I spent Sunday night at the W Los Angeles in Westwood. It’s a nice hotel and I had no problem getting an upgrade. All rooms are supposedly suites, but the standard room is a 350 square foot offering that they call a one room suite. To my mind that doesn’t qualify, so fortunately they offered me something that does. It’s a W so the lobby is a hip lounge, though not too active on a Sunday night. The pool area must be a scene most of the time, but the was unseasonably cold even for February so it was more or less deserted with only one person on a lounge chair and only one cabana occupied. The W was guilty of one of my major hotel pet peeves. They didn’t do a turn down service.…
Rating the domestic premium cabins
Domestic first class is just about a (somewhat marginally) bigger seat. Once upon a time there was a nice meal, probably a steak option and maybe a shrimp appetizer, and a made-to-order ice cream sundae to look forward to. Now you’re lucky if the food resembles the worst of what used to be served in coach. But not all domestic premium products are equal. I’d give Continental the nod for domestic food service, with United still occasionally doing a decent job under admittedly difficult financial circumstances (and additional kudos for their transcon p.s. service between JFK and both San Francisco and Los Angeles). United gets my overall nod for domestic premium offerings simply because of the amount of widebodies flying within the United States. And with the exception of the domestic configured 767-300s and a…
Dinner at Grace
Sunday night I went to dinner at Grace in Los Angeles, which was recommended by several Flyertalk.com members. I liked the decor and atmosphere. It felt a bit like walking out of one W (in Westwood where I was staying) and into another (the restaurant) with the color scheme — especially in the back dining room — and music. The food was generally good, though whatever seasoning they coated my foie gras with was burnt slightly. It took almost half an hour for my entree to come out after my appetizer was cleared. And one of the stranger things I’ve seen lately, they came around to brush crumbs off the table a couple of times during the night… and brushed them right onto the floor. That’s a first for me at an upscale U.S. restaurant.…
USAirways Offers Status Matches
Airlines are generally anxious to poach the business of competing carriers’ elite members. As a result, many are willing to match the status that one has in a program with like status in their own loyalty scheme. Usually this is an unpublished, unmentioned benefit. However, USAirways has the process on its website. We will be glad to review your Dividend Miles tier status in light of your tier level with another airline. Please fax a written Preferred Exception request, along with current tier documentation for the other airline, to 305-370-3513. It is important to include your Dividend Miles account number, your email address and a daytime telephone number so that we can contact you after your correspondence is reviewed. That USAirways is willing to do this comes as no surprise. It’s mentioned, along with several…
3% Priceline Rebate at Fatwallet
Looks like ebates dropped down to a 2% rebate on Priceline bids sometime over the past few days. But Fatwallet has bumped its rebate up to 3%, so for the moment that appears to be the preferred portal for Priceline bids.
I can’t believe…
Can’t believe that the penny rate is still available at the Holiday Inn Resort Phuket. But it does seem that it’s currently bookable, these things don’t usually last so long.
Free Hotel Nights at Holidy Inn Phuket
The Holiday Inn Resort Phuket has THB0.01 rates available for a standard room. That’s basically ‘free’. Rate appears to be available beginning May 1 through the end of October, 2006.Property seems very well regarded for a Holiday Inn. You can find the rate at the Holiday Inn website. As always, your mileage may vary on whether the hotel honors this. So don’t book any non-refundable airfare until we learn for sure. Related Flyertalk.com thread is here. Update 2:26pm Eastern: The rate is still available. It is also bookable at Travelocity. Some rates are prepaid, others are not, in either case there’s not a huge change of this being honored in my view but it might be. One approach would be to make prepaid reservations at both sites. Additionally, the online booking guarantee on the Holiday…
$29 at the Regent Kuala Lumpur
Courtesy of Free Traveling, the Regent Kuala Lumper — a very nice property — is available for $29 a night $29/night – The Regent Kuala Lumpur The Regent Kuala Lumpur, 160 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. $29/night. Feb 13, 17, 20, 23, 25, 27, March 2, 7, 12, 15, 17, 22, Apr 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, May 1, 6, 11, and other dates. Book on travelocity.com. Now, the hotel is usually available for just under $100 usually, so this one isn’t worth making a special trip for. Still, a great value!
Do Air Marshalls Make Us More Secure, Episode 352
Air Marshalls as drug couriers. Now I feel even better about them bumping me out of my first class seat. Apparently all it took was a few thousand dollars to get the air marshalls involved to do this. As one commentator asked, “If a few grand gets one to smuggle some cocaine, I wonder how much it would cost to get someone to “forget” their firearm or an explosive device underneath a seat or in some other concealed place? After all, these guys bypass the checkpoints…”
Is this timeshare honest? As honest as the day is long!
Joe Turner attends a timeshare pitch with the promise of a free vacation, and walks away with a single gas coupon. I’m not a fan of timeshares because I get most of my vacationing free on points anyway, and can get deals that make the rest of my travels less expensive than a timeshare anyway. I can imagine scenarios where “vacation ownership” might make sense for some people, in part as a planning tool and in part to economize on the knowledge gathering necessary to do better than a timeshare offer. But the sales tactics of many operators suggest that the deals they’re offering may not be that compelling on their own, and at the very least it’s important to recognize that you need to get all the facts and dig through the fine print…
