In this space, I write often enough to whine and bitch and moan about business travel, so I ought to give an occasional tip of the hat to the parts that aren’t too bad.
Item: Vancouver Airport is pretty decent. Item: In particular the Air Canada frequent-flyer lounge in the US departures area is quite decent, and has a comfy glass-encased elevated work area with one particular corner booth that I regard as my own. Item: Just around the corner there’s an Asian-food joint that sells a passable tray of sushi at a fair price, which goes just fine with the micro-brew on tap in the lounge.
Comment feed for ongoing:
From: Michael Neale (Apr 25 2007, at 00:49)
Tim, that beer is perilously close to the laptop - and its top heavy !
I always put either my laptop elevated (eg on a magazine) or on a table with a porous surface (and the beer further away). Sooner or later, you are going to have to make an embarrassing hardware support call (took me weeks to forgive myself).
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From: PatrickQG (Apr 25 2007, at 03:19)
I don't travel business class, and I don't fly quite enough to qualify for frequent flyer lounges. Consequently I've found Vancouver to be the worst airport for laptop use.
Why:
* WiFi: it's only the cellphone companies. At other airports with wireless I've been able to roam using my boingo account. $15 for a day when at other airports it's basically free is a pain. The last time I flew I thought "oh, I can charge it to my fido account!", but they charged me, and sign-in worked, but it never actually managed to get me on to the telus hotspot. So I had to pay twice.
* Power: at least on my last trip through (on my way here to London) I found a power point that worked. Every other one I tried on previous occasions didn't work.
* Lack of public desks: Auckland International Airport (for example) has desks where you can sit (without being in the airline lounges) and comfortably use a laptop.
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From: walter (Apr 25 2007, at 14:40)
oooohhhh. i covet one them passes...
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From: vanni (Apr 25 2007, at 14:56)
@PatrickQG : i am with you 100% on Airports and WIFI.... this should be FREE. They (Airports) can make some commercial arrangements with the telcos/wifi providers to provide this service. Last year when i had my laptop with me flying out to europe there was free wifi provided by Bell Mobility... and it had something to do with them being official sponsors of the Winter Olympics in 2010. Not sure if that is still the case. Soon al lof vancouver will offer free wifi access. I can go to 100 of cafes, bars. etc all over downtown and get free wifi access. Why would an airport where most of us travelers have an hour or two to kill cause they want us so damm early, not provide us with some perk like free wifi. PS when ever i have the time i send an emai lto Aiport Authorities at whatever airport i am to ask for them to provide free wifi... the irony is that you can use the Intranet at the airports... u just can't use the internt.
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From: David (Apr 26 2007, at 20:12)
So it really IS worth paying for a frequent flyer membership.
What on earth is that cute little notebook? It looks lovely at this resolution, and yet I can't pick the model (is it your Macbook with some extra trim around the screen? Do tell!).
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From: MikeP (Apr 28 2007, at 12:27)
David, check out the power adapter plugged into it. If that's not an Apple, it's going to be pretty sad. :)
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