good Air France experience re-routing around an East Coast snow storm, and an audio comment about being sick on the road. Listen through to the end of the podcast for how to enter the latest TravelCommons contest. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file or you can listen to it right here by clicking on the arrow below.

    Here are the transcript from TravelCommons podcast #88:

    • Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
    • Coming to you yet again from the TravelCommons studios. I just can’t seem to get my act together enough to have everything written in time to record from a hotel room, though if there’s going to be an April episode, I’ll need to.  The beginning of April finds me in Venice, wrapping up the Spring Break I discussed in an earlier episode.  I then get a week at home with some family coming in, then down to Florida for a week, then to the UK, and then, the last week of April in India, bouncing across the usual suspects – Bangalore, Pune, and Chennai – with a weekend in the Kerala backwaters.
    • Not that March has been quiet.  I’m just back from a trip to New York earlier this week and then head down to Phoenix next week. I’m hoping to catch a Spring Training ball game while I’m down there.  I’ve been working off and on in Phoenix since the mid-‘90’s and have never been to a Spring Training game.  Every year I say I’m going to carve out time, and every year something comes up.  This year, though.  This will be the year.  Again working on that New Year’s travel resolution about taking more quick breaks.  The fact that I’m still thinking about a New Year’s resolution has to be breaking some sort of rule.
    • Stay with me ‘til the end of this episode – either the preferred way by listening or the ADD way by scrubbing – for a quick TravelCommons contest.
    • Bridge Music — Keep Your Motor Running by Dave Hole

    Following Up

    • OK, let’s see what bits and bobs I have been keeping track of on Evernote, and Twitter, and Facebook…
    • For everyone who watched all the way to the end of the Vietnam video back in September – and for those of you who haven’t, it’s still available on the web site, on the iTunes feed, and on the TravelCommons Facebook page – there’s a picture, a head shot of me, with a boa – the large snake, not the feathered thing — draped around my neck.  You can plainly see the receding graying hair. So it caught me up short when a United gate agent looked at my boarding pass, and then at me, and said “You look too young to have a Mileage Plus number this low.”  It worked – I gave her one of those customer service “attaboys’ they always send to their status fliers.  It reminded me of my last trip to India when the immigration agent looked at me a couple of times and said that I looked much younger than my passport photo.  Either I’ve unknowingly picked up the ability to cloud men’s minds or that picture of Dorian Grey I picked up at a garage sale actually works.
    • We’ve talked in past episodes about how for frequent travelers, the cost of wireless data plans can quickly pay for themselves in avoided hotel WiFi charges – 3-4 nights in a month — if you tend to stay in hotels that still charge for wireless or don’t have precious metal status at chains like Hilton or Marriott.  Anyhow, I’ve seen over the past few months a growing number of wireless hotspots when I pop open my laptop in my hotel room.  I see in the network browser at least 2-3 Verizon hotspots, a Sprint, and every once in a while, a Virgin hotspot.  I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised – most Android phones have 3G hotspot capabilities built in.  I guess it’s the power I’m more surprised about.  If I’m seeing 5 or 6 of these, they’re broadcasting farther than just the adjacent room.  And while most have security enabled, there’s always 1 or 2 running naked.  And this will only increase after AT&T iPhones get hotspot capability with iOS 4.3.  With only 11 channels in the US implementation of WiFi, there’s gonna be some congestion in the air soon.
    • Some good comments also came into the web site, the e-mail box and Twitter since the last episode…
    • Andre – who describes himself as a “long-time listener from Germany” – left this comment on the Winter Travel Tips post
      • Wanted to share a positive experience with an airline call center when I was travelling to the US in January. I flew Air France on the international legs – Stuttgart to Paris-DeGaulle to JFK and back, and used United miles for the domestic portion to Florida – JFK to Washington-Dulles to Miami.
      • As my departure approached, so did a massive snowstorm. Just as I finished packing my luggage the night before departure, Air France e-mailed me that my flight out of Kennedy was canceled.  Indeed, AF kept all 4 of their JFK flights in Paris to keep their schedule from getting screwed up. I called the AF call center. I said that I’m currently in Miami and asked if there was flight to Paris out of here or DC. After waiting on hold for a while the agent transferred me to a special Delta help desk, warning me that I might have to pay extra to fly out of MIA. Next agent told me the same, but she had to talk to AF in Paris anyways.
      • After another wait, she came back, totally astonished that AF, not only accepted the re-routing, but also did that free of charge. I guess they were just happy to have one less passenger standing around in New York.
      • So, there are still moments where you think that you are a valued customer and they care about you.
    • Andre, thanks for that story.  This was a tough winter in the US.  I have a friend from Detroit who was in Boston one week and supposed to be in New York the next.  One of those storms blew through, cancelled his flight, and his next available flight home was the following Monday, when he was supposed to be flying back to New York.  He just hung around Boston for the weekend, bought some new underwear, and then caught Amtrak down to New York Monday morning – much less stressful.
    • Peter Zurich sent in a note about the running thread on the TSA’s full body scanners, specifically about my observation in the last episode about the partial roll out of the scanners.  What good was it to scan 100% of the passengers in ORD’s Terminal 1 last Monday morning – pushing security lines down the concourse, and yet have no scanners at all in alternative airports like Ft Myers, FL.  In this same vein, Peter writes
      • I am all onboard for security, but what we have now is security theatre that is just another meaningless escalation from x-ray to liquid ban to shoes off.  We joked about what a good thing it was that Richard Reid, the shoe bomber, didn’t have it in his underwear, and of course, that’s the next thing that happens, and we get the naked scanners.  On and on it goes…
    • Yes, Peter, and so it does.  One thing the housing market meltdown has done is make people less mobile – they can’t easily get out of their houses to move to another city for a new job.  The number of people flying every week to their jobs is growing.  Making this work requires smooth predictable travel – something the TSA seems to have no interest in facilitating.
    • And finally, yet another audio comment – I love these – this time from Lori Humm, another long-time TravelCommons listener, about a time when she was sick while on the road
    • Lori Humm audio clip
    • Lori, thanks for that story.  Makes me feel a bit of a whiner — Type A flu definitely tops my cold I whined about in the last episode.
    • If you have a question, a story, a comment, a travel tip – the voice of the traveler, send it along.  The e-mail address is comments@travelcommons.com — use the Voice Memo app on your iPhone or something like Virtual Recorder on your Android phone to record and send in an audio comment like Lori or Gary in last month’s episode; send a Twitter message to mpeacock, or you can post your thoughts on the TravelCommons’ Facebook page — or you can always go old-school and post your thoughts on the web site at TravelCommons.com.
    • Bridge Music — Baja Taxi by Brian Buckit

