I jumped in headfirst back into travel. I had more flights in the last 3 weeks than I had the entire past 2 years and it was great to be back but it came with a new set of challenges and experiences that are worth sharing
Airline Networks
The routes for airlines have changed – I have seen this happening over the last year with new destinations and airport codes showing up in the route network. Have you heard of the airport code BON. Neither had I – one to look up, but this was now an in-network and scheduled flight. Bonaire was a new one to me (BON) located on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean Netherlands. Quite beautiful according to my source. On the one hand, it has been good news as it expands the reach of the air transportation system but there is a downside to it. Some of the places you might have been able to get to previously may not be accessible anymore, or possibly at a reduced schedule making a seat harder to score.
Allow Extra Time
But that is not the only availability that has changed. If you have not looked for a shared ride from Uber or Lyft you might find your wait times increased and you will definitely notice the increase in pricing. Airport wait times seem to be reasonable but if you are located any distance away from the main metro areas you might have trouble getting a ride even if you do try the book ahead feature. I found myself in the early hours of the morning watching a lone car nearby that clearly was not interested in accepting my booking and waited almost 30 minutes for a ride to show up. This was just some extra stress but given my propensity for being early (its so bad my family has gotten very used to routinely arriving at the gate 3 hours before departure) nothing major and I was still probably the first to sit down at the gate waiting for the flight. But if you are in the last-minute-nelly group I’d suggest you add an extra 30-60 minutes to your buffer time. Not just transportation, there have been some pretty long lines at airports even if you have TSA pre-clearance.
As for hotels – these seem to be a shadow of their former selves. The recent party central experience aside much has changed in hotels. There is limited servicing of rooms, bars, and restaurants are closed or working to a much-reduced schedule. In some cases you may have to ask for any kind of room refresh – for those of us who live on coffee, the 2 units of coffee that comes with the room is rarely enough for one day let alone an extended stay.
Car Rental Security
Car rental prices have risen and you can find yourself without any options in some locations very quickly. I have also seen some attempts to introduce cancellation fees if you book and then don’t show but this was not widespread. That aside I have to say my experience with Hertz was very positive. The included upgrade certainly did not hurt but it was the happy and welcoming nature of all the staff that won me over. Everyone seemed genuinely pleased to see me and there was a table with drinks and snacks available to grab to take with you to your rental
https://twitter.com/drnic1/status/1509547256587898881?s=20&t=gL7sWzD31xdDH3B7dcCcYw
But when it comes to user hygiene, specifically data hygiene. Oh, dear!
Bluetooth Car Connectivity
Apple Carplay Plug and Play
Like many, I like the connected nature of the latest in-car systems allowing me to play my own music and project my phone guidance and maps onto the car console. It makes driving so much easier than some of the historical experiences with printed Mapquest directions and in-car GPS systems that were challenging to operate
It is hard to tell if the data left was very old from pre-pandemic or more recent but on one screen I found pages of Bluetooth-connected phones and in another, it was a big list of all the phones that had plugged in and connected using a cable.
No big deal you say?
That may not be the case, especially if you selected the default options and downloaded your address book into the car. Even if you don’t expect some remnants of your personal data to sit in the cars which have been accessed and used by other people. Ask yourself would you mind if someone was looking through your phone and accessing the following item
Your location or GPS history.
- Your device name
- Your address book
- In-car internet search history
- Music-streaming logins, such as Spotify or Pandora
- Call log and text messages if you use hands-free calling
WiFi identifiers
And bear in mind it only takes about 8-10 pieces of data about you to identify you uniquely (you can read more about this in ‘Dark Data‘ as I referenced in my post from DefCon26). You could just not connect your devices but that seems a little severe as the value it brings to ease the journey is very positive.
Incremental Car Rental Data Security Steps
So to reduce your risk take the time to scrub your data from the system before returning the car. While the engine is one and with your device disconnected (physically or by Bluetooth) access the setup menu.
All this should be while you are not driving!
Find the menu option for the method you connected to the car. If you used Bluetooth find the Bluetooth menu and then look for existing devices and you will find an option to remove/delete them from the list of ‘known devices’
The same would be true for physically connected with Apple Carplay or Android Auto select that option and go through the same steps to remove the listing of your device
If you look at the images above you can see each of the devices either have an icon to the right (Bluetooth) or an arrow. Both should take you to a new page offering an option to delete and remove the device
