Top Travel News

• United 787 Boeing Dreamliners back in the air after lengthy grounding
• American Airlines New Boarding Process
• Airlines collected over $6 billion in fees last year
• American: Fliers who carry on less can board earlier
• Trade group predicts crowded airports and planes this summer
• U.S. Airlines Forecast A Sunnier Summer
• Mexico and Puerto Rico now have direct flights for first time in over a decade
• ATL Airport Security Dog Bites Woman in Baggage Claim
• Airline customer satisfaction improves
• Top 100 Tennis Resorts & Camps

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

Good to Know Travel News

• Nine Reasons to Use Airport Lounge Clubs (and How to Get In)
• 3 Ways to Save on…Vacation Lodging
• How the Boeing 747 Got Left Behind
• Overweight bags: When is it worth it to ship them?
• Reverse Direction Fares
• Sneaky New Tricks from Identity Thieves
• And the Award for Best Award-Seat Availability Goes to …

This week’s contests include:

• Win 200,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles
• Win a weeklong stay at a private beachfront villa in Carabete on the north coast of the Dominican Republic
• Win a fly-in camping excursion for four in Ontario
• Win a trip to Iceland
• Win one of four trips to Italy worth $7,000 each
• HGTV Celeb Designer Genevieve Gorder free weekend getaway

Natalie tested out the RHA MA450i Noise Isolating In-ear Headphones with Mic and here’s what she had to say about them:

These noise isolating earphones with remote and microphone are a great accessory to keep in your bag when you’re traveling – and even when you’re not! They give really great sound – crystal clear with a nice, deep bass. They come with 12 replaceable ear tips so you can find the size that’s right for you. That’s awesome – but it’s a bit tricky to change them. However, once you find the size that’s right for you, they’ll fit great. I had to use the smallest ones and I loved how securely they fit in my ears without falling out. I tried them out on a recent flight from LAX to YYZ and the noise isolating functionality worked well. There were a lot of talkers on my flight and since it was a red-eye, I just wanted to catch some shut-eye. While the earphones didn’t entirely eliminate the noise, they blocked out enough of it that I was able to sleep. Since noise-canceling headphones are so big, it’s nice to have an earphone option that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. I won’t travel without these again!

Available at: Apple (they’re exclusive to Apple Retail and Online Stores in the US)

Price: $49.95

This is probably one of the simplest and most useful apps/websites out there. UmbrellaToday.com has been around for a few years but they recently launched an iPhone app for $1.99. You don’t really need to spend the money for the app since you can just log on to their website and sign up for email or SMS alerts for free. Once you log on to the site, just input your location and you will get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Below is a spot to input your email or cell phone number and on days it’s expected to rain, you’ll get a notification letting you know whether you should bring your umbrella today.

As you might have seen last week, an American Airlines flight from LAX to JFK got diverted to Kansas City because a passenger wouldn’t stop singing Whitney Houston songs. Here’s the crazy story from CBS with the video embedded. What’s interesting is that you can hear the flight attendant saying that no photos are allowed to be taken but as you can see, that’s difficult to control in an era when practically everyone has a camera built into their cell phone. Because of all the smartphones, this story was able to make the news and become our travel video of the week. Good to know: The woman was released without any charges but American refused to fly her to her destination so she had to make own arrangements.

TheTwentyDollarTrick.com
On Saturday, I was on Leo Laporte’s show The Tech Guy, as I am every week at 3:30pm ET. One of the stories I mentioned was hotel secrets from a front desk clerk who just wrote a book. Here’s the link to his 10 tips. But one of those tips is to slip $20 to the front desk clerk at check-in to get a better room. One of Leo’s listeners reminded me that there’s also an old website devoted to using the $20 trick successfully for Las Vegas hotels called TheTwentyDollarTrick.com. Even though that website hasn’t been updated for years, it still works – followers on my Twitter (@JohnnyJet) confirmed it.

Montage Beverly Hills

My wife Natalie was in LA this past week and since she was on assignment for Style at Home and for her blog OhTravelissima.com, I got to tag along with her while she lived the good life at the Montage Beverly Hills. The hotel was so incredible and if you haven’t been, you should consider checking it out. Here are 10 reasons to stay at the Montage Beverly Hills.

View from top floor of Montage Beverly Hills

1. It’s an oasis in the city
The Montage Beverly Hills is located in the middle of Beverly Hills. You don’t realize what an oasis it is until you go to the top floor of the hotel and look out and see all the ugly rooftops surrounding the Montage’s beautiful buildings, which have Mediterranean tiled roofs and a small city park in between. It really is a beautiful oasis in the city.

