This is a miraculous discussion, incredibly comprehensive and insightful even if a bit tongue-in-cheek. On the whole I’m not a fan of buffets, most of the time they’re lowest common denominator, they skimp on quality ingredients to present big ticket items at lowest cost or they’re more about quantity than quality which isn’t usually how I like to eat. But they certainly have thier place, and in some locales like Vegas they’re part of both history and culture. This bizarre discussion covers the different types of buffets, how to think about buffets, pre-meal preparation, strategy once you’re ready to eat, and post-meal care. Clearly people think about buffets a great deal, certainly a great deal more than I. At least there’s a reminder to be courteous to other diners, perhaps other diners like me not…
Alaska Airlines Wins Lawsuit Against Mileage Broker
Alaska Airlines won the trial phase of a federal lawsuit arguing against buying and selling of award tickets. The argument that work (or at least that I find persuasive), I think, is that when consumers join a frequent flyer program they agree to abide by its rules, which include only redeeming or trading milesa according to its sanctioned practices. That is, consumers agree not to sell awards, so they shouldn’t be allowed to. The relevant questions are whether consumers actually own the miles in their accounts, or whether the airlines do (an important question as it has implications for taxation as well), and whether an airline can create a monopoly in the sale of its miles as well as a monopoly in aftermarket trading via platforms like Points.com. But Alaska does make some pretty silly…
A Comparison of First Class A380 Products
The Global Traveller has flown the Airbus A380 on Qantas, Emirates, and Singapore. I still haven’t flown it at all. So he makes me quite jealous when he offers his comparison of the three A380 first class products. And at the same time, I appreciate his bringing the compare and contrast together in one place. Upshot is that Qantas isn’t a true suite with doors, and is staffed by Qantas crew, but is otherwise an excellent hard product. Emirates is gimmicky as always, but give me the onboard showers gimmick any day! And Singapore is, well, Singapore — they’re almost as good as they think they are! If you’re curious about the A380, or about the best in first class products, read the whole thing.
Thank Goodness Flyertalk is Back Online
The world is saved. That is all.
The Jefferson Hotel, Richmond
Nearly all of my hotel stays are with a major chain. I have status, I earn and burn points. It’s rare that I stay outside ‘the system’. That also means I don’t usually experience the very very best luxury properties, most of which also exist outside of the traditional mainstream system. Although they frequently have affiliations, whether Leading Small Hotels of the World, Tablet Hotels, or just participation in American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts or Virtuoso. But this weekend I needed to be in Richmond, and everything downtown was priced extraordinarily due to the Marathon. I could have stayed on a cheap rate at the Westin, but that was 6 miles from where I needed to be. And with the race traffic was going to be a nightmare. The Jefferson, though, was priced pretty…
30% Bonus on Purchased Alaska Airlines Miles
Alaska is offering a 30% bonus on purchased miles through the end of the year. It’s not worth going out and buying miles the way it is for the US Airways 100% bonus offer (which applies to transfers as well). But it’s a nice time for an account top-off if you’re close to an award and need a push over the top, or you have enough miles for an international partner business class award and you want first…
Up to 10,000 Delta Miles for Fiji Water
Through November 30, Fiji Water is offering 5,000 SkyMiles for signing up for an annual subscription and 10,000 SkyMiles for an annual subscription of 2 cases or more. Not worth doing for the miles alone, an annual subscription will run around $360. Two cases for 10,000 miles and cancelling doesn’t quite work for the miles alone — miles post after “approximately 8-12 weeks” so presumably you’d be on the hook for three months of delivery — probably $180 for 10,000 miles and remember these are Delta miles after all. Still, if you like Fiji Water and would consder ordering it anyway, this is a worthwhile offer. As of this posting I haven’t tested whether the mileage offer is combinable with a percent-off coupon code.
While Flyertalk is Down…
Hit the comments here with whatever’s on your mind. What are you thinking about? What questions do you have? Update: No sooner do I publish this and it looks like Flyertalk is beginning to struggle to come back up. C’mon, you can do it!!
A Travel Junkie Field Trip
Scott McCartney writes up the Star Alliance MegaDO. More than 200 vagabond business travelers, peripatetic frequent-flier-mile addicts and aviation enthusiasts did just that last week. Over four days, they traveled from the U.S. to Germany, Norway and France to meet with executives, pilots and mechanics at four airlines—plus representatives of aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The event, organized by members of FlyerTalk.com, a Web site that caters to frequent fliers, even included chartering a Boeing 757-300 to zip from airline hangar to airline hangar. Couldn’t make it work myself, but from everyone I’ve talked to it was a ton of fun.
15% Discount on Expert Flyer
I offered an explanation of Expert Flyer back in June when they were offering a 20% discount on their services. There are basically two pay services that advanced flyers use. Expert Flyer is one, and is of especially good use for American Airlines flyers looking to upgrade internationally, and for Delta upgrades, for instance and because the site will keep searching for inventory to open up on routes you designate and ping you when it does. Personally I use the KVS Tool. It lacks award availability for Swiss (which is a drawback for me, but I workaround the problem via the Lufthansa JetFriends program) and it lacks the ExpertFlyer feature of automatically checking for specific inventory on your behalf and emailing you when it becomes available. But it has a broader variety of tools and…
