It is my bold contention that this is the greatest award redemption of all time. I raise the challenge to any blogger, frequent flyer, or foe to prove otherwise.
You say you hate applying for a visa. You say you want to go to China. You say, out loud, “Oh I will just utilize the 72-hour visa-free transit option.” To you I say, flyer beware.
It’s a shame that US Airways is merging with American Airlines. As part of the merger, AA is mandating a geography class for all US Airways whose services will be retained.
Do you remember losing your virginity? For me it’s impossible to forget my first long haul flight aboard Lufthansa Business Class bound for Taipei via Frankfurt.
Pho 2000 is milking the publicity of President Clinton’s visit by investing their time in marketing not manufacturing. This is evident by the patrons of Pho 2000 of whom none are locals and by the employees who meekly serve bowl after bowl while their faces deliver another message- eat somewhere else.
Is the sky falling down? Is Y2K upon us again? How can this man dare claim that Singapore Airlines First Class on a 777 be better than Singapore Airlines A380 Suite Class!
Is it the seats?
No Mars.
Is it the Dom Pérignon champagne?
No Mars.
It’s the seats then right?
No mars.
Is it the Ferragamo amenities kit with the noise cancelling Bose headphones?
No Mars.
How about the Givenchy pajamas?
No Mars.
What about the champagne?
No Mars.
Money! It’s gotta be the food!
The food, the food, the food!
No Mars, I’m sure it isn’t the food.
So what is it? Why is Singapore Airlines First Class on a 777 better than Suite Class on SQ A380?
Three words: The Beautiful Game.
This past July as part of my Trip to the Far East in Style, I was able to fly Singapore Airlines from Singapore to Tokyo en route to my Suite Class flight to LAX aboard a Boeing 777 in First-Class. It had all the amenities of the A380 including the Book the Cook service where you can choose from a ridiculous list of over-the-top meals prepared by a signature chef to be served to you at 30,000 feet. For the sake of the story, I chose the lobster and was not disappointed.
But, the real treat is the broadcast of the World Cup. While Emirates Airlines First-Class only offered updates via their ICE system and SQ A380 provided price-gouging Wi-Fi, the 777 allowed me to watch France vs. Nigeria and Germany vs. Algeria. LIVE! And for FREE!
Sure, I didn’t have my private suite but drinking, eating, and sharing in the excitement of the World Cup action from Brazil with awesome flight attendants who were equally as excited as me more than made up for it.
In the words of LaDainian Tomlinson,“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying!”.
When I uploaded this photo for the contest, it crossed my mind that the answer could possibly be given away in the metadata. I figured I would experiment and see who out there would be savvy enough or motivated enough to exploit this vulnerability. Based on the barrage of responses, I soon realized the answer was just about everyone.
However, the funny part isn’t that a perfectly acceptable loophole was exploited. The funny part is a nonchalant answer like, “If I had to guess I’d say the picture from your Blog Bribery: $10 Amazon Gift Card post is Latitude : 12.189201 Longitude : 109.170084, give or take a few decimal places. Am I close?
I appreciate the cleverness of my readers but I do have to point out to the persons who said, “It was taken at 3PM, August 30th, 2009. You were drinking a Piña Colada after a delicious bowl of Pho in one of your favorite countries Vietnam,” you overlooked one minor detail; the contest ended at 9AM Ulaanbaatar time so your entry, though accurate, came after the bell had tolled.
And for those of you who are actually wondering where Latitude : 12.189201 Longitude : 109.170084 is, it is not the Vinpearl Luxury Nha Trang, Vietnam as suggested by Google Maps but rather the Diamond Bay Resort Nha Trang.
Tomorrow’s contest will be more challenging as I will hire consultants from Sony to protect the answer from entrepreneurial bandits!
How do you improve blog viewership? Is it writing, is it racy photos?
No, it’s straight cash homie.
Thanks to BoardingArea for featuring me this week and thank you all for checking out my blog. Everyday I’m going to have a giveaway to entice readers, both old and new, to keep coming and keep clicking.
Today’s contest is simple: Guess where this picture is taken and win a $10 Amazon Gift Card. Closest to the pin wins*!