    New Travel Goodies

    • Chris Truelove, another long time TravelCommons listener from the UK, dropped me a line a couple of weeks back, saying that he would be in Chicago for the 2011 Travel Goods show to launch the latest version of his luggage locator tag business. I had mentioned his globalbagtag.com business some episodes ago, and now he’s launching a new line – back2you.com.
    • Always looking for some podcast content – as well as the opportunity to meet a listener – I headed down on Sunday afternoon.
    • McCormick Center in Chicago is one of the world’s largest exhibition spaces, so finding the show took a little bit.  Walking in, it was luggage as far as I could see.  There were lots of colors on display.  Everybody – well, except for Tumi – was looking to make a break from black.  I couldn’t discern a clear alternative, though – was red the new black or was beige.  I did see a surprising number of hardshell rolling bags and in all sorts of wild prints.  Perhaps those are more targeted at the recreational market – can’t say I saw a lot of cheetah-print hardshell bags being put in the overhead on my morning flight to New York last week.
    • In spite of all the colors, my eyes began to glaze over – you can only look at so many suitcases before sleep – or boredom – begins to wash over you.  Then I walked into the back room and things got much more interesting.  Rather than 2-story luggage displays, in here were smaller booths filled with all sorts of travel gadgets.  Even the bags back here had interesting twists. Powerbag showed backpacks and briefcases with built-in batteries, complete with built-in iPhone and USB cords to keep your phones and iPods topped off while walking down the concourse.  And a company called Runnur (http://gorunnur.com/) was selling a fanny pack reengineered into something like a bandolier, slinging everything across one shoulder instead of resting on your back-side.
    • It was here that I found Chris and so, using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone, I asked him to tell me about Back2You (http://back2you.com/)
    • Back2You interview

