In the May 2008 issue of Laptop magazine, Everett Potter points out an 11-point checklist to help take out the sting of flight delays, airport chaos, and long security lines. I decided to review these, select the best, and add a few comments and points from my experience as well as the shared experiences from my fellow travelers.

Stay in the clear

Several airports have begun to implement the new Fly Clear card found at www.flyclear.com.  The Fly Clear program is a pre-screening process that allows you to access the fast lane at airports that support the Fly Clear process. The first-year price for Fly Clear is $100 and a $28 TSA fee. Currently the Fly Clear process is operating in Albany, N.Y.; Cincinnati; Denver; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, FL.; Little Rock, Arkansas; New York City (JFK & LGA); Newark, N.J.; Oakland, CA.; Orlando, FL.; Reno, Nev.; San Francisco and San Jose, CA.;  Washington, D.C. (Dulles and Reagan); White Plains (Westchester County), N.Y. 

While the Fly Clear program would save you time moving through a long line at the airport, I found that regular business travelers have special programs offered by the airlines to help them speed through most of the delays.  American Airlines offer Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum programs that allow business travelers to speed through the first class security lines and allow pre-boarding, which the Fly Clear process does not offer. 

My suggestion is to save your money. If you frequent an airport and truly are a business traveler, you already have most of the features with a frequent flyer program offered by your common carrier that Fly Clear wants you to pay for.

Check your battery

Regulations went into effect on January 1, 2008 that state you may not carry spare lithium batteries in your checked baggage.  However, you may carry as many lithium batteries in your carry-on as you like as long as they are less than 8-grams or a maximum of two 8-25 gram batteries.  Most cell phone and laptop batteries are below the 8-gram limitation, but you can find more details at safetravel.dot.gov

Another suggestion would be to invest the money by purchasing a combo air-power charger in lieu of a spare battery.  These combo chargers/power sources allow you to connect to a power seat outlet (12-15 volts) on most airplanes today, as well as 110 power sources.  When making reservations ask for a seat with a power outlet.  The travel agent or specialist should be able to confirm if the plane is equipped with a power seat outlet and assign a seat for you.  

Note: While some seats have the power outlet there are occasions where the power inverter does not work.  Keep this in mind when making a decision to purchase a dual power supply or spare battery.   

Consider Flying Southwest

While business travelers are not huge fans of Southwest airlines because of their cattle call approach to flying, they have begun to implement a new business traveler program.  In may cases for an additional $10-$30 more you are able to confirm a spot in the “A” group of passengers to board, a free cocktail, and extra frequent flyer credits.  

Keep in mind that Southwest as well as other airlines offers the ability to check-in 24-hours in advance.  You could log in and check-in to beat the mad rush and get a better chance to drop into the first group of cattle-car loading.  You do not have a printer, no problem.  Search the Internet for a free PDF program.  These programs allow you to create a PDF file by selecting the PDF creator instead of your printer.  Then when you do get to a printer you can connect to, you can print your boarding pass before your flight.  

There has also been discussion about a paperless check-in process that some airlines would use in conjunction with your PDA, Smartphone or Blackberry.  You would simply download your boarding pass with a bar code image.  This image could be scanned at the gate and confirm passage.  Great, now instead of waiting for the guy in front of you to unfold his boarding pass, we can wait for him to shift his carry-on to the other hand, place his call on hold, open the email, display the image on his phone to move through the gate.  Can we add this to the security checkpoint too?

Use an agent

Anyone can go online and find what they may think is the lowest fare; travel agents still have ways to not only find a great fair but offer assistance in other areas.  Travel agents can help with last minute changes, cancelations, and understand the waivers, discounts, and upgrade certificates.  Most agents charge 8-10% but that could be money well spent.  Ask your friends for help in finding a travel agent that they recommend.  You can also check out www.asta.org for more recommendations.

Consolidate expenses

If you have a small company and are bent on controlling expenses (who isn’t) check out this site, www.americanexpress.com/axiom.  Developed by American Express Axiom estimates that 41% of travel expenses today are not controlled.  The goal of the company is to rein them in.  Axiom cannot only address air, car and hotel, you an also arrange UPS, FedEx, DHL shipping, dining reservations, park and fly, and arrange event tickets from Ticketmaster.  You need not be a card member to use the service and charges vary based on the size of company and travel budget.

Getting a good seat

So, you can’t get an upgrade because a more elite frequent flyer has beaten you to the punch.  The consolation prize is a good seat in the back of the plane, because not every seat is equal.  Check out www.seatguru.com, or www.seatexpert.com, both allow you to study diagrams of various aircraft configurations by carrier.  Some airlines like United are aggressively selling their Economy Plus seats, which can offer up to 5 more inches of leg room.  This could make a difference on operating more comfortably with a laptop or not.  United does the same with exit rows and you might pay an additional $44 one-way at the gate for the privileged space.   

