The well-fortified hexagon sitting in the water of the Patapsco River just off the Key Bridge is Fort Carroll, an abandoned, pre-Civil War defense commissioned by Robert E. Lee himself that is so overgrown today that it acts as an informal bird sanctuary.
Fort Carroll was built in the late 1840s to defend the city of Baltimore from naval attacks, although like so many forts of its time this potential would never be realized. The manmade island base was designed as a concrete hexagon surrounding a central courtyard with large gun emplacements facing out towards the most assailable angle. The weaponry in the fort was reinforced during the Spanish-American war, but never used, and by the time World War I broke out, the fort and its guns were no longer relevant, thus the installation was officially abandoned in 1921 and stripped of its armaments.
The little geometric island sat dormant for decades, only being used briefly as a firing range during World War II. Finally in 1958 the fort was purchased by a Baltimore lawyer who proceeded to do nothing with it. As the years went by the fort became more and more overgrown as a small forest developed on the site and the concrete structure slowly cracked and fell apart.
With the new foliage and lack of any humans save for some intrepid urban explorers now and then, Fort Carroll has become home to a large population of seagulls and other birds. Today the island continues to sit unused save for some very lucky avian tenants.
United previewed their new lounge food today for several folks (I was not invited), although apparently they’re not willing to comment until the official release tomorrow. Nonetheless, from tweets of folks at the event we have the menu and photos of the food that we can expect. Here’s @AirlineReport: And the menu, from @cjmcginnis: And […]
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Back in December American Express announced a new Membership Rewards relationship with Airbnb "the world's leading community-driven hospitality company where people can list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world."
The net effect of this relationship is that members were now able to redeem Membership Rewards points for Airbnb e-gift cards. The gift cards come in denominations of $100 or $250 and require 10,000 or 25,000 Membership Rewards points, respectively.
While more partners are better than fewer partners, redeeming for gift cards is rarely a good idea since it is a 1 cent per point redemption. So there really hasn't been that much to get excited about.
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Yesterday I posted about how Cathay Pacific Asia Miles disappeared from the Membership Rewards transfer page over the weekend.
Asia Miles is a 1:1 transfer partner with Amex Membership Rewards, and can be useful for some oneworld redemptions, especially in light of the British Airways Executive Club devaluation.
Anyway, I followed up with American Express, and they said they were just working on some website maintenance. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles has once again returned to the Membership Rewards transfer page.
The post Cathay Pacific Returns As US Amex Transfer Partner appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
We’ve all long suspected it, now it’s become public that air marshal flight schedules get changed to accommodate affairs they’re having or cities they’d like to travel to for free. “I think she put the offer out to quite a few (federal air marshals) and managers, literally acting like a travel agent,” retired air marshal […]
The post Air Marshals Scheduling Work Assignments for Vacations and Sexual Meetups, and That’s Not Even the Real Scandal. This Is. appeared first on View from the Wing.
Reader Luis left the following comment on my post yesterday about how to make Hyatt Diamond Guest Of Honor reservations:
"Ben, have you ever transferred Hyatt points before? Is there a fee? And could this be a way to get a Diamond member to book a room for someone else using that person’s points?"
While airlines almost all charge to transfer points between accounts, hotels tend to be more generous. I've written in the past about how:
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Reader Bob asked the following question on the blog yesterday:
"Excluding simply personal preferences, in your opinion, which hotel brand offers the best rewards based on status? For example, is SPG Platinum truly worth the effort if it wouldn’t be achieved due to actual travel/stays?
We are partial to SPG and have lifetime Gold Status. We’re wondering whether it might be beneficial to chase another hotel brand’s status for 2015."
I think the thought process of deciding which status to go for is an interesting one. And I think before you even think about that, it's worth thinking about whether it even makes sense to go for hotel status at all.
The post Is It Worth Going Out Of Your Way To Earn Hotel Status? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote US Airlines Should Shut Up About Having to Compete Against Gulf Carriers. I thought that would be my last word on the dustup between US airlines and Gulf carriers, with US carriers complaining to the government that they have to face unfair competition and the Chairman of Delta […]
The post Hypocrisy Alert: Gulf Airlines Got Money to Finance Their Aircraft. Guess Where US Aircraft Financing Came From? appeared first on View from the Wing.
Via a Tahiti Nui Television article, the French Polynesia Tourism Minister claims that Air Tahiti Nui may be joining the oneworld alliance in 2015. The article is in French, but here's the relevant section (translated using Google Translate):
In addition, to enhance service, ATN "is poised to enter the One World Alliance" which "would make us go from 6 to 7 code shares currently more than a hundred," said Jean-Christophe Bouissou, who hopes that this will happen "this year."
I wouldn't necessarily take this as fact given that over the years there have been dozens of airlines "in the process" of joining an alliance, and it never panned out.
The post Air Tahiti Nui To Join OneWorld Alliance In 2015? appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
While I’ve had overnight connections in London more times than I can count, I’ve always either gone into the city or stayed at the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 4. The Hilton is an ideal option if you’re connecting to/from Terminal 4, since it’s connected to the terminal by air bridge.
I find most of the other Heathrow hotels to just be a pain, given that they’re not connected to the terminals and don’t have complimentary shuttles.
In this case we were arriving on British Airways from Copenhagen at Terminal 5, and departing the following day on American to New York from Terminal 3. I figured we might as well check out one of the Starwood properties, especially since it was the first week of the year -- who doesn't want to get elite status requalification off to a good start? ;)
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News and notes from around the interweb: How to put United award tickets on hold French Polynesia’s tourism minister says Air Tahiti Nui will join oneworld. (HT: Jean T. for the article, in French) Already American AAdvantage frequent flyers can spend miles for Air Tahiti Nui flights. It used to be possible to earn AAdvantage […]
The post A United Award Booking Hack, No Seat Assignments for Elites, Delta Award Booking Improvement, and Hilton’s IT Still Bad appeared first on View from the Wing.
Several airlines have settled a price fixing lawsuit and you may be entitled to a very small share of the settlement if you purchased a ticket to Asia or the South Pacific in the past 15 years. No doubt the class action share will be small, but it’s not much effort, and you will just […]
The post FREE MONEY: Sign Up to Receive Payment from the Airline Price-Fixing Settlement appeared first on View from the Wing.
In early February I wrote a post about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which I consider to be the single most valuable credit card in the market. For me it's a "super card," given that it offers double points on dining and travel, no foreign transaction fees, a reasonable annual fee, great purchase protection, primary car rental coverage, etc.
Chase's comparable business credit card is the Ink Plus® Business Card, which also has great bonus categories, no foreign transaction fees, and a reasonable ($95) annual fee.
But one card that's often overlooked is the Ink Cash® Business Card. It's basically the no annual fee version of the Ink Plus, and if you play your cards right (no pun intended), can be just as rewarding without the annual fee.
The post Why You Should Apply For The Chase Ink Cash Credit Card appeared first on One Mile at a Time.
I worked for both sitcoms and dotcoms in Chicago, L.A. and Florida before becoming a freelance writer and moving to Portland, Oregon. I’ve always cherished the connections I made as I zig-zagged around the country, and have been curious about the ever growing social constellations we find ourselves in. This ultimately became the impetus for an unforgettable journey: moving my family of four to live in Genoa, Italy for a year.