Posted by Seth on August 31, 2009 under News | 
It has been a while now since Lufthansa bought a sizable minority stake in jetBlue. At the time most of the talk was about investing in a viable carrier on the cheap and very little about the advantages that passengers would realize from the pairing. And apparently that made sense since there wasn’t much that passengers could benefit from. Actually there was nothing. No cross-marketing efforts to speak of, no frequent flier reciprocity and no interlining or code-sharing to speak of.
Fortunately that last one is finally changing. The two carriers have filed paperwork with the DOT to add code-sharing on flights operated by each other. Assuming the filling is approved (and there is no reason it should not be) the initial phase will have Lufthansa placing its code on flights between New Yorks JFK airport and twelve jetBlue destinations:
- Austin, Texas
- Buffalo, N.Y.
- Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
- Fort Myers, Fla.
- New Orleans
- Pittsburgh
- Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
- Rochester, N.Y.
- San Juan, Puerto Rico
- Syracuse, N.Y.
- Tampa, Fla.
- West Palm Beach, Fla.
Not a ton of service there, but it is a good start. No word yet from Lufthansa on what earnings or redemption options there will be with the Miles + More program, but I’d imagine that will be announced soon enough.
Of course this doesn’t actually do too much for jetBlue customers. They still have no real codesharing options with their partners and no ability to even book a flight through jetBlue that involves other carriers. This will change soon enough when the new Sabre reservations system gets implemented in Q1 2010, but it cannot come quickly enough.
Posted by Seth on August 31, 2009 under Trip Reports |
The diving in Anilao, Philippines is ridiculously amazing. Off the charts beautiful. I spent just over 4 hours underwater today and am hoping to spend even more time under tomorrow. With the boat rides to the sites, eating the great food and trying to carve out a bit of time to sleep that doesn’t leave much time for writing great posts here. But I don’t really have to write all that much when I can just post the photos that show how wonderful the underwater environment is here. This is just a sample of the scenes I got to experience today. Minimal bandwidth on the internet connection here precludes me sharing more, but they will be posted soon enough. Enjoy!
Posted by Seth on August 29, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Everyone has their own version of a “solution” to jetlag. Sometimes it is simply that genetics works out in your favor and you’re able to keep going after a short night’s sleep. For me, I believe that it is partly that, partly a strong motivation to stay alert since jetlag inherently means that I’ve traveled somewhere and I probably want to see things there and – most importantly – my personal favorite anti-jetlag method.
It is quite simple, really – a shower and a beer, preferably at the same time. Yup, I hit the lounge on arrival (quite quiet in the Korean Air lounge this morning at 4:45am local time) grab a beer and then hop in the shower. Both the shower and the beer are refreshing, but when combined I feel as though I am truly ready to take on the world. It doesn’t really matter that the beer available this morning is hite, a local Korean brew that doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor to it. I still quite enjoyed it. And the showers at the Prestige Lounge in Seoul Incheon were quite passable. Not a huge room but enough space to put my bags down, clean up and get back out to discover what I can of the city.
Bit of rain out there right now which is mostly a problem in that I packed my raincoat in my checked bag which I won’t see until Manila and I have no umbrella. Still, I’m looking forward to today’s adventures!
Posted by Seth on August 28, 2009 under Uncategorized |
 McLobster Roll |
 Pearl Oyster’s Lobster Roll
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To be fair, I’m not entirely sure how one can actually do a lobster roll wrong. The concept is quite simple: lobster meat, mayonnaise, some seasoning and a delicious roll. Lettuce is apparently an option and it is highly recommended that fries be served on the side. Surely something so simple would be hard to mess up, right?
With the exception of the McLobster (yes, such a thing really exists as evidenced by the photo at the right), I can’t say that I’ve even ever heard of a bad one and that really is no surprise. Still, finding a place where you can sit and enjoy one is always a wonderful experience. And we found another great one last night at Pearl Oyster Bar. The recipe is incredibly simple: Lobster, mayo, salt, pepper, lemon juice and some chives chopped in. I swear there was another seasoning in there but I’m notoriously unreliable on that front so I’m probably just plain wrong. Still, it was delicious. The lobster was a mix of finely chopped and rather large chunks, just enough to help me make a mess of myself when trying to get the big chunks into my mouth. Their rolls are occasionally bemoaned for too much mayo but I did not find that to be the case – and I’m pretty much a mayo hater. Yes, it was a relatively wet mix, but that is necessary in a lobster roll to facilitate the full conveyance of all the little lobster chunks. And they put some fancy lettuce on top for reasons I do not understand. Then there is the bun – buttery goodness that only a cardiologist can love (for future business). The whole thing was quite divine.
