The organization sent letters to governors and legislative leaders in all 50 states, urging them to make the ban part of their motor-vehicle laws. This idea goes way beyond the efforts that have taken place in many states and cities to ban drivers from texting and using handheld phones. The NSC says that dozens of studies have found that using a hands-free phone while driving is no safer than using a handheld one. It’s a distraction issue, and the group says studies show that about 6 percent of all traffic fatalities are caused at least in part by drivers not paying attention while on the phone.

This shouldn’t be taken lightly. This is from a big organization with lobbying clout, the same group that devised the “click it or ticket” slogan, adopted in many places to warn drivers to follow the law and buckle up.
The AAA motor club, another group with influence, has a campaign of its own to educate drivers to the fact that using a hands-free phone isn’t safer than using a handheld. But AAA hasn’t endorsed the safety council’s more radical position.

What do you think of a ban on using a cell phone while driving?

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If that’s ever happened to you then you probably already follow Rule No. 1 for hassle-free flying: Never pack in checked bags anything that would make you ill or heartbroken if the bag isn’t returned to you immediately upon landing.

The vast majority of passengers’ bags don’t get lost, and theft from bags in transit is rare. But jewelry, iPods, PDAs, cameras, chargers and other electronics will be the first items to disappear if you’re a victim, and airlines specifically exempt them from reimbursement if they’re lost.

Important papers or electronic storage devices should be in your carry-on bag as well. Airline web sites, including those for Delta and Usairways, have big sections on baggage policies but vary in how far down you must drill to find specific information.

Here are some practices road veterans try to follow when preparing and packing for any trip:

• Plan on using two carry-on bags, one a rolling type that will fit in an overhead bin and the other a briefcase or large purse – with those prescriptions inside – that holds more than just a laptop. I often check the rolling bag but only for a discrete reason: Since I write about this stuff, I want to gauge the quality of different airlines’ service.
• When shopping for luggage, check the weight of the empty bag. If the bag itself is as heavy as the contents, it’s harder to heft into an overhead bin, or could be subject to an overweight fee if it’s checked.
• Another factor to consider when buying a rolling bag: How easily does it roll, pivot and take corners? Pull and push it around the store to see if it could tip over easily when it’s full.
• Buy shampoos, lotion and other liquids in 3-ounce bottles or buy empty 3-ounce bottles and label them (so you don’t do as my wife almost did recently and use hand lotion on her hair). Carry them in a quart-size plastic bag because airport security is picky about it. The Transportation Security Administration’s web site is loaded with detail on the rules.
• If you’re not particular about brands of shampoo or lotion, don’t pack the little bottles at all and use those the hotel provides.
• Wear socks and slip-on shoes for that especially irritating part of security screening.
• I’ve read this tip for years and usually follow it: Take only the apparel you will really wear. Lay out all your clothing and shoes on a bed before packing and be tough on yourself.
• Take clothing that’s in neutral colors and doesn’t wrinkle easily. I’ve ordered several items from travelsmith.com that are specifically designed for life on the road but there are myriad other brands available.
• If you’ll be traveling for more than four or five days, use a hotel with laundry facilities. At Hilton, Marriott or Choice Hotels’ sites, look for guest services or amenities.
• Pack heavy items like shoes on the bottom of the bag – provided you can’t survive with just one pair of shoes.
• Don’t take a travel iron or a hair dryer because most hotels provide them now. After you get to your room, but before the next morning when your hair is wet, turn on the hair dryer to make sure it works.

What tips do you have for packing for a trip?

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I have jumped around a lot over the years in the sites I check. But recently, the one I go to first is FareCompare.com. It has many similarities but also some key differences, vs. other multi-airline travel sites whose names are more familiar, including Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity.
FareCompare makes forecasts on the direction air fares are headed, so that anyone who can plan weeks or months in advance can have a better idea about the best time to buy tickets. The site also has a greater variety of information and recent news about air travel than others I’ve checked.