      Back2You Bag Tag
    • Thanks Chris.  Those tags could come in handy on my upcoming trips to Italy, the UK, and India where I won’t be in any single place more than a couple of days.
    • Walking around the back room, I found some other interesting products
    • TuGo interview
    • I’ll post a picture in the show notes.  I tried TuGo (http://goodtugo.com/)  out last Monday morning in ORD.  It got it on my bag in less than a minute, put my coffee in there, then put my backpack on top of my bag and it worked like a charm.  Not sure if the problem it’s solving is worth the space it takes up in my bag, but it definitely works.
    • One of the themes in the back room seemed to be comfort – as the seat pitch – the distance between rows – shrink and planes get more crowded, people are looking to buy a little something to make the journey more bearable.
    • Kuhi Comfort interview

      TuGo Cupholder
    • I tried the Kuhi Comfort (http://www.kuhicomfort.com/).  It was more comfortable than the typical neck pillow. I’m not sure about the pouch for aromatherapy. I like a little lavender oil as much as the next person, but in coach, where you’re less than a foot from the other passenger’s head – one person’s relaxing aromatherapy is the next person’s eye watering stench…
    • The other theme I picked up was hygiene.  There were a handful of booths selling bed bug powders and plastic barriers.  The booth across from Chris Truelove’s –Shelves to Go (http://www.shelvestogo.net) was selling a packable shelving system – lifts straight out of your bag and hangs on the closet rod – avoiding, as the brochure says, “the risk of possible exposure to dirt and insect infestation” from putting your close in the hotel dresser  — I’ll put a picture in the show notes.
    • And then there was this new twist on the lowly wipe
    • Paper Shower (http://papershower.com/) interview
    • So there you go, no end of stuff to make your travel life a bit easier, and your bag a bit heavier.

      Shelves to Go
    • I’ll put URLs and any pictures I have of these products in the show notes.
    • Bridge Music — Emily C by Fiasco

    Losing Status

    • Back in episode 82, I talked about how my job switch – moving from consulting to being the CIO of a technology company – was changing the way I travel, and how the new destinations were shaking up my frequent traveler program status.
    • It all sorted out in mid-January.  Because of our office locations, I switched from Marriott – where I’d been top-tier Platinum status for at least 7 years – to Hilton for no other reason than sheer convenience.  I hit top tier Hilton – Diamond; gem stones rather than precious metals for Hilton – in December.  And, oddly enough, still haven’t received a new card or welcome packet.  Every other program – you hit a major tier and there are all sorts of thank you letters and program brochures showing up on your doorstep.  Hilton – nothing.
    • As interesting, though was Marriott’s reaction.  I don’t think I stayed enough nights to qualify for any status, but they “soft landed” me.  They dropped me one level down – to Gold, which still gets you free WiFi and free breakfast in the concierge lounge – and an offer to let me buy back my Platinum status for 40,000 points.  Nice approach.  If I thought I’d be staying at more Marriotts this year, I’d have considered the buy back, but I appreciated the soft landing and have stayed at a couple of Marriott since them.
    • United Airlines – not as nice.  No soft landing here.  I dropped two tiers – from 1K to Premiere, which is the status level I’d qualified for by the end of the year.  As I mentioned in episode 84, when I saw in October that I would miss American’s Exec Platinum by about 10,000 miles, I flipped over to United to preserve a minimum level of status.  Which is exactly what I received.  Like Marriott, though, I received an offer to buy back my 1K status, but the price was a bit steeper — $999 plus flying 35,000 qualifying miles in the first quarter 0f 2011.  Neither of those made any sense.
    • I’ll probably go back to my old ways – splitting my mileage between United and American and keeping mid-tier status – Premiere Exec — on United because, with monthly flights to Dallas and Fort Myers, FL where United has little to none non-stop service, there’s no way I’ll make 1K.
    • Friends who left consulting used to joke that first January was one of their most conflicted times – down because they lost status and were now traveling with the peons; but happy with what it represented – that they were spending a lot more time with their families.

