I’ve had a blast being featured on BoardingArea this week, and as a final reminder before signing off, make sure to sign-up for the newsletter or follow me on social media to keep updated on all the latest posts. In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the top posts from the past week.
I was looking for a sit-on-the-beach-and-do-nothing kind of vibe, and as I did my research, Lanai looked like it would be the perfect match. The timing worked out well for my May trip, since the Larry Ellison-owned Four Seasons Lanai had just completed a vast refurbishment a few months earlier and was was offering a 4th night free as part of the re-opening.
As a relatively infrequent flyer, I mainly view myself as an airline free agent and will usually just chase the best deal for that particular trip. However, I do have one exception to the rule, and that’s for flying Alaska Airlines to Hawaii.
I’ve taken a handful of JetBlue flights recently and in each and every case, despite having my Singapore Airlines Krisflyer membership number entered in my reservation, I haven’t automatically received credit for the flight. After the first couple flights didn’t credit automatically, I suspected that something was amiss, but was still hopeful and chalked it up to bad luck. But after it happened several more times, I was almost certain that there just wasn’t an automatic process in place, and my suspicions were confirmed by others who were facing the same issue.
In recent years, I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunity to fly both Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific’s First Class products. But when I think back and try to compare the two, it’s actually been kind of hard to do. But during this trip I’d truly have an opportunity to get a head-to-head comparison of the two, since I was flying both in the same 24-hour period. And I made sure to use this chance to keep a running tally of the pros and cons of my flight on each airline.
I had already burned enough miles on my flights from San Francisco to New York, so I wasn’t looking to do anything crazy for the return home. As I shopped around for tickets back to San Francisco, since I was booking just a week prior to departure, ticket prices across the board were really high. However, I noticed that JetBlue’s Mint Class was priced at $549, and with the relatively small difference between that and the price of an economy ticket, I decided to give Mint it a shot.
As much as I enjoyed all the food on the plane and at the airport during my 40-hour journey to New York City, the real eating began after I landed in the Big Apple.
Just a friendly reminder that today’s the final day of the Alaska Airlines Annual Fall Sale, which features flights starting at $64 across their entire route network. Each city has their own set of deals, but at least from rhe San Francisco Bay Area, there doesn’t appear to be any amazing deals to traditional vacation destinations like Mexico and Hawaii. However, there are pretty good deals to various West Coast cities, including Salt Lake City, Portland, and a couple southern CA cities.
There is a widely circulated belief that VISA’s foreign currency conversion rates are 1% less favorable than MasterCard’s, and therefore should be avoided when traveling abroad. I set out to examine this assertion.
Our truffle adventure was sadly over and it was time to head home the same way that we had come. The drive from Piedmont, Italy to Zurich took about six hours, and after stuffing our faces at the Christmas Market in Zurich that evening, we spent the night once again at the Marriott. We were up bright and early the next day, and the first leg of our journey home was an uneventful flight from Zurich to London.