Another good site, farecast, also predicts whether fares are likely to rise or fall on multiple U.S. airline routes. In planning a trip to Europe next summer, I am using both farecompare and farecast and am finding prices within a few dollars of each other on the two sites.
On both farecompare and farecast and some other similar sites, including Kayak, Sidestep and Vayama, you don’t book travel services directly.
To actually buy a ticket, you’re sent to the airlines’ own sites or to ones like Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity that are online travel agencies authorized by airlines to issue their tickets.

FareCompare CEO Rick Seaney says he has developed predictive capabilities, using a massive database of airfares past, present and future, that others haven’t matched yet. For 2009, Seaney’s big-picture forecast: Expect domestic air fares to be higher than they were this year, and international fares to be a bit lower, or at least to not go up as much as domestic prices.

Another reason I tilt toward FareCompare is its direct link to Southwest Airlines’ web site. Southwest is not part of the traditional airline and travel agents’ “global distribution system,” and thus doesn’t have its flights listed in the other big multi-airline sites.

Anyone who has Southwest service available within 100 miles of home should be checking its simple, easy-to-use site along with the multi-airline sites. Southwest flies only domestically and doesn’t cover the whole country, but it serves almost all major metro areas and dozens of mid-sized cities. According to hitwise.com, Southwest.com consistently gets more traffic than any of the multi-airline sites.

How do you plan trips and make reservations on the web?

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This the third time in about three years I’ve asked, and the response each time has been rapid and vociferous, generating at least eight to 10 times more responses than I usually get to a column.

And what do the people – or at least my people – say? They are horrified at the very mention of the idea, with some vowing to stop flying or get into physical confrontations at 30,000 feet if they are subjected to the ill-mannered around them chattering away on the phone in a cramped airline cabin. Out of 58 e-mails and phone calls so far, 56 said they’re vigorously opposed.

Here’s a typical response, this one from a business owner in Chester, Pa:

I can think of nothing that would make travel more unbearable than cell phone use on airplanes. People are loud, rude and inconsiderate in the terminal. It would be even worse on a plane.

If you feel the same way, don’t worry. The prohibition about voice calls is not about to change. But the ability to access the Internet for e-mail and texting in flight is changing, and we want to know what web workers who have to fly on business think about all of it.

First, I need to say more about the whole issue of why you can’t make a cell phone call in flight, and my theory of why my other audience – the readers of a weekly newspaper column that appears in both print and online – has such strong negative attitudes about the subject.

Cell calls in flight (other than on those very expensive seatback phones still available on some carriers) are outlawed because of Federal Aviation Administration uncertainty about their effect on aircraft navigation and communication equipment. The Federal Communications Commission has had concerns whether cell phone service at ground level could be disrupted by in-flight service.

But that hasn’t been the deal-killer each time the FAA or FCC has opened the subject to study and comment.

Flight attendants, joined by thousands of people like my newspaper readers, have pleaded for the prohibition to stay in place out of fear that the annoyance factor would lead to greater “air-rage” incidents.

For the first time, that term could be applied to more sober people than drunks.

Congress has even gotten into the act, after the European Union last spring said airlines that want to allow Internet access could also allow voice calls. A bill prohibiting the practice passed the House on a voice vote but hasn’t been taken up the Senate.

The opinions of my newspaper readers on this topic are not a scientific sampling, of course, in the same way that few “surveys” on the web are, since those who answer are self-selected. My readers also are older and almost certainly less tech-savvy than readers of this blog. Some were also probably influenced by my own opposition to any change.

But many of the newspaper readers also are business people, and only one of them told me he doesn’t own a cell phone. So they probably aren’t unlike those who have told regulators they want to keep the in-flight ban.

The good news about this for those who would like to work on the web on an airplane is that access for e-mail, texting and web browsing is coming soon or is already here.

American Airlines installed a system on some of its long-haul domestic jets in August. Alaska, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest and Virgin America are among the U.S. carriers that have said they plan to offer something similar. Expect to pay $10 to $13 per flight for access. And to answer one obvious question, no, your VoIP service won’t work either.

Time now to open the floodgates and ask what web workers think.

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At the risk of making your blood boil at the mere mention of the Transportation Security Administration, it’s time to step out on a limb and give the TSA credit for steps taken in recent months to reduce the natural anxiety we feel as we shuffle along in line.

The improvements are timely because the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the most dreaded travel times of the year, are upon us.

The checkpoint process

The most recent development from the TSA is the establishment of “family lanes” at checkpoints at every U.S. airport. In many larger airports, the process goes a step further with the creation of three lanes for different types of travelers, using the same kind of diamond symbols that designate expert, intermediate and beginner ski slopes.

At the airports with all three types, the black diamond or expert lane is for those who look to a TSA agent like experienced business travelers who know the routine. Those judged to need a little more time are sent to the blue lane. Families with children and other passengers with special needs are directed to the green or beginners lane.

This appears to be speeding up the process, unless you have the experience I did at Dallas Love Field this summer on a weekday afternoon, when there were few passengers in line. With just a briefcase, I was sent to the expert lane while two family groups behind me were sent to the green lane. The families got through first while I waited for a guy in a suit to unload into five bins his two laptops, an assortment of other electronic gear, a carry-on suitcase and his jacket, belt and lace-up shoes. I’m glad I had plenty of time before my flight.

But TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis told me that in general, the family lanes “are creating a lot of efficiencies. We’re seeing greater satisfaction with the process.”

Laptop bags

Of special interest to web workers, TSA has begun to approve certain types of laptop bags that can be sent through X-ray scanners without being removed from the case. More than a dozen manufacturers are making laptop bags that should pass muster with TSA agents. You’ll find there are different styles: Some have separate cases for a laptop that detach from the rest of the bag while others let you keep all the compartments together and unfold the bag to place it on the belt.

For more detail on some of the more popular brands look at web sites of Skooba Design, Mobile Edge, Targus and Travelon Bags.

Liquids (ban) to go

One of the best possible developments involves TSA installing at checkpoints next-generation X-ray machines that will distinguish between a bottle of water in a bag and, as Davis put it, “something more sinister.” That means chemicals that could be used to create an explosive device.

TSA director Kip Hawley has said recently on his blog that by the end of next year, the agency hopes to be able to lift the rule limiting liquids to 3-ounce bottles, although they will still have to be removed from bags and placed in a bin.

The really good news, Hawley says, is that advances in technology mean all restrictions on liquids could be lifted by the end of 2010.

I’ll drink to that.

image courtesy Flick user Stephen Witherden

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Do you know where to find an outlet to recharge and work before your flight leaves?

If you’re a member of an airline club or fly first- or business-class you probably have nothing to worry about. The airport lounges for those who can afford them offer some privacy, with cubicles for working and phoning. Here’s one guide to airline-operated clubs worldwide. Priority Pass is a program that gives you access to clubs and lounges worldwide for an annual fee.

But that’s not an option for most of us, considering the number of weary business travelers you see around airport gates, often sitting on the floor against a wall or pillar, working away. Those people have found a power source, and some I’ve seen adopt the hard stare of someone willing to fight to keep it.

For the most part, finding power in an airport is accomplished by trial-and-error, and is frequently harder than getting a WiFi connection. Many airports worldwide make connections available, either free or for a fee of $7 to $10 a day, throughout their terminals.

For power, you learn which airlines have stations near gates with multiple outlets where you can plug in. Southwest has more of those than most airlines, in my experience. Some JetBlue gate areas also have them. Logically enough, several airlines at the San Jose, Calif., airport have stations in their gate areas.

There is not much information on the web to help you if you’re in unfamiliar airport.