    Closing

    • Closing music — iTunes link to Pictures of You by Evangeline
    • OK, that’s it, that’s the end of TravelCommons podcast #88
    • I hope you all enjoyed this podcast and I hope you decide to stay subscribed.
    • Bridge music from Music Alley
    • And now for the contest.  In the past, I’ve run some quick contests to drive iTunes reviews.  This time, I – like every podcaster – am looking to drive Facebook “likes” – there’s got to be a better noun than that – “followers” on Twitter may be a bit creepy, but at least it’s not pathetic.  But, that’s the lingo, so I’ll have to go with it.  Go to the TravelCommons Facebook page – there’s link in the shownotes and a badge above the fold on the first page of the web site – “like” it, and leave a comment.  The best comment, funniest or most insightful as judged by me, wins 2 drink coupons on United Airlines.  I look forward to some good stuff
    • If you have a story, thought, comment, gripe – the voice of the traveler — send ‘em along, text or MP3 file, to comments@travelcommons.com or to @mpeacock on Twitter, or post them on our website at travelcommons.com. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to send in e-mails, Tweets and post comments on the website
  • Podcast #87 — Sick on the Road; What’s in My Briefcase?

    Podcast #87 — Sick on the Road; What’s in My Briefcase?

    Warning in a St Louis Taxi
    Warning in a St Louis Taxi

    I skipped the Midwest’s “snow-pocalypse” by flying to Phoenix where it was unseasonably cold — in the 20’s and 30’s F — but without snow. It’s been a cold winter and I came down with some nasty bug while visiting Dallas, which reminded me how miserable it is to be sick while traveling. Before my whining, though, I give a quick status on my New Year’s travel resolutions, my observations on the status of the TSA’s full body scanning program, and my struggles trying to use Avatron’s Air Display app to turn my iPad into a second display for my MacBook Air.  Gary Learned suggests a headset that can defeat overhead PA announcements at airports, and I go through my briefcase — how I’ve changed what I carry for business travel over the past 5 years. Here’s a direct link to the podcast file or you can listen to it right here by clicking on the arrow below.

    Here are the transcript from TravelCommons podcast #87:

    • Intro music — Warmth by Makkina
    • Coming to you from the TravelCommons studios outside of Chicago, IL.  I managed to skip this week’s “snopocalypse” — the 20+ inches of snow that fell here Tuesday and Wednesday.  Instead, I flew down to Phoenix on Tuesday morning – though not without a couple of glitches courtesy of American Airlines – and came back Friday evening.  And yes, I did feel a bit guilty skipping out on the shoveling in the wind and cold, but that’s what kids are for.
    • It has been a cold winter so far.  I was in Dallas a couple of weeks ago where it was rainy, in the low 30’s and the wind was blowing a steady 20 mph – OK, no snow, but not any better than Chicago.  And then even this week in Phoenix – the temperatures were in the 30’s, getting into the 20’s at night.  Yes it was colder in Chicago and elsewhere, but still – where’s that global warming when you really need it.
    • Earlier in January, Phoenix was much nicer – sunny and in the 60’s.  The first couple of days I was there, I was running on autopilot a bit – for lunch, I’d dash out of the office, hop in my rental car and drive the quarter-mile north to the shopping area with the sandwich shops and a Whole Foods.  Driving back the second day, I thought, “What the hell am I doing?  It’s 20 degrees back home!”  The next day, I took an hour for lunch, walked to the Whole Foods, bought myself a cup of soup, sat outside in the sun and ate it, and then walked back to the office.
    • Which kind of reminds me of the New Years resolutions I posted on the TravelCommons site on the first of the year.  #3 was “Take More Quick Breaks” – along the lines of “take advantage of the travel because it sure takes advantage of you…” In the post, I mentioned the afternoons I took to hike up Squaw Peak in Phoenix or walk along the beach in Naples, FL.  Walking along a road to lunch seems a bit of a pathetic reach, but the spirit is there – if you’re traveling from snow to sun for work, don’t forget to grab a couple of rays for yourself.
    • Actually, I did a bit better than that – I went to the BCS college football championship game while in Phoenix, and to a Mavs-Lakers basketball game while in Dallas – something for each week.
    • As for my other resolutions?  “Plan Further Ahead” because airline load factors/seat utilization is moving up again?  I’m doing OK with that – I’m booking out 2-3 weeks in advance, which is a huge improvement for me.
    • “Repack My Briefcase?” – check out the “What’s in my bag” segment a bit later.
    • “Take More Pictures?” – just a marginal improvement – I don’t count taking pictures with my iPhone of bullet points on whiteboards
    • And the toughest one – “Be nicer to TSA agents?”  I was doing better because, at least over the past few trips, they’ve been nicer to me.  I hadn’t been groped or irradiated on my first couple of trips, which will tend to have a positive impact on anyone’s disposition.
    • Bridge Music — Shine by Hungry Lucy

