After pulling up to the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas by cab, I was offered assistance with my small carryon which I declined. There are two doors to walk through, the first was opened for me but the second was not. I faced long lines to check-in, which I thought was odd for 1pm on Monday. But this is a very large hotel (in terms of number of rooms, though not overall size of the physical plant). And it’s brand spanking new, just opened last month, so I was really looking forward to checking it out. A very friendly guy checked me in, he was taught to try to connect with guests, saw my home town and noted that he had been to one nearby. And later in the process he asked how long I’ve…
Lotus of Siam: NOT the Best Thai Restaurant in North America, at Least at Lunch
I caught a cab straight away from the airport. I had been planning to come straight here. So I had the driver take me well beyond the strip to a strip mall that’s home to many ethnic restaurants a few miles away from the major action of the city, where Lotus of Siam can be found. I had a wonderful dinner here a couple of years, and for many years it’s been highly touted as the best Thai restaurant in North America. The chef has won all sorts of awards. And they’re sure to let you know that, with the walls of the entrance filled with their accolades. I was eager to return, especially after a less than stellar meal at their new New York location. I wanted them to redeem themselves. I walked in…
Review of an Excellent Noise Cancelling Headset with an Awful Name
I recently got an email from a marketing guy who wanted to send me a pair of Denon noise cancelling headphones in order to give them a try and review them here on the blog. I told him that he was welcome to send them along, but I wouldn’t promise to review them and of course I wanted him to know up front that I’d write whatever I thought. He was confident enough in the product that he sent them to me anyway. A few years ago someone sent me a set of PlaneQuiet noise cancelling headphones, I tried them on a trip and my take was that they were better than not having noise cancelling headphones, they did cancel some noise and it was better to watch movies with them than a pair of…
Does the Arizona Tragedy Mean that Members of Congress Should Be…. Exempt from Airport Security?
Former House Majority Whip and current Assistant House Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn has perhaps the strangest take on the recent tragic shooting of several people in Arizona including a Member of Congress, Judge, and young girl. He believes it means that the TSA should give special treatment to Members of Congres at airports. A top House Democrat said the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) should change how members of Congress are screened at airports. “I really believe that that is the place where we feel the most ill at ease, is going through airports,” Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who serves as assistant minority leader in the House, said on “Fox News Sunday.” .. “We’ve had some incidents where TSA authorities think that congresspeople should be treated like everybody else,” he said. “Well, the fact…
Simply Outstanding: Elephant Jumps Thai Restaurant in Falls Church, Virgina
I’m planning to have lunch tomorrow at Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas (not their disappointing New York location). I’ve eaten there before and enjoyed it, but wanted my current favorite Thai restaurant fresh in my mind for the comparison. So I had lunch today at Elephant Jumps Thai in Falls Church. My boss reviewed the restaurant back on August 2nd. I was initially skeptical, as I wrote recently I do find his recommendations for strip mall ethnic food to be 100% spot on though as often as not disagree on fine dining. So while their ‘East Meets West’ menu options of croissant green curry sandwich and drunken spaghetti chicken frightened me, I went anyway back on the 7th of August. And I was blown away. I returned the following weekend, too. I’ve been back…
How Hyatt Undercuts Their Own Web Rates By Selling Stay Certificates for Less
Loyalty Traveler offers an extensive rundown of Hyatt stay certificates. The prices on the three bottom categories have recently gone up a bit, but the thing that’s made them less useful than they used to be is that the categories that hotels are assigned to, and thus the prices of some of the hotel values, have gone up substantially. But there are nonetheless some real values to be had. In the olden days I used to make Hyatt certificate stay reservations, and only buy the certificates once I was certain of my plans. The reservations themselves are cancellable. And if I still needed to cancel the stay after buying the certificate, that’s fine, I could always use the certificate on a future stay within a year. The cost of many of these stay certificates are…
Paging Hyatt Gold Passport…
I’ve already written about Starwood’s first quarter promotion, and of course Marriott and Hilton have theirs, now Loyalty Traveler writes up Best Western’s lucrative offer: one free night after three stays between February 6 and April 11, 2011, plus bonus points for staying in each of their three levels of hotel, Best Western, Best Western Plus, and Best Western Premier. Now you can only earn one free night during the promotion, that’s even a bit more limiting than Marriott. But when Best Western is aggressively on the promotion train you know that everyone is and you’d best not be left behind. Hence titling this post, “Paging Hyatt Gold Passport…” Your promotions are usually ezcellent. Just please don’t keep them a secret!
A Big ‘Thank You’ For All of Your Comments Recently!
I’m not sure the reason. Perhaps it’s because I’ve run some contests and that’s gotten people to sign up to be able to comment — that it’s not worth the hassle just to leave a comment on a blog post, but the possibility of a prize helps overcome the hurdle? But clearly more folks have signed up to be able to comment. And I do apologize about the hassle it may take to be able to comment, I try to keep the blog comments relatively spam free and the system in place does a pretty good job of that, but it also means making commenting for the first time a bit inconvenient. Regardless, I appreciate all of the comments lately, there’s been a nice uptick and I admit I really value the feedback. Sometimes you…
Cancelling Non-refundable Advance Purchase Travel Bookings
TM Travel World offers suggestions of what to do if you book a non-refundable hotel and change your mind. He points out that Marriott will actually let you cancel a non-refundable room if you do so by midnight the following day. Beyond that, call the hotel chain and say you made a mistake and see if they can help. And if they can’t contact the hotel directly, perhaps a hotel manager bill let you cancel the booking to keep a future customer happy. I’d add a few points: If the hotel won’t let you cancel, consider asking them to let you change the dates into the future to another time when you might be able to use the reservation. At least it won’t be a total loss that way, and the hotel may be more…
TSA Cracks Down on Nude-o-Scope Beating Underwear
A long time back I posted that since the Nude-o-Scopes would only see to the first layer of skin, why not wear leather underwear? More recently some firms have been promoting undergarments that are supposed to prevent TSA Pervy Smurfs from seeing you naked. Well, we knew that wouldn’t last. The TSA says that’s not cool, and if you try it they’re going to touch you up. “Some might think this is TSA’s way of getting back at clever passengers,” the blog post continued. “That’s not the case at all. It’s just security.” So now there’s TSA-approved undergarments, and undergarments that the government doesn’t approve of. I wonder how long before we’re all required to go commando?
