Kindlefish - No Muss Translations for the Amazon Kindle

One of the best features of the Amazon Kindle is the ability to access the internet virtually anywhere for free. Since there is no touchscreen, the interface can be a bit difficult at times, but for simple errands like checking your email, reading up on something on wikipedia, or sending a text message with google voice it's great. For example, I step off the plane, switch on my Kindle and a few moments later I can send a SMS saying that I got there safely. It doesn't cost me a thing and it just works.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Kindlefish is back with a whole new look! Please read more about it here.

However, one thing that hit me the other day is that I should be able to use Google Translate on the Kindle to help me out in situations where I need to communicate a message, but there's a language barrier. The standard Google Translate page doesn't work for the Kindle and the mobile Google Translate page returns text that is too small to be easily read, and a little clunky for use on the Kindle.

So I fixed it. I present to you: Kindlefish!

Details and a walkthrough after the break!

The Mileage Game: Why I picked United Mileage Plus

This is a follow up to my earlier post about how to pick a mileage program, just to show how it happened in my case. I am an active member in two programs:

• United Mileage Plus (for Star Alliance)
• Alaska Airlines (for basically everyone else)

And here’s I picked them:

• Hub cities: Seattle (SEA) is Alaska Air’s Hub city, which means they are going to very attractive for the number of flights and pricewise, so major points to them. United is present at SEA, but so does Delta and Southwest, so on that end it’s a draw.
• Alliances and Who I fly with: A lot of my international flights are on Lufthansa (LH), Continental (CO), SAS (SK) or United(UA), so Star Alliance was a pretty obvious choice. Alaska (AS), Delta (DL), Northwest (NW), British Airways (BA), and American Air (AA) are all sometimes airlines for me, but BA and AA are in oneWorld while DL and NW are in SkyTeam while AS is in its own world.
• Earning potentials: Alaska brings in all of my random players under one roof: I earn miles on my AS account when I fly AA, BA, AS, or DL. That was a win because otherwise wouldn’t be able to pool my miles and I don’t fly any of them enough to really accumulate enough miles just on their own. With the Star Alliance side, UA makes sure that I get 100% of my flown miles more of the time than the programs with LH, CO, or SK.
• Bonuses and Redemption: Chase is hooked up with UA and Bank of America is AS’s bank. I have an aversion to Bank of America and their offer wasn’t as attractive as the 25,000 from Chase. LH didn’t have anything and while CO’s was similar to UA’s, UA still had more options to earn bonus miles through partners. In terms of redemption, I really didn’t know but it turns out that AS and UA are both pretty good about mileage inventory.

Final Verdict: UA due to partner airlines, destinations, bonus miles through partners, and redemption opportunities and AS for all of the other airlines that I usually fly just to get them in under one roof (since then they’ve also added Kenmore Air and Icelandic Air as partner airlines, so this was a big win for that role!).

The Mileage Game: How to pick a mileage program, step by step

Picking the right frequent flyer program is the first step towards bending the mileage game in your favor, and the choice goes beyond simply which airline you fly the most. Here is a step by step guide to picking your mileage program(s):

1. Find out which airlines are based in your city: If you live in a hub city for a certain carrier, that often determines what airline alliance you’ll end up in because there are more inexpensive flights on the carrier based there. If you’re not a hub city, find out which airlines are fighting for your city and consider joining one of those.
2. Research the alliances: Airlines form cooperative alliances which mileage can be earned and redeemed on partner airlines. This means that even if you’re flying Lufthansa, you can still earn mileage in your United or Continental mileage account. The three major alliances are Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld. For those of you in an Alaska Air hub city, Alaska has their own unique constellation of airlines which includes carriers from both SkyTeam and oneWorld, but with the draw back that if you achieve elite status there are fewer perks and there are some limitations on how you can redeem your miles. On the other hand, these one off airlines can open up unique opportunities. For example, Alaska Air partners with Kenmore Air, which operates float planes from Lake Union in Seattle. For 10,000 miles you can get a round trip to any of their uniquely northwest and often remote destinations, plus amazing views of the northwest thanks to their low altitude flights.
3. Take a look at your history and figure out who you usually fly with. Although this doesn’t bind you that airline, but again it gives you yet more insight on what alliance you should invest in.
4. Once you have an idea about what alliance would suit you best, it’s time to start reading through the frequent flyer sections of each airline. You want to pay special attention to what fare classes earn miles on what airlines (for example, for my United account if I fly SAS on some common discount economy tickets I earn 25% of the flown miles! Because of this, I usually fly Continental or, better yet, Lufthansa, where I earn 100% of my flown miles (and an elite bonus on top of that), even if there is an extra stop involved).
5. While you’re there, you’ll also want to double check the redemption section and learn about how many miles you need to get your free ticket. Some programs are simply better than others, but the average right now is about 25,000 miles for a domestic ticket and 50,000 - 55,000miles to Europe.
6. Don’t forget the bonus miles! If you are willing to sign up for a credit card, or jump through other hoops, you can land a healthy chunk of miles pretty quick. There are fees attached to these credit cards, so they're not free, but if you plan on closing the card or converting it down to a lower fee or no fee (if available) card, you can come out ahead. Other times, there are free miles for things like signing in online, or flying certain routes with that carrier. 
7. Lastly, (and perhaps most importantly) some carriers have better odds of redeeming miles than others, so be sure to do your research! If you have a million miles it doesn’t matter one bit if you can’t find a seat to spend them on! A fairly recent survey (at time of publishing) can be found here.

