Our gang

Today, I’m speaking at Preferred Hotel Group‘s global sales and marketing meeting at the Montage in Beverly Hills. Since I live locally, I wasn’t going to get a room but I changed my mind at the last minute since I was invited to dinner at the nearby Magic Castle. Since the Montage was sold out, the organizers put me up a block away at the Thompson Hotel. Here are my observations and pictures.

My room

-The Thompson Hotel is located at 9360 Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles.
-The valet and bellmen were attentive.
-Valet costs $35 a night.
-Front desk crew were friendly and quick.
-My room was on the 5^th floor and the hallways are dark and funky with an image of a model at the end that looks like a mannequin. It’s freaky at night.
-Rooms are average size, comfortable (especially the sheets) but the walls are thin. I can hear hallway traffic and my neighbor’s phone ring.
-Internet costs $21.95 a day, which is really steep but I have a Verizon card supplied by RovAir.com
-The hotel’s landing page is interesting (below is a screen shot) as there’s a half-naked model touting a local art exhibit. The page also features the hotel’s Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor pages which is smart – except they aren’t that well ranked on the latter.
-My view is looking towards Century City and into a cool glass office building – I see the workers clearly so I wonder what they see at night. Can you say voyeurism?
-There’s no bottled water in the room although the night maid might brings it … but I wasn’t around and left the Do Not Disturb sign on my door.
-The bathroom is small, the tub is a little tired and the shower curtain rod needs to be replaced with a curved bar so the curtain doesn’t assault you in the shower. They do have nice Bigelow toiletries.
-There’s a restaurant and two bars. The coolest bar is up on the roof where they also have swanky Las Vegas-style bungalows with flat screen TVs and curtains. My buddy Chris says the curtains are for people to do cocaine. Is that true?
-The pool looked inviting but it was messy – maybe because it was the end of the day and they were cleaning up but no poolboy was visible.
-A glass of wine at the bar costs $17.

LACMA’s Urban Light sculpture

The highlight of my night was going to dinner at the Magic Castle in Hollywood with my buddy Chris McGinnis (travel legend), Mike Freed (from Post Ranch Inn and Cavallo Point), Maria C. Gemskie (Vice President, Corporate Communications Preferred Hotel Group) and Steven V. Seghers (President of HyperDisk Marketing). We were joined by Mike’s cousin J. Corey Friedman who is an AMAZING magician and a member of the club. You can’t get go unless you become a member or know one. The place is huge with all kinds of acts and nothing like what I expected. It’s a really special place but I’m sure the company I was with made it that way. On the way home we passed LACMA’s Urban Light sculpture, by artist Chris Burden. It’s 202 antique cast-iron lampposts from various cities in and around the Los Angeles area.

Name: Zach Honig

Occupation: Technology Journalist

Hometown: Philadelphia suburbs

Residence: New York, NY

Website: Engadget.com

Twitter: @zachhonig

Facebook: Facebook.com/zachhonig

Short Bio: Zach Honig is a Senior Associate Editor at Engadget, responsible for domestic and international trade show and events coverage and coordination, along with new employee training. He’s also a freelance travel writer, and has been published in Frommers and AOL Travel before he joined AOL full time to work at Engadget. He spends much of his time abroad in Germany, the UK and Japan, though he also covers annual conventions throughout Europe and Asia, along with a handful of U.S. cities. For personal travel, Zach is frequently drawn to Bermuda’s laid-back lifestyle, gorgeous landscape and pink sand beaches. And it’s just a 90-minute flight from his home in New York City. Zach has visited more than 30 countries in the past decade, many aboard United Airlines, where he spends most of his time in the air.

 How often do you fly: At least once every other week (roughly 75,000 miles so far in 2012)

How many countries have you been to:  30

 How many continents have you been to:  5

 Favorite American city: New York

 Favorite international city: Tokyo

Favorite World Heritage Site: St George, Bermuda

 Favorite airline: United

 Favorite aircraft type: United flat-bed 777-200

Aisle or window: Aisle in business/first, window in economy so I can sleep

Favorite airport lounge: Asiana Lounge, Seoul Incheon

Favorite U.S. airport: Newark. I’ve flown out of there hundreds of times and have never had an issue. There’s also a fairly good assortment of restaurants and duty free stores.

