Travelling and Technology

Well if you have been following my Twitter stream you are aware that I am travelling today.  It has been an interesting travel day because I was supposed to leave Jacksonville International Airport at  8:24 AM – but we were delayed two hours because our airplane was in Detroit from the night before due to visibility.  So I sat in the USO Lounge at the airport and got connected with Jax’s free WiFi (thanks JIA) and tracked my flights status via FlightStats.com and it was very timely in keeping me up to speed on the flight delays.  They also have a good mobile site implementation so you can use your mobile phone to keep up with flights, airports, etc.

We did finally take off from Jax and headed into Detroit arriving about 2 hours late.  I had a quick stop for lunch and grabbed some quick unlimited Internet ($5 for 15 mins, $7 for unlimited).  Something told me I might need that unlimited at some point later in the day.

I headed to my gate for the flight to Portland and after a couple of other delays that flight was cancelled due to weather and my reason for going to Maine was cancelled the following day so it was time to sort out a return trip. 

I am now booked for a flight tonight from Detroit back to Jacksonville and I am back in the spot I had lunch and am taking advantage of the $7 unlimited Internet I paid for.  I imagine that I am getting much more Internet than most get for that $7 – about 4 – 5 hours worth by the time I am done.

I am also keeping track of my new flight via FlightStats.com.  It is already showing a 90 minute delay as of this posting. 

Can you remember when the only source of info you had when travelling was the desk agents for the airlines?

See ya back in Jacksonville – eventually!

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Richard Hay  (3358 Posts)

Richard is the Owner of WindowsObserver.com and has been involved in tech for over 25 years. His first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then he used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and what you see here today is the result of the work he has continued on the site since 1995. In January 2010 his community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when he was awarded the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for Windows Desktop Experience. In January 2011 he was renewed as a Microsoft MVP but in a new category called Windows Expert - Consumer and in January 2012 he received the award for the third time.