Cell rage boils over, but solutions are scarce
Our friends at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration poured gasoline on a metaphorical car wreck earlier this week when they released a survey that suggested at any given time, about three percent of drivers are talking on hand-held cellular phones. Three percent! The NHTSA reported at least 500,000 drivers are chatting on their cell phones simultaneously during the daytime.
Do new laws persecute wireless travelers?
These aren’t the best of times for travelers who use cell phones. A few weeks ago, a woman on a Czech Airlines flight landed on the wrong side of the law when she whipped out her wireless device in midair, despite repeated warnings from a flight attendant. According to a police spokesman, the call temporarily disrupted the turboprop’s navigation devices and jammed communication between the plane and the tower. She faces one year in jail if convicted.
3G threatens to unravel your wireless world
Hold on to your cell phones, folks. That wireless device in your hand is about to be rendered obsolete by technology you never asked for. It’s called 3G - shorthand for third-generation mobile communications technology - and so far it’s a disaster that’s leaving customers reaching for their old analog phones.
New charges shock tech travelers
Hotel energy surcharges, which made a limited debut out West in the land of rolling blackouts and soaring utility bills this spring, are now in wide release across the country. Maybe too wide of a release.The unexpected extras are affecting frequent travelers in general and travelers who use technology, specifically. People like Bruce Robin, a Honolulu telecommunications executive who recently found a $3 per day energy surcharge on his hotel bill at New York’s Doubletree Suites.
Rewards programs: Grab ‘em or let ‘em fly?
Frequent flier miles seem to come with more and more financial transactions - credit card charges, long-distance phone calls, mutual fund investments, mortgage payments - so you’d think that half the U.S. is flying free these days. Not so. While it’s true that there are now fewer blackout dates - times when you can’t use miles to buy a ticket - it doesn’t necessarily follow that getting a reward ticket is any easier. No one in the airline industry talks openly about mileage redemption rates, but it’s commonly believed that about half of all frequent flier miles go unused.