It is a good thing, too, as I actually wasn’t all that impressed with the other things we had at dinner. Sure, it was a hot summer day, but I wanted to give the Clam Chowder with Smoked Bacon a try. The best I can give it is a “meh” rating. There was very little evidence of any clam actually in the soup and the smoked bacon bits were minced so small that there wasn’t much chance of getting a true hit of flavor from them. It was an OK soup, but nothing spectacular. Ditto for the blueberry pie we had for dessert. I have to say that it looked a ton better than I think it actually tasted. Again, it wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really do much to wow me. Having heard so much about it I was expecting something more. It is a very solid example of a blueberry pie, but not amazing. I should also note that I’m biased on the blueberry front due to great memories from growing up, but I still don’t think this one was anything special.
Overall dining at Pearl Oyster is a great experience. Be prepared to wait a while for a table (we had a 20 minute wait – though called 45 when we arrived – at 9pm on a Thursday) in a small, cramped waiting area. Or be prepared to leave your name for the list and find somewhere else in the neighborhood to pass the time while you wait for your table. But those are preparations worth making as the food makes up for it in a big way.
Posted by Seth on August 27, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
There is really only one restaurant in Ålesund, Norway that gets much of any sense of reviews on the Internet, at least in English. Sjøbua is a seafood shop located at the end of a small street, and it is THE seafood restaurant in Ålesund. The windows of the dining room open up onto the harbor with some pretty phenomenal views and the food is absolutely top notch. The fact that we actually managed to have a meal there was actually quite a surprise. And it was completely worth it – maybe even worth going out of your way to find.
We tried to dine there on our first night in Ålesund but we were led astray by the review from Frommer’s that suggests they are open on Saturday nights. They are not. And we spent the next five nights camping out in the fjords. It turns out that there was cell phone coverage out there but I didn’t bring mine and I certainly had no desire to interrupt the kayaking with trying to get dinner reservations. So we gambled and simply asked at the front desk of the hotel when we returned to civilization on Friday evening. “I’m very sorry sir, they do not have any tables available. Perhaps you would enjoy dining at the Indian restaurant just up on the corner.” That is the same Indian place that we had dined at the previous Saturday when we found Sjøbua to be closed so that wasn’t going to happen.
We gambled, and we won. We walked in to the restaurant shortly after 7pm and announced ourselves as a walk-in couple and pretty much begged for a table. There was a nice bar area that I would have attempted to dine in had things not worked out but that proved unnecessary in the end. It turns out that there was a 6:30pm reservation for two that never showed. And it was now ours!
The food was delicious. Simply off the charts phenomenal. I can attribute some of that to the fact that we’d been dining off of camping stoves the previous five nights, but those meals were actually pretty good (we have made one of them a regular staple at home now) so it can’t have just been that. The food was actually really that good.
We shared an appetizer and had an entree each. We shied away from the (crazy expensive even for Scandinavia) lobster appetizer and had something a bit more pedestrian, though quite delicious and quite local. It was mussels in a relatively traditional preparation and they were delicious, though not necessarily unique.
The coup de grace of the evening, however, came when the entrees were served. Getting the right amount of sauce to cover an entree is always a challenge. It always seems that you get not enough or the meat is swimming in sauce. Neither is a good way to dine. Sjøbua had quite the appropriate solution to that problem. Our meals were served and then, about 30 seconds later, the waiter showed back up at the table with a small bowl containing extra of the sauce. For one of us that meant more actual sauce, and for the other, a small bowl brimming with perfectly prepared thick cut bacon diced into quarter inch cubes, crispy and delicious.
Don’t get me wrong – it wasn’t just the bacon that made the dish. The Salt Cod Gratinee (it sounds better in the native Norwegian) was phenomenal all on its own. But the addition of a side of bacon to top it off served as the proverbial icing on the cake. Except it was bacon on fish smothered in a creamy sauce. And extra bacon at that. Truly top notch at every turn.
Posted by Seth on August 26, 2009 under Dining |
I actually generally shy away from “traditional” restaurant reviews. I’m not entirely sure why but I’m quite certain that part of it is that I rarely find myself actually eating at places that are reviewed. To that end, I’m reasonably sure that I’ve never actually read a restaurant review from Frank Bruni, the now retired NY Times critic. Still, today his final column was published and i saw a couple references to it so I gave it a quick once-over.
I’m very happy I did, mostly for this one gem:
IS THERE ANY BEST, SAFEST WAY TO NAVIGATE A MENU?
Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you’ve seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef’s heart isn’t in them.
Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef’s vanity — possibly too much of it — spawned these.
Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil.
Choose among the remaining dishes.
The only other bit that I would even consider adding to this list is that, in my experience, chefs are more willing to take risks and experiment with the appetizers than the mains. In an uncertain environment that can lead to many meals that are heavy on the apps for us, including one weekend in San Francisco where nary a main course was seen on our tables.
