I grew up on Long Island, and one of my favorite things in the world is a good Jewish-style Delicatessan. Sadly, while there are a few outside of New York worth eating at in a pinch (and some of the better ones in Los Angeles certainly have their partisans), the best deli food can be especially hard to find in my travels. There’s certainly not any worth mentioning in my home town of DC.

So when I head to New York I almost invariably have to seek out my favorite Pastrami, which comes from Katz’s on the Lower East Side.

More often than not I’m busy, and have any number of restaurant meals booked and obligated, and so I’ll find the only chance to head over there being on the way out of town. No matter how little time I have left, it’s a must-do. And a couple of weeks ago was no exception.

Now, being the sucker that I am for this kind of food, and being nostalgic for my childhood, I can find it hard to resist on the street as well. Not nearly as many food carts offer knishes as used to, so when I find one that does — against my better judgment — I’m unable to pass it by.

This time was no exception:

But I really should know better, it’s not as though a knish on the street is going to be the best I can do. In this case I was paying for the decision over the next couple of hours before heading over to try out the new Lotus of Siam.

Fortunately, Katz’s was a Sunday afternoon opportunity to redeem the deli component of the trip. I’ve written about Katz’s before, it’s almost always packed on a weekend afternoon and always delivers the goods.

Here’s the packed entrance and exit

And the chaotic lines to wait in for food

They do have tables with waiter service alone the side of the restaurant. Otherwise, just send someone in your party to stake out a table while you wait for your food. The place to start is with the sandwiches, and each sandwich maker — known as a cutter since they’re slicing the meat fresh for you — has their own line. Do your best to judge the shortest, it’s usually farther in, though personally I always pick the same line, the guy who is an institution there and is usually in the background whenever there are TV shots of the place. Great guy, but he can be slow if he winds up chatting while helping one of the regulars.

This is, of course, the restaurant used in the famous “I’ll have what she’s having” scene from “When Harry Met Sally.”

There are separate lines for sides like cole slaw and drinks (gotta go with Dr. Brown’s), and also for knishes and the like though I just had my guy grab a couple of knishes while helping me out with sandwiches in order to save a line.

Now, I should say — in my opinion only their Pastrami is actually stand out. Everything else is merely fine, but not the absolute best in New York deli food.

I had everything package to go because of time, even though I planned to eat in the restaurant. My original flight home was cancelled, I had spent time messing with that and had organized a booking on an earlier train. Time was tight.

So the presentation wasn’t much. But I wasn’t there for the presentation.

The main event was of course the pastrami.

We finished our sandwiches, grabbed a cab and headed to Penn station .. arriving literally as our train came up on the board, and only after walking the last several blocks to the station because of traffic. Katz’s had nearly cost us our train back to DC, but it was certainly worth it.

Update: As studio253 notes in the comments, and as I should have mentioned, Katz’s is cash only. They give each person a ticket on the way in, the ticket is noted with how much you owe for your food, and you pay on the way out. Now, my wife and I go in and they hand us two tickets. I just have them put everything on one, pay off of that, but return both the used ticket with pricing and the blank one as we leave.

Bed bugs are certainly a problem, they vex even the best hotels, frustrate and infuriate travelers, and keep pest control companies in business.

Now, apparently, the federal government is getting involved.

In keeping with the best of government traditions, the Federal Bed Bug Work Group is hosting its second national summit Feb. 1-2 in Washington to brainstorm about solutions to the resurgence of the tiny bloodsuckers that have made such an itch-inducing comeback in recent years.

The effort is widespread across the federal government, and this is apparently not DC’s first foray into the issue.

Several federal agencies participate in the Federal Bed Bug Work Group: the Environmental Protection Agency, the deapartments of Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Defense and Commerce, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The EPA organized the first federal bedbug summit last year.

Apparently even a federal office building (the USAID offices in the Ronald Reagan Building) had bedbugs.

Someone my best guess is that a solution to the problem isn’t going to come from D.C., though I also suppose there are far worse things they could be spending their time thinking about.

(Via Jeff Miron.)

While we’re on the subject of food, one of my old standbys used to be Bistrot Lafeyette in Old Town Alexandria. It wasn’t great and certainly never innovative, but a very reliable French bistro serving classic dishes. It also wasn’t high end, the escargot would be from a can, but you’d always get exactly what you expected.

A couple of weeks ago I went back. It had been awhile, because the place had seemed to deteriorate the previous time I was in and I was in no rush to return. And I was really disappointed by what I found.

• No more baguettes, just hard rolls.

• The french onion soup had a piece of white bread on top. White bread.

• The hanger steak with fries used to be one of my favorites, with fries that were just incredible. They changed the sauce on the steak not so much to my liking but the fries were truly inexcusable: they actually served the crisscut fries, limp, that tasted as though they were frozen from the back at the supermarket.

I mentioned this last item to the server who just said “yeah, the fries are different” and that was that. It used to be one of my favorite weekned lunch spots, or a reliable place to pop into after work on a Friday night. Now I doubt I’ll be back.

This week I went to dinner at Michel, Michel Richard’s new restaurant at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner.

The space was previously home to the amazing Maestro, which closed when the chef moved to New York to open there … right at the start of the financial crisis, his restaurant there didn’t work and he’s on his way back to DC.

Tyler Cowen gave the place “an enthusiastic thumbs-up”. I take his recommendations seriously and find that for strip mall restaurants he’s invariably spot on but that we disagree more often than not with fine dining. He loves Komi, I find it especially hit or miss. I reviewed The Fat Duck outside London, and he thought the meal seemed like ‘B.S.’ and while I had mixed emotions about the place I think I took it much more seriously.

Like Tyler Cowen, I thought that the entrees seemed boring, though it’s somewhat hard to say without discussing each one with the wait staff. Menu items are underdescribed, they’re listed with a basic name that tells you little about their preparation or what if anything is served with the dish. And since I’ll often make my tie-breaking decisions based on sides (which have their own, separate menu listing here so are additional) that’s frustrating for me. Still, I get what the chef wants here — surprise, whimsy. And it’s easily overcome through a discussion with your server. But it’s still not to my liking.

