Do not use your phone abroad without preparing or your bill will be shocking!

The difference between American and European mobile phone providers are vast, and the modern traveler is likely to run afoul if they are unprepared, running up a surprisingly large bill! Here’s a rundown of my standard techniques to prepare my American mobile phone for travel abroad.

Frequency Compatibility

The first thing to do when considering a trip abroad is checking whether your phone supports the technology and frequencies used by the carriers in the country will visit. The majority of European carriers rely on the 900 and 1800 MHz bands for GSM voice, SMS, and low-speed data, and the 2100 MHz band for high-speed 3G HSPA data service.

Only AT&T and T-Mobile use the same GSM technology as most European and other international providers, but this does not mean that all of their phones will function correctly overseas. Although nearly every American GSM phone is capable of voice calling and text messaging in Europe, 3G data service is another story entirely.

Neither AT&T nor T-Mobile uses the same 3G HSPA frequencies that are standard in Europe. Many phones, including my iPhone 4S, support the European frequencies as well, offering high-speed data in both Europe and America. But others only support one or the other set of frequencies for high-speed data. This is the reason my unlocked Huawei E585 is useless in the USA.

Check the specifications of your phone to see if it supports the 900/1800/2100 MHz bands for both GSM and HSPA. Note that Verizon, Sprint, and many smaller operators using entirely different technology that isn’t compatible at all with European providers. These companies do sell a few “world phones”, including the iPhone 4S. But the earlier Verizon iPhone 4 will not work in Europe.

Preparing Your AT&T Account for Use Abroad

Assuming your phone will work abroad, it is wise to consider the cost of various services while roaming. There are essentially three considerations when using the phone outside its home territory:

• Voice calling can be expensive unless a special plan is purchased at a time. Note that European carriers do not charge for incoming calls, though American carriers do.
• SMS text messaging can also be surprisingly expensive when roaming. Although most Europeans have unlimited messaging plans, and their carriers do not charge for incoming messages, many Americans have only a small allowance of text messages and are charged in both directions.
• Data service can be the biggest shocker when traveling abroad. It is not unheard of for a few days of casual e-mail, navigation, and web use to cost over $1000 while roaming abroad.

When I’m traveling abroad, I always contact AT&T ahead of time and activate features on my plan to offset these costs. Here are my recommended settings:

• AT&T’s “World Traveler” plan costs $5.99 per month but reduces the cost of voice calls from of $1.39 to $.99 per minute. If you plan to talk for more than 40 minutes, this is a win.
• AT&T also offers a variety of “Global Messaging” plans, which allow you to send SMS text messages much cheaper. I usually purchase the $10 “Global Messaging 50” plan, which includes 50 prepaid outbound text messages. This works out to $.20 per message rather than the normal rate of $.50, giving you a break even point at 34 messages.
• Data remains a problem, even though AT&T offers a variety of “Data Global” add-on packages. I usually purchase the cheapest 50 MB “Data Global Add-On” package, which includes 50 MB of data for $24.99. This may seem expensive, but it’s nowhere near as much as AT&T’s normal rate of almost $.02 per kilobyte. 50 MB of Data Global is an astonishing $973.41 (40 times) less expensive!

Don’t Rely on Data Roaming

I highly recommend purchasing a local mobile broadband device to avoid extortionate roaming charges

Even with Data Global, however, it really is not practical to use data roaming outside the United States. This is why I recommend purchasing a local “MiFi” device and 3G data plan in whatever country you will be visiting. I am bringing my Huawei E585 with me to the UK for Dell Storage Forum, recharged with 3 GB of data for just £15.

I’m really only purchasing AT&T Data Global as insurance in case I need data and the MiFi is not available for some reason. You can ring up $24.99 of data roaming charges in less than 5 seconds after using just 1.25 MB without a plan like that. It’s extortion, but that’s AT&T for you.

I will often call AT&T to activate these services a few days before leaving. They are sometimes offered to automatically cancel the service when I return, or at least give me a call back so I can cancel it. If you activate these features online, remember to deactivate them afterwards since they offer no value if you are not traveling.

