Posted by Seth on August 27, 2007 under Uncategorized | 
Like flying but want a little more spirituality on your trip? Maybe it is time to book a flight on the Vatican’s newly launched airline. The carrier is actually a chartered 737, and it will focus on flying from Rome’s Fiumicino airport to various Christian pilgrimage sites, including Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the shrine of Fatima in Portugal and Mount Sinai in Egypt.
In-flight entertainment on the way to the world’s holy sites will, somewhat predictably, be religious in nature, the Vatican said.
Also entertaining was the response of European LCC RyanAir, with whom the Vatican is now competing on the Santiago de Compostela route:
“Ryanair already performs miracles that even the Pope’s boss can’t rival, by delivering pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela for the heavenly price of 10 euros,” Ryanair said in a statement.
Way to go on comparing yourself to Jesus.
And for folks who prefer the Jewish approach to religion, Israir is a carrier that offers flights between NYC and Israel and they carry a Torah on board some flights for prayers that are offered during the flight. Good times.
Posted by Seth on August 27, 2007 under Uncategorized |
No more tickets for flying, at least not paper tickets. Gone will be the awesome red “carbon” paper, stickers for changing your date of travel and/or routing and booklets of stubs, stapled together for each trip. Also gone will be the ability to easily walk to another carrier and have them accept your stub as payment (either partial or in full) for getting you to your destination, even if you didn’t buy your ticket from them.
The airlines are going totally electronic.
Most airlines already are totally electronic, and some countries are close (China expects to be there by the end of 2007), but there are a lot who couldn’t be further from an all-electronic environment. Russia requires paper tickets. So does Vietnam. And on our aRound The World trip last summer we had to switch from electronic tickets to paper tickets because of the stops in SGN/HAN.
Still, this is a great benefit overall, as long as it means that all the carriers agree to work together to respect each others’ eTickets, especially for multi-carrier itineraries. That’s usually where the wheels come falling off of plans like this, and I am guessing that this will be no different for trips shortly after the change happens next summer.
Posted by Seth on August 26, 2007 under Uncategorized |
I’m disappointed in myself that it took so long for me to get to NOLA following Katrina. I’ve wanted to visit and do my part to help pump some money into the local economy. Sadly, circumstances have prevented it up until this past weekend. But here I am, sitting on the plane home with a rather noticeable hangover, so I am happy to report that (the tourist side of) NOLA is up and running, full speed ahead.
This was a quick weekend run for a buddy’s bachelor party, so we weren’t spending a lot of time at museums or other cultural establishments, but we did take the opportunity to sample some of Bourbon Street’s finer establishments and experience the scene.
We arrived late on Friday night (actually early Saturday morning) and immediately set out to enjoy the nightlife. Harrah’s casino was planted conveniently between our hotel (Hilton Riverside) and the French Quarter, which meant that we always had a nice air conditioned interlude half way through the walk. After passing through the casino and picking up the other half of our crew who arrived earlier in the day, it was on to drinking. And we did. A lot. I can’t tell you the names of the bars we were in, mostly because it is insignificant and because I was pretty drunk most of the time and didn’t care too much. The beer flowed and we had a pretty good time overall.
Saturday we got to enjoy on of NOLA’s other big draws – food. We ate a lot. First up were beignets at Café du Monde, the original fired dough shop in the Quarter. I remember them being a bit better on my previous visits. They weren’t as puffy as previously, which makes them a bit more rubbery and require more chewing effort, but fried dough is always good for a hangover and these were no exception.
We wandered the Quarter for a couple hours, admiring the architecture and the infamous Bourbon Street by daylight stench. The other key cure for a hangover is to drink more, so when we found ourselves wandering past Pat O’Brien’s we really felt compelled to duck inside to their back yard and sample the glory that is the hurricane, originally created at POB’s. The hurricane is one of Bourbon Street’s most famous concoctions, known for trashing people the way a real hurricane trashes cities. Drinking several Hurricanes in succession will likely result in a gutter-visiting experience. In our case the Hurricane was just what we needed to reset our balance and get on with the rest of the day.
