I figured this would be one of two “luxury” flights on the trip. I had yet (and still have yet) to have a bad experience on Qatar Airways. With Qatar sandwiched around China Eastern, Royal Air Maroc, Saudia, and...
Review: Hilton Colombo
We arrived late into Colombo and had a morning flight to Doha, which meant an airport hotel would have been ideal. Trouble is, Colombo doesn’t have any, at least not any worthy of a miles + points review. So...
Review: China Eastern A330 Business Class Shanghai To Colombo
We certainly received VIP treatment on the ground, but how would our in-air experience be? Even better… We were escorted from the lounge directly onboard the plane, bypassing the queue, and found ourselves among the first onboard. A pair of...
Review: Grand Hyatt Shanghai
While I do prefer the intimacy of the Park Hyatt, the Grand Hyatt proved an excellent hotel for a long layover in Shanghai. We arrived into Shanghai around 5:30pm and did not leave for 21 hours. An airport hotel...
Review: China Eastern 777-300ER Business Class Los Angeles to Shanghai
Let me start by saying that now I know what it is like to have been on a smoking flight. That, a fairly comfortable seat, horrible food, and totally unprofessional service are my takeaways from my first China Eastern flight,...
Introduction: A Trip Around the World with Lucky
I’m doing my best to catch up on old trip reports and there is a huge one I’ve never published: my trip around the world with Lucky (One Mile at a Time) last August. There will be no surprises...
Review: Hilton Stockholm Slussen (it was disappointing)
It’s rare I post a negative review and perhaps you’ll find my comments nitpicky, but I was left disappointed by my stay at the Hilton Stockholm Slussen. I realize that prices are high in Scandinavia, but perhaps not as high as you...
747-200 Hostel vs. Radisson Blu Stockholm Airport
It was a tough choice. Parked directly across the street from our hotel was a Boeing 747-200 with rooms available at a similar price. But I was happy I ultimately chose the Radisson Stockholm Airport. The Choice Both properties were...
Charming Concept: SAS Café Lounge
SAS offers a charming lounge concept at five smaller airports: lounge cafés. SAS bases operations out of three Scandinavian hubs: Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm, but serves 40 Scandinavian destinations. Some of these cities are too small to support a full lounge but to small or competitive...
Longyearbyen to Stockholm via Tromsø on SAS
It was time to leave Longyearbyen and I was very sad to go. That said, the weather had turned decidedly chilly, with a cold pelting rain greeting us on our final morning. One other tidbit on Longyearbyen: no one...
Where to Eat in Longyearbyen
On a remote island in the Arctic Circle halfway between the northern tip of Norway and the North Pole, where do the ~2,000 residents go out to eat? Would it surprise you to know one restaurant has a wine cellar...
Exploring Pyramiden with Two Armed Female Bodyguards
There was one thing I did not mention in my earlier piece on Pyramiden: there are polar bears roaming around. America is not the only home of gunslingers: in Svalbard and particularly on Pyramiden, you don’t go outside without a...
Why Pyramiden is a Must-See (Photo Tour)
Let’s play a game of imagination. Imagine a thriving village bustling with hard working men and women who have left the comforts of home to serve the motherland in a far corner of the world. Imagine a formal dining...
Fascinating Soviet Hotel Experience on a Russian Island in Norway
While most people just spend a few hours touring around the mostly-abandoned Russian mining settlement of Pyramiden, you’re invited to stay the night. That’s what I did. After the mine closed in 1998, the island’s population sank from over 1,000...
A Boat Trip to an Abandoned Russian Mining Island
The highlight of my trip to Svlabard was an overnight trip from Longyearbyen to Pyramiden, a near-abandoned Russian mining settlement reached via boat. I booked with Arctic Explorer because it offered the better schedule, though other companies offer full...
Why I Chose Airbnb in Longyearbyen, Norway
For months I had a room reserved at the Radisson Blu Longyearbyen Hotel for about $270/night after taxes. But in the end, I cancelled it and went with an Airbnb rental. One, Lucky decided to book his trip to Longyearbyen...
Review: Oslo to Longyearbyen in SAS Plus (“Business”)
At 2hr,55min, Oslo to Longyearbyen is the longest domestic flights on the SAS route map. How does service look on a flight that long in SAS Plus? After spending half the afternoon and entire evening the SAS Gold Lounge,...
Pictures: The Most Scenic Flight I’ve Ever Flown
This flight review will focus not on what took place inside the airplane, but on what I observed outside. As a rule, I prefer window seats, but I don’t generally spend time gazing out of them. Instead, I choose...
Review: SAS Gold Lounge Stockholm (ARN)
Stepping off the plane from our Los Angeles to Stockholm flight, we had 3hrs and 40min until our connection to Oslo. While some fresh air would have been nice, we headed directly for the SAS Lounge. The SAS Lounge...
Review: SAS A330 Business Class Los Angeles to Stockholm
I was expecting the worst, in all honesty. My last transatlantic flight in SAS business class was a disappointment and Lucky had flown the same LAX-ARN route weeks earlier and had reported particularly poor service. But the flight turned out not just...
