An ANA flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo turned around yesterday, four hours into the flight, after a potential stowaway was found onboard. Interestingly, play-by-play coverage was brought to us by Chrissy Teigen, a supermodel onboard (who View from the...
Bye, Bye Mr. Turkish Guy, Drinking Rakı and Rye
Forgive my pun playing on Don McLean’s famous American Pie in my title…I could not resist. Nor could a Turkish man resist his own bottle of Rye Whiskey at LAX last week. If you recall, my Turkish Airlines flight from...
Congresswoman Poaches First Class Seat, Accuses Victim of Racism
A teacher has accused a prominent Democratic Congresswoman of stealing her first class seat on a United flight from Houston to Washington, DC. Jean-Marie Simon was traveling back from Guatemala to Washington, DC via Houston. Upon boarding her connecting flight...
Sleeping Rooms in Qatar’s Al Mourjan Lounge (Doha)
My layover in Doha (DOH) was too short for even a nap, but if you ever find yourself there with a long layover, a relaxation area is available. During my recent transit in Doha, I wanted to shower before...
Reflections on a Christmas Eve Hug
A very Happy Christmas to you from Germany. Sometimes we find life in the least expected places. Last night I attended a late-night candlelight church service, a cherished tradition. But what struck me was not the familiar lessons and...
All the 2017 Airline Holiday Videos
Christmas has arrived and many airlines have released holiday videos for 2017. I have compiled them into one place for your viewing pleasure. I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas. Air Canada Air France Air New Zealand American Airlines...
The Aer Lingus Worker Who Saved Christmas
An Aer Lingus worker in Dublin delivered a Christmas miracle to a woman in New York City. Few things makes your heart sink more than realizing that you left something valuable behind on an airplane. For Laura Begley Bloom,...
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: December 24, 2017
It’s Christmas Eve and I hope, like me, you are spending it with family friends. I’m on “vacation” in Germany for awhile, but there is never really any true vacation in the world of blogging and Award Expert. Posts...
Vacation Roulette: We’re Going to Panama!
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about playing vacation roulette and just going wherever was available or nothing at all as opposed to previous years with heavily-planned trips far from home. We shopped a few options but none...
Passing on Sofitel Because of Novotel
Hotel loyalty and its associated perks are a cornerstone to the life of any road warrior. Hotel chains can’t afford to offer full service hotels in saturated or smaller markets, but likewise, they also can’t afford to ignore the...
British Airways Terrible Bungling of a Diversion
A couple of years ago my family took a trip to Delhi, India and I wrote this review but thought I had lost it forever. After a recent discovery I decided to post the tale. To-date this is the...
Review: Qatar Airways A350 Business Class Doha to New York
Sleep and food…two of my favorite things and the two items my Qatar Airways A350 flight from Doha to New York centered on. After spending a couple hours inside the Al Mourjan Business Class Lounge in DOH, it was time...
Air France Cancels My First Class Reservation…96 Hours Later
I’ll be honest…I thought I had squeaked by. But no, Air France has now cancelled my first class reservation…four days after ticketing it. While most people booked Los Angeles (LAX) or San Francisco (SFO) to Paris, I booked San...
Is U.S. Biometric Exit Program Constitutional?
While exit controls do not exist when leaving U.S. airports, they are coming…in some form. But the Department of Homeland Security’s experimental new Biometric Exit Program may be unconstitutional in its current form. Mandated by Congress in 1996 and re-affirmed after...
Review: Qatar Airways A330 Business Class Ho Chi Minh City to Doha
Qatar Airways proved once again that it offers the most well-rounded and perhaps the best overall business class product in the world. This is the first of four segments on the incredible $672 Qatar Airways fare sale I took...
First Impressions of Turkish Airlines 777-300ER Business Class
You already know what happened after the flight…but here are my first impressions of the flight itself, a 13-hour journey from Los Angeles to Istanbul in the comfort of Turkish Airlines 777-300ER Business Class. The business class seats were...
Less Than 3K Miles from 1K Status on United, But…
After my trip to New York last week, I’m less than 3,000 miles away from 1K status…but still have not made Platinum status. I already wrote about this a couple weeks ago and received helpful feedback from several of...
“Possessed” Airline Passenger Prompts Diversion
A woman onboard an Air China flight from Beijing to Chengdu fainted, causing the captain to turn the plane around. But when she awoke moments later, she demanded the plane continue to Chengdu…blaming her fainting spell on “possession”. Air...
Here’s My Response to SWISS and the DOT
After receiving a disingenuous and dishonest response from SWISS earlier today over my DOT complaint, I’ve now composed a response that I hope will be addressed line-by-line. I won’t hold my breath… > Read More: Disingenuous, Dishonest Response from SWISS...
Disingenuous, Dishonest Response from SWISS Over DOT Complaint
I had a nice day outside with my family and just returned home to find a response from SWISS to my DOT complaint. While not wholly unexpected, its arrogant tone and outright fabrication of facts is deplorable. Here’s the...
