If I can't afford to pay the full airfare why can't I just pay the luggage-overweight cost and fly baggage class? Or fly almost-free by spreading the extra overweight cost among a few other passengers who are flying under their maximum luggage limit. Obviously, I will pay each one of my flight's sponsors a small tip for sharing my weight and for letting me depend on their sharing my kilos again in another flight.
I wouldn't be an illegal immigrant because I'm paying a fully taxable lower-than-economy fare plus I get to show my passport and boarding pass at the check-in counter. Weight-loss companies can offer special deals to people who are overweight and thus keep the price competitive for people of all shapes and heft. So long as I am flexible and don't mind being suit-cased, why should airlines object to it?
Newly designed suitcases will be required to make the travel more comfortable. Suitcase manufacturers can use NASA's know-how in making all things compact and practical for people on long flights.
Instead of being asked "How many people are traveling today?" and then being asked "And how many suitcases will you be checking in, Sir?", the ground attendant can just ask the latter and check me in and through the airport in one go. That means I will be boarding the plane faster than First-Class passengers do. Not bad! :)
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Book lending for air travellers
I was thinking of creating a book lending business in airports for travelers on long flights. Instead of buying the book in the airport bookshop the passenger can borrow it only for the course of the flight by having the credit card charged full retail price of the book. Upon arriving in the destination airport the passenger returns the book and gets full refund in their credit card. The book can then only be re-lent to passengers traveling back to the country airport the book originally came from.
If a passenger really likes the book they will have the option to buy it by simply keeping it. In this case a new order to re-stock the book will be automatically made via the system and a small profit realized from having sold it retail price. People can also donate books in this business and if their used-book is sold they get to keep a portion of the profit.
http://thinkaloo.com
If a passenger really likes the book they will have the option to buy it by simply keeping it. In this case a new order to re-stock the book will be automatically made via the system and a small profit realized from having sold it retail price. People can also donate books in this business and if their used-book is sold they get to keep a portion of the profit.
http://thinkaloo.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Use of Parachutes in commercial flights
I am wondering why the airline companies don't provide parachutes during a flight? I think that this is a good way to increase the chances of survival in case of an accident. I suppose that it is possible to evacuate an airplane while it is flying, so probably you will be needing a parachute! Also, the idea of wearing a parachute makes people feel more confident that they could something to save themselves in case of emergency. So,it can help passengers feel more comfortable and safe and in that way can increase the number of people who like to travel.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Saturday, July 25, 2009
My office Is the airplane
No I'm not a pilot. I'm a writer and I always get my best thoughts and ideas when I'm flying. Something about being on air brings torrents of creativity in me. My imagination runs sweet and sour faster when I find myself traveling above cloud level. I really do work better when I'm flying. At the moment, I can't afford to travel as often as I would like but when my next best-seller surpasses the Da Vince code this is what I have in mind to do.
I'll start a new airline and I will call it Sky Author Airways. The fountain pen will be its logo. It will accept as its passengers authors journalists and writers who have published at least one book and want to use a flight as an office space. The decoration will be relaxed, something like a miniature of Google on air. There will be laptops with internet connection to use inside the plane. There will also be a printer and binder to print anything in book format that is downloaded online. This could work in partnership with a major publisher and retailer like Amazon.
There will also be a small library in the luggage compartment below which will be updated based on the passengers' preferences on each flight. Passengers will not be paying on a per travel basis but on a monthly basis. In other words the charge will be the same as renting office space. The only requirement will be that if the flight is booked on the day you want to fly you will have to take another route.
Of course passengers can use Sky Author Airways to combine it with their travel plans but the main goal of traveling with Sky Author is to use it as office space. Instead of working say 8 hours in an office you can take an 4 hour flight somewhere and come back by the end of the work day. Whoever is in the writing or creative business and in need of office space on air will be welcome to use Sky Author Airways!
http://www.thinkaloo.com
I'll start a new airline and I will call it Sky Author Airways. The fountain pen will be its logo. It will accept as its passengers authors journalists and writers who have published at least one book and want to use a flight as an office space. The decoration will be relaxed, something like a miniature of Google on air. There will be laptops with internet connection to use inside the plane. There will also be a printer and binder to print anything in book format that is downloaded online. This could work in partnership with a major publisher and retailer like Amazon.
