Extreme Hotel Deals finds this rate, $41 per night, at the Marriott Brown Palace Denver on Fridays and Saturdays between May 8 and October 31. Indeed, $41 is all-in with taxes and there are multiple room types available with breakfast even thrown in. This is a well-regarded property, though I haven’t stayed there. It’s among […]
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The Wall Street Journal covers plans for Hyatt, Loews, and Langham to launch new ‘lifestyle brand’ hotels in 2015. Hotel chains have shifted their idea of luxury to meet what modern consumers want. Younger affluent customers aren’t necessarily looking for ornate or historical French design or formal service. Even Ritz-Carlton has tried to update itself. […]
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There are few things I love more than a good fifth freedom route, be it Cathay Pacific's flight between New York and Vancouver, or Singapore Airlines' flight between New York and Frankfurt. There's something exciting about flying between two countries and experiencing the service of an airline from somewhere completely different.
Arguably the single best first class product between North and South America is Korean Air's fifth freedom flight between Los Angeles and Sao Paulo. I flew Korean Air's Los Angeles to Sao Paulo flight on a Boeing 777-300ER last March, and had a great flight.
It also happens to be a fantastic use of Korean Air SkyPass miles, as they charge just 70,000 SkyPass miles one way for first class, and availability is generally good.
The post The Best Flight To South America Gets Downgraded appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
On Thursday I wrote a post entitled "Thinking Of Canceling My Best Award Ticket Ever."
As I explained, back when US Airways first joined the oneworld alliance I booked an award on them from New York to Melbourne... via London and Dubai.
At 140,000 miles roundtrip in first class, I'd argue it's my best award redemption ever, purely in terms of the number of hours spent in first class.
But there's more to making redemptions enjoyable than just flying great first class products. Often it's not about the airline or even necessarily about where you're flying, but rather who you're traveling with.
The post My Best Award Ticket Ever: Canceled appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
News and notes from around the interweb: Etihad’s quest to build its own fourth global alliance buy buying stakes in money-losing airlines that will continue to lose money, but can be used to redirect traffic through Abu Dhabi, continues with Alitalia. Cranky Flier dissects the Alitalia turnaround plan and finds it strangely like all the […]
The post Another Airline Abolishes Fuel Surcharges, Etihad Lights Money on Fire, and Another Flight to Cuba appeared first on View from the Wing.
I stayed at the Park Hyatt New York opening night last August, and was really impressed. It's Park Hyatt's new flagship property, and it really is spectacular. I find most luxury hotels in New York to be way past their prime, so it's nice to have a new five star option that's modern and has large rooms.
In this case I redeemed a free night certificate I received for staying at 50 unique Hyatt properties, so I don't think there's a better use than this property, given that it's a Category 7 property (meaning a free night would cost 30,000 points).
This review won't be as comprehensive as the last one, as I won't cover some of the public facilities as I did last time, like the amazing pool, gym, etc.
Now let me start by saying that we stayed the night of Thanksgiving, so I almost feel guilty being critical of service, since I realize no one wants to work on Thanksgiving. But I'll still share my observations, and you can draw whatever conclusions you'd like.
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Inside Flyer magazine’s blog offers the story of Randy Petersen’s retirement from magazine publishing. The magazine launched a number of other activities that continue and thrive today. During our time, InsideFlyer accomplished something that no other publication of its kind has–we left a legacy. Among the things InsideFlyer created, funded and willed to be relevant […]
The post Inside Flyer Ceases Publishing After 29 Years: Randy Petersen Retires appeared first on View from the Wing.
I don't think there's a hotel chain I have as mixed feelings about as W. I love their properties outside the US -- the W Guangzhou, W Taipei, W Singapore, etc., are awesome hotels.
However, I can't say I feel the same way about many of their properties in the US, which I find to be cheaply furnished and provide not-so-great service, all while commanding a price premium over similar hotels -- I almost prefer aloft, which is W's budget brand. Furthermore, I find US W properties to consistently be stingy with elite benefits -- it seems they'll find almost any excuse to deny a suite upgrade.
Many W properties seem to have "brand/member ambassadors," which is puzzling, since I'm not actually sure what comes of it.
The post Proactive Customer Service Or Polite Way To Tell You To Bugger Off? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
I was very excited about 15 months ago when Coin launched for pre-order. It looked so cool, one card that you load your other credit cards onto via an app. You could carry the one and swipe it, you flip between cards that it represents with a button. This would be convenient for cleaning up […]
The post Finally, One Card to Replace Them All? appeared first on View from the Wing.
Aer Lingus will apparently be approving a €1.3 billion takeover bid by IAG, which is the parent company of British Airways. IAG also controls Iberia, and really is one of the three European airline "superpowers" (Air France/KLM, British Airways/Iberia, and the Lufthansa group).
This takeover bid is fascinating for many reasons, and has most of the elements of a good soap opera/reality TV show:
-- This is the third takeover bid, after the first two were rejected
-- Does British Airways really care about Aer Lingus, or do they just want Aer Lingus' Heathrow slots, since they are the fourth largest operator out of Heathrow?
-- Ryanair owns ~30% of Aer Lingus while the Irish government owns 25%, so this is about to get really interesting politically
The post Implications Of Aer Lingus Being Taken Over By British Airways appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Savoy Hotels put out a pretty interesting infographic, entitled "a Savoy butler's insight into making life truly extraordinary."
This is especially timely since Etihad's The Residence comes with butler service, and the butlers on Etihad are Savoy trained.
It's an interesting infographic which explains the ins-and-outs of butler service, including formal training, common tasks, tips, and strange requests they've received over the years.
But I'm still not sure I actually "get" butler service. The one hotel chain I stay at fairly regularly that offers butler service is St. Regis.
The post What Are Hotel Butlers Good For? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
Fuel surcharges are the bane of many frequent flyers, junk fees adding hundreds or even a thousand dollars onto award tickets by many frequent flyer programs around the world. Airlines like fuel surcharges because: Changing the fuel surcharge in a market can raise or lower every ticket price in that market, no need to re-file […]
The post Taking Advantage of a Legal Loophole: You Can Avoid Paying Fuel Surcharges on Award Tickets If You Know Where to Start and End the Trip appeared first on View from the Wing.