At this point, it’s time to decide: You will have to weight these factors yourself, but the best program will give you the most options to the most places with the most opportunities to earn 100% mileage and the greatest chance of redeeming for a seat. It’s also a good idea to sign up for a secondary account with another airline that covers the other alliance(s), so that you always have some place to put your miles just in case the fares are so much less that it doesn’t make sense to fly within your primary carrier.

The Mileage Game: Tips for Beginners

If you like the idea of free travel, then getting into the mileage game might be for you. There are, of course, lots of loop holes and restrictions that the airlines have put in place to make it difficult for you to actually redeem your miles, but if you’re willing to put some thought into it you can bend the game to your side. Some advice if you’re just starting your mileage addiction plan:

• Consolidate! If you have a mileage plan for every airline you fly, then you’ll never earn enough miles to fly for free. Instead, read up on which airlines are in what alliance and then pick one airline frequent flyer program to give every time you fly within that alliance. Your miles will pool and you’ll be flying for free much faster.
• Don’t let your mileage expire! This is one of the most common annoyances for the infrequent traveller: If you haven’t had any activity on your account (redemption of miles or accrual of miles) within a certain period of time (two years for United), all of your miles will vanish. It doesn’t matter if you have 5,000 miles or 500,000 miles: If you don’t keep an eye on it, you can lose everything. The good news is that any activity at all, even a single mile, will reset that countdown for all of your miles and most airlines have a “mileage mall” where you can buy stuff through a plethora of different websites (even gift cards on some!) and earn miles regardless of payment type just for starting your shopping session in their “mall”.
• Don’t let miles rule over your travel or purchases. All frequent flyer programs are designed to get you to spend more money than you might otherwise. If you see a higher fare or an offer that will give you miles for buying something from a third party, always make sure that the miles you gain is worth it. For redeemable miles, a conservative estimate of the value of your miles is around $0.01 per mile. That means that if you wouldn’t sign up for something or make that extra purchase for $5, then you also shouldn’t do it for 500 miles (although this doesn’t apply for things that you would genuinely buy otherwise: In that case, you can think of your miles as a 1% discount).

Eating right, in flight: Getting edible food on your flights

Everyone gets hungry but more and more airlines are taking out food service altogether or replacing it with expensive snack boxes that still leave you hungry. Even meals that are left on long distance flights instill a certain level of dread when they are being trotted out, usually with a choice between overly dry chicken or some soggy beef or pork. At best, they’re passable; at worst they leave you feeling nauseous either by sight, smell, or disagreements with your stomach. After some trial and error, I’ve come up with a few tips that make meals on planes better:

1. If there is no free food, then make food with what’s free. A cup of instant noodles (available in a mind boggling array at Uwajimaya’s in Seattle) can be made on board with hot water from the galley. It’s instant, hot, and actually feels like you've had a proper meal after you’re done. 
2. If you dislike the food roulette, then order something predictable ahead of time. The dietary needs meals are options which people often overlook, but they are free to you and limit the types of ingredients that can be included and generally limit the preparation style. Hindu meals, for example, are my current favorite: So far every meal has been a vegetarian curry (chickpeas, spinach) with saffron rice, the usual salad, bread, and some fresh fruit. Breakfast was a vegetarian box with fruit, cheese, and crackers. On my next few flights, I will be exploring more styles, but I could survive with hindu meals on all flights from here on out just fine. The best thing of all is that the food is actually good!