Another tip: As you study the live seating chart, try to refrain from choosing an entire empty 3-seat row, as couples often seek the two seats that are left. Instead, look for an aisle seat when a window seat has been taken, or vise versa.  This will increase your chances of having a little more space if no one sits in the middle.

Pay close attention to the 3-1-1 rule

You may be familiar with the 3-1-1 rule (as many 3 ounce containers of any liquid that can fit into a 1-qt bag, one per passenger) at the security checkpoint, but some TSA agents can give you a hard time for generic or unmarked containers or bottles.  It may not be worth the hassle when you can just invest in the commercial toiletries you can purchase today.  Keep in mind that most hotels, even the cheap ones provide shampoo so don’t bring it with you unless you have to have that favorite avocado scented shampoo.

Another tip is to keep the bag handy.  You may want to place it in the same pocket as your laptop to make moving through the security checkpoint less painful.  

Carry vital information with you

Smart business travelers program all common tool free numbers to hotels and airlines as well as any airline rebooking numbers into their phone.  Blackberry users can download WorldMate Live from www.mobimate.com and use their free service.  The service allows you to manage your itinerary and makes it accessible on your mobile device.  Receive travel alerts, weather forecasts and access to world clocks. Additional features are available for a fee and an Outlook add-in is available.  The Outlook add-in makes this one a favorite of mine.  

Handmark’s Pocket Express at www.express.handmark,com is another travel application that offers additional features for a fee but no Outlook add-in at this time. 

Now is the time to learn that you can do so much more with your BlackBerry®. The best thing about it is, it’s free!

Google offers several applications for the BlackBerry® to help make your life a little easier. Let’s talk about the applications themselves first and then we will go into how to install them from your BlackBerry® device.

Available Google Applications

• Google mail (Gmail) - Send/receive your Gmail from your Blackberry®. Google takes it one step further and allows you to view HTML formatted emails as well.
• Google Maps - Styled after the Google Maps app online, the BlackBerry® version takes it one step further from GPS enabled devices and will locate you (similar to the publicized iPhone process) and show traffic on major highways. Google Maps also provides step by step directions as well.
• Picasa - View the pictures you had uploaded to your Picasa photo album online on your BlackBerry® easily. No need to buy micro memory cards. All you need is a signal.
• Google Docs - Google Docs allows you to compose, edit, store and share documents online with others. There are some size limitations but you can access the documents you have posted to your Google Docs repository and view at the click of a button. Currently PowerPoint documents are not viewable on the BlackBerry®, but Rim has mentioned this would be added natively in a future release. Excel and Word docs work great.
• Google Reader - Delivers your favorite news and blogs to your device with ease. You can even set up rodcohen.com to receive the latest posts!
• Google News - Provides you up to date news information from various sources that you can configure and access easily.
• Google Sync - Allows you to sync your BlackBerry® calendar to an online Google calendar. Then you can share your calendar with others. You also have the ability to have public and private calendars. This options is useful if you want to allow your family to see your schedule should you company use Exchange.
• Google Search - One click, OK, one push of a button and you are taken to one the best search engines out there.
• Google Mobile Updater - This tool helps to keep your Google applications updated. Although I have found that you must go to this updater and run it every so often to check for newer versions. It will not automatically go out on it own and check.
• Google Talk (Gtalk) - IM chat client, very useful for keeping in touch with business associates, friends and family. This is downloaded separately from the other applications. Explained later in this tutorial.

Wow, did not think I was going to get through that list. Now we should turn our attention towards installing these applications. In some ways, Google made this simple and in others ways…not so simple. The first challenge is finding out where to go to download the applications. Usually you can simply Google BlackBerry® Google apps, or Google apps for BlackBerrys, but these do not always provide the correct links. This is why I have written this tutorial to help you locate and install these great apps.

Step 1: The first thing you should do is apply for a Gmail account. It is easier to do this online at mail.google.com or you can use the same link for your Blackberry®. Once you have your Gmail account set up you can now move to step 2.

Step 2: Navigate to m.google.com/a or google.com/mobile from the browser on your BlackBerry® to download the free application. I have found that some Blackberry® devices can get to the first link and some can’t. Let me know if you can’t access either. The application is free from Google, but carrier charges may apply.

Step 3: The application should begin installing all apps except Gtalk. We will need to download that from another web page. Once completed you should have the apps on your Blackberry®.

Step 4: Install the Gtalk app from talk.google.com.

Step 5: Log into any one of your Google apps with your user name and password and take them out for a test drive.

To set up your convenience key to access any one of the Google apps. For the BlackBerry® 8800, Go to Options->Screen/Keyboard->Convenience Key-> select the Google app you want to access.