Back out on the streets, we eventually found ourselves in the vicinity of Felix’s, the “other” oyster house on Iberville Road. I say “other” because across the street from Felix’s is Acme Oyster House, one of NOLA’s most renowned restaurants. Despite its efforts to keep the casual, come as you are attitude, however, Acme often feels stuffy to me. Maybe it is because it is cleaner. Or maybe because they have the same ropes set up outside that are used for airport security lines. Either way, it isn’t as local an experience in my opinion. So we walked in to Felix’s and the two guys working the counter immediately set to shucking, and talking. Boy did they talk. One of the guys (Mike, I think) claims to be the defending state oyster shucking champion, and he was more than happy to tell us about the competition and his skills. They also were happy to keep serving up oysters right on the bar until we cut them off. The cocktail sauce needs help, and the horseradish that they have is liquefied somehow, so they lose major points for those issues, but the atmosphere was great and the oysters were top notch.
Mike also treated us to a display of one of his Oyster shucking tricks – the long range oyster toss and catch. It was pretty impressive as one of the guys in our party, Quinn, managed to catch an oyster tossed to him from about 10-15 feet away. Thus ended our Felix’s experience with 3 dozen in us and it was time to roam to the next dining spot.
Not everyone in the group was up for the oysters, and we all realized that it was time for some real food to help fortify against the alcohol, so back we wandered through the quarter to a little shop called Oceana. Typical Louisiana style cooking, with lots of blackened anything, gumbo, jambalaya and gator bites. All of it was delicious, and we got to serenade our wait staff as an added bonus (though probably not for them or any of the other folks in the restaurant). At this point we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and we ambled back to the hotel for some pool-side relaxation and naptime before the evening fun, with a stop along the way at one of the many daquiri bars for some cold refreshment in the form of a Jester – part Grain and part 151, with a lot of sugar to top it off.
Dinner was originally planned for Emeril’s but we decided that our alcohol consumption was too high to truly appreciate the nuance of his cooking style, so we failed back to the local cuisine and Pat O’Brian’s again. They talked us out of ordering the 3 gallon Hurricane, which is probably a very, very, very good thing, but they definitely kept the food and beer flowing. More gumbo, jambalaya and po’ boys and we were all stuffed pretty good. I think that the food was slightly better at Oceana, but still passable. I also think that the versions we got at both restaurants were the sanitized version of the meals, focused on tourists and making it taste like the mix at home does, rather than real Cajun-style cooking. There wasn’t much heat (spice, not temperature) to the meals and they seemed a bit bland. Then again, we were dining in places off of Bourbon Street and I’m not surprised but the level of food that we got for what we chose to do.
And then back to bars and eventually the casino (which had a pretty hopping bar that wasn’t nearly as dingy as the ones on Bourbon Street) and then the hotel and an early wake-up call to head back to the airport and come back home. I was on the ground in NOLA for 34 hours – a short trip to be certain – but the town is alive and thriving and looking for more folks to come on down and play.
Posted by Seth on August 26, 2007 under Uncategorized |
Airplane food is, in general, bad. Sometimes it ranges up to mediocre, and very rarely (international carrier C/J/F dining) will it actually be good. But for the most part it is bad. I don’t depend on the airline to feed me as a mainstay of my travel, and with that policy I have yet to be truly disappointed.
That being said, I get upgraded pretty often (~90% of the time on Continental), and that often includes a snack/meal as well, so I find myself eating on an airplane rather frequently. I like the soups that they serve, and occasionally the other part of the meal is OK. But I find myself constantly facing off against my dining nemesis while on board: The Russell Stover Almond Delight. The Almond Delight has been the mainstay of the first class dining tray for at least 5 years, and probably a lot more. The soup options vary. The salad changes every now and then. The sandwich changes pretty often. And the dessert is still that bite size Almond Delight.
Maybe it is because I don’t like almonds that I care so much, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why the dessert hasn’t changed in 5+ years. Did Continental get a good deal on them but had to buy in bulk so they’re just trying to clear out the inventory? Does everyone other than me love them so much that they are being requested by all the other passengers? Who knows?
But there it sits on my tray table this afternoon, mocking me with the smug knowledge that I’m not going to eat it, and that another flight will go by with dessert winning the battle over my belly.
Posted by Seth on August 23, 2007 under Uncategorized |
Fine dining may just be the best pick-me-up ever. And when you’re already feeling good, fine dining is just a phenomenal thing. Such was the case for me a couple weeks ago when my wife took me out for my birthday dinner. Our destination was WD-50, the NYC outpost for Wylie Dufresne. Wylie has a very distinct cooking style, focusing on combining different flavors – ones that wouldn’t normally be considered – to come up with options that are truly strange, but in a good way. The mix of textures, flavors and ingredients, not to mention cooking styles, ends up with a menu that is confusing as hell to read, but sublime to taste. Rather than going for the canned tasting menu that is offered, we chose to make our own tasting menu of sorts. And so we had three apps, two entrees and three desserts. Sure, it was a lot of food, but it was so good we didn’t mind too much. Among the highlights:
- Grilled octopus, avocado, juniper, lychee-campari
- Smoked eel, blood orange zest, black radish, chicken skin
- Wagyu flat iron, coffee gnocchi, coconut, cipollini, sylvetta
- Pork belly, smoked yucca, romaine, papaya
And that was the one that made me cry. I’m not entirely sure why, but there was a combination of flavors that I just couldn’t contain myself on. The pork belly was incredibly well prepared but the smoked yucca was the key. According to the waiter the smoked yucca is based on a smoked mashed potato side that used to be served back in the day. In this case, the smoked yucca were cubes of shredded smoked yucca. The smoky flavor ties back to the pork in such a way that it actually tasted like it might have been fried in pork fat rather than “healthy” oil. I’m not saying it actually was healthy, but I’m guessing it was better than fried in pork fat.
Anyways, we also had a few desserts, including the Soft chocolate, avocado, licorice, lime
and Fried butterscotch pudding, mango, taro, smoked macadamia. Both were quite delicious, though I’m still not sure how licorice, lime and avocado taste so good when mixed with chocolate.
And so, if you have the means, I highly recommend the WD-50 dining experience. It isn’t an everyday type of meal, but it is certainly worthwhile for a celebration.
Posted by Seth on August 9, 2007 under Uncategorized |
When I was younger some friends and I “dined around the world” at Epcot one time – tried to eat at as many of the countries there as possible in a single day. You might be surprised how difficult it is to actually get them all in, both from a time and cost perspective. I think we only managed to get to 6 or 8 during our visit. Now that I traveling for real instead of just going to a Disney park, I have the opportunity to dine around the world for real. Whether it is steamed buns filled with sweet bean paste at the dock on the Chao Phraya in Bangkok, sushi from a hole in the wall restaurant in Narita, langoustine ravioli in Paris or any of a number of great meals I’ve had here in NYC, the opportunity to eat great food is one that I will savor forever.
Fortunately (in this regard, at least), work keeps me on the road a fair amount, so that also means finding places to eat that may not be the best meal ever, but they are comfortable and tasty when done correctly. On this week’s trip to Boston I managed to discover one such place: Nebo.
Located in a bit of no man’s land between Government Center, the North End and the new Garden, and just outside the North End station on the Blue and Green lines of the T, Nebo is basically an upscale pizzeria. They also happen to have the kitchen open late, so at 10pm when I needed dinner, they were the place to go for me. Nice amount space inside and a pretty long bar, both of which I appreciate. Plus a couple of nice flat screen TVs above the bar so I could catch the end of the Mets-Braves game didn’t hurt the situation.
The bartender on Wednesday night, Lisa, is one of the managers who just happened to also be tending bar. The service was pretty good, though it was a slow night (just me and two other couples in there that late) so she did get a bit distracted with dealing with the staff/kitchen stuff when I could have used a refill, but nothing so egregious that I really was bothered.
The drinks were a little light on the pour, in my opinion, though charged for as such. A Kettle One on the rocks, my drink of choice, should be a lowball glass, filled with ice and then filled with vodka. At most there should be about 3/4 of an inch at the top of the glass with no Vodka in it. In reality that is about 2.5-3 ounces of Vodka. A healthy pour to be sure, but the right amount considering what most places charge for the drink. In this case the pour was 1.5 ounces, carefully measured using the metered pour spouts. As I said, a bit light on the pour, but it was also rather less expensive than I would normally pay for the drink, so it is probably a wash.
The food, however, was phenomenal. I initially was debating between pasta and a pizza, as the 16” pie is often too much food to finish, and I don’t like to waste. Lisa was emphatic about trying the pizza, and I’m glad I listened to her. I had the scampi pizza, topped with shrimp, pecorino romano, garlic and evoo. It was delicious. I had no problem finishing the entire thing, and probably would’ve eaten more given the opportunity.
I am very much looking forward to returning to Boston, preferably on a night where there are a few more people in the place, to enjoy the atmosphere and the food again. This is definitely one that I’m putting on my keepers list. And maybe next time I’ll just order a double and not fret about the pour.
Posted by Seth on August 9, 2007 under Uncategorized |
It is not often that a new airline shows up, but it happened yesterday as Virgin America took to the skies. The brain child of Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic fame, Virgin America looks to be a hybrid of JetBlue and Virgin Atlantic. They are based in San Francisco and initial routes are to JFK and LAX. They are planning to add Vegas and Washington-Dulles into the mix very soon.
The seats look pretty nice, and if they can get to the service level they are talking about it’ll be a very comfortable way to fly. The part that confuses me is that they are trying to make their money flying on transcon routes (SFO/LAX/LAS – JFK/IAD). Those are very long flights, which means you have to extract all your money from fewer passengers, since the plane is in use more on longer flights. Yet they are also competitive on the pricing for the flights. It didn’t work for Independence Air (and they did have shorter flights), so maybe I’m way off base, but here’s hoping that they provide another enjoyable option for flying. I probably won’t get to fly them until December, so I’ll just have to live vicariously through others until then.
Posted by Seth on August 2, 2007 under Uncategorized |
For one thing, they are a PITA to get processed right now. Waiting 14+ weeks is crazy. But that is a different rant.
My problem is actually with the embedded RFID chip in the passports. The US government pushed ridiculously hard to get these chips embedded in passports worldwide, based on the (false) assumption that they would be more secure and more difficult to forge. They aren’t, but that’s not even the worst part. Because they are now computerized, they are vulnerable to attack. RFIDs have long been known to be susceptible to skimming, where the content of one chip is copied and loaded onto another chip. As an added bonus, it is possible to modify the data before loading it on to the new chip. So take a passport, read some data off of it, modify it and then walk up to a passport station and see what fun ensues.
In the case of this guy, it may result in a ICE official who is none too happy with you. See, it turns out that there are some known issues in the file format used to store the copy of your passport picture on the RFID chip, so a minor change can result in a buffer overflow on the reader – the type of thing that is known to crash computers and leave them vulnerable to attack. So far he’s successfully crashed two different brands of readers, and he didn’t really have to try too hard.
I wish I was in Vegas tomorrow to go hear him speak about this, but, alas, I must slave away instead to fund the next few vacations.
Oh, and I did make sure to renew my passport a little early last time around, just to make sure I didn’t get one of the fancy new ones with the RFID chip in it. I’d hate to have to buy a leaded leather wallet for it. Hopefully things will be better in 8 years when renewal time rolls around.
Posted by Seth on August 2, 2007 under Uncategorized |
After two months of flight cancellations and the associated PR nightmare due to pilot shortages, NWA and their pilots union have agreed to terms that will hopefully allow for fewer cancelled flights this month. Basically the pilots will get overtime for flight time over 80 hours, rather than the 90 hours mark that they agreed to in the renegotiation of their contracts a while back. And the pilots will get a 15% bonus, just for showing up to work every day in August. No real details on what NWA gets out of the deal, other than “contract changes on work rules related to international flying and settled some outstanding grievances.”
It seems to me that the pilots made out pretty good on this one, and the passengers will benefit as well by not having flights cancelled. And the CEO will probably get to keep his job a few more months by not plunging the carrier back into bankruptcy.
So who is the big loser? I can’t figure it out, but there’s got to be one out there somewhere…
Posted by Seth on August 2, 2007 under Uncategorized |
It seems to me that lately companies are turning to fees and surcharges, rather than increasing rates/fares much more than they used to. Back in 2000/2001 there was a power “shortage” and some hotels in California and other places started tacking an electricity surcharge on to their hotel bills. It was something like $3/night, and they didn’t mention it until checkout. They caught a lot of bad press for it, but ultimately they collected a lot of extra revenue this way, rather than just raising room rates by $3/night. Even phone companies do it these days, with my personal favorite, the “Regulatory Cost Recovery Charge.” In other words, they have a surcharge for the “cost” of collecting all the other fees and taxes.
For airlines, the biggest culprit has been the AY (or YQ) Fuel Surcharge fee that is charged on many itineraries. While US law prohibits this fee from being added in addition to the base fare, such is not the case in most foreign countries. In many cases the Fuel Surcharge can be $120 or more on a ticket. Actually flying to the UK in low season can often be a $200 base fare and >$200 in taxes, fees and surcharges on the ticket.
It turns out that, much like all the other pricing actions that airlines engage in, some of these fuel surcharges were actually the result of collusion, not just airlines deciding on their own to raise fees. The US Department of Justice and British Office of Fair Trade have just fined British Airways $350MM and $250MM, respectively, based on their collusion with Virgin Atlantic on fixing the fuel surcharge fees on TATL flights from the UK. Virgin Atlantic managed to escape un-fined by cooperating with authorities, which means that they get to keep the ~$600MM that they raked in on these extra fees while their rival, BA, has to give the money back to the government. And all the while the passengers still got screwed.
