Gadling

In an article in the St. Petersburg Times, writer Bridget Hall Grumet tells about her experience waiting with her pre-toddler to pre-board, only to not pre-board after all. The unnamed airline had dropped the practice unbeknown to her. (She later mentions an American Airlines and United flight, but they are not the ones Grumet initially described.)

We've posted in the past about airlines who have stopped pre-boarding families with infants and small children. Southwest, American, Delta and United no longer have pre-boarding, although Grumet says that if you ask gate attendants with American and Delta, they may let you board early if you have a small child. Grumet personally found that to be true on an American flight.

Although Grumet misses the perk of boarding early with a kid because it makes settling in on a plane that much easier, she does understand the airlines' latest practice. The idea behind not making allowances for people with small children and infants, and others who need assistance, is that when they get on the plane in one group, it creates a bottleneck.

If people who need extra help are randomly spread out during the boarding process, it saves 10 to 12 minutes. That may not sound like much, but as airlines struggle to get people to their destinations on time, 10 to12 minutes can jam up arrivals and departures for more than that one airplane.

My thought is that if I were traveling with a small child, I'd not be in any hurry to board. Spend less time on the airplane. The problem with that strategy is that with overhead bins becoming more packed as people avoid the cost of checking bag, there won't be space in the bins. Then you'd be stuck searching out a bin rows from your seat. See Heather's post on how the trying to find bin space can look to a flight attendant.

Here's one of my solutions for combating the headache of traveling on a plane with a small child. When at all possible, take the train. Stay tuned tomorrow for my post on how train travel worked out for me. My six year-old got us on the train first.

Between the satellite dishes and the barren, otherworldly landscape in this photo, you could be forgiven for thinking it had been taken on the moon. It's all the more amusing therefore, to find out that Flickr user konakoka, got this spacey shot on top of Mauna Kea, the dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii.

The lack of light pollution and the high altitude make Mauna Kea a top spot for astronomy. The summit is littered with all manner of observatories and satellite dishes, as we see here in this photo. I like the way the focus of the image has been pushed to the very bottom, leaving an almost limitless blue sky to dominate.

Have you taken any great travel photos you'd like to share with our Gadling readers? Add them to our Gadling pool on Flickr and we might just use your image as our Photo of the Day.

Admittedly, Russell Brand, the British comedian and actor, probably best known in the U.S. for his role as Aldous Snow, a rock star in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall, can go a bit over the top with his humor.

Because he will be hosting the MTV Video Music Awards tonight, he is on U.S. entertainment radar again. However, it's an earlier appearance on David Letterman in May that caught my attention.

This account of why he missed his first scheduled appearance on David Letterman pokes a bit of fun at U.S. immigration without being anti-American. According to him, Brand wasn't allowed back in the U.S. after a trip to Britain to promote the movie because of his past record. Although he doesn't specifically state his past problems, they have to do with drug issues for which he has had treatment.

Basically, Brand's hilarious style of story-telling captures an interesting cast of players and circumstances at U.S. immigration. I do think he's embellishing, but it's funny. For example, he describes a Gambian man wearing an American flag tie under going questioning and hones in on the stereotypes of people who look suspicious.

There are some people who are determined to not wear clothes in the great outdoors. There are the people who do naked rock climbing, people who hang out on a nude beach (or play volleyball in the buff on a beach like those I saw once in Greece), people who sky dive nude, dance in the nude, go on cruises in the nude, and, like this German guy I read about, people who prefer to hike in nothing but a good pair of shoes.

Even jail time is not dissuading this German fellow from his naked hiking habits, according this Reuters article. This fellow was put in jail for ten days for in the buff walkabouts, but has vowed that he will continue to hit the trails without clothes even though it is against the law. Perhaps he sees a double standard? Hiking in the nude breaks Germany's indecency laws, although nude beaching it is okay in designated areas.

Interestingly, Germany has a German Nudist Association which is part of the German Sports Association. Nudism can be traced back to Germany as a way to be healthier, so the association fits the idea of fitness. This membership has created an increase in nude hiking love. Nude jogging also has a following, but loping along in just socks and running shoes also lands a fine.

In a way, one could say that if there are nude beaches there could be nude forests and nude mountains for those who like to scale cliffs. Whatever they do, I hope they're using a decent sunscreen.

To celebrate their 80th birthday, Leading Hotels of the World is running a promotion where you can stay in almost 100 of their properties around the world for US$19.28.

At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EST/Eastern Standard Time) on October 1, 2008, LHW will release a limited number of rooms in these properties for 80 minutes only, in which you can try to secure rooms for US$19.28. You can pre-register here.

It's not clear what type of rooms will be up for grabs; rooms at LHW properties range from US$500-2000, so for $20, any room will do!

80 minutes is not long and I imagine tonnes of people trying to milk this offer, so let's hope that LHW have their act together and their servers do not crash.

[Via globorati]

A British student researcher while on a project in Kamchatka in Russia broke her leg after falling off a horse. She had a 406 megahertz beacon locator, the distress signal of which reached Scotland -- 3,700 miles away! She was rescued and is currently recovering.

