Finally, someone has come up with a way to help travelers use some of that airport downtime spent waiting for a flight delayed for hours because of thunderstorms in the Midwest.
Hewlett-Packard Co. and American Airlines are completing the installation of H-P business centers in American’s Admirals Clubs across the country, including Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
“We’ve created a place where business travelers can escape to get their work done,” said Irv Christy, a manager with Hewlett-Packard who has overseen installation of the centers.
Unlike many offerings for the road weary, this one is free.
At O’Hare, members of the Admirals Club, located between the H and K concourses, will have access to six H-P work stations complete with PCs and laptops, color printers, copiers and Internet access. Travelers will be able to check their e-mail, print documents or conduct more complex work.
American’s O’Hare Admirals Club now will have 44 work stations for busy road warriors, although only the H-P stations come equipped with their own computers.
A $350 first-year membership in the Admirals Club is the only requirement for gaining access to the clubs and the H-P centers.
Later this year, H-P will install additional computer and high-tech equipment in the clubs that will give warriors the chance to “road test” some of the latest computer equipment and solutions that are being touted.
It’s an idea with benefits for everyone involved. While travelers will get the chance to use valuable time that otherwise would be wasted waiting for a plane, H-P gets the chance to promote its products with its most important customers.
Pocket change adds up: Who’d have thought that, when United Airlines began collecting leftover lira, shillings, deutsche marks, francs or pesetas from travelers on overseas flights returning to Chicago, the coins tossed into the basket would total more than $200,000?
That’s how much United has raised for Habitat for Humanity since 1996, when it began asking returning passengers to contribute their leftover foreign pocket change. While paper currency can be exchanged for greenbacks, the leftover coins are only good for wearing holes in people’s pockets–or dropping into the basket for a good cause.
This past June, passengers donated more than $32,000 on the trans-Atlantic and South Pacific flights, said Tony Molinaro, a United spokesman.
United has used the money to help fund construction of Habitat homes in Chicago, Oakland and San Diego, Calif.; Denver, Newark and London.
“This has been an enormous effort companywide by our employees and nationwide by our customers,” says Eileen Sweeney, vice president of the United Airlines Foundation. “Together, we have reached an important goal because many of United’s employees have volunteered to build homes, and thousands of our customers have shared their unspent foreign currency to purchase the construction materials.”
Hola Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s cheese heads are opening their arms to Hispanic travelers.
The state’s Department of Tourism has prepared a 24-page English-Spanish travel planning guide, called “Viva Wisconsin,” describing the state’s 12 top vacation destinations. In addition to providing travel directions, the guide includes a photographic history of early Hispanic settlement in the state.
The bilingual travel guide is part of a new marketing campaign designed to invite Hispanic vacationers from Chicago and northern Illinois.
War at Love Field? It’s war, or at least that what it appears. American Airlines says Thursday’s test flight at Dallas’ Love Field was just that–a test flight. But it also was a reminder to Southwest Airlines that Love, where Southwest is based, was the home of America’s second-biggest airline long before the idea of a Southwest had even been conceived. American says it will resume Love Field service Aug. 31, in head-to-head competition with Southwest’s 14 daily round-trip flights to Austin.
———-
E-mail comments to Jschmeltzer@Tribune.com