The restaurant has an open kitchen, with clear glass separating it from the dining room which is open as well and doesn’t dampen acoustics in the least. It was hard to hear conversations at first, except those from the tables beside us.

With an open kitchen they clearly need a better disciplined kitchen staff, as they were using dirty kitchen rags and a dishwasher could be seen eating from someone’s station.

The menu seemed to have some overlap with Richard’s other restaurants, for instance the chocolate bar dessert and the charcuterie plate, both highlights of Central.

Given the relatively uninteresting-sounding entrees, my wife and I stuck with all appetizers and ordered three apiece as separate courses.

Now, the menu is slightly different in the restaurant, or at least while we were there, than what’s listed on the website. There weren’t any specials, just the preprinted menu, and it was on heavy enough cardstock that I’m guessing it isn’t a menu for the evening only. So they may want to .pdf a replacement online.

They brought out a basket of bread and butter, the bread was fine but this is one of the first things I notice at a restaurant that aspires to greatness. Have they done anything interesting with the bread, or perhaps the butter? So many places don’t, it’s a lost opportunity. 2941 Restaurant in Falls Church used to have amazing breads. Perhaps butter will be flavored, not everyone has to offer such exceptional butter as Tetsuya does in Sydney (there’s nothing in the world like his truffle butter, I could easily make a meal of bread there and eat nothing else) but I don’t think it should be an afterthought.

Before our courses came out they brought a basket of gougères to the table to share.

We began with the smoked salmon terrine and the beef tartare.

The smoked salmon terrine was excellent:

But the beef tartare was anything but. Normally beef tartare is made with capers or cornishons and raw onions, a bit of red wine or red wine vinegar. But in this case the beef was almost purple in color, it tasted like spoonfuls of red wine vinegar, it was tough to taste the flavor of the meat.

For our next course, we had the eel carpaccio. It was an interesting idea, and the eel flavor was excellent, but it was drowned out by the sauce. It actually reminded me of the local sushi buffet around the corner from my office. They used to offer generous pieces of fresh fish, but then had a change in ownership and revamped the buffet. They began offering thinner slices of fish and covering most of it in sauce. I stopped going. Perhaps Michel Richard went to lunch there and liked it.

The escargot tart was another really interesting idea but the execution didn’t fulfill its promise. The escargot was tossed in pesto, put on what amounted to a pizza. The dough raw in the middle and overcooked on the outside. The escargot was among the least prominent tastes in the dish, since it had cheese and oil and vinegar on the arugula and a sauce as well, there was simply too much going on.

The third course picked up a bit. The onion carbonara was both interesting and enjoyable. The onions were sweated and tossed in a carbonara sauce, presented like a plate of pasta.

The scallops were perfectly cooked, probably too salty but well prepared. They were topped with onion straws which could have been excellent, but instead tasted stale. They could hardly have been freshly made for dinner service.

For dessert we were tempted to order the snowman, which was ice cream inside a meringue shell and shaped like, wait for it, a snowman. Cute and interesting idea. But with an open kitchen, able to see two full sheet trays of them (more than could possibly be used in a single dinner service), they lost their appeal and we decided to try other items instead.

The profiteroles topping vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce were good though not great. Their take on profiteroles were a bit unusual, hard rather than soft, no objection but I don’t think I’d order them again.

On the other hand, the marjolaine cake tasted excellent: layers of chocolate mousse, cake, pistachio and ganache. The chocolate sauce was on the plate long enough to form a scab, and the cake’s pistachio layers were bright green with food coloring while the pistachio sauce on the plate without any dye didn’t match. Just little things that I would have expected a restaurant that aspires to replace Maestro and hit real heights for Northern Virginia dining to pay attention to. The cake did taste excellent, however.

Ultimately the food was fine for a hotel restaurant in the area, but it’s hardly a must go or top dining experience. I had expected more. Three appetizers and a dessert each for two people came to about $140 with tax and tip, excluding drinks. Not terrible, but not a real value either, and not worth driving out to Tysons for if you’re not already there. Me, I’ll stick to Central where I know what to expect and they seem to meet those somewhat more modest expectations every time.

Chris Elliott writes about a man who was asked to stand onboard a Spirit Airlines flight, or so he says.

The man is apparently 6′ 7″ and that’s just pretty tall to be suffering a coach seat.

The average economy class seat “pitch” on a Spirit Airlines Airbus A321 — the distance between seats on an aircraft — is between 30 and 31 inches, which is well below the industry standard and hardly enough room for a big guy.

Except, no, that isn’t well below the industry standard. Industry standard for coach seating is 31 inch pitch (distance from seat back to seat back). So some seats on Spirit may be an inch shy and others equivalent to industry standard, but certainly not ‘well below.’ (And according to Spirit, seating on the A321 does have industry average 31 inch pitch.)

Now, according to SeatGuru the average pitch on one of Spirit’s other aircraft, the Airbus A320, has only 28″ pitch in coach. It would be fair to say that’s well below industry average. But it’s not fair or correct for Elliott to say that the Airbus A321 is.

Now I’m second to no one in my belief that it’s just a downright silly decision to fly Spirit. I don’t think I’ve ever had a positive thing to say about the airline, or can even really think of one.

But in this case, the criticism really seems to miss the mark.

Someone who is too tall to sit in a coach seat shouldn’t buy a coach seat. Elliott thinks they should have been given an exit row or bulkhead seat. Spirit charges for advance seat assignments, which can be paid for during the booking process. They specifically advertise more legroom starting at $25. This customer, well aware of their height, should have purchased additional legroom.

The passenger’s wife says that “this is more like a handicap” so presumably she thinks he should be given those seats for free.

The flight attendants suggested he stand, but nowhere is it suggested that he was actually ‘required’ to stand as the column suggests. That’s a reasonable suggestion for when the seat belt sign is off, and of course for during flight and not for takeoff or landing. Elliott acknowleges it’s legal, I think it was quite customer friendly, some flight attendants might argue that he should have to remain seated ‘for security’ reasons. Instead, they were trying to help him cope with the standard seats he chose to purchase.

