June 6, 2007 Home * Travel Deals * Website of the Week Web Cams * Travel News

Cheers from Los Angeles! This week, we travel from Cyprus to London to downtown L.A., and we learn a valuable lesson after I get completely suckered by a Heathrow airport hotel booking service. The good news: I took one for the team. Due to my mistakes, hopefully fewer people will get ripped off the way I did. After a very pleasant British Airways flight home in Club World (yeah, baby!), I spent my first night (in a historic hotel, nonetheless), in downtown L.A. To read these stories and to see lots of pictures, scroll down.

LARNACA AIRPORT
Because I was traveling like a madman leading up to my Cyprus trip, I didn’t double-check my paper tickets to ensure that everything (name, cities, dates and times) were accurate. Big mistake! My flight departed early in the morning and not in the afternoon, as my itinerary stated. TIP: Always double-check your tickets and itinerary. Fortunately, when I arrived at the Larnaca airport, there was still another flight to London, luckily with a few empty seats. Cyprus Airways waived my change fee but I was going to miss my British Airways connection to Los Angeles, which meant I would be spending the night in England. Not a bad problem to have, eh? I went to the British Airways desk where they, too, waived the $200 change fee; it pays to be friendly, calm and to have some connections. I had a lot of work to do so instead of spending a lot of money and wasting time, I decided to book myself into an airport hotel. I wanted to book one before getting on my five-hour flight but there’s no Internet access at the Larnaca Airport. Instead, I grabbed an expensive but delicious slice of Sbarro pizza CY£2.45 ($5.60 USD) and a reasonably priced CY£.50 ($1.15 USD) bottle of water and people watched.

AIRPORT HOTEL
The flight to London was nice and easy. The Cyprus Airways crew was much nicer than the one I had on my flight down and the food was better, too! Mmmm, that pasta with ham was good! I landed at Heathrow around 9pm. There was no line at customs but the baggage claim area was complete chaos, filled mostly with teenagers. On my way to find an Internet kiosk or hotel help desk, I spotted the British Hotel Reservation Centre right outside baggage claim. Bingo! I had used a similar service once before in the Sydney airport and had found fantastic last-minute deals. Well, not here. Like I said, the airport was packed and when I approached the booth, Kara, a Czech woman working behind the desk said, "Sorry sir, everything in London is sold out because of spring break." With an empty feeling in my stomach, I asked, "How about the airport hotels?" She replied, "They are booked too, because British Midland Airlines (BMI) had a bunch of cancellations, as did other airlines". She then offered me a stay at a hotel 30 minutes away for £166 ($327 USD). I thought she was joking! As I started to walk away, she offered to check with the Sheraton Skyline (one of Heathrow’s Airport Hotels) one more time. She picked up the phone, then uttered the words (probably to a dial tone), "Oh brilliant! I will ring you right back".

"Good news!" she declared. "They just opened up a room over at the Sheraton." "How much?" I asked tentatively. "£220 ($434 USD)." WHAT!? She said that if I waited any longer I’d be stuck with a suite at the Marriott for £600 ($1,200 USD). There was a growing queue and I really didn’t want to sleep in the airport. I was exhausted and admittedly, vulnerable, so I took the bait. When she saw that I was still reluctant, she offered these words: "I promise, it’s your best option." I gave her one of those looks that said, "You sure aren’t lying?" She promised she wasn’t and I reluctantly handed her my credit card. Then she informed me of the £5 ($10 USD) service fee and asked if I wanted to prepay for the shuttle bus. Can you believe that a round trip bus transfer to travel a mere eight minutes to an airport hotel costs £8 ($16 USD)?! This wasn’t one of her scams, either. That’s the normal fare. Whoever operates London’s transit system should be ashamed of themselves for charging so much for a bus ride! It made me, and probably all of the other overnight visitors to London, never want to come back again. I walked out feeling robbed of £233 ($460 USD).

SUCKERED
The H3 bus made two stops before arriving at the Sheraton. I checked in at the gold line since the regular line was about a 25-minute wait. It pays to collect hotel points and gain elite status; you should, too. The first thing I asked the clerk, after handing over my prepaid receipt and credit card for incidentals, is whether he had any rooms available and whether I had gotten ripped off or not. He informed me that, in fact, they had plenty of rooms available for a rate of £105 ($207 USD). I swear, I almost went back to the airport to demand my money back but was afraid that if that biatch didn’t fork it over, I might get thrown in jail for causing such a ruckus. Besides, I wasn’t going to pay another £8 ($16 USD) for the bus ride back to the airport. Instead, all I could do was laugh. After all, I was suckered and it was my own fault – well, sort of. I don’t think the British Authority should be allowing these tactics to be used on its visitors. Do you?

