Windbag Miles

Perhaps the only thing worse than generational thinkpieces criticizing millennials for being lazy and ill-prepared (for a world that baby boomers left as little more than a smoking pile of embers) are products marketed explicitly to millennials. There are plenty of products made with millennials in mind, but when you come right out and sayContinue reading “Some marketing ideas for JOON, Air France’s new airline for millennials”

I like traveling to New York, and the last couple times I have done it, I’ve been lucky enough to fly in first class. It’s awesome, since it basically counts as an international flight in terms of the seat, but it can also get pretty expensive. I don’t have enough points to fly first classContinue reading “What’s the best non-first class way to cross the country?”

I know, I’ve been threatening to write about this forever, even though fear of flying is probably even less common among my audience than paying with a debit card. I mention it a lot in my posts, but there’s a reason for that: not a day goes by that I don’t deal with my fearContinue reading “The fear of flying post.”

I’ve seen a bunch of pile-ons on Twitter lately chastising people who use the lav right after boarding. What’s wrong with them??? What were they doing in the terminal for the last hour?!!?!?! DO THEY KNOW HOW STUPID THEY LOOK TO EVERYONE ELSE?!?!!?  Here’s the example I just found on Twitter that prompted me toContinue reading “I’m the guy who uses the bathroom right after boarding the plane. Here’s why.”

The plane I most want to fly on is the A350, and the cabin in which I most want to fly on it is Finnair’s business class. This is partially because I’m overly enamored of all things Scandinavian, and also probably because Finnair’s interior design kind of reminds me of an ice hotel, which isContinue reading “Route obsession of the day: London to Helsinki on a Finnair A350”

You learn something every day, I guess. Maybe this is common knowledge already, but I wasn’t aware that Amex has different names for the two tiers of the Membership Rewards program. This distinction (and the similar one you get with Chase between cards like the Freedom and the Sapphire Preferred) is always the most difficultContinue reading “Have you ever heard of “Membership Rewards First” ???”

There’s a chance I might head to Paris next spring for a quick trip, and it represents a good opportunity (if it happens) to clean out my stash of Sky Miles. Despite not having any idea of the dates or even if I actually will end up going, I decided to search availability just toContinue reading “Would you rather… (Delta Devaluation Edition)”

A couple weeks ago I flew from Zurich to SFO on Swiss, and it was pretty good. Again I didn’t take a bunch of photos, because no matter what photos I take, it’s not going to give you any perspective on the cabin that you can’t find in this post from The Points Guy. ReviewsContinue reading “Reviewing business class on Swiss”

When I started this blog, part of the reason was to think out loud a little bit about my credit card strategy and maybe even engage in a dialog with the intrepid few who read along. Now that the year is half over and I’m just about done with a bunch of minimum spending requirements,Continue reading “More rambling about credit cards – Independence Day edition (I guess)”

A couple weeks ago, I flew from ORD to Brussels in United’s not-long-for-this-world Polaris First class (formerly Global First), and I had ample time to spend in the much-hyped Polaris lounge before my flight. Both of these have been reviewed (and photographed) extensively, so I’m just going to jot down some random thoughts and impressions.Continue reading “Thoughts on United’s Polaris lounge and Global First (sorry, Polaris First) class”