Ricky Says

United Airlines now offers a technically advanced airport check-in option that let's you use a bar-code on your mobile device.

It's environment-friendly because it saves you from having to print a boarding pass, and it saves you time because you don't have to stand in line to get your boarding pass if you aren't checking any luggage.

The new program is still in beta and was just announced a few weeks ago. I had the chance to try it out today while flying back to Portland from a business trip to Chicago and it worked flawlessly.

With the new mobile check-in option, you visit http://www.united.com on your mobile device (iphone in my case), find your itinerary and choose the mobile checkin option.

You'll be asked to provide an email address where you'd like to receive the mobile boarding pass, and you'll receive an email message containing a link to download your mobile boarding pass. Once you get the email with the link, then you click the link to open a web page on your mobile device that contains the actual mobile checkin bar-code.

I was hoping it would be fewer steps than this, but it's still fairly convenient and straight-forward.

Here are the 5 steps again in order:

1. Check in on your mobile device
2. Provide your email address
3. Download the email message sent from United
4. Open web page link containing bar code
5. Scan bar code at the airport security checkpoint and also at the airport gate.

Just to be safe, I'll admit that I printed out a boarding pass in case something went wrong (I didn't want to be "that guy"... the one who holds up the line because he forgot to have his ID ready). But nothing went wrong and I even saw a couple other guys doing the same thing.

Question: I traveled a lot in 2009 and am wondering if my rewards miles and hotel points will carry over into 2010?

Answer: Yes and No - Redeemable miles roll over but miles that were accrued towards elite status do NOT roll over.

The miles you accrued for redeeming flight rewards will carry over into the next year, and your elite/preferred status will also be retained through 2010. So you'll be able to redeem miles for free tickets and will enjoy your flight status benefits throughout 2010.

However, you must earn enough elite qualifying miles on the program in 2010 to retain your preferred status into 2011 - and your elite point account balance will be reset to zero at the start of each new year.

So if you don't fly as much this year in 2010, then you'll lose your elite/preferred status for 2011.

Last year I racked up some decent frequent flier miles on the United Star Alliance program and also with Alaska Airlines (which includes Delta, and Northwest Airlines).

The elite qualifying miles I earned towards on United's mileage plan in 2009 were reset to zero miles on Jan 1st, 2010. Meaning I'll need to fly a full 50,000 miles to retain my Premier Executive status into 2011.

The same thing happened for Alaska, although it took a couple of weeks for the reset to happen (so initially I thought they were going to roll over the miles). That turned out to NOT be the case however, as you can see from the screen shot of my account balance showing that I'll need to fly a full 20,000 miles to retain my MVP status into 2011.

I've built up a respectible arsenal of gadgets and devices while logging almost 200,000 miles in frequent flier miles this year.

Some are necessities, and some are just for fun. Some are just to keep my sanity on longer trips like the one I'm taking this week to Cologne, Germany.

My geeked out road warrior survival pack includes everything from a lithium-ion battery pack that gives my iphone 2 extra charges, to a sleek pair of noise canceling Bose headphones that block out the majority of jet airplane engine noises.

It also makes a great Christmas shopping list for the business traveler or technology addict in your life ;-)

Here's my Letterman's countdown of top ten must-have gadgets when traveling for business or pleasure:

10. Starbuck's Via 3-pack. Technology aside... Let's face it - hotel room coffee tastes horrible no matter what brand they use.

I really need a good cup of coffee to start the day off right (especially for east coast trips where it feels like I'm getting up at 4 a.m.) and these instant coffee packs from Starbucks are just as good as the real thing. You can get hot water from just about anywhere, including an in-room coffee maker without the coffee grounds.

9. iPod nano with armband. Yes, I have an iPhone too (see #1 below) but a small ipod is more convenient for working out, and also provides more hours of music for helping long flights go by faster.

8. Camera. I bring my Nikon D50 DSLR camera along with a 300mm zoom lens when I want to be sure and capture the city views in high quality (and I usually have some time after business hours for touring the city).

I'm enroute to Dallas, TX right now and it's a wifi flight with American Airlines. I'm typing... I mean tapping this post on my iPhone 3GS, after paying a nominal $7.95 fee.

The Internet speed on the in-flight wifi connection is plenty fast to download a music album from iTunes while updating 4 apps, browsing the web and checkng email, without any noticeable slow down.

GPS looks a little confused though - it thinks I'm still at the airport even though we've been traveling for a couple hours, probably because that's where the signal is coming from:

SMS also doesn't work, so don't plan on texting on these flights. You also can't share a connection between a laptop and mobile device - you have to pay an additional connection for a laptop or mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry, etc).

I'd love to see wifi be free on flights, but all things considered, I felt it was still a great value since I was able to get a lot of work done (and play) instead of wasting a few hours in the air.

The iPhone 3G will be my new travel companion when I leave for Zurich, Switzerland tomorrow morning (yep, I finally upgraded from my Blackberry Curve).

The iPhone has a lot to offer the international traveler, and here are 10 ways you can use the iPhone to help you on your next trip abroad (most are applicable even if you're just traveling to another state or province).

Note: if you're looking for ways to save money on data roaming charges, scroll down to the bottom of this page.

1. Mind the Time with a World Clock:

   Keeping track of the current time is the first thing I worry about when I travel across multiple time zones, and the iPhone lets you add a clock for every imaginable city in the world. I've added a clock for my destination city, my lay-over city, and my home city.

   
2. Pack for the Right Weather:

   You can add Yahoo! weather reports for any city, just by opening the Weather app and clicking the little "i" at the bottom right of the weather screen. You can store multiple weather reports and easily flip through them to see what the weather is like in other areas of the world.

   

   Looks like it's cold in Zurich in October, so I'll be sure to pack warm clothes for my trip.

3. Manage your Monday with Currency Convertors:

   Convertor Pro is a freebie that you can download from the App Store that lets you convert any currency to another. It's updated every hour with actual current rates too.

   

   You can also click the "i" in the upper right of the screen to view a graph of the currency conversion rate over the last 5 years - handy for evaluating global economic trends.