Jun 05 2016

Choice Privileges members, beware the Rodeway Inn in Gallup, New Mexico where every room key was opening every guest room.

I suspect you’d find this far more frequently at a small family-owned property than a corporate-owned full service hotel, but it could happen anywhere by mistake perhaps not for every room but for a given room — the one you have.

And even when the issue isn’t so extreme as every room key being coded as a master key, or every door accepting any key, hotel front desk staff can assign someone to the wrong room or give out a key to someone they shouldn’t.

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Jun 05 2016

Kuala Lumpur is one of my favorite cities in the world. It’s probably my favorite food city, from satay to prawn mee to amazing roti.

It’s an interesting city with good food — probably the most decadent breakfast buffets in the world — and some of the best deals on luxury accommodations.

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Jun 04 2016

A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.

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Jun 04 2016

Delta continues to attack United hubs with cheap business class fares to Europe.

You can fly business class from Newark to several European destinations, including Stockholm, Lisbon, Prague, Warsaw, Zurich, Athens and more (including open jaw itineraries into one city and back from another) from $1445 roundtrip.

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Jun 04 2016

Skift has developed an amazing piece on the birth of online travel, collecting stories that help shape our understanding of how we got to where we are today, at least from a business perspective.

At a macro-level, online booking put the traditional brick and mortar travel agencies out of business. There’s still a significant role for travel specialists in high end trips. But there has to be a large margin to cover human intervention in travel, something that doesn’t make sense for basic air or hotel bookings.

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Jun 04 2016

In April a passenger on an Indian domestic flight had his cell phone confiscated and was arrested on arrival for shooting video of flight attendants. The passenger was charged with “assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty.”

Last week on a Flybe hop from Dublin to Cardiff on an ERJ190 regional jet a passenger took “inappropriate pictures” of a flight attendant during her safety demonstration.

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Jun 04 2016

They aren’t asking for an online statement to even demonstrate stay activity in the program with which you have status. So presumably free hotel status, such as Starwood Gold or Hilton Gold that comes with the American Express Platinum card or Hilton Gold via the Citi Hilton Reserve Card would suffice provided you have a membership card to send them (although even without a card I’d still suggest submitting a screen shot showing your status, and mentioning the program didn’t send you your membership card — which could be a frustrating reason you’d want to switch).

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Jun 03 2016

You’d think you could type in where you’re flying from and where you’re going and get a list of available flights. In fact, most customers think this because it’s perfectly logical. But it’s often not the case.

Most airlines don’t show availability of awards on all of their partners on their own websites and don’t show all options even for their own flights.

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Jun 03 2016

The FDA issued a warning last month to Alaska Airlines Chairman and CEO Brad Tilden that flight attendants on Horizon Air Q400 aircraft should not be serving drinks with ice.

Since the lavatories in Horizon Air’s 52 Q400 turboprops don’t have sinks flight attendants aren’t able to wash their hands inflight. Thus they aren’t permitted to serve any food or beverages which aren’t prepackaged.

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Jun 03 2016

There are three great international first class flight products. There are many airlines which are very good. But the first class offerings in Airbus A380s of Etihad, Emirates, and Singapore Airlines are better than the rest.

And Etihad’s first class Apartment is better, even, than the first classes of Emirates and Singapore.

Photos are one thing. Etihad has produced a 360 degree virtual reality film with Nicole Kidman that takes you through their Airbus A380, including inside The Residence. You can drag the screen to change your viewing angle in this video.

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