You should also read An Inexpensive Mobile Broadband Alternative When Traveling in the UK and Wireless Internet Access During My Trip To The Netherlands

Stephen’s Stance

Before traveling abroad with an AT&T phone, I recommend going online or calling the company and activating 3 features: “World Traveler” for voice, “Global Messaging” for SMS, and “Data Global” for data service. I also advise purchasing a local 3G “MiFi” and turning off Data Roaming on your iPhone, even though this would seem a waste of the $24.99 Data Global plan. I imagine T-Mobile has similar offerings for world travelers, and Verizon and Sprint as well as long as a “world phone” is used.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2012. | How to Prepare Your AT&T Phone for Travel Abroad
This post was categorized as Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

The Huawei E585 on the Three network in the UK is an excellent deal for travelers

Traveling overseas is challenging in many ways, but mobile phone and data service is especially difficult. While it’s fairly easy to find a reasonable deal locally, it’s almost impossible to transfer these deals abroad. The best way to avoid a huge ripoff is to use a local provider, and this is exactly what I did during my recent trip to the UK. I picked up a Huawei E585 “MiFi” on the Three network for half what AT&T charged me for modest use on my last trip.

Introducing the Huawei E585

The E585 is the latest “MiFi” device from Three in the UK. Like the familiar Novatel MiFi devices in the USA, the Huawei includes a 3G modem, Wi-Fi access point, and runs for hours on an internal battery.

Note: MiFi is a trademark of Novatel in the USA, but Three registered the “MiFi” trademark in the UK years before Novatel, so they are able to use the term for their 3G Wi-Fi service there, regardless of hardware maker.

Unlike my Novatel 2200, Huawei includes an OLED display on the E585, which clearly shows relevant information including battery charge and 3G and Wi-Fi connection status. The device is controlled with a single button and includes a Micro SD slot for local data sharing.

I found the battery to last at least four hours of casual use, which is nice since it takes quite a while to power on and off. But at least it isn’t eager to power itself on without my input – I often find my Novatel on and running down the battery for no reason!

The default WPA password is unique and printed on the inside of the device. Like Novatel’s “admin”, Huawei set the administrative password to “Admin”, leaving something to be desired. I quickly changed the SSID, and WPA and administrative passwords.

The Three network was widespread and speedy in my travels through the south of England. I was pleased by their £71.99 offering, which included the modem and 3 GB of data good for 3 months. I walked into one of their High Street stores and walked out with Internet access in less than 15 minutes.

Traveling Outside the UK

The E585 supports five GSM bands: 850, 900, 1800, 1900, and 2100 MHz. It is possible to unlock the E585 using free tools, as noted below, and this makes it potentially useful in many European and Asian countries.

But high-speed 3G HSPA is limited to 900 and 2100 MHz, and AT&T uses 950/1900 for 3G HSPA in the USA. It definitely does not support the 1700 MHz band required by T-Mobile USA’s 1700/2100 MHz 3G network, either, so it won’t be useful there. The same problem crops up in Canada, where most providers use 1900 MHz for 3G HSPA.

Providers that offer 2100 MHz HSPA service (see also list of UMTS networks):

• Africa  - Most GSM providers
• Asia – Most GSM providers
• Australia/New Zealand – Telstra, Optus, Vodafone AU & NZ, Three Mobile AU, 2° and Telecom NZ
• Brazil – All five GSM providers
• Europe – Most GSM providers
• Israel – Cellcom, Orange, Pelephone
• Japan – NTT DoCoMo, SoftBank Mobile
• Middle East – Most GSM providers
• Thailand – TOT

On returning to the USA, I followed steps I found online to unlock the E585. When an invalid SIM is inserted, the device’s unlock code becomes visible in its EFS memory, which can be dumped by a utility called PSAS. My modem hid the code later in memory than earlier revisions, but I was able to locate and use it.

I tested the E585 on the AT&T network using the SIM from an iPhone. It worked fine after unlocking, but was limited to 2.5 G “EDGE” performance. This limits its attractiveness to US buyers somewhat, though it’s still useful in many other countries.

