While the lawsuit has been going on for a few years, It has popped up in the news, and gives me a chance to share my thoughts on it.  There is a lawsuit against Northwest Airlines about a former Platinum who had his status revoked and miles removed from his account.  In the letter he received from Northwest he was told that:

Northwest in a 2008 letter told Ginsberg he had contacted the airline’s office 24 times in roughly seven months regarding travel ...

So for my trip to New Orleans, I decided to add another hotel night, since it is an hour drive from where I live to the airport, and I did not look forward to leaving the house at 4am on a Saturday morning, especially since I did not know how long I was going to be staying up that night.  I was able to get a good rate, and stack the bonuses so this one night stay on a sub $100 rate netted me 5000 Priority Club points.

Check-In

The hotel provides complimentary shuttle ...

Being primarily a short haul flyer, even when the upgrades clear, a meal is not something to expect.  Usually if there is anything offered, it is an item from a snack basket, and that is it.  Anything more substantial is a surprise.  Especially since my flights are always labeled as snack for first class.  The flight from ATL-IAH was no exception, especially since they had downgraded it to the 737-500 from the -700.  And I was surprised when taking drink orders that I ...

Yes, I know it has taken me a while to get around to posting this and completing my posts from Vancouver, but life has kept me busy, and I wanted to clear this out before I post some hotel reviews from my most recent trip.

Air Canada provides the best lounges of any North American Airline.  Before starting this blog, I spent a lot of time at the Toronto trans-border lounge, and have also had the pleasure of enjoying the domestic lounge in Montreal. Along with this one, there are ...

As I connected through IAH on my way to MSY last weekend, I ended up catching a few sights that are quite worth a look if you have the opportunity to experience the pier of the E concourse closest to Concourse C.

First up is one of the self-boarding gates they are testing out there.  Unfortunately, the gate was not active, however I was able to at least get a good look at the gate. 

I actually like having the self-boarding setup, especially if they use it ...

The number of daily deals sites have exploded, leading to some interesting opportunities for travelers wanting to get a good deal to experience luxury. The only downside is that they are usually destination or extremely time sensitive.  However OpenSkies is offering a deal on Rue La La for a $499 travel voucher for only $99.  Based on current prices, it comes out to half off on the cost of a business class flight.  Here are the terms of the offer

Within 24 hours you ...

As I was heading toward the exit at New Orleans airport yesterday, I saw this wonderful display.

Now I know that is not the greatest picture for seeing it, so I also took a picture of each shelf.

This is honestly one of the most interesting small displays I've seen at a small airport, and I genuinely hope they get to keep it with the merger, and even add some of the items from the United collection. For those who are interested in ...

The whole job change situation has put a crimp in my travel plans for the past few months, however I finally have some travel planned, and it just so happens that I get to experience a few new things, as well as an interesting opportunity.  As I mentioned previously, I am a Royal Ambassador and have been trying to figure out a time to actually try out my status (only useful when you can justify the cost of the property and can go to a city where there is one).  Fortunately, it ...

I've had a major change in my life, and that change actually had me considering changing to Delta as my airline of choice, since I am now based in Atlanta.  However, a Delta incident last night proved to be the last straw in my consideration of Delta, and will only switch to them when forced to by my new employer (which fortunately has an agreement with UA).  

While I'm sure everybody has seen the DL Connection flight hit by the A380.  While that is a scary incident, it ...

As I talked about earlier this year, the TSA was testing the use of generic outlines for the full body imaging machines.  Today the TSA announced this test was a success and would be rolled out to all 40 airports that use the Millimeter Wave scanning machines and they will begin testing generic outlines on the Backscatter machines later this year.  While we may wish for these machines to disappear completely, that can not be realistically expected in the current political ...

Ok, I'm not going to have a full review of the hotels that I stayed in for TBEX mainly because I was too tired when visiting (see my crazy weekend for why), and because quite honestly, neither of the properties stood out to me.

Holiday Inn Express Vancouver Metrotown

Check-in was fairly straightforward, upgrade to the executive floor, and the room was a standard Holiday Inn Express room, except for the fact that there were bathrobes in the closet area, with the old HIX logo. ...

Last week a man successfully boarded a JFK-LAX Virgin America flight lacking proper ID and a boarding pass for a previous flight from another passenger.  To summarize the story, he accumulated boarding passes, and then presented a pass for a previous flight from another passenger, and was able to negotiate his way on the flight.  He was not caught until other passengers complained about his smell and the flight attendants checked the manifest.  He was detained at LAX, but ...

In my travels, especially on business trips, I make an effort to explore the city I'm in.  If you have ever been to a large city, you have probably seen the crazy busses driving around town from various touring companies offering hop-on hop-off tours of the city.  Prior to TBEX, I had never taken one of these because I refused to pay the prices they were charging.  As an attendee of TBEX, I was given a special Vancouver Tourism Pass which permitted me to do some of the special ...

Many of the hardcore mileage runners will tell you they do not check a bag.  It decreases your chances of getting a bump, causes problems, and delays you getting home or to your hotel.  Some even consider checking bags a sin to be avoided at all costs.  All of these are valid complaints.  However, I have not come to that philosophy, and in fact prefer to check a bag over trying to carry everything on.  Yes, there is a risk to delaying your bag (like I experienced most ...

Those of you that have been following travel television shows have probably at least heard of the BBC TV show Come Fly With Me.  For those of you who haven't, here is a clip from the first episode with Omar, the owner of Fly Lo airlines, a European Low Cost Carrier.

While you have been able to watch clips on Youtube, and catch it on your Air Canada flight, it has not been available for legal viewing for US audiences.  However, that changes this Saturday night, as it ...

 As I am sure many of you know, ORD practically shut down due to thunderstorms last Thursday.  Unfortunately, this chaos did not subside overnight.  Because of the cancellations, all of the flights zeroed out, and my upgrades did not clear.  I noticed the zeroed out flights, and decided to arrive at the airport extra early just to be in a good position for getting out, since I knew that things were going to be completely insane.  Little did I know just how insane ...

My luck when traveling to Canada near major events is quite lucky.  As has been hitting the news, the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup and a portion of downtown Vancouver has fallen into a riot.  I actually was there this past weekend, and even took in the party scene downtown before leaving on Monday.  I missed this riot by roughly 48 hours.  However, this was not my first brush with rioting in Canada.

Last summer I was working on a project for a customer in Toronto, ...

I'm actually doing this post out of order from my experience in Vancouver, however I did want to get a quick post up about the insanity before and after the hockey games while I was in town, since Wednesday is when the Stanley Cup Finals end.  Friday was a busy day, and I'll be talking more about how crazy my travel experience is on Friday.  After arriving, I made plans to meet with Mike, and his friends Tom and Pete Meyers from EuroCheapo.  I first had an idea of how crazy ...

Delta recently created a storm of bad press when it a unit of soldiers returning from the Middle East encountered a $200 fee for their fourth checked bag, which they are allowed in their military baggage allowance.  To complicate matters further, soldiers traveling in Business or First class are allowed to check four bags for free.  Rather than try and give you the full story, I'll let one of the soldiers speak to the situation himself:

Unfortunately, the real ...