One source is a WiKi on Microsoft manager Jeff Sandquist’s personal blog, appropriately named airpower. Looking at airpower, however, reveals the difficulty of the task. Typical of the entries is one for Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport:

Gate A 18: on the pole near the women’s restroom (2 outlets) – chair close by!

An entry for the Frankfurt, Germany, airport reads:

Second Floor, Beside the emergency exit next to McDonalds. Behind the table a bit away from the McDonalds itself.

In other words, the information is very helpful as far as it goes but may be incomplete. Is that table still in the same place at the Frankfurt McDonalds?

Often the only way to find a working outlet at the airport and in the concourse you need to use is to prowl around in gate areas that aren’t occupied or where the crowd is small, or in common areas just past security checkpoints.

Think of places where the cleaning crew would logically need to plug in equipment. Look behind chairs, on pillars and around airline ticketing podiums.

Another possibility is at airports where not all of the pay phones have been ripped out. At Philadelphia International, I have found that at least some cubicle-like booths with a seat and a small shelf (D Concourse) have outlets – an apparent leftover from the days when access to a landline was needed to use a laptop.

If all else fails, consider doing what one frequent flier I read about a couple of years ago does: Carry a short extension cord with a three-outlet adapter. If you find someone using the only outlet in sight, ask them to share.

If you have experience with this problem, and information to share, please let us have it.

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A little about me: Last spring I left a fulltime position as a reporter, columnist and blogger for The Philadelphia Inquirer and joined your world as a home-based freelance writer — doing the same amount of work for half the money! I continue to write a Philly-focused column and blog for the newspaper. What I’ll offer for WWD readers will be more wide ranging, talking about ways to work efficiently wherever and whenever you’re traveling, along with throwing out ideas for stretching your travel budget to the max.

My first topic is a basic for the business traveler whose working life depends on web access, and is one that many of you probably have some experience with.

How do you avoid surprises when you check into a hotel, find your room and fire up the laptop to check e-mail or do other work online?

The great majority of hotels of all brands, sizes and comfort levels, both domestic and foreign, have high-speed Internet access these days. Many chains promote it in their advertising, and most of the time it’s “free,” which really means it’s included in the room rate.

But as strange as it may seem, the more luxurious and expensive your hotel is, the more likely it is you will have to pay extra for access. The fee is usually no more than $10 a day, perhaps not a big deal if you, your employer or client has shelled out $150 to $300 for the room. But we’re talking here about some really nice places, including Ritz-Carltons, Four Seasons and full-service, four-star Hiltons, Marriotts and Sheratons, virtually all of which have the annoying policy of adding on the fee.

Exceptions do abound: Often the fee can be included in negotiated corporate room rates or will be waived if you’re fairly high-ranking member of a hotel’s frequent-guest program.

I’ve always avoided the Internet access fee by, usually of necessity because of budget constraints, by staying in three-star or occasionally two-star hotels.  I use Hampton Inn a lot because, first, I know I’m not going to pay the fee, and I also know what else I’m going to get. Every room in the chain, a Hilton division, has a good-sized work desk and comfortable desk chair, and a nifty tray designed specifically to let you work on a laptop while reclining in bed or the lounge chair.

But I’m not just endorsing one brand. Most of the other mid-priced divisions of the hotel chains don’t charge the fee and have made strides in recent years in making it easier to work in your room, with decent desks and chairs. Most Choice Hotels, which run the Comfort Inn and Quality brands, lower-priced Marriotts, including Fairfield Inn and Garden Inns, and all Best Westerns have no access fee. Even some lower-priced brands are the same, with exceptions like Motel 6.

I have found only two ways to make sure you know in advance whether you’ll be hit with a fee: Look at the “policies” or “services and amenities” page on the individual hotel’s web site to see what the policy is, or call the hotel directly and ask. And that leads me to another topic I’ll provide more advice on soon:

How do you get the lowest room rate? The short answer is often the old-fashioned way: Pick up the phone and haggle.

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