And to clarify, when I say by “popular demand” I mean I received a single comment from a reader in the “Ask Lucky” section of the blog. I can’t ignore half of my readership!

If y’all have any other suggestions by all means let me know.

Anyway, for international flights it’s not unusual to see a fuel surcharge be just as high as the actual base fare, but a reader forwarded me this fare, which just takes it to an extreme:

That’s right, that’s a Singapore Airlines ticket from New York to Tokyo for $48.50 each way, so the roundtrip fare is $97. Unfortunately that’s leaving out $782+ (!!!) in fuel surcharges along with the other taxes, for a grand total of $999.

Now, Singapore Airlines isn’t advertising this as a $97 fare so there’s nothing inherently wrong with this since you won’t see the fare breakdown unless you’re specifically looking for it, but this is one of those interesting fares that I figured was worth sharing.

Anyway, just a heads up that I’ll really be wrapping up the trip report over the coming week, with one installment a day. It has been a busy few weeks for me and I haven’t had the time to dedicate to these trip reports. They’re a labor of love, and a very time consuming one at that. Between writing, resizing the pictures, uploading the pictures, etc., each installment can take hours.

Then next week, as soon as this trip report is done, I’ll get started on the trip report for my most recent trip, which was to Asia and Europe in Singapore, Lufthansa, and Thai first class, with stays at the Le Meridien Bangkok, Westin Siray Bay Phuket, Le Meridien Khao Lak, InterContinental Berchtesgaden, Schloss Fuschl Salzburg, and Sheraton Munich. It was quite possibly my favorite trip ever, so I can’t wait to share the experience.

My hope is to have all this wrapped up before my trip to India and the Maldives in October, given that I likely won’t have a lot of time to work on it while I’m there.

And next year is already shaping up to be quite an exciting year on the travel front. I’ve never planned this much in advance as I should have at least one international trip a month. I even already have enough revenue travel planed to requalify for Executive Platinum, which is a first for me (usually I don’t book any revenue travel for anything but the current year).

So thanks for your patience! I look forward to your pithy comments.

There will be plenty of great presenters, including Gary on award bookings, Rick on credit card churning, and Brian on maximizing American Express points. The full schedule can be found here.

While I was originally just going to cover hotels, the mileage run speaker dropped out, so I’m covering that too. I’ve been told that my 1PM seminar about Starwood hotels is 80% full, while the 3PM seminar is also quickly filling up. Apparently the morning seminar on Priority Club and Hyatt still has plenty of room. Given how small the crowd is I might just have to share some super-secret tips.

Hope to see lots of you there (or you can find me at the Saturday night Halloween costume party, where I’ll be dressed as… myself. Scary enough?).

This topic is surprisingly controversial, though I tend to agree. I think reclining your seat is a right, though believe people should still try to be courteous. Similarly I believe talking loudly on your cell phone in public is a right, but people should still try to be courteous.

In coach I actually won’t recline on a daytime flight simply out of courtesy to the person seated behind me. That being said, if someone wants to recline, it’s entirely their right, in my opinion.

I sympathize with tall people, and understand when they say “but I already don’t have room for my legs.” Certainly true, though most airlines will allow you to purchase an exit row or extra legroom seat in advance, which they should probably be doing.

Anyway, let’s move on to the next question. If you had to decide between flying first class and staying at a five star hotel, which would you choose? Of course the simple answer is “neither, I want ‘em both,” though that’s not always an option. So while there are many variables, generally speaking, would you rather fly first class and stay at an exceedingly mediocre hotel, or fly coach and stay at a five star hotel?

Yes, I realize it comes down to the flight length, how long you’re staying at the hotel, the configuration of the first class product, whether they offer hot nuts, etc., though use your best judgment.

Cast your vote at the top right of the blog!

So… I have been saving miles for two years now… was planning to take the wife anywhere she wanted to go this Summer. The greedy, ungrateful, unfaithful, (expletive) just tee’d me off in the most unforgiving way… so I’m taking 3 of my 20 or so weeks of vacation and getting as far away from her as possible — ALONE.

