In this article I'd like to show you how Wuala can be used as a secure Backoffice.
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That was the only luck I had the next day, because I was in a hurry and - as you might guess - I left the map at home. On my table. With a note "Important! Do not forget!".
When I arrived at Check-In at the Airport I realized that I've forgotten something. I had no time to go back and get it, otherwise I would've missed my flight. I suddenly remembered that the files were stored on Wuala, so I launched my iPhone App and searched for the Check-In file. I opened it and showed it to the very kind Lady behind the Check-In desk. Five minutes later I walked towards the Gate with my Boarding Pass ready to go on my Swiss Airlines flight.
After I arrived and got my luggage, I went to the train station's office. I showed them my Train Tickets on my iPhone and they said that I could go on the train with no problem. They we're so kind to print out my actual tickets, so I wouldn't get in trouble while on train.
After the short train ride I was a bit scared that the Hotel may not take my confirmation from an iPhone and that I had to sleep somewhere else. But luckily they took the confirmation (they even asked "Why don't other people do this, it saves a lot of paper and it's environment friendlier..." - I have to agree) and I could go up to my room. I did the same on my trip back and had no problems with the digital copies of my sheets.
Cool that those institutions accept a scan or electronic copy of the documents already. Although I'm sceptical that it is more environmentally friendly. Are there any solid numbers to compare the manufacturing, transportation and use of a smartphone to to production, transport and printing a few sheets of paper?
ReplyDeleteToo bad it's not an option on my Windows Phone
ReplyDeletejust did that also for my trip!
ReplyDeleteI do not know why my comment wasn't published. So I try again, in a shorter version.
ReplyDeleteThe main gist of my original comment is that the examples used in this article are not good examples for Wuala.
1) Airplane travels have been possible with ID alone for several years. And check-in machines work with the booking reference, or credit card, or airmiles card. Unless they simply scan your passport, as in some German airports. No papers needed.
2) Printed confirmations have never been necessary in hotels. In my more than two decades of travel (Europe, Asia, North America, South America) I have never shown any, it's enough to state your name, and, these days, show a credit card. And, in some countries, your passport. No papers needed.
3) With public transport it varies. The Stocholm airliner (a train) will only accept the credit card you pre-paid the ticket with (you enter the number in their web page when booking). They will not accept a printout of the ticket reference.
So, Wuala is useful for storing date when going on travel (I do it all the time), but the examples used in this blog post aren't particularly useful. When you travel, just must bring your credit card(s) and your passport. Everything else is optional. But these days I always bring a computer and use Wuala to store and get access to my other data, just not the travel documents - there simply is no need.
-Tor
Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDelete@Tor, I payed everything in advance and just had to bring the confirmations. This way I could leave leave my credit card at home (you have to remember that there are people who don't have credit cards too).
In any way, without the files stored on Wuala, I'd have to go back home.
If you'd buy a smartphone exclusively for this task, yes, that'd probably be not so friendly to the environment. Luckily no one does that, you use your smartphone for the task if you've got one already --> next to no (additional) harm done to the environment.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes pay the hotel in advance too, but in my experience they always want the credit card anyway. They don't charge it, but it's for security (in case you empty the minibar or start trashing the room, presumably). If you found a hotel that didn't demand a credit card then that's _very_ unusual.. that's happened to me a single time only (and I have a huge number of nights in hotels..) So no credit card is most of the time a show stopper, unfortunate as that is. But in any case, a proper ID should be sufficient to get you into the hotel, you should not need the printed reservation. You're in their system already. I haven't shown a printed reservation to the hotel even when I've pre-paid it (as you always do if you reserve via hotels.com, for example)
ReplyDelete-Tor