Stephen’s Stance

I would not hesitate to recommend the Huawei E585 for use in the UK, especially with Three’s generous prepaid data offer. Since it can be unlocked for use in other European countries, it becomes all that much more useful. But it is disappointing it’s not more useful in the USA!

Update, November 2011

In November, I traveled to Germany and the Netherlands with my E585 MiFi. I’m happy report that it works just fine with GSM networks in both countries. As reported in my follow-up post, Wireless Internet Access During My Trip To The Netherlands, issues that I experienced were due to the idiosyncrasies of local billing, not the device or the unlock detailed above.

I would recommend looking up the APN and username/password combination of whatever provider you intend to use before purchasing a SIM card. On the E585, you can set up a new network configuration and preset the device for the local APN. That way, the device will work as soon as you insert the SIM. Just don’t forget to set the network configuration correctly when traveling to the next country.

Update, January 2012

As I prepare to return to the UK this month for Dell Storage Forum, I’ve been working through the process necessary to reactivate my Three MiFi device. It seems that Three does not allow non-UK post codes to be used for accounts or credit cards. Perhaps this is some sort of security measure, but it makes it difficult for travelers like me to top up their account.

Probably the best method is to have a friend in the UK by some top up credit at a petrol station or small shop and send you the top up code. You may then enter this online to reactivate your device before entering the UK. I had a friend purchase top up credit on my behalf, so my account should be ready to go as soon as I touched down at Heathrow.

If you don’t have a local to help you out, it is possible to buy a top up code with a foreign credit card at many shops and petrol stations in the UK. Once you have the code, you’ll need to get online somehow (public Wi-Fi?) and enter it into your 3 account.

Accessing your Three account online requires you to have registered with them. They use an SMS to send you your password, so it’s best to do this in the UK before your allowance runs out. But I found that the device would happily receive their password even with an un-funded SIM in the USA! I requested my password, turned on the MiFi with the Three SIM in it, and the SMS came through about half an hour later. I was then able to activate my account, though I couldn’t enter my information (address, credit card) since I don’t have a UK post code. Everything still worked fine, though.

Also, Three no longer sells the Huawei E585 device I purchased. The replacement E586 looks identical, but probably has somewhat different specs. Hopefully, the new device supports American GSM bands and is just as easy to unlock. But I’m really not sure if this is the case, so your mileage may vary. Regardless, I’m still happy with my Huawei E585 and the Three service in the UK.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2011. | An Inexpensive Mobile Broadband Alternative When Traveling in the UK
This post was categorized as Deals, Everything, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I love using TripIt, but is Pro worth the price?

Without a doubt, TripIt is one of the best online travel tools I’ve come across. With very little effort, TripIt creates consolidated travel itineraries including air, hotel, and car, enabling automatic calendar integration and sharing. They even introduced an iPhone app, putting the itinerary, along with helpful links to maps and flight tracking, right in your pocket whether online or off. The company cleverly combs forwarded confirmation emails from just about every travel company and web site, extracting the pertinent bits.

I’ve become a TripIt ambassador, inviting all of my co-workers and close friends to join in. But free services have their limits, and I have long wondered how TripIt would monetize their business. The company has been partnering with airlines (like Virgin America) and airport shuttle services, but partnerships don’t keep the lights on. Eventually the company would have to find a way to make money.

The answer arrived in my inbox this morning. TripIt is introducing an optional “TripIt Pro” version which adds automatic monitoring of itineraries, notifying if your flight is delayed, for example, as well as mobile alerts. This version will cost end-users $9.95 per month (once the trial period ends).

Although I love TripIt, I’m not sure if this upgrade is worth nearly $120 per year. Airlines already send alerts of delayed or cancelled flights to my phone via email or SMS. I trust that TripIt’s alerts will be more uniform and helpful, but I doubt they’ll be that much better. For now, I’m holding off on TripIt Pro.

The company does have plans to add alternate flight options in the future, which might start adding serious value. If they can say “go to the Delta counter within the next 10 minutes to get re-booked to Boston” I’d be all over it! I’d also like to see better integration with Exchange and iPhone calendars than the current simple ICS subscription. But let’s think bigger than this.

As a frequent flier, I’d love it if TripIt could help manage my airline and hotel mileage accounts. What if it suggested ways of maximizing their value, keeping track of upgrade “stickers” and the like? What if the company monitored the latest mileage promotions? I’d also love it if they included airport tips, like which restaurant at Chicago O’Hare serves edible food (Maccaroni Grill near gate K2) and where to find a power outlet (in the outermost corridor between E and F). TripIt already points to SeatGuru’s amazing aircraft information, but how about integrating this information right into the itinerary? And I’d love to see a combination of TripIt and Kayak!

What do you think? What can TripIt add to make its Pro service worthwhile to the frequent flier?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | TripIt Goes Pro To Monetize Travel Itinerary Management
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

I will be wearing two hats at the show as usual:

1. I’ll be attending as press, representing this blog and Gestalt IT and learning about all of the new storage technology being launched. I’ve got some questions for quite a few companies, too, and look forward to covering their products here in the future.
2. I’ll also be introducing my new Nirvanix Consulting practice, and probably fielding lots of questions about what exactly that means.

I’ve got a full roster of meetings, both informal and scheduled, over the next three days. Along with many, many marketing reps, I’m looking forward to meeting tons of storage bloggers, some old friends and some for the first time: George Crump, Steve Duplessie, Carter George, Howard Marks, Beth Pariseau, Dave Simpson, Jerome Wendt, Hu Yoshida, IDC, ESG, and The Wikibonners, I hope I didn’t miss anyone, but I’m sure I did. Greg? Mark? Marc?

Traveler's unicorn: A 3 oz tube of toothpaste! Why did it take so long for a TSA-approved tube?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2009. | Spring Storage Networking World 2009, Here I Come!
This post was categorized as Enterprise storage, Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

• Want a direct flight? That’ll be $1,080 round trip on an Air Canada Dash-8. But it only takes 1:15 to get there! For comparison, I could fly to London (UK) from Cleveland for $650 round trip.
• Ok, let’s connect then! That’ll run at least $650 on American (or over a grand on United) and take 4 hours, connecting through Chicago. Or you can connect through Washington DC on multiple airlines.
• Hmmm… Amtrak? It’s cheap at $120 round trip, but the journey there takes 13 hours, and it’ll take a whopping 19 hours to get home! London (UK) is only 12 hours away (with a connection!)
• Ok, Amtrak goes straight to Buffalo in 3 hours. Then it’s another hour and a half to Toronto by car. And there’s only one train per day. And it arrives at 3:30 in the freaking morning.
• How about driving? That’s a 300 mile, 5-hour journey. Just long enough to be too painful.
• Might as well walk. Google says it’ll take just 4 days!

Any suggestions?

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Can’t Get There From Here
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

This is part of an ongoing series of longer articles I will be posting every Sunday.

Balancing work and life has never been easy, and this is especially true for the knowledge worker. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that we keep our jobs in our heads at all times, and modern electronics like the BlackBerry and laptop tend to keep it at our fingers as well. When our jobs require us to travel, work can effectively separate us entirely from our lives for days or weeks at a time. Road warriors must consciously try to focus on life, even as work pulls their attention away.

Always On

First, let us focus on the element of time: How many hours do you spend on work? White collar “knowledge workers” enjoy great flexibility when it comes to scheduling – most of us can pencil in an early exit, long lunch, or late arrival with just a little shuffling of appointments. But we also tend to work at odd hours and locations, firing up our laptops for a late-night spreadsheet session or taking a call from the UK (or farther East) before dawn.

Flexible schedules mean less delineation between work and non-work, and those of us who are focused on excellence in our work can find ourselves saying “sure, I’ll be there” even when we ought to be focused elsewhere. It can seem almost selfish to ignore a call when driving, resting, or playing golf, but this is exactly what we must do to avoid always being on duty.

This is especially true when it comes to friends and family. We owe them our focus when we are with them, and must consciously turn our attention to them and away from work. Of course we must sometimes sacrifice personally if the urgency of work is too great, but we must not always decide that work takes precedence over life.

Out and Away

When work requires us to travel, attaining balance is doubly difficult. We are tempted to maximize our effectiveness while on the road, since we are away anyway, and can easily put in extremely long hours just to have something to do. But again, we must turn ourselves away and focus on our own lives and loved ones.

My first rule of business travel is to remember those at home. Time zone changes make calling to check in especially hard, but entering an appointment can help remind you of the time at home. Before you go, try to get a list of important events happening back home so you can continue to be involved just as you would be if you were not on the road. A little interest and concern can go a long way!

My second rule is to always find something interesting to do wherever you go. Hotels, office buildings, and airports are largely identical, and chain restaurants thrive on their predictability. I recommend looking up local museums and musical performances, since these vary greatly from city to city and also tend to take on some of the local character. Ask your hosts to suggest a local delicacy or independent restaurant to visit for a literal flavor of the city. Consider vegetarian or ethnic restaurants for some real variety, and use yelp.com to find top-rated eateries.

All considered, don’t let yourself be taken advantage of by work. It is acceptable to give exceptional effort to your job, but far less so to have this become the normal expectation. One should never settle for accommodations or treatment from work that we would not be willing to offer to ourselves.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Out of the Office and Away From Home
This post was categorized as Personal. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

"Marche sur le feu" by Josélito Tirados

Sitting in a jumbo jet five miles above the Sierra Nevada, I got to thinking. Now that I work at home and fly to work rather than drive to an office every day, has my carbon footprint increased or decreased?

Let’s lay down some facts for comparison:

1. I rarely got on a plane for work until the last few years. At those jobs, I normally drove 30 miles per day.
2. I now work from my home office but fly regularly. Over the past 12 months, I’ve taken 29 trips and flown 56,000 miles, and normally drive 100 miles (round trip) to the airport. Let’s leave it at 30 miles per day on the road, and 82 days on the road (thanks, TripIt).
3. I’ll assume that my office was comparable whether at home or at the office park. They are probably very different, but for now I will ignore the many other confounding factors.
4. I’ll also assume I never drove to lunch, spilled toxic chemicals, or chopped and burned rain forest trees.
5. I’ll use a rate of 1.35 lbs of carbon per air mile and .70 per driven mile (thanks, b-e-f.org)

Ok, so let’s do some math!

1. 250 work days times 30 miles driven to the office times .70 lbs of carbon equals 5,250 lbs of carbon – roughly twice the weight of my (tiny) car!
2. 56,000 miles flown times 1.35 lbs of carbon plus 82 days times 30 miles driven plus 29 trips times 100 miles driven times .70 lbs of carbon equals 79,352 lbs of carbon

Being a “road warrior” or “nomadic worker” or whatever has multiplied by carbon emissions by a factor of 15! I bet I have had a greater carbon impact in the last year than I accumulated in the first 30 years of my life. How can air travel ever be sustainable?

Some more things to consider:

• My travel schedule alone is four times the average American’s annual carbon footprint of 20,000 lbs.
• My travel footprint this year was equal to the lifetime footprint of the average Moroccan, Costa Rican, or Fijian.
• A single seat on a single round-trip flight between Chicago and San Francisco (4,616 miles) has the same carbon footprint as the entire lifetime of the average resident of sub-Saharan Africa.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | My Carbon Footprint
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For IT-centric workers, being productive from the road requires more than just exceptional personal skills: A killer laptop is needed to replace an entire office full of equipment. Let’s consider what a modern digital nomad’s laptop should include.

Power and Space

The ideal road warrior machine needs capacity to handle any modern computing task. Nearly every digital nomad has to occasionally perform intensive activities like compiling code or encoding video, and these require serious capability in all three axes of computing: CPU, RAM, and storage.

The road warrior laptop should have a serious CPU, chipset, and graphics combination. Multi-core CPUs with plenty of cache will take the sting out of intensive computing, and modern architectures can provide good battery life, too. Don’t overlook the impact of a fast system bus and good graphics hardware, too. Integrated graphics chips are getting better, but a road warrior should have a discrete GPU and dedicated video memory, especially if video or photo work is to be performed.

Tip: It may not make financial sense to spend hundreds more for a few extra megahertz, but make sure the system is configured with the latest-generation high-end chip. (ie, not these...)

Max out the RAM, too. Extra RAM will provide a serious boost to overall performance, and should help battery life since more data will be cached. The modern road warrior laptop should have 4 GB, and the next-generation OSes and chipsets will bump this to 8 or more over the next year or so.

Tip: Its easy to upgrade your own RAM on most laptops, and you can save some bucks!

Storage capacity is a must, too. Equip a road-warrior laptop with as much disk space as is available, and consider upgrading the hard disk on older machines as new sizes appear. Larger disks are generally quicker than smaller ones, and serious performers might want to step up to 7200 RPM drives for an extra jolt. No matter the size, a portable external backup drive is a must, but make sure it’s secure and encrypted to protect your data on the road.

Tip: I like to lock my (encrypted) backup drive in the hotel safe while I tote my (encrypted) laptop around during the day.

Portability and Longevity

So-called desktop replacement machines are often too bulky for digital nomad use, so try to strike a balance. 15-inch widescreen notebooks are a nice compromise between usability on the road and ease on the shoulders, but some might be able to get by with a 13-inch or smaller ultraportable, depending on their needs. Focus as much on the physical size and shape as on the weight, since a 1-inch rectangle might fit your backback or briefcase better than a bulbous wedge. Besides, most modern machines weigh within a pound or so of each other.

The HP OmniBook 800 line set the standard for ultra-portability and toughness. Today's sub-notebooks are a serious draw for digital nomads.

Consider the weight and portability of the total package, too. Many manufacturers are introducing smaller and lighter power supplies, and this can make a huge difference to the digital nomad. Invest in retractable cables and Kensington locks and keep the clutter down to reduce the load on your shoulder.

Tip: Cutting out the cable clutter also helps keep airport security from flagging your rats-nest of a laptop bag for extra screening! This clear bankers' bag helps organize.

Although power outlets are becoming more common at airports, hotels, and even airplanes, an extra battery is a must. Always buy two of the largest batteries available for your machine and keep both fully charged.

Tip: If you have an airplane AC adapter, check seatguru.com before selecting your seats to make sure a power port will be available!

Virtualize for Flexibility

Advances in computer virtualization can help the digital nomad in unexpected ways. Install VMware or VirtualBox to enable outdated applications to run on modern 64-big operating systems. I keep a small virtual Windows XP image with older versions of Microsoft Office, Project, and Visio on my machine just in case I have trouble with the latest versions. Mac users love being able to use VMware Fusion or Parallels to run Windows applications alongside their favorite Mac OS X apps.

Consider support implications of your choice, too. Most larger IT organizations require a specific install for corporate use, and virtualization can be a lifesaver here. If your road warrior machine isn’t an approved standard, consider running the corporate image in a virtual machine. A friend of mine uses a MacBook Air ultraportable laptop with his entire supported corporate Windows XP image running under VMware Fusion. This allows him to have 100% compatibility and support in a lightweight package.

Connectivity

Finally, there is no substitute for the always-on connectivity of modern wireless phone-based laptop networking choices. Many road-warrior laptops have built-in 3G cards, but these might not be your best choice. A USB (or perhaps ExpressCard) device can be more easily swapped between machines as needed. A new type of wireless router is also appearing that connects directly to these external 3G cards, and allows their signal to be shared with a small group.

Tip: External devices are also much easier to exchange if they should fail while on the road.

All wireless providers offer similar service at similar prices, and most do not offer substantial discounts when bundling wireless broadband with voice service. Consider whether you want to buy the hardware outright in order to get a shorter contract or if you would rather sign a two-year contract and get free hardware. Pay special attention to their coverage maps when selecting a provider, as this is a major differentiator between 3G and EV-DO service providers in the United States. Although these services are expensive, they are cheap compared to a few days of hotel or airport Wi-Fi charges!