If he’s got ‘a handicap’ (and I’ve never heard of height as a protected class), then he should be well aware of the challenges and investigate and plan accordingly. Here it seems the $25 for extra legroom would make meaningful sense. And I don’t blame Spirit.

Now, the airline isn’t the most helpful. Eliiott says that he and the passenger have emailed the airline and not gotten useful answers. Though it seems to me that the useful answers are on the airline’s website, under seating policies, and they should ask about buying up to seats with more legroom (which can be done during the booking processs, or at this point at the airport for the return flight if those seats are still available).

Instead, here’s what Elliott believes:

So what should Spirit have done? A flight attendant should have offered to switch Anderson’s son to a bulkhead or emergency exit row, which typically has more legroom. Failing that, the crew should have tried to upgrade him into a premium seat, which has 36 inches of seat pitch.

Of course, it’s not clear that those seats were unoccupied. And Spirit charges for those seats. I believe the passenger should have planned ahead and been willing to pay for them. Normally I suggest flying another airline, because Spirit just isn’t worth its cheap fares, but on the whole they would have faced the same challenges elsewhere.

What do you think, should tall people receive priority for complimentary upgrades, as Elliott seems to think?

This venn diagram will help clarify the similarities and differences between doctors, prostitutes, and the TSA.

(Via Boing Boing via Chad W.)

Alfred Kahn, frequently credited as the father of airline deregulation, passed away.

While Kahn was certainly an important voice for deregulation, and made important positive contributions to the economy and played a key role in the legislation sponsored by Senator Kennedy which deregulated the airline industry while serving as the Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, he was continuing down a path that had already been set in motion by his predecessor at the CAB, John Robson.

Under Robson the CAB ‘experimented with price competition’ the radical notion that airlines would be permitted to lower their prices without formal proceedings in Washington, DC. And the world didn’t end, though most airlines opposed deregulation because the government had essentially guaranteed airline profitability by refusing to permit competition, either in prices or even in services. Robson passed away in 2002.

But Kahn did more than help deregulate the airlines. A consummate economist, throughout his career in public service he pushed ideas like peak pricing for energy use, ideas which make sense but are rarely popular.

It’s a rare moment in history, and takes rare individuals, for good economics to triumph over bad politics. And for his role in such a moment Kahn deserves to be remembered.

Two weeks ago I posted about the worst first class flight I’ve ever experienced. It was Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Mumbai, and it was really unlike anything I’d ever experienced. Service-wise I hadn’t seen anything like it in coach even. I was totally flummoxed, and though folks said I should have spoken to the purser about the experience inflight and asked to be served by someone else, in the moment it was so challenging that I just wanted the flight to be over and it didn’t seem like anything could possibly be done other than wait for our arrival in India.

Well, shortly after I posted a woman working for Lufthansa posted in the comments. See, her job used to include participating in the Flyertalk forums (as “LHRelate”) and I had friended her on facebook. Since I publish the blog to my facebook page, she saw what I had written and .. on a Sunday morning.. was on the case.

I was contacted by senior folks at Lufthansa on Monday morning. They asked me for a few details beyond what I published on the blog, let me know that it would take several days to get back to me while they investigated with various departments, but that they took my experience seriously and they would be back with me.

I promised in an update on my post about the flight that I’d update folks here on the resolution, so I thought I’d share Lufthansa’s response.

It took about a week but I got a note this past Wednesday asking for a time we might speak. I sent them my cell phone number and they called immediately.

They started out with an apology as expected. They let me know that they had sent my entire blog post to a couple of different departments, including to review with the flight attendant in question.

A few details were shared with me that I won’t repeat here, but they seemed to take my concerns seriously. The man who called me said that in his years at Lufthansa he could count on one hand the number of complaints that had reached them about first class service. I understand — Lufthansa’s seats and video aren’t the best in first class (though they’re putting in new seats), but the service is at the very least overall very consistent. I wouldn’t expect many complaints about the service, and indeed my other two Lufthansa first class segments on the trip (and all of them on past trips) have always had perfectly fine service, ranging from exactly as one expects to quite good.

He did say that they wanted to compensate me for the experience, that the tickets were booked with US Airways miles and that he was limited in the number that he could offer of those, that I wasn’t much for Miles & More (though I suppose if I leave enough miles in my bmi account when it converts over that might no longer be the case), so compensating me in miles probably wouldn’t do enough. Besides, he rather guessed I had lots of US Airways miles (with a knowing laugh, he seemed well aware of the propensity for folks to buy US Airways miles or earn lots of them via promos and cash them in for Lufthansa first class).

So instead he suggested that I take my wife to a very nice dinner, and send him the bill.

It was a real gesture, one that would cost them actual money (as opposed to sending along a certificate, perhaps discount on future travel with Lufthansa or for duty free as I rather expected they’d do). And it meant a lot.

Lufthansa has certainly been paying attention to social media lately, I expect that noting my experience on a blog got more attention that it might otherwise but the egregious nature of the flight and the fact that it was in first class no doubt warranted the attention as well.

And I for one do feel like they went to lengths to demonstrate they were concerned about the service lapse, were addressing it internally, and were serious about ‘making it up to me.’

With snow creeping out along the East Coast, the forecast for DC today was 6-12 inches. And the entire DC area panics at the thought of an inch or two. Dulles, National, and BWI all paralyze. So I rather figured I wouldn’t be making it home this afternoon.

Flying Alaska Airlines (out of a destination with only Horizon service, but fortunately benefiting from one of those $99 companion tickets that come with the Alaska Airlines Visa from Bank of America, I didn’t have a ton of options. Alaska doesn’t have very many East Coast flights, and the weather was looking worse for Newark and Boston.

There were seats to Chicago, but only coach. Atlanta and St. Louis were looking like my best bets. I’d expect to overnight, and grab a flight on Monday morning early enough for work. But the early American flight out of St. Louis was zeroed out… so I figured I’d go to Atlanta. A cheap airport hotel and a $106 one-way up from Atlanta would have me to work by 9am.

While Alaska Airlines folks are uniformly friendly, they don’t seem quite as sophisticated as United during irregular operations.