SHERATON SKYLINE
Because I am a Starwood Gold Member, I was upgraded into a non-smoking executive room. It was still small, but well designed, with a teak wood bed frame, dark blue walls, a desk and a tea/coffee station. The first thing I did was log on to Sheraton.com. And no, the Internet was not free. In fact, it cost £12 ($24 USD) for 24 hours or £6 ($12 USD) for 30 minutes; don’t even get me started on this subject! When I found a rate for the very same room I was in for ... get this ... £47.50 ($94 USD), I dreamt about running down to the airport to give Kara a piece of my mind. But again, with security on high alert, I didn’t want to risk getting a cap in my ass. So I laughed some more. What a sucker I am! Worst of all: how many others just like me are out there? Then I thought that there might be something I could do about this. With the reach of my weekly newsletter and Frommers.com’s distribution list, I might be able to help stop this unethical practice from happening.

TIP: To avoid these types of situations, always pre-book your trip. If I had been able to log on to the Internet in the Larnaca airport, this never would have happened. Obviously, looking back, I am kicking myself that I didn’t use one of Heathrow’s Internet cafés or call the hotel directly. But when it’s late at night and there’s a long line building behind you, the sales techniques I described above can work. If you ever run into this kind of situation, you can issue a complaint by contacting the British Hotel Reservation Centre at hotels@bhrconline.com.

BREAKFAST NOT INCLUDED
Before calling it a night, I rang down to the front desk to make a backup wake-up call in addition to my alarm clock and to confirm that breakfast was included in the exorbitant rate I had paid for my room. The clerk/manager who checked me in said, "Yes, but please hold on a second while I just double-check your booking." When I heard the words, "Sorry sir, your rate doesn’t include the breakfast buffet," I snapped. I said, "Let me get this straight. You’re telling me that for the £230 I’m paying for this room which, by the way, is probably three times what most guests are paying, that it doesn’t include the breakfast buffet?" "That’s right sir," he replied smugly. Unreal! He apologized. The only good news is that in the morning, I pleaded with the day manager to waive the Internet access fee after I explained my ordeal. She agreed, but then muttered with a cheeky smile, "Remember, the best rates are always online." Ugh!

CLICK HERE to read BHRC customer service response.

LONDON HEATHROW
I took the frickin’ H3 bus back to Heathrow in mad traffic. Because I was waitlisted for the 9:55am flight and confirmed for the 4:30pm flight, I went directly to the British Airways customer service desk. It was 7:30am and the agents looked up my record. There, they saw the note that my friend (who is the U.S.-based press agent for British Airways and who I had emailed the night before) had put in for me: a request to take care of me by allowing me to use the lounge and a possible one-class upgrade. Since the plane was sold out in economy, I had to wait around the check-in hall until 9am to see if I would get on ... which meant I couldn’t use the lounge.

UPGRADED!
Instead, I grabbed myself an English breakfast. At 9:25am they started handing out seats to the 10 standby passengers. A friendly Spanish couple who I got talking with, had been waiting for three days on standby and were given seats 28F and 28G (world traveler plus – extra legroom). Then, with my eagle eyes, I saw my ticket come out of the printer. I couldn’t believe that it read 63A. I thought, "You’ve gotta be kidding me! I got up at the crack of dawn, waited all this time to get a seat at the very back of the plane?" I told the agent in a sad but polite voice that I’d just wait for my confirmed flight later in the day since then I’d have an emergency exit row seat with plenty of legroom. She was just about to tear up the ticket in amazement when I muttered, "I was hoping to get an upgrade, not a downgrade." The agent looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That’s what this is. It’s upstairs, not at the back of the plane, dummy!" Well, she didn’t say dummy but she should’ve!

HEATHROW SECURITY
My whole demeanor changed, and I thanked her repeatedly while she checked my luggage. I grabbed the ticket and ran to security with my Spanish friends. It was a long line but took just 10 minutes to clear, even though it was strict. I had to take off shoes, belt, and jacket and pull out my laptop – no liquids rule. Basically it’s the same 3-1-1 rule as in the U.S.

CLUB WORLD BUSINESS CLASS
In my opinion, sitting upstairs on a 747 is the best place to be. It’s like your own private jet as there are only five rows of four seats; two seats on each side of the aisle. The window seats on British Airways face backwards which I’d never seen before but it made sense; this way, you face your seatmate, but there’s a divider if you want privacy. I thought that sitting backwards might make me feel queasy but it didn’t at all. There was plenty of storage space, they lie almost completely flat, and they had a nicely sized entertainment system with six or more movies (not on demand), lame music channels and map tracking. I can’t imagine what the new ones are like. It was a dream and even though my seatmate said these were the old seats, I loved them.