Favorite international airport: Tokyo Narita. It’s far from the city — make that VERY far from the city — but it’s clean, efficient and there’s a ANA lounge with a draft beer machine and a soba bar.

Favorite hotel: Dan Elat. It’s been a very long time since I’ve stayed, but the hotel is gorgeous, the staff is top-notch and it’s right on the beach.

Favorite cruise line: How about least favorite cruise line? That’d be Carnival.

Favorite island: Bermuda

Favorite fancy restaurant: Jean Georges Nougatine in New York City

Favorite hole in the wall: Kuma Inn, New York City

Favorite fruit: Mango

Favorite food: Sashimi from the Pacific Northwest

Least favorite food:  Anything with lots of onions

Drink of choice: (In the air and on the ground)  Bloody Mary in the air, vodka martini on the ground

Favorite travel movie(s): Coming to America

Favorite travel show(s): No Reservations

Right now I am reading: Cruising Altitude by Heather Poole

Five things you bring on a plane:  Full-size pillow, custom-molded earbuds that effectively block out almost all noise, eye mask, Samsung Galaxy Note (for email and reading), water bottle

What do you always seem to forget: A notepad.

Favorite travel iPhone app(s): United Airlines, TripAdvisor, TripIt

Most embarrassing/worst travel moment: I was in Beijing working at the Summer Olympics, and decided to venture over to the Olympic Green the day after Closing Ceremony. It was incredibly hot and no vendors were open, and the nearest restaurant or store was a 20-minute subway ride away. After a couple hours of walking around, I desperately needed water, and finally found a food stall with workers inside. The Olympics were over, however, and the kiosk was closed, so the employees refused to sell me anything, despite the full cooler. I even offered 50 times the listed price (about $20) for a bottle, which is a huge amount of money in China, but they refused to sell me anything. The supervisor saw that I wasn’t looking good and motioned for me to drink from a hose. There’s no way I was going to drink unclean water in China, regardless of how ill I was feeling, leaving the employees thoroughly confused. I had no choice but to leave the Olympic Green right away and head a store in the city.

What’s your dream destination: The St. Regis in Bora Bora. I’ll definitely go at some point, but it’s incredibly far and expensive.

Favorite travel website(s) – besides JohnnyJet.com, of course!:  Gadling, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post Travel

 Best travel tip: You can still get a good night’s sleep without handing over the cash for a lie-flat seat — just sleep on the window! Your best options for a window seat vary by aircraft, so head over to SeatGuru to check out a map of your plane. If the best seat isn’t open, grab something else and set a seat alert over at ExpertFlyer — you’ll get an email if something pops up. Then, bring along a full-size pillow in a vacuum bag when it’s time for your flight (I like the W Hotels Cloud Pillow), along with a few extra pillow cases (for subsequent legs on the same trip if you’re a germaphobe like me). And, if you end up getting that upgrade, the pillow you brought will surely offer more support than whatever the airline provides.

One more option: If there appear to be many empty seats on your flight at check in, select an empty row and (very, very nicely) ask the check-in agent to block out the other seat or two; if there are plenty of open seats, they may oblige.

Top Travel News

• American Airlines To Refresh Its International Widebody Fleet
• FBI warns travelers of pop-up window cyber-attacks at hotels
• American seeks more global flights, US codeshares
• Summer air travel outlook: Packed flights
• Hawaiian Airlines plans baggage procedure change
• Airlines look at creative cabin layouts for better sleep
• AAA says more drivers are hitting the road for Memorial Day
• The DOT Gets it Right With Washington/National Slot Awards
• Time: Virgin Atlantic to Allow In-Flight Cellphone Calls
• JetBlue Launches New Service to Puerto Rico from West Palm Beach, Florida
• Smurf Town residents voted to stay blue but perhaps missed golden opportunity for tourism

More Travel News: Chicago Tribune | L.A. Times | N.Y. Times | USAToday | CNN | Frommers

Good to Know Travel News

• First film ever shot (9 days/3 continents) aboard regularly scheduled commercial flights (Virgin planes).
• The Many Ways to Catch Shut-Eye in the Sky
• How Your Family Can Fly Around the World for (Almost) Free
• Hawaiian’s Bag Policy Changes May Cost Inter-Island Travelers Fees and Time
• When Toronto is famous for its street food, you can thank this man
• How to (Legally) Stay in Europe for More Than 90 Days
• The US needs to make it easier for tourists to visit
• 2012 is USA’s warmest year on record, so far
• Best/worst times to share on Facebook and Twitter
• U.S.News & World Report: Retire on the Pacific for $1,200 per Month
• US Airways-American Merger: Good or Bad News for Travelers?