    Following Up

    • The TSA full body scan controversy that was white-hot during the Thanksgiving weekend seems to have cooled quite a bit.  The TSA will say that this is proof the American public supports its program of full body scans or AIT – Advanced Imaging Technology – as they like to call it, and the “enhanced pat-down” as the TSA likes to call it, or the full body grope as the rest of us experience it.
    • I think instead it’s that the TSA has pulled way back on their use of these invasive techniques.  I hadn’t been hit with a full-body scanner or a grope-down from the beginning of December until last week.  When the TSA dropped the scanners into ORD in July, they had everyone go through them, which doubled the screening time – at least.  Then through the Christmas travel season, it seemed that the machines were off more than they were on, and even when they were on, they weren’t not on every security lane, so it was pretty easy to avoid them unless you’re going thru a small security checkpoint – which is how they last caught me in DFW.
    • They also seem to be have slowed the rollout.  I haven’t seen them crop up in any new places.  Terminal 2 in PHX, for example, is still a TSA porn-free zone.  Not that I’m complaining.  Nice to be able to just move through security without having to hold my hands above my head.  And remember when we used to complain about taking our shoes off…
    • However, on my last two trips out of ORD, I was fully irradiated.  Again, it was going through a small checkpoint – the status-only checkpoint in Terminal 3, where American lives.
    • Though the TSA will say that the full-body scan doesn’t take much longer than the metal detector, they’re just flat wrong.  The actual scan – the amount of time you have your arms above your head – is only a few seconds longer than walking through the metal detector, the entire screening process takes much longer.
    • I’m beginning to consider the locations of these full-body scanners when I book flights.  In ORD, it seems easier to avoid them in Terminal 1 than Terminal 3, so my next flight down to Florida I’ve switched over to United. Not completely driven by full-body scanners, but it’s definitely a factor.
    • And continuing my thread about my MacBook Air.  You’ll remember that one of the reasons I chose the 11-inch model was the TSA said it could stay in your briefcase – kinda like a bit iPad.  However, when you briefcase – or backpack – stacks your iPad on top of your MacBook Air, be prepared to pull one of them out.  Talking to a very pleasant TSA X-ray machine operator in ORD, he told me that when they stack up, they get too thick to properly scan.  Makes sense.  I’ve since moved my iPad to a difference section in my backpack – put some papers and magazines between the iPad and the MBA to provide a bit more separation and haven’t had a problem since.
    • A number of folks have asked me why I carry both the iPad and a laptop – and I haven’t been able to come up with a real compelling reason.  As I’ve said before, I like reading on an iPad and writing on a laptop, but does that justify the extra weight and re-packing hassle of the iPad?  I was wishy-washy on that right up to last week when I thought I’d found my killer app for the iPad – Avatron’s Air Display, which turns the iPad into a secondary display for the MacBook when they’re on the same WiFi network.
    • Now here’s a reason.  While I can work on the smaller screen of my 11-inch MBA (or the 10.6-inch HP netbook before that), having a second display certainly makes it easier to “spread out”.  I have two 22-inch monitors on my Windows desktop box at home and love it.  I eagerly dropped the $10 for the Air Display app and fired it up…
    • And was disappointed.  It didn’t work in the office.  OK, our network guys must have it locked down.  Not surprised.  I get back to the Hilton and fire it up – again, no luck.  At home, doesn’t work when associated with my Apple Airport Express, but does – just once – when associated with the access point that’s built into the big AT&T U-verse modem/router thing in the basement.  The only access point I can get Air Display to regularly work on is when I use my Verizon Droid 2 as a 3G hot spot.  That’s a bit of a kludge.
    • When it does work, it’s great – the few times that’s happened.  I’ve been hanging around Avatron’s support forums for about a week now, but haven’t found a solution yet.  Great concept; real spotty execution.  If they can get this to work, my iPad is no longer a heavy Kindle – it’s a real productivity tool.
    • And following up on my thoughts in the last episode about some of the hassles of the “digital nomad” work style when it comes to finding a quiet place for a conference call, Gary Learned sent in some thoughts…
    • Gary Learned audio clip
    • Gary, thanks for that suggestion.  I’m hitting Amazon looking for that earpiece right now,
    • And finally, the Gogo in-flight wireless guys have got a new giveaway as they continue to push awareness of their product.  For February, Gogo is adding Facebook to their set of free sites. After the plane gets above 10,000 ft, fire up your laptop or smartphone and associate with the “gogoinflight” wireless network.  Open your browser and you’ll get the GoGo sign-on page.  On the bottom of the page, you’ll see a set of free web sites – typically the dot com site for the airline you’re flying, a weather site, ….  And now, Facebook.  Nice to know that you can stay socially connected at 35,000 feet.
    • If you have a question, a story, a comment, a travel tip – the voice of the traveler, send it along.  The e-mail address is comments@travelcommons.com — use the Voice Memo app on your iPhone to record and send in an audio comment; send a Twitter message to mpeacock, or you can post your thoughts on the Facebook page with GoGo’s free service — or you can always go old-school and post your thoughts on the web site at T/C.com
    • Bridge Music — Beggarstown by Hollow Horse