With United I’ve usually managed to get protected on an alternate flight. I’d have stuck with my DC flight, and if it didn’t go I’d hope over to the Atlanta flight leaving 40 minutes later. No one at Alaska that I spoke to seemed to be able to ‘protect me’ with a bakcup reservation, I had to pull the trigger one way or another.

So I let it ride. And I woke up this morning to the forecast improving for DC. Still, the most recent data was suggesting about 3 inches and the heaviest snowfall around the time we’d expect to be landing. Alaska was showing our flight on decision around flight time, with no updates expected earlier.

And I watched as inventory was shrinking on the alternate flights I was looking at… the Atlanta flight was down to 3 in first class, and other flights were selling out (not surprising for the Sunday after Christmas!). I decided to pull the trigger. It took an agent half an hour on the phone while I was heading to the obscure little airport with only four flights a day, but they got it taken care of. I was happy, I had a plan, and I’d make a night of it in Atlanta. The agent seemed pretty confident that my original flight would be cancelled, so at least I wasn’t the only one that thought so.

Only I arrived in Seattle and our flight was now showing on-time. I headed to the Boardroom and the agents there said that the weather was iffy but the DC flight looked like a go. I asked them to switch me back, the seats I had given up an hour before were still there. But .. those friendly agents couldn’t do anything. They walked me over to the kiosk at the end of the desk, but since it wouldn’t switch my destination they told me they couldn’t either and I’d have to leave the club and get in line at customer service. Really?

No big deal, only a couple of folks ahead of me, and the once-again friendly agent there switched me right back and I returned to the club for some pancakes.

The flight took off ontime, I’m posting via in-flight wifi, and I’m appreciating getting protected on United and the help of the sometimes less-than-friendly agents at the Red Carpet Club who can at least handle rebookings with greater dexterity. Though I do wish those clubs would get pancake machines. Oh, and I wish United would match Alaska with the inflight wifi, and Alaska would match United with seat power. I can manage the transcon on my battery Eastbound just fine, but those Westbound flights remind me that I need to carry some backup juice.

Hyatt wanted to highlight the benefits of the Gold Passport program.. which for general members became especially attractive a year and a half back when they lifted capacity controls on their hotels, if there’s a standard room available at a property you can have that room with your points. And which for elites became especially attractive as well, they were the first chain to introduce free internet (and for all elites, not just top tier). And they won a Frequent Traveler Award for “Best Elite Level” in both North America and Asia Pacific, as well as a Loyalty Leadership Award for introducing confirmed suite upgrades four times annually for their Diamond members, providing top tier elites the benefit they want most when they decide they most want it.

So they asked if I’d give away some points on the blog before the holiday, when many members are considering which program they want to focus on in the year to come.

And I was thrilled, because I love giving away points to my readers. And they offered enough for several free nights, or even two free nights at any Hyatt in the world.

The Official Entry Thread had 1,011 entries prior to the deadline.

I used Random.org to generate a number..

.. and commenter Harvey Mechanic is the lucky winner of 44,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points.

Harvey, they’ll be in touch soon!

We’re halfway through the contest period, you have until noon Eastern on December 25 to enter (by leaving a comment – easy!) in my giveaway of Gold Passport points, thanks to Hyatt.

Full details here.

After passport control and an extensive security check, where we were selected and taken over to a side screening area in the terminal, we made it to our gate for United’s old-style 777 to Washington-Dulles.

Approaching the gate there was a man directing everyone to see one of several US agents with laptops, they were re-entering everyone’s passport information and then being told to queue for the flight. No sitting around the gate area, everyone must get in line! And it wasn’t time for boarding yet..

There was a general boarding line and a priority line, after we had our passport data re-entered we were walked to the front of the priority line. We got a couple of nasty looks, and the man directing everyone asked why we had gone to the front of the line? I simply pointed to the “Man From the Government” and said, “He told us to stand here.” End of discussion.

They called boarding and I was soon onboard the United 777. Now, in some ways this was like old home week or even stepping back in time. I hadn’t flown United’s old-style international first class in three years, though I had been in the cabin countless times before that. It was just like I rememered! I actually got a tinge of excitement.

My wife knows the drill. Old United suite, the first thing she must do is test the seat, going into full recline mode and then switching it back. That way we’d know if there’s anything wrong with the seat prior to takeoff, while it would still be possible to have United switch our seats with a non-rev in the cabin. Discover the problem after takeoff and those were going to be our seats for the next 8 hours.

Fortuantely, recline worked just fine!

We had an amenity kit at our seat, and though it’s certainly not high-end I thought United was doing a pretty good job with the limited investment they’d be willing to make. There’s no Ferragamo or Hermes in the bag, but thoughtfully a Purell antibacterial bottle, Scope mouthwash, and Crest toothpaste. These are things I’ll actually use inflight, though not things I’ll treasure.

The standard United noise cancelling headsets were there, and while they’re not the latest technology they work just fine. In fact, it’s amazing that United provides better headsets than Lufthansa, and actually several other carriers.

The 777 has the old Empower system for seat power, and for awhile they were carrying adapters for passenger use since the converted aircraft all have standard outlets. I asked the flight attendant whether they had any for this flight and she said they didn’t carry them any longer. A woman a row up started getting very agitated, her iPad didn’t have much juice and she had a flight’s worth of work to do. After some drama, the flight attendant shrugged her shoulders and said, “you should consider taking the earlier flight, it always has regular outlet power.” Indeed, the 767 departs an hour and 15 minutes earlier. I’d have taken it myself had their been award seats open..

Flight attendant came around with the box of tapes, since the old 777 doesn’t have video on demand but you can insert a tape into the video player and make your own ‘on demand’. But there wasn’t anything I especially wanted, I have plenty of entertainment available on my laptop (even without seat power, and for the one flight I hadn’t brought my adapter), so I gave it a miss.

Menus were distributed.

Appetizers

Grilled scallop and shrimp braised in herbed oil with Thai noodle salad

Soup

Creamy corn soup

Salad

Fresh seasonal greens with cherry tomatoes, julienne carrots, radishes and croutons

Main course

Grilled filet mignon with bordelaise mushroom sauce
Roasted potato wedges and asparagus, carrot and red pepper julienne

Roasted chicken with sweet chili sauce
Mixed pepper risotto and green beans with sun-blushed tomatoes

Beechwood wrapped grilled salmon with tomato and olive concasse’
Roasted potato slices and root vegetables

Gemelli pasta with a mild sun-dried tomato sauce
Roasted eggplant and zucchini

Dessert

Ice cream
With your choice of sundae toppings
Hot fudge, caramel, and whipped cream

Cheese seletions

Served with red grapes and crackers

Bavarian Bleu – a tangy and incredibly smooth and flavorful Rocquefort-style cheese

Red Cheddar – sufficiently aged to produce the predictable sharpness and golden color

Strolch Pepper – a mild, Camembert-style cheese infused with peppery flavor

Shortly after takeoff, warm nuts were served.

I noticed that my armrest didn’t stay attached to the seat. The flight attendant who had listened to the customer rant about seat power had already broken into the stack of Skykits, the postcard vouchers that you use at united.com to get a discount certificate or miles as an apology for problems inflight. Since the woman without standard outlet power on an aircraft that didn’t offer it got one, it was time for me to as well.

But I didn’t want to make this the highest priority, I held back for a few minutes which was extra convenient because my wife pointed something out to me.. now, my usual drill on United starts with checking the reading light to make sure it’s functioning. Because when you log into the United website to enter your apology card number, that’s actually one of the pre-filled out reasons/problems they offer. And it’s usually got for $200 or so.

Well, it seems my wife’s reading light didn’t work. And neither did mine! Waiting a few more minutes and looking around with everyone else fiddling with their lights, it appeared that none of the reading lights were working in the first class cabin!

When I got a flight attendant’s attention, I pointed out my broken seat. She was mortified. I believe she was genuinely embarassed by the product that United was offering and calling first class. Before I could finish my story, she was getting up to run get an apology card. But I held her back because I shared with her the reading light issue.

She excused herself and just started handing out apology cards to every passenger in the cabin that wasn’t a non-rev.

That meant that the woman who complained about seat power got a second apology card. Gee, I suppose I should have asked for a second one as well, since I had two issues, a broken seat and a non-functioning reading light. But I had gotten one for my seat, and my wife had gotten one for the light, I figured that between the two of us two cards was sufficient for the flight. Plus I had gotten ‘Skykits for everyone!’ so I really would have felt like a pig asking for more.

Plus the flight attendant offered to move us because of my broken seat, the whole cabin was full but she said she’d switch us with employees in the cabin. My understanding is that they’re only supposed to make those sorts of switches prior to the door closing, not inflight, and besides it was an armrest and not a non-reclining seat. So I declined.

Meal orders were taken, and featured one of the things that I like domestically but that I feel somewhat uncomfortable with in international first class: taking meal orders by status. Since United doesn’t load enough of each menu item for everyone to have the same thing if they wished, they prioritize meal choice based on elite status. Some flight attendants are quite adept at the procedure, asking for a first or second choice where needed, while others ‘bounce around the cabin’ starting with the highest status person and moving down. That’s especially uncomfortable when on this flight they’re taking one person’s order and not the order of the person next to them. And it’s wholly unnecessary on a flight where half the cabin is a non-rev, since those folks get their choices last and it’s extremely unlikely that any of the other passengers wouldn’t be able to have their preference.

The scallop and shrimp (cold) appetizer:

Corn soup:

It was actually quite flavorful, but still manages to underscore one of the most salient elements of United first class — that they don’t do the little things, or that something extra, to make it special. The soup would have been much better if it were corn and crab with a lump of crabmeat in the middle. But perhaps I want too much, this is United. To just paying attention to presentation, if they had wiped down the edges of the bowl the soup would have looked far better. And a sprig of parsley could have helped, too, so it wasn’t just a big bowl of yellow.

My wife had the salmon (which was rather beautifully plated):

And I had the steak:

Followed by a bowl of ice cream:

I slept for a couple of hours, watched an episode of The Wire on my laptop (I’m on the season where they de facto legalize drugs), and the flight zipped along rather quickly. The old United seat is still fairly comfortable for lounging and sleeping, even if it’s rather in disrepair. A couple of pillows help with the spots where the seat is worn thin, and I managed to be quite comfortable.

The flight attendants came around with the pre-arrival snack:

anytime a la cart

Chilled deli plate with gruyere cheese
Smoked salmon, honey ham, salami, asparagus and egg wedge

Tandoori prawns
With basmati rice and an apple curry sauce

I had the prawns, which were fine.

Soon enough it was time to land, we boarded the ‘mobile lounge’ to immigration. And once we arrived at the main terminal – wow – the immigration line on Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving was massive. Announcements were made that everyone who had volunteered for overtime would be getting it. Shortly thereafter an announcement was made that everyone would be staying for overtime, whether they had volunteered for it or not.

When we finally made it to an immigration officer I was questioned about why I would have gone to India for the holidays. I just replied “because it was cheaper than visiting family.” I got a quizzical look but no more questioning. It was true after all, I had used miles, but it does warp folks’ minds to think about it.

Regular readers of this blog know that many of the things I often write for for intermediate travels than for beginners. But I’ve been evangelizing the benefits of miles, points, and free travel more often to colleagues and friends of friends more frequently lately, and I thought that passing along some of the basics that I’ve found helpful for the not-already-converted might be useful to some of y’all having similar conversations with family over the holidays.

And thus I offer some basic tips for getting your rewards house in order for the New Year, since most everyone can set a goal to have their dream trips inexpensively with a little bit of attention to rewards programs.

Sign up for frequent flyer programs. If you’re flying cross country and back, why not sign up for a frequent flyer program instead of letting those miles go to waste? Don’t leave miles on the table. You may not fly a lot, but with the most minimal effort those points will eventually add up to a free trip.

