A friend contacted me on the afternoon of New Years Eve after checking into the Willard in DC. They’re a Royal Ambassador member of Intercontinental Hotels, and that means they’re entitled to an upgrade ‘to an Executive Room or suite’. I’ve always received great upgrades in the past at the Willard, it’s usually automatic for a Royal Ambassador to be given a corner suite that’s basically two full rooms (with two bathrooms). Only once I was only given a “Willard Room,” an oval shaped room looking out at the monuments that amounts to a junior suite with a spectacular view but not a true suite. My friend was told that because they had used points for the stay that they wouldn’t receive any upgrade. They wanted to know from me if that was correct, or…
New Year Registration Reminders
Now that we’re into the New Year, a couple of registration reminders for promos that were announced in advance but that you have to return in order to register for:Register for Continental’s Mile-a-Thon promotion. Register for Starwood’s Great Weekends promotion.
Some Food I Can Never Go Wrong With – Katz’s Pastrami
I grew up on Long Island, and one of my favorite things in the world is a good Jewish-style Delicatessan. Sadly, while there are a few outside of New York worth eating at in a pinch (and some of the better ones in Los Angeles certainly have their partisans), the best deli food can be especially hard to find in my travels. There’s certainly not any worth mentioning in my home town of DC. So when I head to New York I almost invariably have to seek out my favorite Pastrami, which comes from Katz’s on the Lower East Side. More often than not I’m busy, and have any number of restaurant meals booked and obligated, and so I’ll find the only chance to head over there being on the way out of town. No…
Federalizing the Solution to Bedbugs
Bed bugs are certainly a problem, they vex even the best hotels, frustrate and infuriate travelers, and keep pest control companies in business. Now, apparently, the federal government is getting involved. In keeping with the best of government traditions, the Federal Bed Bug Work Group is hosting its second national summit Feb. 1-2 in Washington to brainstorm about solutions to the resurgence of the tiny bloodsuckers that have made such an itch-inducing comeback in recent years. The effort is widespread across the federal government, and this is apparently not DC’s first foray into the issue. Several federal agencies participate in the Federal Bed Bug Work Group: the Environmental Protection Agency, the deapartments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Defense and Commerce, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The…
One More to Cross Off the List: Bistrot Lafayette in Old Town Alexandria
While we’re on the subject of food, one of my old standbys used to be Bistrot Lafeyette in Old Town Alexandria. It wasn’t great and certainly never innovative, but a very reliable French bistro serving classic dishes. It also wasn’t high end, the escargot would be from a can, but you’d always get exactly what you expected. A couple of weeks ago I went back. It had been awhile, because the place had seemed to deteriorate the previous time I was in and I was in no rush to return. And I was really disappointed by what I found. No more baguettes, just hard rolls. The french onion soup had a piece of white bread on top. White bread. The hanger steak with fries used to be one of my favorites, with fries that were…
Michel at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner… Disappointing
This week I went to dinner at Michel, Michel Richard’s new restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner. The space was previously home to the amazing Maestro, which closed when the chef moved to New York to open there … right at the start of the financial crisis, his restaurant there didn’t work and he’s on his way back to DC. Tyler Cowen gave the place “an enthusiastic thumbs-up”. I take his recommendations seriously and find that for strip mall restaurants he’s invariably spot on but that we disagree more often than not with fine dining. He loves Komi, I find it especially hit or miss. I reviewed The Fat Duck outside London, and he thought the meal seemed like ‘B.S.’ and while I had mixed emotions about the place I think I took it much…
Should Tall People Be Entitled to Complimentary Upgrades, or Required to Stand During Flight?
Chris Elliott writes about a man who was asked to stand onboard a Spirit Airlines flight, or so he says. The man is apparently 6′ 7″ and that’s just pretty tall to be suffering a coach seat. The average economy class seat “pitch” on a Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 — the distance between seats on an aircraft — is between 30 and 31 inches, which is well below the industry standard and hardly enough room for a big guy. Except, no, that isn’t well below the industry standard. Industry standard for coach seating is 31 inch pitch (distance from seat back to seat back). So some seats on Spirit may be an inch shy and others equivalent to industry standard, but certainly not ‘well below.’ (And according to Spirit, seating on the A321 does have…
Similarities – and Differences – Between the TSA and Other Professions That Touch You in Special Places
This venn diagram will help clarify the similarities and differences between doctors, prostitutes, and the TSA. (Via Boing Boing via Chad W.)
Alfred Kahn Passes Away
Alfred Kahn, frequently credited as the father of airline deregulation, passed away. While Kahn was certainly an important voice for deregulation, and made important positive contributions to the economy and played a key role in the legislation sponsored by Senator Kennedy which deregulated the airline industry while serving as the Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, he was continuing down a path that had already been set in motion by his predecessor at the CAB, John Robson. Under Robson the CAB ‘experimented with price competition’ the radical notion that airlines would be permitted to lower their prices without formal proceedings in Washington, DC. And the world didn’t end, though most airlines opposed deregulation because the government had essentially guaranteed airline profitability by refusing to permit competition, either in prices or even in services. Robson passed…
Thanksgiving in Mumbai: Aftermath – Lufthansa Reaches Out to Apologize for Service Lapses
Two weeks ago I posted about the worst first class flight I’ve ever experienced. It was Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Mumbai, and it was really unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Service-wise I hadn’t seen anything like it in coach even. I was totally flummoxed, and though folks said I should have spoken to the purser about the experience inflight and asked to be served by someone else, in the moment it was so challenging that I just wanted the flight to be over and it didn’t seem like anything could possibly be done other than wait for our arrival in India. Well, shortly after I posted a woman working for Lufthansa posted in the comments. See, her job used to include participating in the Flyertalk forums (as “LHRelate”) and I had friended her on facebook.…