    Sick on the Road

    • No, that’s not sick of the road – though that happens at times too.
    • As I mentioned earlier, I was in Dallas a couple weeks ago – when it was just cold and windy; no snow or ice – and scored an invite to a vendor’s suite at the Mavs-Lakers basketball game.  Definitely a premiere game.  I went with a couple of guys from the office.
    • It was a good game – Mavs were down at halftime but came back to beat the Lakers by 10.  During the second half, though, I started to feel a tickle in the back of my throat.  I couldn’t stop coughing – couldn’t seem to “finish up” a cough – and the beer and salsa were beginning to feel a little rough going down.
    • Back in the hotel room, I just couldn’t get warm.  I went to bed, but soon started shivering. The thermostat was just above my head.  I kept pushing the Up button until I heard the heater kick in.  After a while, I finally got warm enough to sleep comfortably.  The next morning I looked at the temperature setting – it was at 78°.
    • It didn’t get much better the rest of the day.  I drug myself through a full day of meetings and got on a United Express regional jet for my flight home that night.  Again, I couldn’t get warm.  Since United Express seems to have followed American in pulling blankets and pillows from its planes, I swaddled myself in my tweed jacket and overcoat, and tried not to cough on the person in the window seat.
    • Now, as being sick on the road goes, this wasn’t that bad.  I’ve gotten food poisoning a couple of times, severely pulled muscles, flown with sinus infections that made my head feel like it was going to split in two during descent…
    • But it did remind me how miserable it is to be sick on the road.  For the most part, you’re alone.  Though you may have co-workers who will try to help you a bit, when they go home to their families, you’re going home to an empty hotel room and are going to have to fend for yourself.
    • And it’s not just that you’re lacking a spouse or child to help you out – bring you a blanket or a cup of tea.  You need to find a pharmacy, perhaps a doctor.  But even then, it can still be a struggle. When I was last in Paris, I tweaked my knee pretty bad and needed some ibuprofen for the pain and swelling.  The hotel concierge pointed me in the direction of a pharmacy a couple of blocks away.  Walking/limping in, I knew I couldn’t ask for Advil or Motrin – those US name brands don’t exist in France.  So I asked for ibuprofen – the generic name of the active ingredient.  Ibuprofen is ibuprofen, I thought.
    • “Ibuprofen, s’il vous plaît” I asked.  The pharmacist cocked an eyebrow and looked at me.  “Ibuprofen, s’il vous plaît”, I said again.  Now the other eyebrow arched.  I fought the urge to say it again, only louder.  What was I missing?  Perhaps my throbbing knee was effecting my pronunciation.  I looked around on the counter; grabbed a pen and flipped over some advertising flyer.  I-b-u-p-r-o-f-e-n, I wrote.
    • “Oh, EE-bu-pro-fen” the pharmacist said, and gave me the container of tablets I had needed since I got up that morning.  Flipping French, I thought, and limped back to my hotel.
    • So what do you do?  Certainly “not getting sick” is the best approach – get enough sleep on the road – often tough to do in strange beds and with full schedules.  I find that the old saw – wash your hands for a full 20 seconds and do it often – has significantly reduced the number of colds I pick up, even when I’m flying a lot.
    • Packing a well-stocked medicine cabinet helps a bit – allergy medicine, cold tablets, throat lozenges, ee-buprofen tablets, ….  For domestic travel, at least, you’re not trying to cure the sickness; just stave off the symptoms long enough so that you can get home and into the hands of your regular care-givers.
    • International travel is a bit dicier.  I know some travelers who have medical jet/air ambulance insurance so that they have a quick way to get back home if something catastrophic happens.
    • While I haven’t done that yet, I am looking for a medical phrase book before my next trip to Europe, complete with pronunciation guides for common drugs.  Ibuprofen, ee-buprofen – geez…
    • Bridge Music — Love Survives by Lovespirals

    What’s in My Bag?

