Paperless boarding passes on your PDA!

If you're like me and travel for business on a fairly regular basis you've likely gotten hooked first on the self-serve kiosks at the airport then on the web check-in (where you were able to login from home or the office via a web browser and print your ticket). Great news the next generation has finally started to arrive for North American airline carriers - wireless check-in. I must say that I'm excited to this mobile check-in feature on my Blackberry. The outbound trips are usually no problem since I have access to a browser and printer. The issue was always the return trip where I didn't have access to a computer and printer.

Air Canada started the trend basically you point your Blackberry or other wireless PDA at their mobile web portal and login just as you would at your computer or the self-serve kiosk. Here is the link on how it works and checkout this page for the initial limitations.

Now Contintental Airlines is conducting a three month test to evaluate the system prior to further roll-outs.

UPDATE - I had the opportunity on Friday to test Air Canada's paperless boarding pass delivered to my Blackberry and all I can say is FANTASTIC. For those times when you're running late on getting to your flight this tip can save you precious minutes. What happens is that you point the browser on your Blackberry or wireless PDA to mobile.aircanada.ca then follow the steps. If you're used to using the web check-in on a Mac/PC it will be very familiar as it follows the same steps with the pages simplified for a mobile device. At the end of the process you are sent two emails: 1) a confirmation, and 2) the boarding pass with a link to the bar-code. To save yourself time load the bar-code (for good measure save the image to the device - just in case) then leave the bar-code up on your screen. When you arrive at the security an agent will ask for your boarding pass and confirm it via a handheld scanner. When you're ready to board the plane same thing the gate agent simply scans the bar-code on your Blackberry. While the Internet experience on EDGE Blackberry's remains pathetic you can actually use it to login. My view is that this process is only going to get better going forward - enjoy and safe travels.

Tip of the Hat to Moen!

I know you're wondering why I'm highlighting a plumbing supplies manufacturer but its simple there are so few firms that deliver exceptional customer service its notable to flag those that are doing a great job. In this case Moen definitely did a great job of customer support in the following situation:
I had a kitchen faucet that was starting to fail and quickly realized that a new cartridge for the faucet was what was called for. After a quick bit of web-surfing I found that Moen's site had a fanastic series of Flash videos walking the consumer through step by step how to disassemble and reassemble the faucet. Next stop was Home Depot where I got even more good news that since Moen stands behind its products the new cartridge that I needed was absolutely free (I just needed to bring back the used one so that Home Depot could send it back to Moen). Overall a great customer experience that makes me more likely to consider Moen next time we got to redo a kitchen or bathroom.

Review of "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi

The book brings out a number of great ideas for introverts that are interested in expanding their social networks without having to become a relentless schmoozer. "Never Eat Alone" walks through a variety of steps that offer some solid tips in terms of meeting new people and establishing a lasting dialogue both personally and professionally. While this book likely falls in the self help category at your local or online bookstore it actually has a very heavy marketing flavor with the focus on building your own brand and network (this fits given Mr. Ferrazzi's background as a Chief Marketing Officer for several major organizations).

Here are some of the top tips that I felt "Never Eat Alone" offers up:

Plan out business trips and conferences with precision. The point is put forward that you want to maximize your time on the road and having a quality contact list for personal and business purposes that you can quickly access ahead of a trip to develop a list of people to contact once you reach your destination. One good suggestion is to drop in messages to your contacts in a city saying that you were in town and while you couldn't meet up on this trip you were thinking about them and would like to touch base on your next trip. On the conference side of things the suggestion involves targeting not necessarily the passive sessions you want to sit in but the presenters and other key people you're seeking to meet - basically you create a top 3 list of people you're targeting to meet at the conference and plan around these targets.

Get active in your community. A number of solid tips are offered up in terms of getting out and getting more involved in your community as a means of meeting new people.

He also covers a number of things NOT to do while networking here's the abbreviated list:

• Focusing on collecting business cards like they're baseball cards - the message here is simple "its not a race the person with the most cards doesn't get a free t-shirt" the purpose is to actually make connections at events;
• Ignoring or being rude to gatekeepers - this one falls in the category of good manners and common sense in treating everyone you meet with respect

Overall, I'd had "Never Eat Alone" recommended to me by a contact and thought that it sounded like an interesting read and must admit that while not all of the tips are for me I definitely got value out of reading it. In fact, this is one of the few books that I'm likely to add to my permanent collection by picking up a gently used copy on Amazon. This is likely the highest praise I can give a book since I'm committed to not add to the clutter at our house with new books unless I plan to use them multiple times.