Yes, I’m quite the fan of carrying a passport. Having held a job a few years back that required frequent international travel, it was a necessary tool of the trade. But is a passport really necessary for someone who might take a cruise to the Bahamas once every 5 years? Or a flight to Aruba? Well…in a word…no for now, but get one anyway. You will need it soon enough.

Passports will be required for all persons traveling to or from the United States by air effective January 23, 2007. These new requirements apply to essentially all international travel including to and from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean. You can read more about the new requirements at the State Department’s website.

The new requirements were to apply to cruise ship passengers as well, but the industry successfully lobbied the Congress to delay implementation of this requirement for cruisers until January 1, 2008. Don’t let this brief reprieve stop you from getting a passport if you are planning a cruise. Get it over with, and don’t worry about it. You’ll be ready to go without any last minute stress of wondering whether or not you’ll get your passport in time for your trip.

Frankly, I was never a big fan of flying (or cruising) to some island with your drivers license and birth certificate anyway. This leaves way too much up to someone’s interpretation as to what represents a valid birth certificate and what does not. Check out the Ombudsman article in December’s issue of Conde’ Nast Traveler for a good example of why you need to get a passport if you plan on traveling anywhere outside of the USA!

Delta-US Airways….. United-Continental….. American-NWA? Oh my…things are about to get silly in airline land.

While I think Delta-US Airways looks the goofiest from an operational integration perspective, I can’t help but think that something is going to happen here. There is way too much money floating around out there. So while the deal may not ultimately look like what’s currently proposed by US Airways, I do think a deal is going to happen.

I think Doug Parker at US Airways believes he can buy Delta out of bankruptcy and use the leverage of the bankruptcy process to offload the assets that the combined entity doesn’t need on the cheap.

United and Continental? We’ll see. I don’t think Continental wants a deal, but they will do one if they feel like they need to.

And American…I just don’t know. They don’t have the greatest track record with mergers, and I think they’ve got bigger labor issues than most folks think right now. But like Continetal, they will do a deal if they think they need to.

It is going to be a fun year to kick back and watch this show.

Just completed a 3-night stay at this hotel. In the interest of full disclosure, I must divulge that Lady Astrojets’ employer was paying for the room, which is a good thing given the sky-high rates they charge. $499 per night for this stay plus tax, and I think that was a discount for the conference she was attending.

The hotel is a sharp-looking 45 story hotel located at the corner of 8th and West 43rd. It is convenient to essentially everything around Times Square, and Shula’s Steakhouse is located within. Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to dine there this trip, but certainly will attempt to next time.

We arrived separately. Lady Astrojets via Amtrak from DC, and I by US Airways Shuttle from Boston. Somehow we managed to make it to the hotel within a few minutes of each other. Check-in was fairly efficient and the front desk staff was polite. Our room was on the 17th floor with a reasonable view of the area. The decor was what I call “trendy-modern.” The room was comfortable and equipped with flat-screen TV, wired high speed internet ($14.95 for 24 hours) and Starwood’s “Heavenly Bed.” The bed is comfortable, but both Lady Astrojets and I agreed that the pillows were too thick and a little too hard. I’ll note that this in no way prevented me from sleeping like a baby all 3 nights!

Lady Astrojets and I ended Friday and Saturday evenings with a nightcap in the “Bar 10″ lounge located on the 2nd floor. Service was good, but prices were what you might expect for an upper-end New York hotel….high. The crowd was much like the room…trendy.

The hotel was nice, and convenient to so much. But the price is not one that I’d be willing to pay for a weekend in New York. I have noted that the hotel runs specials from time to time that are significantly less than $499. That being said, I’d certainly stay there again for the right price.

If I haven’t told you lately, having elite status in at least one frequent flyer program is a necessity if you travel much at all. I’ve explained in a previous posting that my travel patterns have caused me to move most of my business to United Airlines. Of course, I have no elite status on United, but I’m working on it! I was reviewing my progress on making United’s base elite level, Premier, a few weeks ago and was intrigued to find that since beginning to really fly United in October, I was going to wind up with 26 elite qualifying segments at year end. That’s 4 short of the number needed for Premier status. What to do? Book a mileage run! And this I have done. Yes, I am certifiably nuts, but at least I’ll be Premier!