See Something, Say Something

When you ride the metro in Washington, DC, every five minutes the same message comes on. If you see something, say something...

After the events in Boston this week, this phrase is more important than ever. The best line of defense against future acts of terrorism is a vigilant public. It is every Americans responsibility to stay alert and let authorities know if something does not seem right. One person speaking up can safe the lives of thousands. Many forget that it was a hot dog stand vendor that stopped the bombing in Times Square. He told police officers about a car that was smoking. He alone saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

Why do I write this on a points/travel blog?

The reason is simple. We, frequent travelers, are in high traffic areas more often than the average American. How many times at the airport do you see a bag unattended? When you see this, do you tell someone? If you are like me, you are rushing to the bathroom, the gate or grab something to eat before your next flight, so we move on, leaving the bag unattended. We justify not telling someone about the bag by saying someone else with more time will. My guess is that 99% of us use that justification.

You see something, you must say something....

CNN today has an article on Vigilance Key To Safe Travels. In the article, the author says, "If the past is any predictor, Americans may forget they're part of the solution and move on." This sediment is so true. We fall complacent about our safety. We tell ourselves, "we live in America, the safest country in the world." It is only after tragic events are we awaken from our la la land and brought back to reality. For a few days after the event, we remain on high alert, but eventually we fall back into our complacent state. It is then that we open ourselves up to greater danger.

Again, if you see something out of place, say something. We are the final line of defense, but only if we leave our comfortable complacent state.



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Global Entry Seeing Growth and Possible Expansion of Reciprocal Benefits In Other Countries

A great article in today's New York Times  featured the growing popularity of the Global Entry program which allows quick entry through an automated kiosk at selected customs locations at United States airports. The first part of the article featured an account of the New York Times author going through the interview stage of the application process and featured a very funny story of how his fingerprints wouldn't register so he had to wipe his fingers, first, on his forehead and later on the Customs and Border Protection agent's forehead to get moisture enough to register his fingerprints.

But outside of that funny anicdote I was struck by a set of quotes from John Wagner, who is the acting deputy assistant commissioner for field operations for the Customs and Boarder Patrol. He says that the Global Entry program has seen amazing levels of growth in the last couple of months.

"We're seeing applications in record-breaking numbers," said Wagner. "We were doing about 15,000 applications a month for Global Entry, but the last couple of months we've done 50,000."

Even more interesting was the revelation that more agreements with foreign countries are in the works that would allow for expedited customs and immigration processes for US based Global Entry members when they travel to those countries and foreign citizens who are members of their countries program would be able to use Global Entry when they come to the United States.

"We've reached agreements with a lot of different countries on reciprocal arrangements where they'll be able to conduct the vetting and qualify their citizens fro Global Entry, and they'll take the U.S> citizen who has Global Entry and all them to apply for the program they have to enter their country," said Wagner. "For instance, in the Netherlands, Korea, Germany, the U.K., we're in the different phases of doing this."

About 1.5 million citizens are a part of the Global Entry program and in the next five years Wagner has indicated they want to see the overall traffic from Global Entry represent 15-20 percent of all arriving air passengers clearing customs and immigration.

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Different Travel Deals Based On Your Browsing History?

I've heard in the past that when searching for airfare or hotels that sometimes if you clear the "cookies" out of your web browser that you can often get a different price because the website will not know that you are not a new "visitor" searching for that specific flight or property.

Well an article in yesterday's USA Today  shows that many airlines and hotels use this practice on a regular basis. They take the data from your web history and use it to see if you are a frequent traveler and then price accordingly. The difference is not startling in most cases, but it's still noticeable and adds up over time, I would imagine. The bigger problem is that it could be considered by some as a form of discrimination because it offers a similar product for a different price based on a set of circumstances that are unknown to the buyer.

But the most shocking part is that there is a move to allow airlines to collect more information to give passengers, "easy access to all of the options to add value to their travel plans." Through collection of demographic information and flight information they say they could fit a travel experience and extra options to a traveler's preferences. But privacy advocates warn that this could amount to a different pricing scheme based on previous purchases, travel profile and other data such as age, nationality, marital status, etc.

I'm not usually someone who minds when a website takes my data and gives me more specific info...I know that makes me strange, but I find it fascinating when I am looking at a pair of glasses or a hotel in a certain city and then suddenly I start seeing ads for that...it just shows how good marketers are becoming. But when it worries me is when you could potentially pay a different price just because of that search history. Will be interesting to watch this issue develop.  

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