Good evening from Carmel, CA…I’m spending the holiday weekend at my favorite California Hyatt and have been enjoying the fresh air and beautiful weather with my family. Earlier today we drove down Highway 1 to Big Sur…it is always beautiful: Last week, Alaska Airlines introduced a draconian new restriction on Cathay Pacific, Hainan, and JAL […]
Review: Qatar Airways A330 Business Class Doha to Ho Chi Minh City
No matter what time of day, you’re in for a comfortable flight on Qatar Airways. In my intro to this trip report, I focused on the excellent food onboard even a relatively short overnight flight in Qatar Airways business class. I’ll talk about that again, but the point of this review is to give you […]
Review: AA Flagship Lounge New York (JFK)
Arriving from a redeye, I had the whole day ahead of me in New York prior to my Qatar Airways QSuite flight to Doha. It was a perfect day for productivity inside AA’s Flagship Lounge at JFK. A note on access. I did not have my boarding pass for flight (in 15 hours) because my […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: January 21, 2018
Hello from Zurich. I’m in the midst of an extended business trip, anxious to get home, but trying to appreciate the time in one of my favorite countries. I’ve already been to Qatar, Vietnam, Germany, and Malta. Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and England are still to come. Recounting the top stories of the week, United […]
Qatar Airways Shines in the Dark of Night
My final segment on my Qatar Airways “Golden Ticket” was a flight from Doha to Ho Chi Minh City aboard an A330 that departed at 2am. You might think catering would be more limited on an overnight flight departing in the middle of the night. To some extent it was, but I was amazed by […]
Qatar Airways Agent Tries to Deny Me Boarding…
Sometimes it is wise not to draw attention to a particularly cheap fare an airline has decided to honor. You can accuse me of being greedy, but I stopped at the transit desk after arriving into Doha and asked if I might convert my pre-issued my hotel voucher to a stay in the airport’s transit […]
Is Compensation Due When a FA Fails to Wake You Up to Eat?
Is compensation due when a FA fails to wake you up to eat, as requested? As my Qatar Airways flight was entering final descent yesterday, one passenger was giving a FA a piece of her mind. She was livid that she had not been awakened to eat prior to landing in Doha. On Qatar Airways, […]
How Shall I Get Back to LA from Ho Chi Minh City?
My Qatar Airways 777-3ooER Qsuite flight is right around the corner. But I have nothing booked home… This is a review trip and I’m not planning on spending any time in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s a lovely city that I have visited in the past, but this time my objective is to come straight […]
2018 Trip Report Roadmap
Prepare yourselves…13 months into the rebirth of Live and Let’s Fly and I still am not caught up on trip reports of years past. I do concede that older hotel and flight reviews have a limited shelf life, but over and over again I see that very little changes. Changes that do take place are […]
10 Flights I Look Forward to in 2018
As we enter 2018, there are a number of airline premium cabin airline products I look forward to trying this year. Here’s the top-10 I will target, in no particular order: 1. Singapore A380 New Suites Class Singapore’s new A380 Suite looks amazing. With a trip to Australia coming up, I should be able to […]
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 advantage of earlier this year. Knowing there would be no wi-fi on the flight, I frantically […]
Review: Vietnam Airlines A321 Economy Class Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City
My unexpected flight on Vietnam Airlines gave me a positive first impression of the Vietnamese flag carrier. In case you missed my intro post, I wound up on this flight after I was denied boarding on VietJet for lack of a visa to Vietnam. With only 90 minutes before departure, I found myself at the […]
Introduction: Adventures on Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways
Two so-called mistake fares. One mega trip. It was a hard-fought battle, but eventually I prevailed and successfully reinstated my discounted business class ticket on Ethiopian Airlines. Soon thereafter, Qatar Airways published an amazing business class fare between Ho Chi Minh City and New York. Stitching the two legs together, I would fly to SE […]
I’m Assembling the Trip of a Lifetime
Although there will be plenty of business travel, with the exception of my upcoming final 747 and Qatar QSuite trips, I am voluntarily suspending new “review” trips until next August. That doesn’t mean I will not be traveling on new products. For example, you can bet that I will do everything in my power to […]
14 Hours Aboard Qatar A350 Business Class…
After a restful flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Doha and a shower and panini in the Al Mourjan Lounge, it was time to board the 14-hour longhaul to New York City. Electronics were carefully searched at the gate, the subject of another post, but understand here that if you want to be among […]
Aborted Landing, Near Diversion on My Vietnam Airlines Flight
It’s never a good sign when the captain says, “Ladies and gentleman, due to poor weather in Ho Chi Minh City we are going to have to divert.” I just cannot seem to escape drama on this trip. After booking a seat with only minutes to spare, I boarded what I hoped would be a […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: October 22, 2017
I’m back in LA after a fast-paced week around the world. My trip took another twist on the way to Ho Chi Minh City, which I will share tomorrow morning. As it was a relatively light news week, Live and Let’s Fly focused more on trip reports than breaking news. But importantly, Airbus and Bombardier […]
This Week: Toronto, Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Saigon, Doha, New York
Oh how I love these weeks, the weeks I spend the literal majority of the time on an airplane. This week I’m linking up two incredible fares sales I took advantage of — one on Ethiopian Airlines, the other on Qatar Airways. > Read More: Booked! Over 20K Miles in Qatar Airways Business Class for $672 […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: August 06, 2017
A pleasant Sunday evening to you. It has been a quiet week for me that included a nice trip with my family to Carmel, CA. I’ll have a full report on the Hyatt Carmel Highlands in the weeks ahead. United announced several new European routes for summer of 2018 this week, Air Berlin inched closer […]
Win-Win: Pre-Order Meals on Qatar Airways in Business Class
It’s a small change, hardly innovative in light of the many carriers that already offer a similar option, but Qatar Airways now lets you pre-order your meals when flying in business or first class. Qatar Airways already offers a superb on-demand dining option in premium cabins on long-haul flights. In the past, I’ve never been […]