Hindu Meal on Continental

Vegetarian Hindu Meal on Continental

Kosher Meal on Continental

Another example of a Kosher meal on Continental can be found in my flight report here.

Seat Tactics: More than Two people flying together

United 777: No middle seats!

If you’re in a group that’s greater than two, it’s a good idea to think geometrically: Arranging your seats in a square keeps you just as close to your friends, if not closer, than sitting in a row and can avoid people getting stuck in the middle seat. In 2/4/2 configurations, a block of 2x2 on either side of the plane can be better than having people stuck in the center section and on 3/3 configurations, 2 rows of the A/C trick gives you plenty of seats to bargain with and even the chance that you’ll luck out and those middle seats will be vacant.

Even if you can’t sit together as a single group, odds are you weren’t going to have a running conversation for the entire flight. Pick seats which are most comfortable for you, even if they are apart: You’ll have plenty of time to talk when you get to your destination

Seat Tactics: Two people flying together.

United 737: Would you pick row 13?

If you have two people flying together, there is a great trick you can try to get more space for you and your companion is called the A/C Trick. This works best on planes with 3/3 configurations (one row is two sets of three seats). Many people decide to book seats right next to each other, so one person ends up in the middle seat, but this is all wrong: If you are picking seats on a flight that isn’t full, you might be able to employ the preferences of your fellow passengers to score an extra seat with this trick. All you have to do is select the window (Seat A) and aisle seat (Seat C, hence the name) of a row, leaving the center seat empty. If you’re lucky, that seat will stay empty and you’ll get three seats for the price of two.

The basic assumption is that no one wants the middle seat. Before departure, people are unlikely to volunteer to sit between two unknown people and on the plane they are very likely to give up their middle seat for either a window or an aisle seat. If the trick doesn’t work then explain that you two were assigned seats apart and offer to trade their middle for your window or aisle, which is usually happily accepted. Then you’re in at least as good of a position as if you had just booked the seats next to each other to start with.

On larger planes like the 747, 777, and 767, where the configuration is 2/5/2, 3/4/3 or 2/3/2, you can also try this trick with the center section, but the risk is greater that two people traveling together will pick the center two seats and then you miss out on the almost ideal set of two seats by the window. If it does work, however, you’ll be able to stretch out and sleep lying down across the center section. Nice, no?

United 747: A/C trick in middle

United 777: Row 20 is risky, but might work. Row 25 is a safer bet.

Seat Tactics: Getting Better Seats (in Coach)

First real post!

Getting the wrong seat on a plane can be a nightmare, but happily it’s something you can prevent most of the time with a little bit of research.

The first stop when picking a seat should always be seatguru.com. Match the type of plane you’re on with what is available for your airline and you’ll be able to check out exactly you’ll be on. The site gives you a great overview of the best and the worst seats for your plane including warnings about window seats without windows and tips about which seats don’t recline at all, all of which sometimes don’t show up on the seat maps the airline provides. If there's one take away from the site though, it's that of all the seats, avoid the last row. These virtually always have no recline.

On of the biggest mistakes that people make is to assume that exit rows are automatically better than other seats. While it is true that they offer more leg room, they often come with the downside of either being narrower (when there's no seat in front of it, just a bulk head) or completely unable to recline (generally when there are two exit rows over the wing, the first row will not recline)! Double check to make sure that the seats recline, or you may end up sitting straight up the entire flight.

Whether you choose an aisle or window seat is up to personal preference: Window seats have the advantage of easier sleeping and views, but getting out to walk around is understandably difficult. You also avoid the risk of having an elbow knocked by the food cart or a foot trampled by people walking in the aisle. On the other hand, the aisle is better for people who like to get up a lot or need to get up a lot to stretch their legs. On longer flights, this can be a real advantage if you are unable to fall asleep.

Most planes are 3/3 configurations, meaning there are three seats on both sides, with two completely unwanted middle seats on both sides. For these the above rules apply, but on longer distance planes, you’ll also find 2/4/2 configurations. The two seats on the side are ideal for couples and better for the solo traveler as well.