Gone are the days when airline travel was a coveted perk, dished out to top corporate executives.
Now the planes are full of noisy vacationers and cranky commuters, and the whole experience resembles a bad bus trip organized by paranoids.
There is hope on the horizon for improving the quality of life of the business traveller and it all hinges on technology. Consider the border crossing. Rather than join the long lines in the customs halls, frequent travellers can now, as the CANPASS website promises, "clear customs and immigration in the blink of an eye.”
The system is now available at airports in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.
Passholders simply insert their card and look into a camera that captures the pattern of their iris and compares it to the stored values. I watched someone do this at the Calgary airport recently. It looked a little awkward and he did have to squat down and try it twice. But, sure enough, he was on his way while the rest of us were still standing in line.
The program is not for everyone, because you have to be considered a "low-risk" traveller and pay a $50 annual fee. CANPASS only works for entering Canada.
The NEXUS program might be a better deal, since it's a U.S.-Canada partnership. Assuming you can pass a risk assessment in both countries, you're issued a pass that works in either direction and is good for five years. The cost is Cdn$80 or US$50.
One big advantage of the NEXUS card is that it can also be used when entering by land or sea. Those crossings will be tightened up in the next few years, just as the air border was this January. However, be warned that only certain land border crossings have been equipped. If you're entering Canada through Blaine, Wash., you're laughing. If you come in via Sweetgrass, Mont., they're laughing at you. You may as well keep your NEXUS card in your pocket, because the system's not implemented there yet.
Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day recently announced the opening of NEXUS kiosks at Toronto's Pearson airport, adding that the expansion to Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax will be completed soon. The program now boasts about 115,000 members.
The events of Sept. 11, 2001 caused a hiccup in the implementation of these automated border-technology systems.
Soon after 9/11, I asked a border-crossing official when the CANPASS terminal would be available again.
He snarled back: "Never, I hope.”
He explained that, in his opinion, the automated system opened the door to "bad guys" seeking to enter the country. Of course, he may just have been worried about his job.
That level of suspicion has, thankfully, been replaced by recognition that expediting the flow of travelers between Canada and the U.S. is vital to the economies of both countries.
Yet security concerns still raise their ugly heads, or as is happening to some travellers at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, raise bras and lower boxers.
The U.S. is again pushing the controversial backscatter X-ray system which can "see through clothes.”
Brave Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees who have modelled the system demonstrate that nothing is hidden from the backscatter machine. You can practically determine a man's religion and how much he is enjoying the experience, if you get my drift.
To be fair, the backscatter X-ray installation at Phoenix airport is only a trial and it's being used on people who would otherwise be "patted down" in a secondary inspection. So, you get to choose conventional mauling or virtual undressing.
In response to concerns that the images were too revealing, the TSA has gone to some pains to make them blurry in the right places and assures us that they will not be stored or printed out. But one can only imagine the scrutiny the images will get if Angelina Jolie or Brad Pitt happen to get scanned.
There are sample pictures and a video of the machine in action on the TSA's website, and it's disturbing because the models all have their hands in the air, like criminals caught in the act. So much for the relaxing joys of flying through U.S. airports.
Oh, and did I mention that experts say there's really no safe dose of unnecessary ionizing radiation? Even if these are only a fraction of the power of your dentist's machine, they can't be doing you any good, especially if you travel a lot.
Another technology that has certainly revolutionized business travel is online booking. You can now do everything from buying a ticket to checking in without visiting a single surly agent. As soon as airlines figure out how to make the bag-checking process self-serve without compromising security, you'll do that too.
One fly in the ointment of online travel arranging is the proliferation of "phishing attacks" that target travellers in an attempt to pry out credit card and other financial information. To combat this, the Yahoo Travel website has introduced a new feature called "your seal."
You provide a pass phrase, or even a photograph "that everyone who uses this computer would recognize" and the site displays that phrase or photo whenever you access the website from that computer. If you don't see your seal, you may have been redirected to another, possibly malicious website.
Of course the seal won't show up if you're using a public computer, such as one in an airline lounge. In fact, you're liable to see some previous traveller's seal, which would be the height of confusion. If you're using a shared computer, it behooves you to erase your files and maybe clear the browser cache when you go. You'd be amazed at what I've found left behind on airport computers.
Perhaps the ultimate business travel tech toy is a GPS tracker and locator, cleverly concealed in a backpack. For a mere US$750, you get a device that allows you to keep tabs on your "Vehicles, Children, Property, Assets, Alzheimer's Patients, Hikers, Boats, Etc."
Or, in the case of corporate travel managers, your employees, who just might be stuck somewhere getting frisked by a backscatter X-ray or trying to convince the NEXUS machine to accept their eyeball.
Then again, you can always hold that meeting by videoconferencing and let everybody sleep in his or her own bed tonight.
(Tom Keenan is a professor at the University of Calgary and an expert on technology and its social implications. He can be reached at keenan@businessedge.ca)
