AMAZING AFRICA FARES FROM $390 ROUNDTRIP from DC/New York to South Africa

by Gary Leff

Jul 01 2016

Expedia’s New Zealand website is offering better deals than other sites right now. That’s the Expedia site that issues tickets in New Zealand, pricing them in New Zealand dollars. I love Expedia’s local country sites because sometimes there are better fares that can only be sold inside a country and that’s a convenient way to buy those tickets.

These fares are available between Washington DC or New York and Johannesburg on South African Airways, and also available with continuing service elsewhere in South Africa.

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This May Be the Worst TSA Story I’ve Ever Seen

by Gary Leff

Jul 01 2016

19 year Hannah Cohen has traveled from Chattanooga to Memphis for the past 17 years to seek treatment at St. Jude’s hospital for her brain tumor. She was “celebrating the end of her treatment” and on her way back home.

This woman is “partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed, and easily confused” and so when she alarmed at the TSA checkpoint at the Memphis airport. She didn’t understand what the agency wanted to do to her.

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When You Can’t Own the Whole Airline, Buy its Frequent Flyer Program Instead

by Gary Leff

Jun 30 2016

One of the ways Etihad exercises this control is by purchasing controlling stakes in an airline’s frequent flyer program, something they’ve done with airberlin and Jet Airways. While foreign ownership restrictions limit equity in an airline, they do not generally limit ownership of an airline frequent flyer program.

Etihad purchased a majority stake in the Jet Airways JetPrivilege program and a 70% stake in airberlin’s Topbonus program.

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Review: St. Regis Bangkok

by Gary Leff

Jun 30 2016

Bangkok is city where it’s difficult for me to pick hotels. Most everything is above average. Even the Holiday Inn Bangkok, at Gaysorn Plaza, is attached to the Intercontinental and practically the same hotel.

On the other hand there are very few properties that are so good they’re clearly better than all the others. It’s not a city where I stick to Hyatt, either, because while the Grand Hyatt Erawan is fine I don’t find it special.

The St. Regis was priced extremely reasonably for my dates and although the hotel is known for being great with suite upgrades, I decided not to just chance it or use a Suite Night Award but to pay for the suite. Long odds, as reported by others, but I hoped for a further upgrade.

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DEAL: Singapore on Sale from $600 Roundtrip, Several US Cities!

by Gary Leff

Jun 29 2016

Star Alliance airlines including United, ANA, Singapore Airlines, and Air China are all running super cheap airfares roundtrip to Singapore. Fares are so low you’d almost think Singapore had just withdrawn from ASEAN!

The country a great jumping off point for travel throughout the rest of Southeast Asia and worth a trip of its own.

Fares are generally available September through March and from a host of cities including San Francisco, Chicago, Newark, and Los Angeles. What’s odd is that usually cheap airfares like this are dropped into competitor hubs but you can fly United from its own hubs.

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