Category Archives: Travel

The plan was simple enough. Fly to the inauguration and then fly back. But hastily-arranged, last-minute trips a rarely turn out smoothly. This trip was no exception. Award space opened up at the last minute from Los Angeles to...

If you recall, the whole point of our trip to South Africa was to secure one document, a South African Police Report, so that my wife could immigrate to the USA. While this can be requested via mail, the...

Let’s start with a disclaimer: this is a non-partisan blog and attending the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, should not be interpreted as an endorsement of him or his policy positions.  I...

Lago’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport has nine Priorty Pass lounges! I had the chance to visit two of them. The Oasis Lounge was located right next to the NIS office where I spent my entire afternoon and early evening,...

In my travels around the world — 125 countries and counting — I have eaten a lot of street food. Reader Rusty asked me in a recent comment if I ever got sick. Off the top of my head, I’ve...

Although the airport is small and half of it is outdoors, I was happy to find a Priority Pass lounge at Zanzibar’s Abeid Amani Karume International Airport. The Park Hyatt granted us late checkout so we left at 6:30pm for our...

Breaking now — a shooting in the baggage claim area of T2 at Ft. Lauderdale Airport (FLL) has left eight injured and five dead. The airport is currently closed. The shooting occurred around 1pm ET. The shooter has been apprehended but airport exits remain...

This caught my eye on Facebook last night: a woman playing “Jason Bourne” in Paris. Check out this video: Paris is one of my favorite cities and I just love how this video captures the essence of Parisian architecture and some...

This is not a post about poor service or dirty planes. This is a post about an endemic problem on one Star Alliance carrier that has not been addressed for three years. The consequences are profound: delayed, cancelled, or ruined...

Frequent ferries connect Dar Es Salaam to Zanzibar. We opted to take an afternoon ferry that took two hours to make the ~80km crossing. Let me start out with a warning: the “porters” at Dar Es Salaam ferry port are the...

UPDATE: United Accelerates 747 Retirement to 2017 The last United Airlines 747-400 has left Chicago O’Hare. I noticed a tweet from United late last night announcing that the final 747-400 departed ORD for Tokyo Narita. That’s quite a momentous...

Each month United tinkers with its buy-on-board menu, offering a “Snack Shop” on all flights over two hours and a “Bistro on Board” for flights over 3.5 hours. This month, one of my favorites is back — cheeseburgers! I...

Obtaining a visa on arrival in Tanzania turned out to be easier than I thought. Follow these steps and you’ll have no trouble securing a visa upon arrival in Tanzania. Note that a visa-on-arrival is available in the following ports...

Dozens of Award Expert clients each year contact us for help booking their Serengeti safari and that usually requires flights to Kilimanjaro. Over the years, I have discovered that when Kilimanjaro flights are not attractively priced using miles, flying into Dar Es Salaam can...

I ended 2016 with over 40K American EQMs. But no status. Thanks to cheap British Airways business class fares, I banked many AA miles, both status and redemption. In fact, by the end of spring I already had earned more than...

Another week, another flight diversion. This time a United flight from Sydney to San Francisco diverted to Auckland after a profanity-laced misognystic tirade from an irate passenger over a seat assignment. Anjou Ahlborn Kay, another passenger on the flight, writes...

Happy Near Year! I slept through it…my wife and I went to bed early last night. I guess we are just an old married couple now! Let’s talk about resolutions for a moment. While I won’t say I felt...