How Much Salary You Can Earn By Making Passengers and Airlines Miserable

by Gary Leff

airport
Aug 24 2018

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is the government agency which manages Washington National and Dulles airports and has a role in construction of the metro Silver line to the airport and the Dulles Toll Road.

The airport authority has resisted making the new contract for its CEO public, arguing that they’re not funded with public dollars but by fees earned from running the airport. Of course the government gave them the airport, board members are appointed by government, and they receive substantial government funding for capital projects, and much of their operating revenue comes from ticket taxes.

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Marriott Honors Mistake Award Rate at St. Regis Maldives – and How Much an Overwater Bungalow Should Now Cost

by Gary Leff

fancy hotel
Aug 23 2018

The new Marriott program rollout has been riddled with glitches. There are members who still show the wrong elite status, wrong lifetime status, and who still cannot merge accounts.

One interesting quirk of the transition that benefited members was discounted overwater villa award availability at the St. Regis Maldives.

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Head to Head: United Polaris Burger vs. American Flagship Burger

by Gary Leff

breakfast burger
Aug 23 2018

A really great burger starts with quality beef. It should have processed cheese that melts well. And it should be inside of a potato bun.

Don’t give me ciabatta bread for a bun. Don’t give me a kaiser roll. As good as brioche can be, it’s not well-matched to a burger. The bun is a delivery vehicle for the burger. It needs to be big enough to contain the burger, but shouldn’t be so large that it overwhelms the burger.

Everything you put on the burger needs to fit inside of the bun. You don’t want the burger to fall apart when you eat it.

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The World’s 15 Best First Class Products, Ranked

by Gary Leff

inside airliner
Aug 23 2018

The key to these rankings is subjective weight that goes into different components of the product. I value personal space more than anythnig else, so a first class configuration that’s four seats across isn’t going to rate as well for me as one that’s two or three seats across.

I’d never rate Air France or Garuda as highly as others — despite phenomenal ground service and attentiveness — because of the lack of real estate each first class passenger gets in the cabin.

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Review: United Polaris Lounge Houston

by Gary Leff

lounge
Aug 22 2018

The staff here are friendly. The lounge is gorgeous. Tarmac views are fantastic. Everything about the Polaris lounge Houston is well designed.

There are showers and nap rooms, an extensive buffet and a sit down restaurant. What’s more even though the lounge is small most of the day it doesn’t seem to be crowded, since the airline’s flights are better space throughout the day rather than clustering solely around 5 o’clock.

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Delta Award Alert: 4+ Business Class Saver Seats to Europe, New York/Boston – London

by Gary Leff

flight chart
Aug 22 2018

It’s still possible to get value out of the SkyMiles program and it’s worth highlighting when you’re able to get saver business class award space using those miles.

The bizarre thing is that the price of even saver space varies widely on Delta, although sometimes that rebounds to your benefit. Virgin Atlantic saver award space is cheaper than Delta saver award space, and both are available for four or more passengers in business class.

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