New Stories From JohnnyJet.com

• 10 Reasons to Stay at Trump Toronto
• Cultural Highlights of Medellin, Colombia
• 10 Reasons to Love the Palazzo Sasso
• New Documentary “Until They Are Home”
• Virgin America Will Fly San Francisco (SFO) to Washington DC (DCA) later this summer
• Santa Monica’s new parking meters reset when cars leave
• Singapore Airlines Vacations Package Deal to Bangkok from $1,846
• 8 Must Know Phone Tips For International Travel
• Noah Guthrie’s Cover of LMFAO Song ‘Sexy and I Know It’
• What’s The Worst Thing You’ve Seen Passengers Do On Plane
• Memorial Weekend Deals For Our Military
• IHG Offers $75 for Weekend Travelers!
• Insider City Guide: Nairobi, Kenya — From Extreme Rags to Riche
• American Airlines To Refresh Its International Widebody Fleet
• Cathay Pacific and Klout Invite Online Influencers to Visit Airline’s Lounge at SFO
• Behind the Scenes Tour of Air France and Charles de Gaulle Airport

For previous weeks’ travel news, click here.

This week’s featured travel contests:

• Win a $4,000 Round Trip Ticket to Hong Kong from Cathay Pacific!
• Win a Family Vacation at Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay Resort & Spa
• Win a Night in Disneyland’s Exclusive Dream Suite
• Win $400 worth of Travel Gear
• United: Win a trip to cheer on Team USA at the London 2012 Olympic Games
• Olive Garden: Win a trip to Italy
• Virgin America: Win a Mystery Trip for Two from LAX

See previous travel contests here.

Allegiant announced today they will begin new, nonstop air service from the mainland to Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii.

The carrier will offer introductory fares as low as $159* one-way, including taxes and fees, from Honolulu International Airport (HNL) to: 

1. Bellingham, Wash. — begins November 15 with fares as low as $159* each way

2. Eugene, Ore. — begins November 17 with fares as low as $179* each way

3. Santa Maria, Calif. — begins November 17 with fares as low as $199* each way

4. Stockton, Calif. — begins November 18 with fares as low as $199* each way

The carrier will offer introductory fares as low as $199* one-way, including taxes and fees, from Kahului Airport (OGG) to: 

1. Bellingham, Wash. — begins November 14 with fares as low as $199* each way

Reservations can be made on the company’s website at allegiant.com or by calling 702-505-8888.

• 35% discount valid for one-time use at southwest.com or SWABIZ.com off the total amount of a roundtrip Wanna Get Away Fare® purchase before taxes and fees.
• Purchase must be made on 5/15/12 (TODAY) for travel on one of the following dates: May 22, May 30-31, June 5-6, July 4-5, 2012.
• Use Discount Code: SUMMER12
• There are no Blackout dates.
• Discount is only valid to/from any scheduled Southwest Airlines markets.
• The discount is only valid with the provided Promotion Code and is not combinable with other Promotion Codes or fares available exclusively through the web tool DING!.
• This promotion includes only Wanna Get Away Fares.
• 7-day or more advance purchase may be required.
• Discount is not valid on reservations made using Rapid Rewards points.
• Changes made to the itinerary after purchase may eliminate qualifications for this promotion.
• Discount is not valid for travel between the following market pairs
  • Austin—San Diego
  • Baltimore/Washington—Ft. Myers
  • Baltimore/Washington—San Diego
  • New York LaGuardia—Chicago Midway
  • Kansas City—San Diego
  • Chicago Midway—Oakland
  • Chicago Midway—San Diego
  • Chicago Midway—San Antonio
  • Chicago Midway—Seattle
  • Chicago Midway—San Francisco
  • Chicago Midway—Tucson
  • Minneapolis/St. Paul—Phoenix
  • St. Louis—Tampa Bay

• Fares include government taxes/fees.
• Need to book by May 15, 2012 11:59 PM ET or local (TODAY).
• Fares not available on Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia or Priceline.
• Travel May 22 through June 21, 2012 (Blackout dates and day of week restrictions apply and vary by route. Travel window exceptions apply for some routes.)
• Click here for details