Keep track of your points. There are easy, free web tools like Awardwallet.com where you can store all of your frequent flyer numbers and passwords in one place. A single click will log you into your account or update the balances across all of your (and your family’s) accounts and display them on a single page. No more searching for and losing those frequent flyer numbers, and giving up on points you’re entitled to. What better New Year’s resolution than to be better organized?

Pick a mileage program (or two!) to focus on. Now that the major airlines all partner with each other, you don’t even need dozens of different accounts! Why not pick just two? US Airways, United, and Continental are all members of the Star Alliance, so flights on any one of those airlines can be deposited in the mileage account of any other. You only need to belong to one of those three! And while Delta and American Airlines aren’t partners, they are both partners with Alaska Airlines. You can deposit all the miles from Delta, American, and Alaska into an Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account. Boom, miles from the 6 largest US domestic airlines (other than Southwest) and just two frequent flyer programs! By combining your points that way, you earn rewards faster.

Concentrate your flying on a single airline whenever possible. If you fly enough to rack up 25,000 miles or more in the air over the course of a year, pick one airline (and their partners) to fly. That way you’ll earn elite status in their frequnet flyer program which will get you the occasional first class upgrade. But more importantly for many, it means priority through security lines (at some airports), priority checkin and boarding, and waived checked baggage fees for yourself and your travel companions on the same reservation. Higher levels of elite status, from even more flying, get much bigger perks.

Don’t let your points expire. Most US airlines will zero out your miles if you don’t have activity in your account at least once every 18 months. Services like AwardWallet don’t just track your balance, they help track expiration as well so you know when to act so you don’t lose out. You’ll generally just need any sort of activity in your account to keep it active, and that can mean just making a single online purchase through an airline’s shopping portal (sometimes costing as little as $1). Or if you rent a car, credit the 50 miles or so you’ll earn to whatever program has miles that are about to expire.

Take everything that’s coming to you. Most everything you do can earn miles, and that includes all of the online shopping you do anyway. Sites like Big Crumbs and e-bates offer cash back for the purchases you make anyway, you just start at their website and click on their link for the store you plan to shop at. Most of the airlines and even some hotel programs offering their own shopping portals as well, where you’ll earn miles or points for your online purchases. With all of the different options for rewards, I recommend searching EV Reward for the merchant you’re going to purchase from. It will list out all the rebate and miles offers for that store, and also some coupons and discount codes, so you can compare and take advantage of the best offers.

Set a reward goal to motivate yourself. Think and dream about what you’ll do with all of the points you’ll accumulate. That will help motivate you to earn the points, and also help you to avoid redeeming them for low value awards like that cheap weekend from the Northeast down to Florida. Planning travel can bring you even more happiness than the trip itself, and what could be more fun than strategizing and then getting your dream trip for free?

When it comes time to redeem for that dream trip, consider engaging an expert. The one thing you don’t want to hear after saving up all those miles is that the seats you want aren’t available. If you’re interested in business class or first class award tickets to Asia or Africa, there are paid services where experts will help you get the seats you want — such as PointsPros or my own BookYourAward.com.

Having arrived at the dreaded C pier, I had to make the long trek through Frankfurt to my connecting flight on United. US flights depart from the A concourse, and it’s a long trip. The biggest delay was at security, where the lines were reasonably long but really just because it was taking 3 to 4 minutes to process each passenger, though it’s not really clear why.

After awhile, and though processing was incredibly slow, one of the two lanes was closed and everyone had to queue in the only line at the checkpoint.

Bags were put on the belt and the screener examining x-rays just sat there. Staring at each bag. And staring. There wasn’t extra screening or seconday screening, just an excrutiatingly slow gentleman operating the x-ray machine. Had I realized, I’d have cleared security elsewhere, but it always seemed like I was just close enough to make it worth waiting out. Ultimately it took an hour from arrival to entrance into Lufthansa’s First Class Lounge in the A concourse.

The A concourse is located just prior to passport control. I walked inside, showed my arriving Lufthansa boarding pass, and I was asked for my departing flight boarding pass. I handed them the boarding pass for my upcoming United flight back to DC and was told that I didn’t have access to this lounge, that I had to use the Senator lounge instead.

That’s not correct. Arriving Lufthansa first class passengers have access to Lufthansa’s first class lounges. I wouldn’t have access to the first class terminal because I was departing on United. But I absolutely was entitled to access. I asked for a supervisor, and another lounge agent came out to correct his colleague, who apologized and welcomed us to the lounge.

On first glance, the lounge looks almost identical to the First Class Terminal, only smaller. The furnishings and décor are almost identical. There’s a separate restaurant area and bar area. There are shower rooms in similar style.

The major differences are lack of private security screening and passport control and no car service out to the aircraft. Although on the plus side there’s a lovely view of airport operations, something the first class terminal lacks.

But the lounge is smaller, so much so that when I first arrived there wasn’t much open seating. I found a spot for myself and my wife in the corner. After about 20 minutes the morning rush cleared out and the lounge became perfectly peaceful.

I went for a shower, the attendant had me wait while she cleaned one of the shower rooms and told me it’s better to reserve one for a specific time during the morning hours in this lounge.

Much refreshed, I visited the buffet and brought a small plate back to my seat, secured a wireless internet password, and checked into work.

Soon enough it was time to head out to my United flight home, that will be one of the more interesting segments of this trip report. We walked through passport control, there was no wait, though just past passport control we were stopped by security and told that we’d be getting a special extra screening. We were both taken to a screening area alongside the terminal walkway and patted down and our carryons completely unpacked and repacked. The security personnel were friendly and professional, though I wonder what led us to be selected. Shortly we made it to the United gates…

Note of course that this is not a discussion of the best credit cards to put your spending on, rather it’s about what credit cards are offering the best bonuses for getting a new card and in some cases for putting some initial spend on that card.

Frugal Travel Guy mentioned this morning one of the 100,000-mile signup bonus offers that’s still running for Citibank American Airlines co-branded credit cards.

I mentioned this offer back on September 24: 50,000 miles after $2000 in purchases within 4 months, another 25,000 miles after $10,000 in purchases within the first year, and an additional 25,000 miles after $10,000 in purchases during the second year. The annual fee is waived the first year.

