Jared Blank shares the future with luxury travel bloggers, once they have kids. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Win a Free High-end Tom Bihn Laptop Briefcase
Two ways to enter, and you can do both, leave a comment in the official entry thread (one comment/entry per person in that thread) and follow @garyleff on Twitter. The contest will close at 12:00pm Eastern time on Friday, April 23. Any questions? Feel free to hit the comments in this thread.
Intercontinental Manila Presidential Suite — a continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
On arrival at the Intercontinental Manila we waited for the bomb sniffing dog at the entrance to give us the all clear. Not bringing any bombs into the hotel, so we were cleared to head to the checkin desk. After a long overnight flight I didn’t want to think about, “where is the club?” to handle checkin there, a waiting staff member at the main desk in the lobby would do just fine. Now, it was still a bit shy of noon. As a Royal Ambassdor I’m entitled to 8 a.m. checkin, one of the great unsung elite status benefits out there and one which no other chain matches. However, I was told my room wasn’t ready yet. After all, there was only one of my room… the Presidential Suite. I had actually wanted to…
Hong Kong – Manila in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant
Our flight from Toronto landed just a few minutes early, but that meant before 5 am. And Hong Kong is a ghost town at that hour. We quickly went through transit security and found our way over to the Wing. It opens at 5, but the first class side doesn’t open until 5:30 am. We waited and wandered — most parts of the lounge, the Game Room for instance, were deserted. But the main sitting room was jam packed. Once 5:30 rolled around we went upstairs, and immediately asked for a Cabana. We shared one, which was perfectly fine, and in my opinion this makes for one of the nicer shower facilities after a long overnight flight. My wife and I aren’t separated, which means we can mill about and meander slowly given our four-ish…
CONTEST/GIVEAWAY: Tom Bihn Empire Builder Laptop Briefcase
Back in January I blogged that the Tom Bihn folks offered to send me some sample products to try. I was in the market for a laptop bag in particular, so I asked to try both their Checkpoint flyer and Empire Builder bags. I fell in love with the Checkpoint flyer, I’ve been using it as my primary bag ever since, and it’s logged a ton of miles. What then to do with the Empire Builder? It’s a very nice bag. But I don’t need it. I thought about making it an every day bag while using the Checkpoint flyer TSA friendly bag for travel. But I don’t like switching, and I’m perfectly happy with the Checkpoint flyer for every day use. It’s a $170 retail bag, and that’s just for the base bag. And…
Toronto – Hong Kong in Cathay Pacific First Class — A continuation of “Cathay & British Airways First Class, Philippines and Macau, a Presidential Suite, and the Fat Duck Restaurant”
After months of anticipation and significant stress making it up to Toronto to start my trip, it was finally time to get underway. The KLM lounge in Toronto was disappointing to say the least. They did announce boarding, at least, and walk around letting everyone know it was time to head off. I couldn’t help thinking, though, that they were really just shooing us out of the lounge so they could close down rather than being helpful. So off to the gate where things were a bit of a madhouse. We lined up for boarding (boarding call was made rather prematurely in the lounge) and finally made it onboard. All the unpleasantness and stress melted away upon entering the aircraft. A flight attendant walked us to our seats, showed us the closet for our carryons,…
On the Cusp of Lifetime Platinum Status with American
As most of y’all no doubt know, American Airlines AAdvantage is unique in its lifetime status qualification — miles from all sources count, not just flown miles. One million miles earned = Lifetime Gold Two million miles earned = Lifetime Platinum I’ve never been a regular American customer. I’ve long leaned much more towards the Star Alliance. I don’t think I’ve done more than 25,000 or 50,000 total qualifying miles on paid oneworld tickets in my entire life. But stay around these programs long enough, watch the promotions, chase after some of them, and the miles build up. And with all the partners and promotions that American has had over time, they’ve been great to build mileage balances up with. In particular, churning Citibank co-branded credit cards over time was very good to me with…
Starwood Free Weekend Night Offer Coming
Details were made available on Flyertalk, but registration won’t open until May 1. The skinny is this — One free weekend night for every three stays between May 1 and July 31. These nights will need to be consumed by 19 December 2010 at properties up through Category 6 (so excludes Category 7 properties). Hyatt’s offer is a free night every two stays, valid all week long, but with a shorter redemption period. Hilton’s offer is a free night every four stays (or 10 nights) with a slightly longer redemption period. So this offer hits a sweet spot in terms of how easy or hard it is to earn a free night. And the free nights are valid for a reasonable period of time. But they’re only redeemable Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. This is a…
Up to Quadruple Goldpoints for Multinight Stays
Radisson et al’s Goldpoints program is offering progressively more bonus points for longer stays through May 28. Registration is required. Stay 2 consecutive nights and earn Double Gold Points Stay 3 consecutive nights and earn Triple Gold Points Stay 4 consecutive nights and earn Quadruple Gold Points
Will United Do a Deal With US Airways or Continental?
Hint, don’t think it has anything to do with whichever makes a better match (which is clearly Continental). Holly Hegeman nails it. [A]n eventual deal will depend heavily on the role current members of upper management at United Airlines take in any deal. Particularly United Airlines Chairman and CEO Glenn Tilton. As I wrote this week in PlaneBusiness Banter, one of the big factors in the failure of the Continental deal, and a complicating factor in a proposed US Airways’ deal was Tilton’s insistence upon keeping control in both deals. But at the same time, Tilton knows that both US Airways and Continental would like to link up with United. And pressure is building on Tilton to get a deal done. He’s only been talking about doing one since he took his position with the…
