Soarin' home from Disney World
Having the privilege of seldom having to travel via air these days — basically for family vacations and that's that — after a previous career had me flying quite frequently I can't help but be amazed at how some of the little tech advances have made this pretty joyless experience slightly nicer.
10 years ago when I was hitting over half of the NASCAR races in each season as a field photo editor and photographer for Getty Images I was flying all over the map (mostly to the south from my hub airport in Newark, NJ). It was great having boarding passes on my phone and being able to book flights and hotels from their respective apps as well. I thought I was living in the future. Today I'm sitting here kind of blown away with the United Airlines app for iOS telling me right in the Dynamic Island and Live Activity where and when your plane starts boarding, on which baggage carousel you can find your roughly-handled luggage, and you can get maps showing you where to find a cup a coffee when trying to make it home on the first flight Monday morning. This stuff is tiny, but when you're juggling a very hyper toddler, an excited 8-year old and all the additional luggage traveling with kids requires, being able to quickly glance your phone (or Apple Watch!) to remind my sleep-addled brain where I'm going is priceless.
I'm also downright amazed at how useful AirTags are to tracking luggage, kids' belongings like backpacks — heck even kids who might wander away in a gift shop or because they see something interesting (squirrel!). My heart dropped for a half second when I saw a "
This is the kind of experience I wish I had when I traveled non-stop! But like watching kids grow up from afar, the growth spurts seem more incredible on each spread out vacation.