    • One of the New Year’s Travel Resolutions that I posted on the TravelCommons site on Jan 1st was to “unpack and repack my briefcase”.
    • Steve Frick, a long time TravelCommons listener, wrote the next day “did that this weekend. 3 pairs of headphones, approx 2 lbs of loose change, 50+ business cards and at least 15 hotel room keys. No wonder my laptop bag was so heavy.”
    • Five years ago – February 2006 – in episode #33, I did a bit of an audio tour through my briefcase
    • <audio clip>
    • The picture of this de-constructed travel kit is the first picture of the TravelCommons Flickr photostream
    • Five years later, some (and surprisingly only some) of the contents have changed, but the goal is the same – optimizing the trade-off between weight and having everything I need.  There’s always that desire to have everything you could possibly need – to make your briefcase into the road warrior version of Batman’s utility belt, letting you amaze your traveling companions by pulling out just the right thing to solve any travel problem.
    • So you’re always prepared, but you’re always trailing up the rear – either because you’ve got the heaviest bag or because the TSA is always pulling your bag for secondary screening because all that stuff makes them suspicious.
    • And so back to that balancing act – what do I need all the time (and so would be a pain to be without) vs. what can I buy or borrow for the one or two times I need it?
    • The technology has changed quite a bit, as you would guess, in 5 years.  It’s kinda fun looking back.  I’ve traded an IBM ThinkPad for a MacBook Air; a Motorola flip phone and U2-themed iPod Classic replaced by an iPhone; and an Aliph Jawbone 2 Bluetooth headset bumping the Motorola H710.  No need for the Microsoft travel mouse or Bluetooth dongle with the MacBook. Also, my vendor-supplied thumb drives have been upgraded – from 512 MB to 4 GB.
    • I replaced the Swiss Army briefcase – I called it a “poor man’s Tumi” in the podcast – with a backpack. And, of course, the TSA’s liquid ban stopped me from carrying on little bottles of hand lotion. I now grab them from every hotel and leave them scattered around conference rooms and rental cars
    • What’s stayed the same?  The Moleskine notebook, the selection of pens, the pink semi-transparent folder for expense receipts, a bottle with ibuprofen and zyrtec tablets, the iRiver MP3 player and recorder that I use to record these podcasts, and, most importantly, a tin of wintergreen Altoids to counter dry mouth when I fall asleep in flight – a pretty common occurrence.
    • What’s new?  An iPad, an extra battery for my iPhone, an AT&T USB cellular modem which lets me skip paying for slow hotel WiFi, a set of Motorola Bluetooth stereo headphones that I use when I work out, a couple of Tazo green tea bags because in-flight coffee is just horrid, an inhaler to make it easier to breathe when I catch a cold (good advice from a “doc in the box” in San Mateo after being laid low in the SFO Marriott by bronchitis), and a Verizon Droid 2 for the too many times that AT&T’s coverage sucks.
    • The iPad let me ditch the printed reports I used to carry – I hated reading them on a computer screen, but don’t mind it on the iPad.  The iBooks and Kindle apps also let me leave physical books at home.  I also tossed the 3 business card holders I’d accumulated – my backpack has a pocket just for business cards.  And do we really need business cards anymore?  Unless you’re regularly meeting with Asian businessmen, business card exchanges are getting rarer and rarer.
    • So I think I’m traveling lighter.  But it might be a push – what I’ve dropped in paper I think I’ve made up in device chargers.

    Closing

    • Closing music — iTunes link to Pictures of You by Evangeline
    • OK, that’s it, that’s the end of TravelCommons podcast #87
    • I hope you all enjoyed this podcast and I hope you decide to stay subscribed.
    • Bridge music from Music Alley
    • If you have a story, thought, comment, gripe – the voice of the traveler — send ‘em along, text or MP3 file, to comments@travelcommons.com or to @mpeacock on Twitter, or post them on our website at travelcommons.com. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to send in e-mails, Tweets and post comments on the website
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