Pilot Paul's Travel Accessories and Travel News Blog

Tips for Traveling Abroad May 5, 2005 14:59

Noise Cancelling Headphones Are One Of The Best Travel Accessories I Know May 12, 2005 20:15

 
Have you ever noticed the serious business travelers who are wearing their noise cancelling headphones?Have you ever wished that you could just have a little peace and quiet?Have you ever had trouble sleeping on airplanes or in cars, even when you're tired?Those... (Read Article)

Where Did The Pillows On The Planes Go? Is It Time To Get Your Own Travel Pillow and Blanket? May 13, 2005 14:24

 
While Settling Into Your Airline Seat, You Can't Find Any Pillows. You Got One Of The Few Blankets, But It Smells Funny...

If you've flown recently, you likely noticed that the pillows were absent. That's because to keep up with the low cost carriers, many of the major airlines have removed pillows from their planes.

Not only were the pillows an expense, changing the covers and picking them up between each flight was time consuming.

In an effort to reduce labor costs, pillow and cover costs, as well as hoping to be able to "turn" (refers to the time a plane is on the ground) the planes in minimum time, the pillows are a thing of the past.

The blankets remain. You might think that they would have the same fate as the pillows.

They were left on because the pilots can't ever seem to get the temperature just right. (You'd be surprised how hard it is to consistently heat or cool a plane, even with the automated systems.) Not really.

They remain on for some security reasons that I can't discuss.

That's good news if you like to use the blankets. The bad news is that they might not be as clean as you'd like, especially if you're using a blanket as a substitute pillow.

The wall Street Journal recently reported (April 15, 2005. Page W11c) that on United Airlines, the domestic coach-class blankets are washed only every twelve to fifteen days. Yuk!

The good news is that there's hope. There are some great travel pillows and blankets that you can bring along for yourself.

If you're concerned about weight or bulk, you might be surprised by what is available. For example, a silk set that's the size of a travel umbrella, of a memory foam pillow that has three distinct uses.

To learn more about some excellent options (one of which was rated as a "best buy" by the Wall Street Journal),
click here for recommended travel pillows and blankets. (Read more...)

You Know You're A Coffee Addict When ...You'll Drink Airplane Coffee May 17, 2005 14:25

 
Recently, I flew a morning flight where our water system failed.

Can you guess what the biggest problem associated with this failure was? No water= no coffee.

Granted, airline coffee isn't very tasty. That's because it's essentially impossible to completely clean the water tanks on planes. They can only flush them out. There's some algae and other things growing in there.

But if you're a caffeine addict, the taste doesn't matter very much. It's all about the caffeine. The coffee is merely a vehicle for caffeine.

This water failure created a big problem for the coffee addicts- especially the ones who didn't have time to wait in the Starbucks line before the flight.

I found this fun list to help you know if you're addicted to caffeine.

You Know You're A Coffee Addict When ...

1. Juan Valdez names his donkey after you.

2. You get a speeding ticket even when you're parked.

3. You grind your coffee beans in your mouth.

4. You sleep with your eyes open.

5. You watch videos in fast-forward.

6. You lick your coffeepot clean.

7. Your eyes stay open when you sneeze.

8. The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse.

9. You can type sixty words a minute with your feet.

10. You can jump-start your car without cables.

11. Your only source of nutrition comes from Sweet & Low.

12. You don't sweat, you percolate.

13. You've worn out the handle on your favorite coffee mug.

14. You go to AA meetings just for the free coffee.

15. You've worn the finish off your coffee table.

16. The Taster's Choice couple wants to adopt you.

17. Starbuck's owns the mortgage on your house.

18. You're so wired you pick up FM radio.

19. Your life's goal is to "amount to a hill of beans."

20. Instant coffee takes too long.

21. You want to be cremated just so you can spend eternity in a coffee can.

22. You name your cats Cream and Sugar.

23. Your lips are permanently stuck in the sipping position.

24. Your first-aid kit contains two pints of coffee with an I.V. hookup.

I know that it can be a challenge to sleep well in hotels.

Spending as many nights as I do in hotels and needing to be rested before flying has taught me some great hotel sleep strategies. you can learn those too.

Click here to learn Pilot Paul's Sleep Strategies (Read more...)

Jet Lag -You can Suffer From It..Or You Can Do What I Do May 18, 2005 13:00

 
Whatever the reason for your travel, you have made a considerable investment. It costs you time and money. If you're stuck in a hotel room suffering from jet lag symptoms, you're missing out. Obviously, you'd like to make the most of your trip. You will get the greatest return on your investment if you're out of your hotel room enjoying your destination. I can help you achieve this. (Read Article)

Lost in Europe May 24, 2005 15:06

 
Don't make the mistakes that I just made...

