I have a lot of swag I need to give away. Special thanks are due to Mr. Perry Platapus and Bob F. for donating the American Airlines gift certificates. I’ve been slow but need to make sure they make it to welcome hands before the opportunity to use theme expires. I also... Read more

I wanted that authentic Nordic winter experience, and boy did I get what I asked for during a weekend in Helsinki. This is part seven of an eight part trip report from my recent travels to Estonia and Finland. This report covers multiple walking on ice experiences and... Read more

Yes, this was a Travel Avalanche. I have pretty good travel karma but it caught up to me on a recent trip. While I blogged about it here for my trip from Norway to Colorado Springs and here for the return trip, Joe Sharkey of the New York Times felt there were some lessons to... Read more

So, last week Lifemiles raised some of it’s award prices which you can read about here. It seems like they’ve now increased the price for cash and miles. Originally the cash and miles price was 1.275 cents per mile when you moved the slider all the way to 60%. Now... Read more

Recently I had cause to cancel an Avios ticket using the ba.com web site. Whilst the taxes re-credited immediately the Avios were outstanding 3 weeks later. In the interim I had called and been told that it took a little while for the Avios to reappear. Today, it seems I spoke... Read more

Marriott Rewards has always been a program that puzzles me. Not the program itself, but rather that they seem to have a really loyal following, despite the fact that they have the highest elite qualification tiers with the fewest published benefits. I don’t know, maybe... Read more

ThanksAgain is the service you link your credit card to and then you earn miles automatically when shopping with participating merchants. It’s like making purchases through an online shopping portal to earn miles for what you’re buying anyway, only it’s for... Read more

Yesterday, the Cruise Line Industry Association (CLIA) announced that its member lines are voluntarily adopting a passenger bill of rights. According to the CLIA “…member cruise lines are each immediately verifying in writing that they have adopted the Passenger... Read more

The most obvious statement of the century is that having kids changes everything. Yes, everything. That doesn’t mean everything changes for the worse, but it all changes. Naturally, this includes, but is not limited to the world of travel. I remember when my daughter was... Read more

This is Part 1 of the Defeating the Fuel Surcharge series.  Other posts include: What is a Fuel Surcharge? How to Find a Fuel Surcharge using the ITA Matrix Which Airlines Charge Fuel Surcharges and Which Don’t My Frequent Flyer Mile Earning Strategy to Avoid Fuel... Read more

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It’s been speculated in the press (and reported by me here) – and finally it’s come to pass that FlyBe has sold its entire slot portfolio at Gatwick Airport Flybe allocation of 25 slots at Gatwick is being sold to EasyJet for £20million. Services by FlyBe will... Read more

Something called me to Death Valley last week.  An irrational idea came to me that I could pass through Death Valley unaffected by the desolation and mid-May heat. But it didn’t turn out that way. California Highway 190 and 30 miles to Furnace Creek, Death Valley. A... Read more

While most of the information will be old hat to some, Scott McCartney does a good job in today’s Middle Seat column from The Wall Street Journal when describing strategies by airlines and passengers alike to reduce the stress of summer travel this year. Some things, like... Read more

Last Fall, American Express released an innovative new prepaid reloadable product called Bluebird (see “Bluebird takes flight and changes the game“).  While Bluebird was loaded with features, it wasn’t the features that made it innovative.  It was the... Read more

April showers bring May…thundershowers?  Bad weather today in the midwest and east coast has led to some significant delays with a domino effect on many other airports. Given my habit of booking evening flights, that means I’m stuck with compounded delays, something... Read more

Up until 2001, employees of the US federal government were not allowed to accrue frequent flyer miles from official travel and apply them towards personal trips. They were supposed to earn miles and use them to offset the cost of government travel. This didn’t really... Read more

There was a story at Flyertalk some weeks ago about some new service changes in Lufthansa First Class. The ones I noticed during my recent trip were as follows: Different sort of pillow: New butter knife design: New Salt and Pepper: New Napkin Rings (oooh!) New Cutlery Starters... Read more