I did not stray far from the Park Hyatt Jeddah during my recent transit through Saudi Arabia, though I did spend a couple hours in the evening walking around the Kingdom's second largest city.

I was not near the Al-Balad (old town) district, housing the souqs and older coral houses Jeddah is most known for, but there would not have been much to see at night anyway. Instead, I made my way through the Jeddah Corniche (waterfront) district that is currently in the midst of ...

As Rocky reports, American Airlines is commencing three new international routes this spring:

Dallas/Fort Worth to Seoul Chicago to Dusseldorf Dallas/Fort Worth to Lima

To promote these additions to its route network, AA is giving away "a chance to win a Business Class trip for two and take off to our newest destination of your choice."

 

Scroll down to the fine print, though, and AA actually states three grand prizes of ...

Transiting through Jeddah on my way to Afghanistan, I had about 23 hours in Saudi Arabia between Saudia flights. A transit visa had been granted by the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC and without even looking at other properties, I reserved a room at the Park Hyatt Jeddah.

This isn't the proper venue to delve into Saudi Arabian culture and politics, but let me first say Saudi Arabia was not what I expected. Admittedly, Jeddah is by all accounts a ...

Five days ago I promised a post making the case for why I will continue to remain loyal to United Airlines despite my photo incident and more importantly, despite the dearth of complimentary upgrades, hit-or-miss service, no onboard wi-fi, and the burdensome SHARES platform that can turn even a simple change request into a complex ordeal requiring hours on the phone.

In the meantime, I flew some more on United…

The post is still coming, but to say there are lingering ...

If any of you are surprised by news that a fake IED-type bomb was cleared past two security checks at Newark's Liberty International Airport last month, you shouldn't be. I've maintained for years that anyone determined to get something past a security checkpoint will find a way to do so.

The TSA has a "special operations team" that performs undercover quality-control checks at airport security checkpoints. On February 25th, a team equipped with fake IEDs proceeded to various ...