Our junior suite

2. The rooms
The Montage Beverly Hills has 201 guestrooms that are above average in size with a decor that reflects both the1920s Hollywood era and modern day luxury. All the rooms feature a 42-inch (or larger) LCD television and there’s a technology panel so you can easily hook up your computer to it. There’s also free basic WiFi (fine for checking email and surfing the net) but it costs $19.95 extra to upgrade to premium, which is key for downloading or watching movies, using Skype, etc. What I didn’t like was that I could hear noise out in the hallway. And the blinking lights from the smoke detector disturbed my sleep at night but I remedied the problem by hanging my Yankees cap over it.

3. Cool electric curtains
I love when, with the press of the button, I can electronically open and close the curtains including the sheer drapes, which allow light in but still provide privacy.

Montage Beverly Hills bed

4. Soft sheets
Although I didn’t find our bed very comfortable – the padding was too lumpy in the middle – the 500-thread count Egyptian Fili D’Oro sateen sheets were dreamy. The first night I didn’t sleep well because our duvet was way too heavy. So the second night, I called housekeeping andasked if they had a lighter blanket. They did and quickly changed it for us. I asked if I was making an unusual request but was told that many guests prefer a lighter duvet, too.

Montage Beverly Hills bathroom

5. Bathroom
The marble bathroom has a large shower and a separate deep-soaking bathtub. The bathroom also comes with an exclusive line of Antica Farmacista bath products and plush Turkish cotton robes.

Chef’s counter at Scarpetta

6. Chef’s counter at Scarpetta
Scarpetta is located on the first floor of the hotel and there are several others throughout North America. They have all garnered glowing reviews, including a selection as one of the “Best New Restaurants in America” by Esquire magazine and a nomination for “Best New Restaurant from the James Beard Foundation.” The Italian cuisine is modern, earthy and refined, with seasonal ingredients and sitting at the Chef’s Counter, watching all the cooks in action, is entertainment in itself. The head chef is Freddy Vargas (@chefFV) from Brooklyn and he is not only an incredible cook but a great guy, too. We had the farmer’s market salad, scallops, burrata, kale ravioli and their award-winning spaghetti with homemade pasta. The pasta was enough to make Natalie say that this Latino chef couldreally teach the Italians how to cook!

Afternoon tea at Montage Beverly Hills

7. Afternoon tea
When Natalie asked me to go to afternoon tea with her, I admit, I thought it would be torture. I mean, how many guys like to sit in a quaint room with hand-painted china sets and eat finger sandwiches? Zero. That might change when you find out that the Montage Beverly Hills offers a Gentlemen’s Tea ($58) with sliders, apple pie and chocolate cake and a glass of Johnnie Walker’s Black.

Co-ed mineral pool in spa at Montage Beverly Hills

8. The spa
The Spa Montage Beverly Hills is located on the third floor and is massive. It’s 20,000 square feet with 17 treatment rooms. It was inspired by the 9th century Andalusia region of Spain and has a Moorish-style design. The men’s room had the hottest steam room I’ve ever been in as well as a large Jacuzzi. I didn’t hit the co-ed mineral pool or the fitness center. The only room for improvement is the design of the men’s waiting room – it needs some serious help.

9. Complimentary use of a Mercedes
In the past, only guests who stayed in a suite would be able to get to drive one of the hotel’s Mercedes-Benz vehicles during their stay, for free. They’ve now extended this offer to any guest at all of their properties (Montage Deer Valley or Montage Laguna Beach). It’s based on availability and the vehicle is only available for four hours or less and you have to pay for the fuel you use.

10. Its central location
One of the best things about the Montage Beverly Hills is its location. It’s located on North Canon Drive and Wilshire. It’s a block from Rodeo Drive so the best shopping in the world is just steps away. But don’t think that because you are in Beverly Hills and near Rodeo Drive that everything is obscenely over-priced. There are plenty of reasonably priced restaurants and shops all around.

Montage Beverly Hills pool

I could go on and tell you more — like the fact that this is where tons of A-list celebrities stay, the rooftop pool, there’s a fine barbershop and a great Kim Vo hair salon (Natalie’s new favorite) located in the building and that Thomas Keller’s Bouchon bakery is in the building across the way but I will save that for another time. In the meantime, you should definitely go and check it out for yourself!

1. It’s the Pretty Woman hotel
Even though the movie Pretty Woman came out in 1990, I and everyone else on the planet, still associate the hotel with the movie. Back then it was called the Regent Beverly Wilshire — it changed to the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel in 1992 when the Four Seasons took over the management of it. They didn’t film in the hotel but they did use it for exterior shots and they built sets around the hotel’s actual rooms, which have since been updated.