There will also be a small library in the luggage compartment below which will be updated based on the passengers' preferences on each flight. Passengers will not be paying on a per travel basis but on a monthly basis. In other words the charge will be the same as renting office space. The only requirement will be that if the flight is booked on the day you want to fly you will have to take another route.
Of course passengers can use Sky Author Airways to combine it with their travel plans but the main goal of traveling with Sky Author is to use it as office space. Instead of working say 8 hours in an office you can take an 4 hour flight somewhere and come back by the end of the work day. Whoever is in the writing or creative business and in need of office space on air will be welcome to use Sky Author Airways!
http://www.thinkaloo.com
How They Won...
This is not a story of an imaginary pun. This thought association is live and taking place as I type it in the plane. I'm copying and pasting the text as I'm reading it right now from the stranger businessman sitting next to me on our flight to Zurich. He's reading the Financial Times and is too absorbed to see me typing off his copy of the newspaper which I find very amusing. The article reads "The South Korean Won lost 4.7% of its value on fears that the Korean government will stop intervening to support the currency..."
I'm thinking of the journalist who wrote these lines. Did he see the pun but left it there in the hope his readers will see it too? Why couldn't he phrase it otherwise so that the words 'won' and 'lost' don't read next to each other? How can something that is Won be actually Lost?
Perhaps he saw it but left it there intentionally. Perhaps not. My mind veers suddenly into an imaginary ad propping up the 'lost' South Korean currency. A full-page flashing George Soros and Warren Buffet side by side. The world's two most iconic and revered investors describing 'How They Won...' by investing where else in the South Korean Won!
Perhaps the story of how the South Korean Won Lost serves as the perfect metaphor of our times. Something Won Lost because it was all Made off. Who knows why the journalist contrived the sentence so that the words won and lost parade next to each other.
A few years ago perhaps no one would have noticed. But now, amidst the worst financial crisis, nothing of the sort can go unnoticed. I am too tempted to ask my neighbor if he noticed the pun but I hold back. Perhaps it's better that I keep it to myself for now.
My mind drifts again. The most unexpected associations can sometimes come just by taking a glance at the newspaper of the person sitting next to us. Even if I never read the finance and business sections of the news - I admit I find them too boring - at some funny level I guess we can all somehow find humor in words whereby we can then converge or diverge our thoughts.
It's simply amazing, isn't it? The stranger sitting next to me is too engrossed in his reading of the finance world. But what is he reading? He is reading of a South Korean Won which lost 4.7% of its value where as I am reading of a South Korean Won which is 'Lost' and making the most unexpected and unrelated associations in my mind while killing flight time. Does the guy next to me also see anything funny in them?
How can anyone not find it funny, ironic or paradoxical when something that is so Won is also so Lost? The story perhaps starts to make sense to the reader as he jumps to the next article describing how Madoff lost what his rich world clientele had won over the years.
I guess it's only when it is made off from the start that something arguably so hard won can also be so easily lost at the same time...
http://www.thinkaloo.com
I'm thinking of the journalist who wrote these lines. Did he see the pun but left it there in the hope his readers will see it too? Why couldn't he phrase it otherwise so that the words 'won' and 'lost' don't read next to each other? How can something that is Won be actually Lost?
Perhaps he saw it but left it there intentionally. Perhaps not. My mind veers suddenly into an imaginary ad propping up the 'lost' South Korean currency. A full-page flashing George Soros and Warren Buffet side by side. The world's two most iconic and revered investors describing 'How They Won...' by investing where else in the South Korean Won!
Perhaps the story of how the South Korean Won Lost serves as the perfect metaphor of our times. Something Won Lost because it was all Made off. Who knows why the journalist contrived the sentence so that the words won and lost parade next to each other.
A few years ago perhaps no one would have noticed. But now, amidst the worst financial crisis, nothing of the sort can go unnoticed. I am too tempted to ask my neighbor if he noticed the pun but I hold back. Perhaps it's better that I keep it to myself for now.
My mind drifts again. The most unexpected associations can sometimes come just by taking a glance at the newspaper of the person sitting next to us. Even if I never read the finance and business sections of the news - I admit I find them too boring - at some funny level I guess we can all somehow find humor in words whereby we can then converge or diverge our thoughts.