On November 1 though I posted what’s in general a better offer, or at least an easier one to qualify for: 75,000 miles after $4000 in spend within six months, and first year fee waived. This offer runs through February 28, so there’s still time, and of course consider getting both a personal and a small business card for 150,000 miles.

Chase and British Airways are offering a 50,000 mile signup bonus on their $75 annual fee card which waives foreign currency transaction fees and earns 1.25 miles per dollar spent (plus offers a free companion on award tickets after $30,000 in spend). Downsides to the BA program are an expensive award chart in some cases and fuel surcharges on awards, not just taxes. But 50,000 miles is 50,000 miles!

Chase and Southwest Airlines are offering a free award ticket for signup plus $500 travel credit after $5000 in spend with first year fee waived.

I’ve maxed out on British Airways and American Airlines cards in the past and can’t really get new signup bonuses for those. And while the Southwest card is lucrative, I don’t really want to fly Southwest.

My next card signup will be the Hyatt Visa from Chase which waives foreign currency transaction fees and Diamond members get two free nights in a suite at any Hyatt in the world (except, I think, Park Hyatt Sydney where the suite benefit doesn’t apply). Of course non-Diamonds get Platinum status and two free nights just not in a suite. I’ve held off on applying only because the two nights expire after a year and I’m trying to time the application for when I’ll best use those nights. But in the meantime I’m missing out on putting Hyatt spend on that card…

What other great, similarly lucrative and generally available (non-targeted) signup bonuses are out there at the moment?

Via Flyertalk, there are some great fares to Europe on American Airlines (as Iberia codeshares), such as JFK – Paris for $288 roundtrip, all-in.. slightly less to Milan.. and DC to New York to Madrid for about $350.

Dan’s Deals has written up the fare as well:

Bookable on Travelocity.

This is valid for many dates. Post the ones you find! And be sure to post if you find other valid cities!

Sample valid dates: 03/24/11-03/29/11.

JFK-Milan is $251 with tax for those dates.

JFK-Brussels is $283 with tax for those dates.

JFK-Paris is $291 with tax for those dates.

The flight is sold as an Iberia codeshare, but it will on AA.

Now, the codeshares are a bit annoying as I don’t expect them to earn full mileage. Iberia flights between the US and Spain earn 100% miles on discounted fares, but if you fly say New York – MIlan on American Airlines but with an Iberia flight number it may be treated as an Iberia flight that isn’t to Spain and give only 30% miles.

Still, it’s a cheap way to Europe and back for anyone in New York and potentially from other East Coast cities as well.

I haven’t played too extensively with the site yet, but The Bidding Traveler looks to be a very useful tool for novice and intermediate Priceline users. It both helps lay out a bidding strategy and automates that strategy in order to save on effort.

It’s certainly simpler one-stop shopping than using a site like Biddingfortravel.com or Betterbidding.com, searching through recent bids to determine what folks are generally winning hotels for and identifying which ones are similar to your circumstances (e.g. weekday versus weekend). And it takes care of the work of identifying your ‘bidding strategy’, figuring out which zones to use as free re-bids in order to order to bids from lowest to eventual highest that you make. (Priceline bidding permutations are explained here.)

Ultimately, the site just sets up your bidding for you. It develops the bidding strategy based on your preferences, and then executes for you. The bidding done by your computer, not by the site itself.

Now, this site isn’t for true novices who aren’t familiar with what Priceline is all about (if that describes you, see this). But it’s a useful site for simplifying things for sure.

Our Thanksgiving in India was coming to an end and at around 1am it was time to leave the Grand Hyatt. I went down to the club lounge to check out, and noticed on my bill two breakfast charges (I never ate a restaurant breakfast at the property during my stay). The charges were immediately removed. They asked whether I had taken anything from the minibar, I had not. (There was a minibar slip in the room from the previous guest, who apparently did take something, that slip was never taken so perhaps he was never charged or perhaps he fessed up at checkout.)

I asked for a car to the airport, it was complimentary after all, they retrieved our bags from our room and we went downstairs and headed off towards the airport, which really bustles in the middle of the night. The car dropped us outside, and we navigated through a sea of people to enter the terminal. There was only one person ahead of us in the first class line, though that person took quite some time to be taken care of while the business class line moved at a fast clip. No worries, we had plenty of time and were checked in quickly enough.

We were given security tags for our carryons, which had to be stamped when we went through security. And we got our boarding passes. I asked where the lounge was and was given the location, which ultimately turned out to be wrong… I was told where most of the lounges were, which wasn’t far from the Lufthansa gate, but had to ask inside the British Airways lounge how to find find Lufthana’s (the directions included walking through a duty free shop, oddly enough, but that was correct).

After checking in we headed over to passport control and security. The lines weren’t especially long but security does take a good bit of time in Mumbai. Everyone — and I mean everyone alarms the metal detector. I did, and I didn’t have a single piece of metal on my person other than my wedding band. I was wearing sweats (stylishing enough, but sweats nonetheless for an overnight flight that departs around 3am) and had literally nothing in my pockets.

Men and women are separated in different lines, lest the secondary searches being done on women seem too lascivious to onlooking males I suppose?

After being searched I picked up my carryons, newly stamped by security, and off it was to the lounge.

Lufthansa built its own dedicated lounge in Mumbai, which opened I think about two years ago. That seems strange to me, for an average of less than two daily flights (Frankfurt is daily, Munich is not) but it’s the primary Star Alliance lounge at the airport and perhaps they make enough from their partner airlines to justify the operating costs.

When the lounge first opened there was a business side and a Senator side. Senator lounges are accessible by Star Alliance Gold members, even flying coach. Now they’ve rebranded the Senator side as “First Class” which requires a first class boarding pass (or HON membership) to access. Knowing this I was intrigued and somewhat excited to see what Lufthansa had put together. I’ve seen their nice dedicated lounges in the US, and this was actually a Lufthansa-owned lounge branded as first class. Certainly wasn’t expecting the First Class Terminal, but this was going to be good!

Then again there I was going again making the most elementary mistake about India. As one wise observer noted to me, things in India are nice if you compare them to what came before. But they won’t ever seem so nice if you compare them to what they purport to be.

And indeed, we entered the lounge to find a sign that said the male restrooms were inoperative.

The lounge itself seemed tired, carpets worn, there were food options but they seemed really unappetizing which was mostly a function of presentation. I made myself a modest plate but didn’t eat, sensing from the overall vibe of the place that this would be my last opportunity for Delhi belly which I had managed to avoid throughout the trip and knowing that I had a full dinner to look forward to onboard.

We queued up for boarding and security staff were inspecting carryons to ensure that they had the requisite security stamp. My wife’s only sort of did — security had stamped her luggage tag rather than her security tag, that provided some momentary confusion but was fine. Still, I don’t really understand the entire exercise. What would have stopped her from removing all of the contents of her unstamped bag and putting them into my stamped bag? It seemed more of a makework jobs program than legitimate security measure, though I’m not sure why that should have surprised me.

Once past this little bit of drama we boarded the aircraft, ascended the stairs, and dropped off our carryons at the closet by the galley (since the overhead bins are so small, we had 20 inch and 19 inch carryons respectively but neither fit comfortably). We made our way to our familiar seats, 81 A and C, where we were met by a friendly flight attendant who offered us drinks and brought us nuts.

Though row 83 is the generally preferred option, I tend to take row 81. Traveling solo I’d definitely choose row 83 which does have more legroom, there’s no awkwardness climbing over a seatmate. But traveling together I like the bulkhead row because the entire rest of the cabin is behind you, you really never notice anyone else, and have a greater sense of privacy (even if an illusion).

Pajamas and amenity kits were distributed, and we settled in for our flight. Which we already knew would be more festive than our flight into Mumbai, if only because the cabin was already decorated for Christmas:

Shortly after takeoff dinner was served.

Choice of Hors d’oeuvres

Caviar with the traditional Garnishes

Poaches Lobster with Tamarind Glaze and Fennel Salad

Tabbouleh with Coriander and grilled Chicken with Mustard Mayonnaise

Khaman Dhokla with Hara Bhara Kebab and Imli Chutney
Rice and Lentil steamed Cakes tempered with Mustard Seeds and Curry Leaves, chopped Cucumber and Tomato Salad rolled in Cucumber Slice, garnished with black Olive, deep fried Spinach and Potato Cakes cooked in Indian Spices and Tamarind Sauce

Salad

Mixed Lettuce with Feta Cheese and fresh Pineapple presented with Dressing

Choice of Main Courses

Salmon Tournedos with Red Wine Jus, sautéed Potatoes and Pumpkin

Chicken Crepinette with Port Wine Sauce, String Beans, Baby Carrots and mashed Potatoes

Prawn Mirch Masala, Deewani Handi, Dal Jamavar with Jeera Rice
Prawn cooked in spiced Onion and Tomato Gravy with Capsicum, mixed Vegetables cooked in Onion and Tomato Gravy, Bengal Gram cooked with Tomato, Butter and Cream, fragrant long Grain Basmati Rice cooked with aromatic Spices and Cumin Seeds

Khade Masala Ka Paneer, Aloo Methi, Dal Tadka and Bhune Plyaz Ka Pulao
Cottage Cheese Cubes cooked with Indian Spices in Tomato Gravy, Potato cooked with Fenugneek Leaves and miles Spices, yellow Lentil cooked to Perfection in miles Indian Spices and tempered with Cumin Seeds, fragrant Long Grain Basmati Rice cooked with aromatic Spices and brown Onions

Selection of Cheese and Dessert

Manchego, Bleu des Causses, Coulommiers Cheese, Almonds, dried Fruits

Chocolate Mille Feuille with whipped Cream and Blueberry Sauce

Ramalai with Pistachio
Indian sweet Creame Cheese Dessert

One thing I’ve never entirely understood is the capitalization used in Lufthansa’s menus, but I didn’t fret on it and instead enjoyed the meal service.

The caviar and trio of appetizers to start:

My wife had the salad, though I passed:

I opted for the same as my main…

… while she chose one of the Indian dishes.

we both skipped the cheese. She had the ramalai with pistachio:

And I had the Chocolate Mille Feuille, which was just absolutely outstanding. And I don’t often like purely chocolate desserts (though I’m quite certain it was served with a raspberry — rather than a blueberry — sauce).

After dinner our flight attendant unwrapped the blanket, which I again used as a makeshift mattress pad. I requested a second pillow, put my seat flat, laid down on the blanket and went to sleep for a perhaps three hours.

Shortly after waking up there was orange juice at my seat, a cappuccino, and it was time to eat some breakfast. Still full from dinner I only picked at it, but it was perfectly fine.

All in all, a perfectly normal as-expected and totally pleasant Lufthansa First Class flight. Not special as far as these things go, but exactly formulaically executed. Which is all I really wanted.

We arrived at the dreaded C pier, which is just awful for connections. We’d be leaving on United, out of Terminal A, and so we began the long trek through the bowels of Frankfurt on our way to the A Pier’s First Class Lounge, which will be the next installment…

Via MileQuest:

By using your American Express card, you can save 10% off any First, Business, or Economy Class airfare. You must travel by March 31, 2011. You have to book the tickets directly from the Emirates website and use promo code USAMX10.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Check out Hyatt’s Facebook page. They are posting itineraries from their hotel property General Managers. Have a look.

2. Then leave a comment to this post with the hotel property whose itinerary interests you most, or the property you’d like to see an itinerary from. Any Hyatt property.

Then you’ll be entered to win 44,000 Hyatt points — enough for two nights at any Hyatt in the world, or more nights at less expensive properties. So you might just get to experience one of those itineraries.

But only enter once, by noon Eastern on December 25. And I will draw the winner at random after that.

Full details can be found in the previous thread. That thread is also where you ask any questions, as this post is strictly for entries. You won’t want to ask questions here, in this post because (1) I won’t really be looking at the comments in this post until the contest is over and (2) you don’t want to post more than once to this thread, since anyone who does so is ineligible to win.

Thanks for playing, and to Gold Passport for letting me share some of their free night goodness with my readers!