Terms and Conditions Apply. Not available in all areas. Contest closes 9AM Ulaanbaatar time December 9th, 2014.
Another warm welcome to all of you reading this thanks to my featured appearance on Boarding Area. Each month I put together a list of the best posts from the month before. Tomorrow, I will put out the list for November but today I will provide highlights of the top posts since ThePointsOfLife was born way back in March 2014.
Even though I tell everyone about how easy it is to accumulate points, nobody follows the Points101 guide or comes up with reasons why the points game is not worth their time. Then they fly first class for the first time for next to nothing and are finally believers, posting pics of candy buffets.
To make it easy for my Vegas virgins and frequent Vegas travelers alike, I am writing a comprehensive hotel review of all the places I have stayed in Vegas.
My name is Alexander and I’m the featured blogger on BoardingArea this week.
Worry not, I’m not going to list to you all the Ultimate Reward transfer partners for Chase nor am I going to tell you where you can still find the Southwest Airlines 50,000 offer using Orphan Annie Secret Society decoder pin. Hint: Use Google.
Instead, I’m going to throw in a little of everything from Trip Reports to Seychelles, Mauritius, and Maldives to Travel Guides for those heading for the splendor of South Africa to the desert of Doha. My focus is to show how easy it is to fly on great airlines, stay at over-the-top hotels, and how to enjoy yourself when you get there.
In 1997, the University of Michigan split the National Championship with Nebraska, a misdeed that remains unpunished. Ironically, both programs are in shambles today.
In 1998, the BCS was launched as a way to prevent this from occurring because #1 would play #2 and it would be settled on the field. The flaws of this system are well documented.
In 2014, the NCAA introduced the 4 team playoff system which would save college football from the incomprehensible BCS formula and put smart, infallible humans in control by way of a selection committee.
This 12 member jury system would decide who should be included and who should be left out.
If you’re looking for fair and impartial, keep looking. If you are searching for informed and competent, do the same.
Let’s take a quick look at some of the ‘experts’ on the committee to show you why it is impossible for anyone to get a fair trial:
Tyrone Willingham: Fired from ND, fired from Washington: What does he know about winning as he is a perennial loser?
Tom Osborne: Good old Tommy hails from the aforementioned University of Nebraska who only received the split championship on account that his was retiring the same season.
Pat Haden: Here’s an example of his professionalism. Click here.
Condoleezza Rice: Here’s her interview on why the United States invaded Iraq.
After watching that, are we really supposed to trust her or anyone else on that selection committee to do the right thing?
Here’s what the rankings should be:
1. Florida State: At least the BCS would’ve gotten this right. Florida State should undoubtedly be ranked #1 as they are the only undefeated team.
2. Oregon/Alabama: Although it’s a coin toss as to whom should be #2 I’d give the slight edge to Oregon because they faced a tougher opponent in their championship game and also vindicated themselves convincingly from an earlier loss to Arizona.
3. Alabama: If this was the BCS, do you really think Oregon would go ahead of Alabama?
4. Baylor: Baylor has one loss, TCU has one loss. TCU lost to Baylor. Case closed.
If somehow, someway it was a toss up between TCU and OSU then using the fact set out in #4, TCU should go over crappy Ohio State because TCU lost to Baylor while OSU lost to Virginia Tech.
So again I ask you, do you trust Condoleezza Rice?
I certainly do not.
My disdain for Ohio State and my alumni status from the University of Michigan in no way affects the validity of my conclusion.
So when I read about another restaurant opening in UB that served beef pho, I wasn’t even slightly excited especially since it wasn’t a proper Vietnamese restaurant.
Upon entering the cafe, I was overtaken by the warmth of the dining room and the delicious smells of soup and fresh coffee. The Soup Bar as it is called serves many varieties of soup including red lentils, minestrone, cabbage soup, Uzbek chili soup, among others. Feeling a little uneasy by the towering stature of the proprietor, I nevertheless approached the counter, placed my order for beef pho, paid, and stepped aside, hoping I wouldn’t be denied a warming bowl.