I'm back in my Frankfurt hotel room, tired, soaked, and very happy to be here.

I should know better. I've made some of these mistakes before, but tonight, they compounded themselves.

I'm sharing my mistakes with you so you can avoid making them and potentially save yourself big problems.

It's very easy to get lost when traveling on foot in Europe.

That's because the streets are not parallel to each other- they go in every conceivable direction and rarely are straight.

There are so many historic landmarks that the roads must go around them. In addition, most European cities are on rivers.

Add to that the fact that the streets are narrow and the buildings are often tall and continuously connected to each other.

That makes sighting landmarks and navigating in reference to them very difficult.

I also fell prey to a problem related to this- when I left the hotel, I was walking towards a prominent landmark, a cathedral.

When traveling towards a large structure, you can adjust your course to it when you get the occasional glimpse of it.

The problem is that when trying to return from a landmark, you can't count on having rearward glimpses of your landmark and being able to accurately navigate away from it.
Add to this the tendency to wander. That's makes it hard to retrace steps later.

As a practice, I always get a paper map from the hotel front desk before I leave. I always ask them to mark the location of the hotel on my map.

That usually works well, except tonight, I lost this map. I did stop at another hotel and get a new map. The problem was that the hotel where I was staying was somewhere near the edge of this new map. It wasn't marked and I only knew which general area. I could not ascertain if this new map covered the area of my hotel.

It also helps to know the name of your hotel. This was my first time at this hotel, it had a complex French name (I'm in Germany). The result- couldn't recall the name.

The hotel name was on the map that I lost.

That usually isn't a problem because the hotel's name and address is often on the key. But not this one.

I reached into my pocket to product the hotel notepad paper on which I wrote my room number. That usually has the hotel name and address on it also- not today.

If you know the name, you can always get a cab to the hotel. Not knowing it put me in a bad spot- trying to explain in English to a German-speaking cab driver that the hotel, whose location I don't know had some sort of French name.

I was hoping to be able to navigate away from the cathedral that I had initially walked to, but that didn't work for the reasons I described earlier.

It was getting dark, and then the thunderstorm hit.

Paper maps with small print in foreign languages are hard enough to read in the daylight. Add rain, darkness, and my need for reading glasses (in the room), made the map reading even harder. I went to a major intersection and tried to find it on the map. No luck. Using charades, a stranger showed me which street we were on, but now where on it.

That and a quick prayer were enough to get me safely back to this French-named hotel in Germany.

Please be smarter travelers that me.

My recommendations-

1. Have two maps.

2. Bring your reading glasses if you need them when it gets dark.

3. Have the hotel name and address written down in two places.

4. Pay attention to the roads that you are on as you wander towards a landmark.
(Read more...)

Thank God for Diligent Airline Employees! May 27, 2005 10:57

 
As an airline captain, the following story scares me.

Thankfully, the alert agent prevented a potential disaster.

I'd like to find out who that American Airlines agent is and make her a national hero.

Here's the story:

http://www.nbc10.com/news/4513498/detail.html
2 Men Arrested Allegedly Trying To Board Plane With Guns
Men Allegedly Posing As Police Officers

POSTED: 4:38 pm EDT May 20, 2005

UPDATED: 6:56 pm EDT May 20, 2005

PHILADELPHIA -- Two people were arrested Thursday night for allegedly trying to board a plane with guns at Philadelphia International Airport.

NBC 10 News has learned, and the FBI has confirmed that the men were just one step away from boarding an American Airlines flight sometime after 8 p.m. Thursday.

Sources told NBC 10 News that Timothy Robinson, of Philadelphia, and Steven Lundy, of Roselle, N.J., cleared the first checkpoint and were headed toward the airplane when an American Airlines representative looked at their paperwork and saw that the men were posing as police officers. The representative felt uncomfortable because she didn't think that they were really police officers, so she called the police department.

FBI agents said that the two men showed airport officials fake badges and fake police identification cards to clear security with the loaded handguns. They also filled out paperwork claiming that they were private police. Authorities said one gun was a 357 Magnum and the second gun was a 9 mm.

The Transportation and Safety Administration launched an investigation and the FBI arrested both men.

Robinson and Lundy were taken to the federal building in downtown Philadelphia Friday and were arraigned on charges connected to posing as police officers and attempting to board an airplane with firearms.

The investigation is continuing.

Copyright 2005 by NBC10.com

(Read more...)

Paris Cruises May 28, 2005 22:28

 
A well-kept secret is that Europe offers some exceptional river cruises that appeal to the savvy traveler. (Read Article)