Wi-Fi coverage has become far more plentiful over the last few years, and providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, Boingo, and FON make convincing pitches about their service. But my experience shows that the limited range of Wi-Fi makes it frustratingly unavailable when you need it most. Expect to see Wi-Fi access bundled with 3G service soon. Next-generation services like Wi-Max aren’t ready for prime time at this point and should not be considered a road-warrior-suitable alternative.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | The Road Warrior’s Laptop
This post was categorized as Apple, Personal, Terabyte home. Each of my categories has its own feed if you'd like to filter out or focus on posts like this.

Get your reservations through Kayak

Kayak is a travel site, allowing you to search for flights, hotels, and cars. Ho-hum, right? But Kayak is a meta-site – rather than a virtual travel agent, it’s a comparator of flights, availability, and fares with high usability.

Want a three-way trip to DC and Raleigh, with no more than one connection, using only Star Alliance carriers, leaving after 6 PM, with no connections through Denver? How about finding a less-expensive hotel in Dallas in the Hilton or Starwood chains near 75 or downtown? These (totally real-life) scenarios are easy with Kayak. I should know – I booked both last month!

Kayak is the quintessential AJAX/Web 2.0 take on the mundane travel site, with fabulous animation, interactivity, and even some social features. It aggregates prices from most online sources (except Southwest), features reviews (both local and gleaned from the web), and makes its money when you click through to purchase at (m?)any of the sites shown. Check out the little-noticed map view of hotels, charts of pricing over time, and (with an account) flexible travel.

Manage tour itinerary with TripIt

Once you’ve got your tickets, your next task will be to organize your full itinerary and enter it into your calendar, which is where TripIt comes in. This nifty, new, and (so far) un-monetized service parses the confirmation emails you forward to it and makes a unified, readable, and iCalendar-exportable itinerary for you.

Since most travel receipts curiously don’t include an Outlook-compatible download, adding trip details to my calendar has long been a hassle. Although TripIt’s use of iCalendar is commendable, it’s not a complete fix, however. Although Outlook 2007 will natively show iCalendar feeds, it (and iTunes) will not sync them to my iPhone.

But all is not lost! One nice (and little-noticed) feature of TripIt is the fact that you can interact with your itinerary via email. Wondering when today’s flight is? Email plans@tripit.com with “get flight today” in the body and you’ve got your answer immediately without having to wait for EDGE or log in to a web site. In fact, I rarely go to the tripit.com site anymore – nearly all of my interaction with the service is through email.

One thing I might go to the site for is to see who else is traveling to the same places as me. Like so many sites, TripIt has a social network component, allowing others to see where you’re going, a-la the less-usable but more popular Dopplr. Speaking of Dopplr, one fun thing you can now do is populate it with data exported from TripIt – which gives you the best of both worlds!

Share the love on FlyerTalk

FlyerTalk is old school in many ways.  It’s basically a discussion forum for business travelers, with no fancy social networking software or transparent slide-over animated AJAX web thingamabobs.  But it’s absolutely indispensable if you want to make the most of your frequent flier miles and hotel points.  And it wouldn’t hurt if you’re a little on the fanatical side when it comes to air travel jargon and the like!

With your FlyerTalk account, you can participate in scintillating discussions on the latest Hilton or Starwood promotions, learn about secret codes that get you a discount (or not!) at National Car, figure out which resort to stay at, and learn what goes on behind the scenes in these industries.  The truly odd can learn about the time someone carried on the kitchen sink, the depths of dislike for US Airways, and what the colored lights by the exit mean.

Unlike so many supposed social networks, FlyerTalk is a community.  I’ve met many FlyerTalkers online and some in person, and everyone is thoroughly dedicated to making the most of our time spent away from home.  It would be worth it even without Coupon Connection – but of course rule 1 is, nobody talks about Coupon Connection!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the sites mentioned here and receive no compensation from them. I am just very pleased with the (free) service I get from them and want to share the love with my friends.

© sfoskett for Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat, 2008. | Three Incredible Travel Websites You Ought To Use
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