Moments later, I was served a tidy bowl of pho along with a fresh roll of bread. While the usual staples of sriracha and hoisin were not offered, visually everything else appeared to be in order.
Understandably trepidatious after being fooled by bad pho so many times, I was hesitant to dive right in. After a few more seconds of pause, I mustered the courage to take my first slurp.
Yum! followed by feelings of relief followed by yum took over as I, like many times before, unconsciously made my way to the bottom of the bowl.
Satisfied, I was ever thankful that the Allied Forces better known as the Soup Bar had liberated me from the clutches of Mongolian soup monotony.
Could it be?Twas.Please sir, I want some more.Plenty of savory, affordable choicesThe Soup Bar has takeaway, leaving me to wonder if I could just take away the whole vat.Soup for me!Me after a great lunch at Soup Bar
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine came out with a list today of the airports with the healthiest food. Here are the results from the 23 busiest airports in the U.S. according to this article from The Detroit Free Press:
1. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport
2. Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
3. Los Angeles International Airport
4. Reagan National Airport
5. Newark Liberty International Airport
6. LaGuardia Airport (tie)
6. Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (tie) (Home Airport #1)
7. Denver International Airport
8. San Francisco International Airport
9. Dulles International Airport
10. Boston Logan International Airport
11. John F. Kennedy International Airport (tie)
11. Chicago O’Hare International Airport (tie)
11. Philadelphia International Airport (tie)
12. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (Home Airport #2)
13. Charlotte Douglas International Airport
14. Las Vegas McCarran International Airport
15. Miami International Airport (tie)
15. Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (tie)
16. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
17. Orlando International Airport
18. Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport
19. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Not only are the numbers nonsensical because so many of them resulted in a tie but also who really cares about eating healthy at the airport? If you are trying to maintain a healthy style of living, chances are you can connect at ATL airport, stop by the Popeye’s Chicken (which I think has closed since the last time I went there), and still adhere to your chicken and broccoli regiment when you get home without any long term health effects.
Are these numbers relevant to road warriors? Probably not since they are too busy eating unlimited carrots and pretzels in the disappointing lounges found all across the country.
How about vacation goers? Certainly not! When it’s vacation time, it’s time to put the diet on hold and overindulge on junk. Personally, I wait until I arrive on my idyllic beach before completely surrendering to temptation but I understand anyone that no longer cares to wait.
The real issue shouldn’t be which airport has the healthiest food but which airport has the healthiest, most affordable food. It already costs too much money for a Double Whopper meal from Burger King at the airport let alone anything healthy and delectable. I don’t even give Paradise Bakery a second glance at Phoenix Sky Harbor as I already know that a healthy Caesar Salad probably breaks the bank at over $10 coupled with a small Diet whatever.
So thanks for this useless study that won’t change my routing nor my opinion of terrible LAX airport even if it ranks 3rd on the health meter index. I’m more impressed with the free airport shuttle that allows me to walk to the In-N-Out conveniently located steps away.
Are you illiterate? I’m beginning to believe that I am.
Over the past few months, websites have ramped up their cyber security by making users fill out a captcha for just about every click a user wants to make. This is one of the biggest reasons why I don’t bother commenting on fellow bloggers’ posts.
I try to make sense of the stupid combination of letters and numbers but I remain completely lost. Error after error, I finally gave up. Are you supposed to include a space if there is some space looking area in the atmosphere between the captcha phrases? Does capitalization matter? Is that the number ‘1’ or the letter ‘I’. How scary is the kidnapper’s voice if you opt for an auditory captcha?
All knowing, all intrusive Google literally must’ve seen my struggles because they are introducing a smarter way to captcha the spammers. See what I did there? It’s called re CAPTCHA.
re CAPTCHA uses images like kitty cats not jumbled letters and words to detect if you are a robot or if you are a human. This should make leaving angry, disapproving comments on people’s pointless posts less cumbersome.
Google’s re CAPTCHA brings me back to my childhood days when I used to have to spot what item didn’t match, an exercise handed out by substitute teachers to control antsy school children excited to have a free day.
Let’s just hope that I can still remember the classification system for organisms:
