These little notes from America’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) show up in my hold baggage every time I fly back home from the states. I don’t get it. They put my bag though a giant X-ray machine (I see that part), but then once the bag is out of my sight they open it up and mess around with my packing job? I’ve never had anything go missing or break, but certainly scared me when a laptop nestled between clothes showed up at the top of the bag wide open for damage. If they are going to poke through my stuff, when can’t they do it with me there? The anonymity of having a stranger dig through my personal belongings is just so invasive. Does that make anyone feel safer?

The world’s best current comment (Far Side RIP), XKCD, uses humour to make a good point about airline security: it’s a farce. As the Atlantic clearly demonstrated, with a little level of effort, you can get around security measures. Sometimes it wouldn’t even take effort – once this year I even cruised through and airport without a single person looking at my photo ID. But even more basic than that is that what security measures there are (take off shoes, liquids in a little bag) are simply in place because there were major news stories around people using either liquids or shoes to cause trouble. It seems that if airport security were actually interested in safety, the world would follow Isreal’s controversial model. But in the mean time, can you knock it off with the shoe thing and preventing us from carrying our own water. It’s just silly.

His trip is almost up, but I just learned about Terminal Man, a fella named Brendan who was sponsored by Wired to fly just about everywhere JetBlue goes in a one month. It sounds like a pretty wild ride. He’s getting a bit of a raw deal though in that he has to stay in the airports, but if you took the basic trip idea – flying an airline’s route map – and give yourself a bit of time to see the sights it could make for an great adventure

At first I thought that JetBlue was a perfect candidate for this type of trip. Since they fly all over the US it seems like you could just hop around anywhere. After clicking through their route map though, it looks like everything has you bouncing through Boston, JFK, and Orlando. If you’re going to end up going to the same places, why not extend your scope a little bit and fly the Emirates route map or fly around the US on Southwest that doesn’t require you to keep skipping back through hubs. They may not offer JetBlue’s all you can fly pass, but I’m sure that if you if you talked to them about it as an advertising opportunity then you could work something out.

Not only are flights crazy cheap right now, but they are also getting better. Anecdotally, of my last few flights I’ve had a few empty seats around me, which is always pleasant. On my last flight to the U.S., I even had my own row of three seats on which to spread out. I’ve had fairly quick and easy check in lines with little wait, fewer people flying has just made for better flying.

Research bears this out. Bags aren’t being lost, more flights are on time, fewer people are getting bumped, and fewer people are complaining overall, according to a new study. While I’m sure the airline industry would prefer to be charging high fares for packed airplanes, I sure do appreciate that we customers are finally getting a good deal on the skies.

less than $200 to get across the Atlantic

I had to head to Washington, D.C. for work the weekend before last. The ticket, booked just a few days in advance was only $450 round trip, and the flights were so empty that I hand two seats each way. And that’s nothing abnormal right now. My email alerts are regularly showing my prices under $300 to fly from the US to London, and sometimes even lower as you can see above.

Kayak searches and price trend watcher tell the same story. Prices are really low right now, and it doesn’t look like they are headed north any time soon. Did you know you can get round trip from the US to Moscow in a couple weeks for less than $600? That’s crazy. If you’ve got the time and money, now is certainly a time to fly somewhere fun.