Happy Easter and Happy Passover. I’ve enjoyed a wonderful day spent with family and friends and trust you have as well. I’m looking forward to a very “Matthew” like trip coming up this week. Details on that on Tuesday. For now, I’ll just leave you with the top stories of the week plus a recount […]
Flying in 2018: The Best of Times
Like Charles Dickens’ famous opening line, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” In a counter post to one previously published today, I can prove that flying in 2018 is the best it has ever been. From first class suites at business class prices to a lie flat bed standard […]
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 will be more limited over the next week to maximize time spent with my family, but […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: November 26, 2017
Greetings from a beautifully blustery autumn day in Carmel, CA. I’ll have details tomorrow about the wonderful way I’ve spent my long holiday weekend. It was a fairly quiet week on the blog and in the aviation industry, which was appreciated. We’ll see what next week brings, though. We did learn further details about Lufthansa’s […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: November 19, 2017
I really enjoyed FTU this weekend. Not only was it fun to meet many readers, but it was a great crowd–I hope all who attended enjoyed it. I’m happy to report that I have no more (planned) airline trips until Christmas. It has been quite awhile since I’ve been able to spend more than a […]
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 […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: September 10, 2017
After three consecutive weeks of travel, it was great to be home this week. I’m traveling a bit in the week ahead, but just with family and just by car. Hurricane Harvey and Irma have dominated news headlines this week. I once again wish a safety and speedy recovery to all my readers in Texas […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: August 13, 2017
Hello from Tashkent, where I am spending several days checking out Uzbekistan. The country has defied expectations…in good way. I don’t recommend the national airline, though. On Monday I will finish my current trip report with a review of JetBlue Mint class from New York to LA. Before I transition into the current -stans trip […]
Matthew Is Wrong About Gulf Carriers
There has been an awful lot of debate regarding major US carriers and the Gulf “ME3”. US airlines are simply trying to defend their home turf against an onslaught of new traffic. Why are they being derided by bloggers like Matthew and Lucky? They have a point and I can prove it. If you are considering booking […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: July 17, 2017
I’m hardly in full relaxation mode, but after another week in beautiful Germany I’ve acclimated back nicely to a life of paying in cash and not being able to buy groceries on Sunday! As we start thinking about the trip home, I still have nothing booked. Tomorrow I’ve prepared a post discussing two options: Greenland/Iceland […]
Live and Let’s Fly Weekend Digest: April 23, 2017
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 […]
