Another week, another onboard airline altercation gone viral. I’ve spent most of the day offline today. My goal is to take one day off per week–not always possible, but my wife puts up with a lot during the week so it seems fitting that at least one day per week should not be spent hunched over […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 9, 2017
Greetings from Southern California. I’m home again after nearly four weeks in Europe. My family had a wonderful time visiting friends and family in Germany then spending a few days in Greece to end the trip. While I don’t plan a formal trip report for this journey, I will write a few posts about the […]
Delta’s Expensive Investment at LAX
Traffic at LAX has grown 30% since 2011. Last year 81 million passengers flew through LA’s only international airport, far more than it was ever designed to accommodate. Consequently, LAX is already a zoo, to put it nicely. But my hometown menagerie will become even more chaotic between May 12-17 as Delta swaps terminals. It […]
Scary! Stranger Walks Into Our Hotel Room at 3AM
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of your hotel room door flinging open and footsteps inside. That just happened to me last night. Although Augustine slept soundly on the flight over to Europe, it has been a rough week. He’s still on LA time, it seems, so is eating less during […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: March 19, 2017
Hello from Stuttgart. Thanks to these anti-jetlag tips, I quickly adjusted to Central Europe Time and have acclimated back to life in Germany. Little Augustine is meeting many family members for the first time and we’ve had a very pleasant week. The highlight was the flight over — instead of a 10hr nightmare trying to keep […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: March 4, 2017
Hello from Santa Monica, CA. I dined with some very dear clients who have become friends last night. Not knowing LA traffic, I hedged my bets and left early. Thankfully, traffic moved much better than my GPS suggested and I made it early. So now I’m writing the week in review in my car as I wait. I […]
Review: San Francisco to Amsterdam in KLM 787-9 World Business Class
Flying KLM for the first time was already a treat, but flying on KLM’s 787-9 in business class turned me into the child eagerly waiting for Christmas morning. KLM World Business Class Flight Preview Email After checking in online, KLM sent me a link with very detailed info about my flight and even let me choose seats […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: February 18, 2017
Goedemiddag uit Amsterdam! As I continue my SkyTeam journey on KLM, China Airlines, and Garuda Indonesia I am passing through an unusual European hub for me: AMS. This has been a quiet week in terms of major airline or loyalty news. Let’s enjoy that while it lasts. Last weekend I asked for your input on which […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: February 4, 2017
This week was the clam before the storm. I spent most of it caring my sick wife and sick son (flu, cold). Then I got sick, though thankfully it was just a 48-hour sore throat and I’m back to feeling great. Next week there will be both Pacific and Atlantic Ocean crossings. The following week […]
The Trip Home from DC…Washington to Los Angeles via Frankfurt
As if our busy inauguration day was not enough, John and I detoured to Germany on our way home from Washington. A number of factors were to “blame”. A prefect storm brewed—procrastination and sold out flights with the specter of more hotel costs or sleeping in airports. Ok, let’s not kid ourselves. I’m not so […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: January 14, 2017
Another week has flown by, but as I sit at my desk on this beautiful Saturday evening, I am thankful that the last several days have been very productive. While managing Award Expert and this blog are critical, an even more important task is caring for my wife and child. The two go hand and hand, since we have […]
My First International Business Class Meal: SFO-LHR on UA930
For this week’s Matthew’s Meal of the Week, I remember my first international flight. In September 2006 I travelled to Europe for the first time, a United 747-400 from San Francisco to London. I had just turned 20 and it was my first time leaving North America. I spent a month driving through Germany, Austria, the Czech […]