Editor's Note: I may be on vacation, but this blog never sleeps.  So today's guest blogger is Mark Ashley, proprietor of the Upgrade: Travel Better blog.  Mark is also the creator and founder of the The Travvies, an award program that recognizes the best in travel blogs.  He is also a regular business traveler, and today he posts about what he'd like to see in airports to make these flyers happy.

You know the story: Airlines are cutting schedules, staff, and perks; summer flights are packed, despite fares hitting recent highs; the margin of error for missing connections is nil.  Whether due to weather, mechanical delays, misconnects, a flat tire, or even showing up excessively early, the odds are good that, at some point soon, you're going to be stuck at an airport for a while.

So regardless of the reason, you're airside and you've got time on your hands. What can airport do to help you make the best of a bad situation?

Obviously, many airports are rethinking the services they're offering to passengers.  Several terminals are adding decent restaurants airside.  Shopping is expanding beyond Tie Rack and bookstores.  Philadelphia is even considering adding a casino, for better or worse.

Here are three suggestions for greasing the wheels of passenger discontent in an age of full flights and probable delays.

1.  Rethink gate areas.  Bring on paging.  If my plane is delayed, I don't necessarily want to sit next to the gate, waiting for the flight status to change to "boarding."  Waiting at the gate is like waiting to be called for a case at jury duty (at least jury duty in Chicago): You can't really leave, you're bombarded with TVs, and you're surrounded by people whose aura of boredom is consistent and negative.  Screw that.  Instead of confining passengers, let's find a way to make travelers free-range within the secure zone. 

But how do you corral the masses onto their planes, so no one is left behind?  Departure displays aren't always accurate, and require regular, conscious consultation.  Lounge staff generally don't announce domestic departures at hubs, so no luck there.  Why not unshackle the passenger from the gate and develop a paging system?  Much like some restaurants offer pagers that start buzzing when your table is ready to be seated, airlines and airports could work together to create a solution that alerts passengers when a long-delayed flight is readying for boarding. 

It needn't be physical pagers with red flashing lights -- passengers could potentially volunteer their cellphone numbers at check-in, and boarding calls could be announced via a bulk text message to all passengers on a given flight.  Don't want to be paged?  Fine, sit tight at the gate.  Pipe dream, perhaps, but it would make airports fun again (and would likely boost sales at those shops that no one has time to visit, otherwise).

3.  Power sockets, power sockets, power sockets.  I've beaten this drum for awhile, but passengers need access to electricity.  I know that the juice costs money, but it's pointless to offer airport wi-fi or expect passengers to while away the hours with their electronics if you're not going to supply electric sockets.  And it's not just for business travelers using laptops.  Power sockets = portable DVD players have juice = fewer children running amok.  Isn't that in everyone's interest?

Sure, some of this is pipe dreaming, since there are costs attached, not to mention logistical challenges.  But it sure would be nice if someone moved in this direction. 

When he's not wandering airports looking for a power socket and pint of India pale ale, Mark Ashley blogs at Upgrade: Travel Better.