Bits ‘n Pieces for April 20, 2013

News and notes from around the interweb:

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. There is a spelling mistake per post. For being so “prolific” the blog posts are often sloppy

  2. I don’t visit this site because of the excellent spelling and editing.
    Content is more important. Rock on Gary.

  3. That vanity fair article is pretty short sighted. It’s not as binary as “you either live bear Taipei or you live in New York” (from which, I must note you can get to Taipei in <24 hours) but a lot of people plan multi city trips in Asia and pick a few cities to stop. I've always been curious about stopping in TPE as part of a longer trip to Asia, and the nytimes article actually peaked me interest. Poor, and generally nasty, reporting by Vanity Fair.

  4. I had rather get the free miles with the BA credit card then use the cash to pay the fuel surcharges on a first class seat………..I guess it also involves how frequent you want to fly across the pond in business or first each year also………….

  5. the VF article is just dumbass. the title should have been “lazy cheapasses should stay at home”

  6. @john – You need to relax and get a sense of humor my friend. The article is more true than many will care to admit and the NYT 36 HR. features are pretty stupid – written by interns most likely.

  7. I thought the Vanity Fair article was hilarious and spot on in many ways! A lot of that really does happen when traveling internationally, but of course we all prefer to remember only the fun times later. As we should.

  8. It does highlight the value of being organized…..having a currency plan and an ATM plan……and some intelligence on where you are going and what they provide………I remember flying in to Hamburg and having multiple bags with no euro coin for the luggage cart and none of the vendors wanted my dollars so we ended up lugging bags to the rental car……….sometimes it is the little things in planning that make the trip flow……………

  9. The Vanity Fair article is funny as hell. I’m shocked at how many people didn’t get the joke. Good lord, it’s not intended as a travel guide! It’s a humor article. And frankly it’s also a perceptive take on what would really happen to many people if they jetted off to a foreign country on a whim, without any real plans.

    I’m always annoyed by those NY Times “36 hours in…” articles, which seem to be written by 20-year-olds. I can’t think of a single suggestion in one of those articles that I’ve wanted to follow.

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