News and notes from around the interweb:
- Why many people decline suite upgrades when they travel to Delhi, India.
- Silvercar will give even existing customers $50 off a rental of two days or more with promo code FTU50 through the end of the year (thanks, Frequent Traveler University!). This should stack with Silvercar’s $25 bonus for being referred by an existing member, you can sign up with my referral code GLEFF or leave your own in the comments.
- Alaska Airlines will give you 1000 miles if you tag your checked bag yourself (HT: One Mile at a Time)
- The 16 Best Street Food Cities in the World. Kuala Lumpur is clearly missing. There should be more than one city in India. And I have to object to including Portland but not Austin. Still, a true world of delicious wonderfulness..! (HT: @CIASpyGirl)
- Lufthansa will eliminate Privatair service in October. These are the Boeing 737 flights running Frankfurt – Dammam and Frankfurt – Pune.
- Malaysia Airlines will stop serving Frankfurt May 29.
Yeah, and why no US cities on the street food list? SFO, AUS, and NYC all come to mind…
@Gary, Gene:
I don’t think there’s any debate that New York and maybe Austin meet or exceed Portland in overall quality of dining experience.
However, Portland has way more street food options than either cities. Not only does Portland have a higher number of food carts/trucks than either city, the quality and inventiveness in Portland significantly tops either Austin or New York (I’ve spent significant time in all three cities and I find this to be fair). You can take a look here: http://www.foodcartsportland.com/
So in the street food-only aspect of dining, I think including Portland but not Austin or New York is justifiable.
@Andrew M — Oh, yeah, Portland is in the US now. Doh! 🙂
The USA equivalent of the India Hotel Luxury Tax is the tax you sometimes have to pay in some states when you use a coupon. Like I’ve used $50 restaurant.com certificates and been charged tax on the $50 I didn’t actually spend. Heck, I’ve used grocery coupons and been taxed on the dollar I didn’t pay. Seems logical that taxes should be calculated on what you’ve actually paid, but maybe this isn’t so logical for the taxing authorities. 🙂
Penang is miles ahead of KL when it comes to Malaysian street food cities.
Gary you should have this version of this post on the previous page instead of having to click through. It is already a summary. The summary on the main page is just one sentence.
@ iahphx – that’s an interesting point, that I haven’t thought much about. I’ve never noticed it when I used a restaurant.com certificate – those must be treated as gift cards. When you’re at a grocery store, you pay tax on manufacturer’s coupons, but not store coupons. Man coupons are a rebate to you, the store is actually selling it at a higher price, but store coupons are really just a more complicated discount.
Even though I feel like this makes perfect sense to me, since I am so used to it, it does sound pretty similar to the hotel tax scam in India (I still think it’s a scam). That would really put me off staying at a hotel there, unless it was on points. It’s not just that you should turn down an upgrade, you would still be paying tax on the rack rate, even if you actually got a nice discounted rate.