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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JANUARY 2024 17 By Steve Benoff Do you love the paintings of Vincent van Gogh? I do. So much so that I flew to New York just to see a fabulous exhibition of his works at the Metropolitan Museum. For years I've flown to New York out of Los Angeles. This time I wanted a closer airport. So, I chose a JetBlue red-eye non-stop out of Ontario. The flight was scheduled to leave at midnight. But that flight couldn't take off until the correct airplane landed. It was only after arriving at Ontario that I learned the flight would be delayed. It ended up delayed for three and half hours. That's three and a half hours of useless sitting around. But this whole episode could have been substantially avoided had I known then what I know now. (By the way, I say substantially because TSA at backwater Ontario is not a 24-hour operation. So, I would have had to endure some onsite waiting anyway.) What I learned is the power of the Flight Aware app. I'd used the app for flight information for a few years. Frankly, this well- designed app prominently places a button on the flight information screen labeled "Where is my plane?." (Putting that period inside the quotation mark makes no sense to me, but that's the rule. Maybe it doesn't belong there at all.) If I had looked up my flight on Flight Aware while I was still at home, I could have pushed that button and found the incoming flight was going to arrive very late. So, on a recent trip from New York to Palm Springs, before I left for the airport, I used Flight Aware not only to check the flight before my flight, I even checked the flight before that one to gauge the likelihood of an on- time departure. Speaking of discoveries, especially since I've already broached the subject JetBlue, I'm baffled at the assumptions designers of every ilk make. After you've worked on a project for a while, everything is obvious. A billboard with lettering only slightly different from the background color is clearly read by the people who created it and studied it for days. That's why I've long thought someone should start a company called Fresh Eyes to review things before release. Getting back to JetBlue, Martha and I fly to New York for Passover and Thanksgiving every year. For the past several years we've flown JetBlue. In all that time they've raved about their speedy WiFi. I've logged on many times and got nothing. On a recent flight I noticed the man next to me happily using his phone. Turns out connecting isn't enough. You've got to open a browser and go to a specific site. And even that isn't enough. You've got to agree to watch an ad. That done, you finally have pretty good WiFi. And how about this for fresh eyes?! JetBlue recently changed its entertainment system. Mostly I like the change since it eliminates the screen controller that used to be placed on top of the armrest. Can't tell you how many times I've made inadvertent screen changes on my screen and, even worse, on the person's screen next to me all because I put my arm on an armrest. Anyway, the new screen has a prominent Bluetooth symbol. Furthermore, the instructions on the screen say you connect the usual way. Except the appropriate Bluetooth item doesn't show up. The flight attendant told me what the instructions did not. You need a special dongle attached to your phone. And what about this for treasure hunting. On the prior screen design, it was easy to find a map showing your flight path and progress. I defy you to find it on the new system. Only a persistent nerd like me would not give up. Go to the main menu and you'll find 20 entertainment choices. You can even choose a map of the world showing all the places JetBlue flies to. That might be a good place to switch to a flight path map. Nope. At the top of the screen, you'll see a ribbon showing your flight time. If you press the button at the left, one of the options is flight map. Rather than take you directly to the map, it brings up a small box with an icon at the upper left. Press it and you'll finally get the map you used to get with one obvious selection. Only some incredibly obtuse designer could create such an impenetrable maze. (As a good friend of mine would say, the designer must have been a man. But I won't go there.) So, my hat is off to the excellent designers who created Flight Aware. If you use an app you'd like to share with others, let me know at steve.benoff@verizon.net. THERE'S AN APP FOR THAT! How I learned the power of an app the hard way while flying on a starry night Shot of JetBlue flight map Flight Aware

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