It's simply amazing, isn't it? The stranger sitting next to me is too engrossed in his reading of the finance world. But what is he reading? He is reading of a South Korean Won which lost 4.7% of its value where as I am reading of a South Korean Won which is 'Lost' and making the most unexpected and unrelated associations in my mind while killing flight time. Does the guy next to me also see anything funny in them?
How can anyone not find it funny, ironic or paradoxical when something that is so Won is also so Lost? The story perhaps starts to make sense to the reader as he jumps to the next article describing how Madoff lost what his rich world clientele had won over the years.
I guess it's only when it is made off from the start that something arguably so hard won can also be so easily lost at the same time...
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Monday, June 1, 2009
Travel buddy
I have time and money and I want to spend it traveling. None of my friends can join me because they are too busy looking for a job or working hard to pay off their debts. I can't push them and I don't think I can travel by myself. I have never traveled alone and I don't want to. I would like to find a travel buddy to join me and soon. I am not looking to make friends, I am looking for someone who is in a similar position to the one I am, wants to travel, can travel but can't find anyone to join. An online matching site for travel buddies to hook up is something I need but nobody has thought to start one. So, if you can recommend me a travel buddy, I'd be grateful.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Friday, May 1, 2009
Take year-off loans to travel
How about a new type of loan for students or workers who want to take a year off (or more) in a foreign country and work as volunteers for a cause? The loan will be repaid in work hours, not in cash. The applicant will indicate how many hours he is willing to work a day and based on the minimum wage for the country calculate the total amount of the loan for the specified duration.
The bank or other organization disperses the loan in daily installments based on whether the applicant checked for work or not that day.
This is what it might make sense for a bank to do that. Usually banks hand out lump sums to charities or non-profit organizations and save on taxes. Why not hand the money to the volunteers directly who will work for the charities? The difference is that More people will probably volunteer if they hear they can take a year-off loan to travel that they repay through work than if a charity advertises its work and asks people to join it.
It will also be good PR for the first bank that tries it as it will enable it to build brand and loyalty with young people based on an experience that was fun early on in their adult life. The bank will thus be able to sell more of its products to them in the future banking on that loyalty and brand it built early on.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
The bank or other organization disperses the loan in daily installments based on whether the applicant checked for work or not that day.
This is what it might make sense for a bank to do that. Usually banks hand out lump sums to charities or non-profit organizations and save on taxes. Why not hand the money to the volunteers directly who will work for the charities? The difference is that More people will probably volunteer if they hear they can take a year-off loan to travel that they repay through work than if a charity advertises its work and asks people to join it.
It will also be good PR for the first bank that tries it as it will enable it to build brand and loyalty with young people based on an experience that was fun early on in their adult life. The bank will thus be able to sell more of its products to them in the future banking on that loyalty and brand it built early on.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Do you prefer to travel by Airbus or Boeing?
75% say they prefer to travel with Boeing. Both are top of the line airliners, and it's up to the appetite of the consumer to decide which product to go with. Yes, they are both totally different in many ways, but yet they bring the best into a design that will stay. Boeing seem to have a more classic cockpit which is easier to fly however the aibus takes the 'fly-by wire' a bit too far, so I prefer Boeings! I think that Boeing is WAY better because Airbus recieves money from the government to help with their production of aircraft. Boeing gets their money from SELLING aircraft. Also, an Airbus A330 is reported to have sheared off the tail in crosswinds because the pilot inputted too much rudder deflection!? If you want to make an airplane, please make on where the tail does not shear off.
I'm an airplane enthusiast and I read about those things everyday. Among the pilots I've heard talking people say that Boeing is by far superior to Airbus. We're talking about the best airline companies in the world here and they both build great planes. But don't forget that US has long history in aviation and Boeing not only has knowledge in commercial planes but also in military planes. That gives them a strong advantage when it comes to safety. So I'm voting for Boeing but when it comes to travelling it won't make any difference to me.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
I'm an airplane enthusiast and I read about those things everyday. Among the pilots I've heard talking people say that Boeing is by far superior to Airbus. We're talking about the best airline companies in the world here and they both build great planes. But don't forget that US has long history in aviation and Boeing not only has knowledge in commercial planes but also in military planes. That gives them a strong advantage when it comes to safety. So I'm voting for Boeing but when it comes to travelling it won't make any difference to me.
http://www.thinkaloo.com
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