What makes this thread more interesting than just about anything else on the internet is that the thread isn’t just a teaser. Over the next 20 or so pages and five weeks, he shares just about all the details of what happened, his life, the divorce he’s filing for, etc. The story is straight out of a movie.

LaLaland works in the movie industry and managed to standby for an earlier flight after coming back from a meeting so he could get home to his family earlier, only to find his wife cheating on him… with a 19 year old.  Apparently it wasn’t just a one off, and they were actually doing drugs together at their house as well (possibly in the presence of their kids).

Hell, he even shares the amount of money he’s having to pay his wife, the story about his wife moving out, and what’s going on in court. Then there’s this most recent post:

Thats not all we’ll have to blur … this kid is 19yo but looks 10yo (down there) on the video… what is up with with these teenage ‘boys’ shaving themselves to nothing down there? A little manscaping is one thing, but I don’t get the whole ‘I want to look like I haven’t gone through puberty yet look’… I guess they are trying to make themselves ‘look’ bigger or like porn ‘stars’ LOL… My atty and I had a big belly laugh when we were previewing the footage. He said this only magnifies the sheer contrast of their age difference. You should have seen the Judge’s face when we put that video up (dropped jaw, eyebrows raised, glasses pushed up from the end of his nose and leaning forward to get a better look see)… he even asked her attorney afterwards… “are you sure this kid is 19″?

Grab an ice cold beer (or ice cold Diet Coke with lime), clear an hour or two of your time, and read the whole thread. You won’t regret it.

I was excited to see them arrive in the mail today, so I opened the package only to find that the adapter had more parts than an Airbus 380. I figured it was just a defect and the other one would be better, but nope, it was the same.

The adapter was supposed to look like this, but instead it looked like this:

Well, I guess at least now I know why the website is called “Daily Steals“…

Anyone else have the same experience?

The one reason I’ve collected My Coke Rewards points since day one is because you can redeem them for Priority Club points. Well, for me the program has been more or less worthless for a couple of years now, since they capped each My Coke Rewards account at one lifetime Priority Club points redemption.

Probably against my better judgment I kept collecting the points. It’s probably not worth my time, even to just enter the codes, but I did it nonetheless. Well, today I was happy to notice that I could once again redeem for Priority Club points, so I picked up about 8,000 Priority Club points this morning. Like I always say, every mile/point counts.

For those of you curious about the conversion rate of My Coke Rewards points to Priority Club points, a 20 ounce bottle of Coke is worth three My Coke Rewards points, and a 12-pack is worth ten My Coke Rewards points. 500 Priority Club points “cost” 160 My Coke Rewards points.

Like I said, when I factor in the amount of time it takes me to enter the codes, there’s no way it’s worth my time. At the same time, my parents own a couple of businesses that go through a lot of sodas, so they collect the tops of the boxes for me. I just can’t bring myself to “throw away” Priority Club points.

At least I’m not digging through the trash for these codes anymore.

So if you’ve been saving up a bunch of My Coke Rewards points without any good use, this would be a good time to cash out!

• To put the “About,” “Ask Lucky,” “Need award help?”, and “Trip Report Index” links across the top of the blog by the header, instead of having them hidden in the sidebar. This is because I still get several emails a week from people asking me what my website is for my award consulting business, so obviously it’s a bit too hidden. The same goes for the other three pages.
• To add a link to my Twitter at the top right of the blog. Yes, I actually do use Twitter quite a bit, and realized I wasn’t doing an especially good job integrating it with my blog. Haven’t been too active lately, though when I have a tech question or am mileage running, I’m usually on Twitter.
• To make the actual text area a bit wider.

Also, in the process, they’ll be changing the placement of ads just a bit. As I start to do my “thing” full time, trying to maximize ad revenue is obviously important, though I’m committed to not littering the blog with ads. So there will be just one minor change — the ad across the bottom of the blog will be removed and replaced with an ad below the first post.

Anyway, just a heads up so that it doesn’t come as a surprise. While it will take a bit of time getting used to, I think it’s better than the current format, which I haven’t changed at all in over three years now, since I started the blog.

Hope to see some of you there!