CLUB WORLD SERVICE & FOOD
On top of that, the flight attendants’ service was a 180-degree change from my flight over in economy. The old adage is true: you get what you pay for. The FAs came around with amenity kits, pre–take off drinks, hot towels, more drinks and a two-course meal. Interestingly, for a starter they offered us a choice: Asian crab salad or a Mediterranean meze... this is all I ate in Cyprus! The food was quite tasty. For my entrée, I had the chicken pesto salad and chocolate mousse cake. Then some Hoi Sin Shiitake noodles for a mid-flight snack and an hour before landing, they came around again with a salad, a hot cornish pasty and lemon meringue pie. Traveling in Club World made the 10-hour, 35-minute flight go by too fast.

LOS ANGELES
Shortly after I arrived home, I switched cell phone providers. I had been a longtime Verizon Wireless customer but when I went in to get my sorry phone fixed, their customer service reps were horrible as usual. The price they were asking to replace it was absurd ($150). Instead, I took my business to T-Mobile whose customer service my friends have been bragging about for a long time. They were right. Not only is my new Blackberry Pearl smaller than my regular cell phone, but it comes with many more capabilities. I love it! The T-Mobile sales guys even told me how I could get the phone for free by going to CVS and getting a copy of their penny saver coupon book. I can’t tell you what a joy it is to land in a domestic or international city, turn on my phone and have immediate access to emails. It saves me so much time and aggravation. If I’d had it earlier, I could’ve booked that London hotel room from my Blackberry! TIP: Although, I was willing to pay Verizon’s $150 fee to break my contract, I took a chance and called their 800 number. I told the agent that my lawyer friend had informed me that Verizon had changed their text messaging rates which meant that they had altered my contract without notifying me. So, in turn, that makes my contract null and void. Guess what? It worked! I got out of the contract for free. Ha ha ha!

PDA TRAVEL TIPS
Here's a great article by Budget Travel Magazine on: If Your CrackBerry Was Addictive Before...

PRSA
Living down at the beach, I hardly ever go to downtown L.A. except to see the occasional play, sporting event or to grab dim sum. When I got invited to speak on a panel for the annual PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) conference that was being held at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel downtown, I decided to spend the night there instead of traveling back and forth in traffic. My panel with Jayne Clark from USA Today and David Lytle from Frommers.com was entitled, "How to Make the Cut in an Era of Web Attention Spans and Shrinking Editorial Space". It was interesting, we had a lot of fun together and I met some incredible PR agents.

DOWNTOWN L.A.
The Biltmore was the event’s host hotel. It’s a historic landmark (opened in 1923) and has been home to presidents, kings, Hollywood celebrities and, at one time, the Academy Awards. When I was there, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson announced his candidacy for the presidency in the room right next door. The hotel is centrally located in downtown Los Angeles’ business, financial and cultural district. A half-mile away is the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ahmanson Theatre, the Mark Taper Forum and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Although downtown L.A. might look like NYC, it’s the complete opposite. There’s absolutely no one walking around at night and I’m not talking late night. This place is like a ghost town outside of business hours and one of the hotel’s restaurants proved it. Smeraldi’s was eerily empty. On top of that, the service wasn’t great and the food was just mediocre.

MILLENNIUM BILTMORE HOTEL, LOS ANGELES
Walking into the Millennium Biltmore lobby, I felt like I was in Europe. The interiors are absolutely gorgeous, filled with stunning, Italian-Renaissance architecture with ornate columns, vivid frescoes and marble floors. The rooms are less desirable as they are in much need of a renovation. They are dated, including the bedding (they have bedspreads not duvets), old TVs and thin windows. If you stay here, be sure to bring earplugs because I was awakened at 7am to the squeal of a police siren that sounded like it was outside in the hallway. It made my already crazy, MSG-induced dreams turn almost tragic as I desperately tried to figure out what was real and what was not. For a brief moment, I was trying to figure out if I had done something wrong ... like strangle that London hotel discounter rep and I almost jumped out of bed to make my escape! Thank God I didn’t; I sleep naked. Room rates begin at $129 (AAA members get a discount). Overnight valet costs $32 (what a rip!) and Internet access is $9.95 (a good deal) for 24 hours (though it’s kind of slow). Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles, 506 South Grand Avenue, Tel.: +1 213 624 1011, reservation: +1 800-245-8673.

VIDEO
Sorry! No video this week, but we do have all the Johnny Jet videos ever made on their servers.

NEXT WEEK
Next week we fly to Vega$, baby and head to another international destination, though this one doesn’t require a long flight.

Happy Travels,
Johnny Jet

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All information presented here is accurate at the time of publication but prices, dates and other details are all subject to change. Please confirm all information before making any travel arrangements.

Note: This trip was sponsored by the Cyprus Tourism Board.

Copyright 2007 JohnnyJet, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.