Now I just have to figure out how to effect such a plan in Seoul this Sunday.
Posted by Seth on August 25, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Forgetting for a minute that travel today was dictated by work (only the second time this year!) and that I was actually busy the entire day, it really was a great day to be out and about. Today’s trip was a quick one – a day trip from New York City to Washington, DC – but it was also two great travel experiences wrapped around a relatively normal work day.
The day started on the train out to JFK and a quick(-ish) flight down to Washington. Yeah, I flew out of JFK. LaGuardia has the shuttle flights, and I intended to fly US Airways to extend the expiration date on my miles there, but I put off booking the flights and by the time I got around to actually doing it the appropriately timed flights from LaGuardia were way too expensive. So I booked out of JFK instead. I was somewhat hoping to fly on American Airlines and catch a new airplane type, the ERJ-135 or –140, but again the fares were too expensive. So I booked on Delta and a CRJ-900 and accepted the relatively crappy seat 16-A that I was able to get during the booking and check-in process (one in the same since I was within 24 hours of the flight time).
The plane turned out to be pretty much empty – I think only one of the pairs of seats had two people in it – so I was able to self upgrade to the exit row seat 13-D. The seat is pretty much the same as the first class seats on that flight in terms of legroom, and I don’t really need the extra width, so as far as I’m concerned I got the good seat on the cheap. The in-flight “service” was questionable – the thought that a 40 minute flight is too short for beverage service is rather laughable considering that from LaGuardia I can have two drinks in that time and that half the plane was asleep – but I was (eventually) able to get a cup of water to enjoy with the yogurt that I liberated from the SkyClub at JFK so it wasn’t all bad, just mostly. But I was flying, and that makes up for a myriad of sins.
The flight was a first for me: my first JFK-DCA segment. Sure, it isn’t particularly exotic like the random flights to Korea and back that I’ll get next week, but it is still a new line of my version of a map of the world and that is always a good thing. Plus it meant getting to watch the climb-out from JFK which is one of my favorites.
And then, about 40 minutes later, I was on the ground at Washington National Airport. Another 20 minutes on the Metro and I was in the office putting out fires and smacking vendors around which is always a good time. Eight hours later and I was headed out of the office and over to Union Station to catch a train back up to NYC. Always a train in the evening. The actual time in transit when using public transportation to and from the stations is the same and the train back to NYC is WAY more reliable in terms of timing. Plus it means a few hours of open bar when sitting up front rather than racing to down two beers on the Shuttle flights. And I’ve done my best to ensure that I drink my fill. It is a bit annoying that the Amtrak lounges have no booze available – even if I wanted to pay for it – but such is life. The fact that the attendant just offered me a double so I’d stop asking for refills is a win in my book.
At the end of the day (which is rapidly approaching, as the sky grows dark outside the train windows) I’m reasonably convinced that pretty much everything went right today. I was out traveling, I wasn’t particularly delayed at either end of my trip and my total travel time round trip was about as good as it could be. Oh, and I had plenty of vodka on the ride home. All in all, a good day. These are the type of business travel days that I remember fondly when I think back to my days as a road warrior travel guy.
Posted by Seth on August 25, 2009 under Uncategorized |
The NY Times ran a piece in today’s print edition (25 Aug 2009) and also online titled “Airlines Are Sweetening Frequent-Flier Programs.” The article focuses on a few recent changes that have come out amongst the various major programs in the United States. They touch on one-way awards from American Airlines, United cutting some fees and Delta adding a new tier and roll-over for extra miles earned. It takes until well into the article – about 60% of the way through – until they get to someone taking a hard look at the reality of the changes from the perspective of the frequent traveler rather than from the industry’s point of view.
That “every man” point of view happens to have been provided by me. And I think that the reporter did a pretty good job of representing my feelings on the topic:
“The legacy airlines especially are doing as much as they can to generate loyalty, and these days that means crazy bonuses — double miles for this, triple miles for that, miles are being given out like candy on Halloween,” Mr. Miller said.
“It’s great now,” he added, but he worries that the airlines’ largess could have a downside. “The question is, what happens when everyone tries to take advantage of all these benefits that are being handed out now? I’ve got elite status, but am I going to be able to get upgrades or will everybody else have status, too?”
That is the crux of every change that the airlines make. The vast majority of them sound great on the surface, but once you dig a bit deeper that often turns out to not be the case. Delta’s new Diamond tier is great – it is essentially what Platinum used to be five years ago – but the qualification level is now 67% higher. American’s one way rewards are fun but I have a habit of generally coming home at the end of a trip (even if my routing is less than direct). And the AA change removed stopovers at international gateways, actually increasing the price of many rewards (particularly the type of trips I like to take). And while I don’t know what United has up their sleeve with regard to the reduced fees, they have plenty of other things they do to artificially limit options for their customers.
