A Delta flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles on Christmas Day diverted to Albuquerque over a ‘security issue’ with a first class passenger. An incident report shows that issue was a 27-year-old Wichita man’s singing aloud to music playing from his headphones, which bothered other passengers. When he was asked by another passenger and later a flight attendant to stop, the passenger “made references to the recent Ferguson Missouri incident” and “also stated he was being harassed because he was black,” He then kept going in and out of the lavatory. And he cried. The plane ultimately arrived in LA about 2 hours and 20 minutes later than scheduled. You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per…
The New Smart Choice for Barbecue in the Barbecue Capital of the World: Black’s of Lockhart Now in Downtown Austin
My favorite barbecue – anywhere – is Black’s in Lockhart, Texas. I believe barbecue is all about the meat, and that meat is brisket. Sauce shouldn’t be necessary, it just hides the taste of good barbecue. I’ve had Franklin Barbecue in Austin and it is amazing. Technically perfect, even. But I find Black’s brisket more flavorful. Last month I shared a trick to avoid the lines if you make the trip from Austin out to Lockhart and drop in on Black’s, which is the clear winner of the four barbecue places in that famous barbecue town. Austin-area barbecue has to be the most densely competitive enclave in the world, and that makes nearly all of it excellent. ‘Bad’ barbecue for the region is still ‘good’ in some objective sense, or at least relative to what…
The Compact Universal Power Adapter I Use on All My International Travels
When you travel outside the United States, most countries have different power outlets. Their outlets don’t fit U.S. plugs They may have a different electric current. Generally I don’t worry about the electric current. Most modern electronics are going to be ‘dual voltage’ so you just have to be able to plug them into the socket, regardless of the current. Women’s styling devices are a different matter, hair dryers, curling irons, and all sorts of devices I don’t understand require a power converter so athey don’t burn out. You plug the converter into the adapter and the device into the converter. Fortunately I don’t carry stuff like that with me. I mostly just need to make the power cords for my laptop, cell phone, and wireless internet device plug into the wall. I used to…
Why the New Yorker Wants You to Believe Airlines Are Making Coach Worse So They Can Gouge You With Fees
The New Yorker is on a roll bashing airlines, in November it was how bad United was which was really a piece complaining about mergers and a subtle attack on telecommunications mergers. This week we again we see a New Yorker piece bashing the airlines, another sideways social commentary that’s really about income inequality rather than air transport. (HT: @bhanau) The piece is called “Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer” and much of it is focused on fees. This is the meat of the argument: [T]he fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Here’s the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as “calculated misery.” Basic service, without fees, must be…
Getting Custom-Tailored Suits Made in Bangkok at Empire Tailors
Must-read Earlier Installments: Singapore, Cathay, and Qantas First Class.. Some of the Best Meals of My Life, and a Tour of Hyatts in Bangkok, Singapore, and Sydney Inside the New Oneworld Lounge at LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal Cathay Pacific First Class, Los Angeles – Hong Kong Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Grand Hyatt Bangkok: Suite, Club Lounge, and Facilities Thai Molecular Gastronomy at Sra Bua in Bangkok I love getting custom-made suits done in Southeast Asia. I’ve done it multiple times in Thailand. Labor is cheap, skill level is high, and competition is intense. That translates into a great opportunity for consumers. But it isn’t as good an opportunity that many think it is. Tailor shops will make clothes for you in…
Uber’s Surge Pricing is Great Here’s Why You Should Love It
Story after story comes out critical of Uber. Reid sent me an article, that I saw mentioned on a blog about Uber’s CEO being indicted in South Korea because their UberX service is illegal. But an indictment, as in South Korea, where Travis Kalanick faces up to $18,000 in fines is more or less meaningless. It’s posturing — such weak sauce that it amounts to implicit permission to continue operating. The move shows responsiveness to entrenched interests (taxis), that politicians are doing something, but that something is so light that the message to Uber is that there’s a near-zero cost to continuing to do business, travel on! Peter Thiel called Uber “the most ethically challenged company in Silicon Valley.” When Uber’s surge pricing kicked in in Sydney earlier this month as a drama unfolded with…
What’s Worse Than Expiring Miles? You’ll Lose All Your Miles When This Frequent Flyer PROGRAM Expires!
LarryInNYC asks about the Alitalia porgram as an option for crediting the dirt cheap Etihad fare. Etihad, after all, took a big stake in the airline .. because it’s apparently more important to funnel traffic through Abu Dhabi than to actually make money. I fly to Italy at least once a year, so Al Italia might be interesting, but do I remember correctly that they reboot the whole program every few years with loss of accrued miles? Larry has it right — the current program expires December 31, 2015! According to the program rules, Alitalia is currently offering their ‘2013-2015 program’. “MilleMiglia Program” or “Program” means this rewards program whose purpose is to promote loyalty among Promoters’ customers, and which is effective from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2015, unless extended. …5.19 This rewards…
How to Ensure You’re On the Inside to Learn About the Next Mistake Fare
Did you book a $178 roundtrip ticket to Abu Dhabi, or a bit more expensive ticket to Africa, India, or Southeast Asia? Many readers wanted to know, but how do you find these? and how to stay in the loop for other fares like this? Two things to understand in your quest for fat finger discounts (leaving out digits on a fare or rate), currency conversion errors, and other special opportunities. There aren’t as many airline airfare mistakes as there used to be. Airlines have better tools, especially for international fares, to catch mistakes before they’re actually published. Those tools began rolling out in 2009, and now it’s mostly international airlines that haven’t really learned to use them that wind up publishing international mistakes. (This refers to price mistakes, but other kinds of mistakes like…
Review: Thai Molecular Gastronomy at Sra Bua in Bangkok
Must-read Earlier Installments: Singapore, Cathay, and Qantas First Class.. Some of the Best Meals of My Life, and a Tour of Hyatts in Bangkok, Singapore, and Sydney Inside the New Oneworld Lounge at LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal Cathay Pacific First Class, Los Angeles – Hong Kong Cathay Pacific “The Wing” First Class Lounge, Hong Kong Cathay Pacific Business Class, Hong Kong – Bangkok Grand Hyatt Bangkok: Suite, Club Lounge, and Facilities Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin at the Siam Kempinski hotel is quite well-regarded. It’s Copenhagen sister is the second restaurant in the world to earn a Michelin star cooking Thai food. (The first was London’s Nahm, and I ate at Nahn in Bangkok on this trip as well.) I’ve done plenty of the world’s best molecular gastronomy. The since-closed El Bulli, arguably then…
British Airways Re-committing to First Class, Converting Remaining 747s to New First!
Conventional wisdom is that international first class is a thing of the past. A dinosaur. The better business classes today are better than what first used to be. Here are the world’s best business class products. There’s a very narrow market that will pay for greater privacy and service, that isn’t paying to fly private. Back in October I explained the reasons that international first class is disappearing. And yet the data actually suggests there’s more first class than ever before, naturally led by he Middle Eastern mega-carriers. One of the big data points used to suggest that first class isn’t a broadly sustainable product is the way that British Airways has de-emphasized it. BA is one of the world carrier’s most dependent on premium cabin travel, and when they’re eliminating first class from a…