Entrance

2. History
The 395-room Beverly Wilshire has a lot of history behind it – and I don’t just mean that it was the favored hotel of Richard Gere’s character in the movie. The Beverly Wilshire Apartment Hotel was built in 1928 and was renamed the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in the 1940s when it was renovated with a ballroom. The hotel has changed hands a few times … in 1958, 1961, 1985 and 1992. Pretty much every Hollywood celebrity and head of State has stayed here from Elvis Presley to President Barack Obama. In fact, Elvis lived in the hotel as did Warren Beatty and John Lennon when he separated from Yoko Ono.

Arrival at Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel

3. The grand entrance
For a city hotel, the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel has a grand entrancelocated in between its two buildings in the back. There’s plenty of space to alleviate bottlenecks and they have the American and Canadian flags flying high. Four Seasons is a Canadian company so it made Natalie feel right at home even before the bellmen and valets welcomed us.

Concierge

4. Impeccable service
The Four Seasons prides itself on its service and it begins the moment you arrive. Here’s an example of how they went the extra mile during our stay. I was going to be on the Home and Family show on the Hallmark Channel. When I noticed the hotel didn’t get the channel, I asked the concierge if he had any advice – I wanted to catch my appearance. He began calling the surrounding hotels to see if they could arrange for me to watch it at another hotel. When he couldn’t find another hotel that had the channel, he contacted their cable supplier to arrange for me to get it in the room. They made it happen. And the craziest part … my episode didn’t air at the times the TV Guide had listed. The good news is that the Hallmark Channel ended up putting two of my four segments online, so I was still able to see them.

Guestroom

5. A good night’s sleep guaranteed
The bed at the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel was pretty much perfect. It was king size, with a light comforter and high thread count sheets. To ensure agood night’s sleep, the curtains have Velcro on the sides so there weren’t any cracks of light peeking through in the morning. Why can’t all hotels do this?

Built-in phone chargers

6. Phone chargers
Another feature I really liked was the built-in cell phone chargers on the desk in the office. Natalie and I didn’t have to take our chargers out of our bag – everything we needed was right there. There were three plugs and two of them worked with our iPhone and Blackberry. Not sure what the third one fit.

Bathroom from the opposite angle

7. Fantastic shower pressure
The marble bathrooms are beautiful but the best part for me was the firm showerpressure. It’s also nice to have long fluffy towels and designer shampoos and conditioners that don’t tangle Natalie’s hair.

Free shoeshine

8. Free shoeshine
I love it when hotels offer a free shoeshine and it’s even more appreciated when you are doing a spot on national television the following day! My dirty shoes were delivered on time and shined so they looked like new.

Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel courtesy car

9.  Courtesy car service
The hotel provides courtesy car service in a Mercedes and Rolls Royce on a first-come, firs-serve basis. They operate within a 3-mile radius and generally run between 9:30am and 10:30pm.  

Sidebar

10.  Fine dining
The food in the Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel, is top notch as you might imagine. They have Wolfgang Puck’s Michelin-starred, contemporary steakhouse CUT. Then there’s THE Blvd restaurant for all-day dining and if you just feel like something light while sharing a drink with someone, Side Bar next to CUT has a small menu of appetizers but a wide selection of wines. There’s also the pool café and room service if you need more options!

11. The pool
There’s a small Mediterranean-style pool that was modeled after Sophia Loren’s private Villa in Italy. As far as pools go, that’s pretty cool.

12. Golf Ball spa treatment
In all my years of traveling the world and getting spa treatments, I’ve never had or even heard of one, which incorporates golf balls to soothe tension. But the ‘Tension Reliever’ at the Beverly Wilshire does offer this unique method, which focuses on four integral points of relief: warming, relaxing, localized treatment and enhancing overall flexibility. Cost: 60 minutes – $180 USD; 90 minutes – $275 USD.

Natalie watching Pretty Woman

13. Nail Bar
While I was getting the incredible golf ball massage, Natalie was in the hotel’s Nail Bar getting a mani-pedi. To her delight, they serve champagne and the movie Pretty Woman plays on a large flat screen television in the background during the service.

14. The Beverly Wilshire app
I didn’t get to test this out but the day we checked out, the Beverly Wilshire launched a new mobile app that offers hotel services like scheduling a turndown service, ordering room service, getting luggage assistance, concierge recommendations, etc. It is available on iPad, iPhone and Android platforms and it’s free. They can be downloaded by visiting the App Store or Google Play on your device. Just search ‘Beverly Wilshire’.

Fun treat

15. Location
Ofcourse, one of the best things about the Beverly Wilshire is its location. It sits at the top of Rodeo Drive so the best shopping in the world is just steps away. Rodeo Drive also has some of the most expensive shops and restaurants in the world but the streets surrounding the area offer reasonably priced food and clothing. We even walked a few blocks to Natalie’s favorite cupcake joint, Sprinkles, which is just a short walk away from the hotel.