The main factor that I feel the article missed is that loyalty in the travel industry is a rather fickle thing. A diehard customer will walk in a heartbeat if they feel inappropriately slighted by such a change or if another carrier shows up with a shinier trinket to dangle in front of them and a reasonable route map and schedule to match. Sure, corporate contracts drive a fair amount of loyalty, but there are plenty of folks out there who, like me, are just looking for the best option available to them. That might be Continental for me today, but that doesn’t mean that it will be in 2010. With each of these changes the programs risk alienating people just as much as they can attract new loyalists.
The key is to make sure that the changes attract more revenue than they lose, and that’s always a challenge for the airlines, even when the revenue is the minimal ~$3000 I gave to get top tier status this year.
Posted by Seth on August 24, 2009 under Uncategorized |
I love postcards. Really, really, really love them. I love sending them and I love receiving them. Sadly, however, it seems to be a dying art.
I seem to be alone (or in a rapidly shrinking population) in my love for the post card. They seem to still be readily available in some places but impossible to find in others. In Norway we were able to find (rather expensive) cards in the over-touristed town of Geiranger but stamps were another endeavor entirely. The hotels all simply have postage meters now rather than real stamps. The card will arrive just the same but it isn’t as much fun.
In Hong Kong I actually struggled to even find post cards. I asked at several hotels and looked in the various stores I passed as I wandered the island. None had cards. Once I finally found cards there was the next adventure – finding stamps. It wasn’t quite as difficult as in Norway, but it certainly wasn’t simple. Fortunately the cards all found their way to the intended recipients.
In India we had quite the adventure getting our post cards home. The post offices there are quite efficient normally and we actually weren’t too troubled with lines or even figuring out how much postage we needed to add to the cards. But the stamps apparently had no glue on the back of them like we’ve come to expect. We did our best with saliva and I’m honestly not sure how they actually made it back to all our friends, but they did. And we came out of it with a great story of wandering Goa and licking (and re-licking) stamps for a couple hours to get them on the way.
One of the current iPhone commercials these days is showing off their “app for that” for sending postcards. They have a picture of Paris and some “wish you were here” text and the person taps and it is sent. That just isn’t the same. Sure, at least one of those services (shootIt!) actually prints and sends a physical post card, not just something electronic, but you don’t get the fun of the random stamp, trying to figure out how much postage you need, the cool postmark from a foreign land and the anticipation of waiting for the cards to arrive at their destination. The fact that postcards generally arrive well after the trip is over actually adds to the fun for me.
There was also the discussion we had with the others in our group as we were on the fjords in Norway. Someone mentioned something about simply sending a text or SMS message when they’re abroad. There’s no sense of place from such an action. I’m not a fan at all.
I’m a huge fan of many things digital. I live online in many ways, both for work and leisure. But when it comes to travel there is still one bit that I’m happy to keep offline: my postcards.
Want to receive a random post card from somewhere around the world? No guarantees, but drop me a line and I’ll see what I can wrangle.
Posted by Seth on August 22, 2009 under Internet |
Earlier in the month there was some big news from in-flight internet provider Row44 – they received approval from the FCC to operate their gear on airplanes in the USA. The other shoe dropped yesterday, with Southwest announcing that they are going to be equipping their entire fleet with the system.
Southwest Airlines and Row 44 are continuing plans to roll out wi-fi beginning in the first quarter of 2010. Beginning this fall, Southwest will be moving to the next step of certifying Southwest’s full fleet with plans to begin fleetwide rollout of the Row 44 satellite service in the first quarter of 2010. The airline has been testing the service on four aircraft since Feb. 2009 and has received fantastic Customer feedback on the product.
Their plans for deployment fleet-wide are not the first (AIrTran Virgin America have previously committed to fleet-wide deployment) but they are the broadest. By far. Southwest operates over 3200 flights/day on about 550 planes. That is a lot of systems for Row44 to sell and a lot of coverage to provide.
The pricing has still not been determined (or at least not announced) so that remains a big question mark. Southwest is different than the other carriers offering WiFi in that their average stage length is much shorter – only ~650 miles per flight. For a per-flight subscription they’d likely have to charge much less than the others to have a fairly valued offering. Or they could just offer a 24-hour plan to cover all the hops on Southwest that day. That makes more sense given the flight patterns and route scheme that Southwest uses.
More coverage from Runway Girl, who apparently got a head’s up prior to the official announcement.
Posted by Seth on August 21, 2009 under Uncategorized |
I’m sure that the thunder storms that blew through the New York City area earlier tonight messed up plenty of folks’ travel plans with delays and other troubles. But they sure made for a beautiful sunset.
Looking down on Jersey from the 29th floor doesn’t suck all that much.
