I hate hotel reviews (also, here’s a review of the EVEN Hotels Times Square South in New York)

I love reading flight reviews, and while I didn’t really plan to write reviews on this blog, the pages that consistently get traffic are the ones where I’m reviewing something. Planes are pretty easy to review, and in general the experience within a class of service is pretty uniform for all the passengers on that particular flight.Continue reading “I hate hotel reviews (also, here’s a review of the EVEN Hotels Times Square South in New York)”

Call PETA! United refuses to stop slaughtering animals on domestic flights!!!!!!

I learned something tonight – United doesn’t offer vegan meals on domestic flights. Did everyone already know this? Does any airline offer vegan meals (transcon service excluded)? I guess I usually don’t eat on domestic flights, so I never really noticed. I needed to request one for an upcoming transatlantic flight, and I figured IContinue reading “Call PETA! United refuses to stop slaughtering animals on domestic flights!!!!!!”

“Oh, shit, there are many many options” – Allegiant Air makes absolute fools of themselves and it kind of seems like they aren’t self-aware enough to realize it.

UPDATE (May 16th): This article just got linked on Airliners.net, which is a site I enjoy reading… unfortunately it isn’t mutual! In the interest of presenting a fair and balanced website (which longtime readers will know is my main concern), I’d like to present some… er… let’s call them “counter-opinions.” All quotes used without permissionContinue reading ““Oh, shit, there are many many options” – Allegiant Air makes absolute fools of themselves and it kind of seems like they aren’t self-aware enough to realize it.”

I rag on American Airlines a lot, but is their domestic availability worse than anyone else’s?

I booked an American flight from SFO to Chicago today for a cool 22,500 miles (well, 25,000 miles before the 10% rebate I get via Citi’s co-brand card). I had been led to believe such a thing wasn’t possible, that American had the worst saver availability on its own flights of any US carrier. At leastContinue reading “I rag on American Airlines a lot, but is their domestic availability worse than anyone else’s?”

Swiss Diss

I’ve written a few times now about my upcoming flight on Swiss, first about whether I wanted to book it in the first place, and then about getting a quasi-upgrade to a bulkhead “throne” seat. Well, I checked my booking online after reading about weird issues with SWISS tickets booked through Aeroplan being mysteriously canceled, and whileContinue reading “Swiss Diss”

Flying JetBlue Mint, comparing it to United, trying to think of a “Mint” pun for this title and coming up short.

Earlier this month I was in New York for a weekend, and I decided to try out JetBlue’s “Mint” service on my way home. If you remember, last summer JetBlue offered easily the most generous promotion I’ve seen in my (few) years in this hobby: matching the frequent flyer balances of Virgin America eleVAte members byContinue reading “Flying JetBlue Mint, comparing it to United, trying to think of a “Mint” pun for this title and coming up short.”

“People Livin’ in Competition” – IHG is offering me 700 points to download rock and roll classics

I love IHG’s quarterly “Accelerate” promotions, given how random the challenges are. Hyatt and Hilton may offer you double points on stays for a limited time; IHG instead wants you to dance a jig in the lobby of six different Holidays Inn in order to earn 9000 bonus points. I also like how you canContinue reading ““People Livin’ in Competition” – IHG is offering me 700 points to download rock and roll classics”

Why I’m not getting the USBank Altitude Reserve, and other musings about credit cards

I’ll admit it, I was pretty excited about the new Altitude Reserve card from US Bank. Here’s a photo of it: you can tell it’s a big deal, because it’s black and it’s made out of metal. The feature set on the card alternates between intriguing and head-scratchingly subpar. For instance, it earns 3 pointsContinue reading “Why I’m not getting the USBank Altitude Reserve, and other musings about credit cards”