In the big airports, you sometimes see three different lanes for the X-ray machines. They’re marked by a black diamond (expert travelers who know the routine and have their laptops out and shoes off), blue square (casual travelers) and green circle (families and people who need extra help).
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I have no idea if that self-selecting system actually lets anyone get through the lines faster. But it occurred to me that if there were such a thing as a black-diamond lane for technology, I’m probably in it.
I’ve been racking up about 70 round-trip flights a year, so I know this space pretty well. I’ve got the tech part of it down to a science. Here’s what I’ve learned along the way — tips for maximum flying efficiency and minimum misery.
1. Use TripIt.com. Tripit is this amazing, free Web site. Every time you book a flight, hotel or car rental online, you forward the e-mail confirmation to plans@tripit.com. Magically, the service parses the confirmation e-mail and records all of the details: confirmation numbers, times, dates, flight numbers and so on.
Best part: You can subscribe to your own Tripit feed, meaning that your computer or cellphone calendar will record those flight details automatically. If you’re still typing your flights and travel details into your computer calendar or phone by hand, you’re wasting a lot of time.
2. Use FlightTrack Pro. This app ($10), for iPhone, iPad or Android, is amazing. It shows every detail of every flight: gate, time delayed, airline phone number, where the flight is on the map, and more. It knows more, and knows it sooner, than the actual airlines do.
Or more than they’ll admit. For example, for any flight, one tap shows you its on-time record. You’d be shocked at how rarely certain flights take off or land on time.
(I’ll never forget the time FlightTrack asserted that my flight would be departing 55 minutes late — even as the flight was boarding! I sat there defiantly in my seat in the gate area, working on my laptop. I was confidently putting my trust into FlightTrack’s information, even as the last rows were called for boarding. Just when my nerves couldn’t take anymore, sure enough: people started pouring back off the plane. The gate agents had finally gotten word of the delay, and everybody had to get off and wait 55 minutes, just as my app had foretold.)
Best part: it auto-syncs with Tripit.com. Once again, you’re spared having to do any manual data entry at all.
3. Check in from your phone. For a long time, I wondered why every airline had an iPhone or Android app for checking in. Is displaying a bar code on your phone really so much better than clutching the little boarding pass paper printed out by the kiosk at the airport?
(Frankly, I don’t even understand the premise of checking in when you’re still at home. If you can check in before you’re actually at the airport, why can’t you check in at the time you buy your ticket, and be done with it? It’s usually nonrefundable, so what does the airline have to lose?)
Anyway, I finally tried it. The Delta app is the best of the bunch. You open the app—the day before your flight, for example, or even on the way to the airport — and it automatically shows the flight you’re about to take. It’s much smarter than most airline kiosks, which make you manually enter your flight information before printing out your boarding pass. (Shouldn’t the computer know what my next flight is on that airline?)
In the Delta app, you tap the flight, tap Check In, and presto: it displays your “boarding pass” in the form of a big black-and-white QR code (a newfangled bar code). On that same screen, conveniently enough, is your gate number, seat number, seating zone—even Delta’s customer-service hot line.
Other airlines have similar apps, but none as fluid or beautifully designed. Continental’s app, for example, makes you re-enter your frequent flyer number every time you check in for a flight. (Hey, Continental, guess what? My frequent flyer number hasn’t changed since last time!)
No matter which airline’s app you’re using, you handle your phone just as you would handle the boarding pass. For example, you show it to the security person who monitors the entrance to the security line.
When you get to the actual Transportation Security Administration rep who checks your ID and boarding pass, you put your phone face down on a little glass scanner at the rep’s little desk, and you’re
ushered right on through. Kind of amazing, really.
Anyway, I’ve discovered several advantages to checking in with your phone. First, there’s little chance that you’ll lose your boarding
pass. Second, you’re saving paper and trash.
Third, some airlines, like Delta and United, automatically reassign you to first class if you’re a frequent flyer and if there’s room. In my experience, checking in early, using your phone, gives you a better chance of snagging one of those free upgrades. You’re ahead of all those people who don’t check in until they get to the airport.
4. Use Kayak and FlightAware. I should also mention my two other favorite travel apps.
Kayak (free for iPhone and Android) offers a beautiful, fast app for searching flights — all airlines. It doesn’t sell tickets, just helps you find out what flights are available. I love the Time filter: you can drag a slider to narrow down the hours of takeoff or landing that you’d consider.
FlightAware.com tracks a flight’s progress. (Similar: The Flightwise app for iPhone or Android.) This isn’t necessarily a benefit to you, the traveler — but if you’re the one who’s supposed to pick up somebody at the airport, it’s a must. You’ll see exactly where that plane is (on a map), and exactly when it will be landing.
5. Know which flights are laptop-friendly. There are now about 1,100 planes in the United States that offer Gogo’s inflight Wi-Fi ($13 cross country, smaller amounts for shorter flights, $40 monthly unlimited). You’ll find them, usually on cross-country flights, on Alaska Airlines, American, Virgin, Delta, Frontier, US Airways and United.
You can use SeatGuru.com to find out if your flight will offer Wi-Fi and power outlets. Most important of all, it tells you how cramped your seat will be compared with other airlines (click “Comparison Charts”).
The airlines that offer power outlets in coach are Virgin (always) and American and Continental (sometimes).
Other black-diamond traveler tips, based on my experiences: Delta recycles all cups and cans from the beverage service, and donates the recycling proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.
Continental charges $7 to watch its in-flight TV on cross-country flights. And its exit-row seats don’t recline.
Virgin has free seat-back TV, very cool lighting and music, and a touch screen that lets you order a drink or a snack at any time during the flight.
United and Continental are supposedly merging, but in the meantime, they’re completely bungling the integration. You might buy a Continental ticket but arrive at the wrong terminal at the airport because it’s actually a United flight — or vice versa.
There we go, folks: my black-diamond frequent-flyer brain dump. Fill in the gaps in my knowledge in the Comments, will you?