I can't believe I never knew about it, but I just found out about a wonderful resource for frustrated air travelers. This is particularly handy for those of us in the northern hemisphere, since we're getting into the height of over-booked, under-experienced travel: summer vacations.
The resource I learned about is the "Coalition for an Airline Passengers' Bill of Rights" (CAPBOR). They can be reached in the US by phone at 1-877-FLYERS6 (1-877-359-3776), and they are staffed by volunteers who specialize in helping you deal with problems you encounter during air travel. Add it to your address book, just in case.
CAPBOR helps you understand your rights, formulate your requests in the best way to circumvent rigid airline policies, and if you have a canceled flight they will even help you find out flight status / alternate flights, help you book hotels and car rentals, and find out weather information.
You can find out more about CAPBOR and their mission at flyersrights.com, and learn about the services they can offer. They also have an excellent blog at strandedpassengers.blogspot.com. Both are well worth checking out.
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Read MoreYapta (Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant) which I reviewed in the past, is launching some new capabilities today. To refresh your memory, the things Yapta is best at are:
- helping you track airfare prices to get the best deal (you get alerts when the price drops) and
- helping you get money back from the airlines if the price drops after you buy your tickets (again, they alert you and provide instructions for how to get a refund or a voucher from the airline)
I've been using this for a while and, thanks to "best" #2, I've gotten several hundred dollars back form United when my airfare dropped on one of my family's vacation trips.
What's new today?
In the past, you had to use a browser add-on to get Yapta's functionality, which meant you used a bunch of other web sites to search for flights and used the add-on to "tag" the trips you want to watch.
Now, they've unified several capabilities into a web experience that doesn't require a browser add-on. You can, through their web site:
- quickly search for the cheapest flights based on your saved preference profile,
- start tracking price fluctuations for a number of routes and flight combinations all at once (great for planning trips that are a good distance in the future), and
- get alerts via email when fares drop or fall below a "target" price that you can configure.
After you purchase your ticket, the site will alert you when you're elegibile for a travel credit from the airline. That's how I got my vouchers from United - and it was dirt simple, since I followed the instructions Yapta included in their email.
They've also added some other convenience features like storing your frequent flier numbers, information on your unused tickets, and information on your travel credits.
There's much more than I've described here - check it out yourself -- for free -- at Yapta today.
Read MoreWhen you're traveling with a notebook computer or other electronic essentials, a power outlet is like an oasis in the dessert (and you can usually spot them by looking for clusters of tethered travelers huddled nearby, drinking up the precious current). When you're low on juice, it can be frustrating when you're in an airport with only a few outlets.
Well, Monster has a great way for travelers to increase their access to power on the go: It's their Outlets To Go 3-Outlet Portable Powerstrip and it's pretty cool. This allows you to expand a single (grounded) outlet and turn it into 3 outlets. This extra capacity can come in handy in several situations:
- In the aforementioned scarce outlet situation, you can provide the means to share an outlet with other travelers
- For international travel, simply carry this power strip and a single international power adapter, and you'll be able to plug in 3 devices at once
- Its short length of cord allows you to more easily utilize power outlets in tight spaces - especially if you have clunky power supplies for some of your devices
There are a few other nice features on this little power strip:
- It rolls up small (as in the picture) and you can plug it back into itself to keep the cord tidy, and maintain a small profile
- The outlets have enough spacing to accommodate even large power bricks (there are 2 outlets on one side; 1 on the other)
- The power connector is flat and exits to the side, so it is less likely to interfere with other plugs or devices
- The "Monster Power" logo glows blue when the strip is "live" so you can tell when the circuit is hot
- It has a built-in circuit breaker to protect you from dodgy power situations
You can get the US version of this for about $12 on Amazon so it's reasonably priced.
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Read MoreI've been using a Blackberry with a full keyboard for quite a while, and have always been frustrated about dialing letters or words since the Blackberry doesn't have any kind of indicator what letters go with which numbers. For example, when I want to dial by name on a company phone system, I have resorted to doing the mapping in my head: something like "Let's see...ABC is 2, DEF is 3... dangit!"
Well, I just found out there is a much easier way: When you have to dial by name, wait for the prompt and simply press and hold down the "Alt" key on the Blackberry and use the keyboard to type the name you are trying to dial. The Blackberry will automagically send the right tone to match what you've typed. Awesome time saver.
When dialing 1-800-Whatever, the same technique applies - just punch that into the dialing field in the Blackberry's phone screen, and it will do the math for you.
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Bonus feature:
If you work for a company that uses a main number with an automated menu where you can dial individual extensions, try this. Type an extension into the phone screen (such as "x123") and the Blackberry will prompt you to set up your phone for automatic enterprise dialing.
After this is set up, you can simply type the extension number for anyone in your company into your Blackberry. The Blackberry will then dial your main number, pause for the specified number of seconds, then punch in the extension number. |
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I've written about Yapta a couple of times in the past (see "Related items" following this post) and how it's useful for today's airfare climate. As a refresher, you use Yapta's browser add-on to track airfares by "tagging" (or "bookmarking") the exact flight itineraries that you want while searching on airline websites. Once a trip is tagged, all key flight information - including price, airline and travel dates - is automatically stored on the traveler's "My Trips" page at Yapta.com and users are subsequently notified via email when prices drop.
If prices drop after you've purchased the ticket, you are notified when you're eligible for a travel voucher or refund from their airline.
What's new?
In the past, Yapta only worked with Internet Explorer. Well, good news to you Firefox (Windows and Mac) users: Yapta released their Firefox plug-in today. It's free if you want to give it a shot. You can get more info or download the Yapta plug-in for Firefox.
Yapta can be used to tag flights on the following sites:
http://www.Alaskaair.com
http://www.aa.com
http://www.Continental.com
http://www.Delta.com
http://www.JetBlue.com
http://www.united.com
http://www.usairways.com
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