Kamchatka is a scarcely populated remote part of eastern Russia, one of the world's last great wildernesses that is also home to 300 volcanoes.

I think we tend to take safety for granted; you never think you are going to be stuck in the middle of nowhere alone and disconnected. The girl in this case was with 8 others, and she had an advance beacon thing. What happened to the Russian rescue services?

I'm not very knowledgeable about the types of personal beacons, the way the work, and the distance they cover, but if they can send SOS signals to centers cross-continent, whoa, hats off to technology. Apparently, this is not normal though.

Here's a good piece with basic information on personal beacons. They are available for around £200-300, probably worth the investment if you are going to be away from civilization for a while.

Back in April, Jeffrey wrote about a new initiative by some American Airlines pilots to try and get public attention to the large number of delays and cancellations the airline was experiencing. At that time, they invited people to their web site, where they could "tell their AA story".

They have now taken things one step further, with their own billboard. The billboard is about 2 miles away from Chicago O'Hare and next to one of the busiest highways leading to the airport. The Allied Pilots Association is behind the billboard, and they want to make it clear that they don't think you are AA's top priority. It's a pretty eye-catching way of delivering your message, and if I had the money, I'd love to rent one every time an airline messed up my trip.

This week, as the Olympics ended, we welcomed blogger David Breisch to the Gadling fold. This was a busy week of diverse travel options, breakthroughs and oddities.

• Jerry tuned us into what travel to a volcanic island is like with two separate posts. The first post, of his two part series "The Krakatau Journal: An island paradise that can kill you,' and the second post, offer Jerry's personal account of his trip to this volcanic island in Indonesia. He also details other volcanoes one can hit on an adventure vacation.
• If you're thinking that Hooters in Beijing is like Hooters in the U.S., like the big Os in the word "hOOt," think again. As Josh, pointed out, the waitress costumes and build are not the same, even though it sounds like the food is. Josh's story caught my eye because there was a knock-off Hooters in the town where I lived in Taiwan--except the name was wrong. The sign said, "Hooties."
• We can chalk one up for consumer complaints. As Grant reported, United Airlines has decided to nix the idea of charging people for meals on international flights. Who would ever have thought charging was a good idea is beyond me.
• If you're looking to bed down for the night in an unusual place, Scott has the answer. In his post "Spend the night in a Jumbo jet without leaving the ground," he gives the scoop on the Jumbo Jet hostel that will open at the airport in Stockholm. As Scott says, you need to be a mile off the ground a mile to join the Mile High Club. Having adult fun in a jumbo jet on the ground is not the same thing.
• For entertainment that is not particularly expensive, Meg's post on the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia presents an idea that might be perfect for a fall weekend. The ticket price of the plays are reasonable and the Blue Ridge Mountains, where the theater is located, are stunning when the leaves change color.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope there's a festival near you. I hit the Popcorn Festival in Marion, Ohio today and am heading to the Honey Festival in Lithopolis tomorrow. Last week was the Sweet Corn Festival in Millersport.

The title of this post should probably be in big flashing red letters, because no matter how many times it has been posted, there are always people who ignore the warnings.

When you travel abroad, turn off International data roaming on your phone.

We live in a world where mobile phones have really become global; I can fly to the heart of Africa, turn on my mobile phone, and people who call my local US number will be able to reach me without giving it a second thought.

The technology behind all of this is mind boggling. Of course, everyone knows that it is expensive to "roam" when you are abroad, and most people use their phone judiciously. There is nothing wrong with making the occasional mobile phone call back home from Europe, or using it to call your airline to change a reservation when you are stranded 1000's of miles from home; the $2 per minute charge is something you can deal with.

Mobile International data is different. The cost of "International Data Roaming" borders on insanity. AT&T charges $19.50 per Megabyte of transferred data in most countries, T-mobile is only slightly cheaper at $15.36 per Megabyte.

To put this in perspective; if you are abroad, and you visit your favorite travel web site 10 times, AT&T will charge you a little over $18 (plus taxes). If you are abroad and you click on that popular Youtube clip of the sneezing panda, you'll be worth $12 less by the time the clip is over.

Things get worse when you use a 3G phone (like the new iPhone) - when you can download faster, you can also run up a massive bill much faster. Imagine landing at your sunny destination, and turning on your iPhone. The phone instantly begins to download all your email, updates the weather, and fetches the latest prices of your stock portfolio. With 3G speeds, you'll be able to download information so fast, that you'll be paying around $60/minute. If you have an awful lot of email, then by the time you reach passport control, you'll owe AT&T $500.

But don't take my word for it, there are countless reports from people who did not educate themselves before leaving on a trip, and arrived back home to a phone bill delivered in a box.

• Son runs up $19,370 bill on AT&T when visiting Canada
  
• $3000 iPhone bill after 2 weeks abroad
• $4190 iPhone bill for 2 weeks in Spain