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Greetings from Los Angeles! With my impeccable sense of timing, I made it back home just in time for the earthquake.
I was here for a few days to attend the largest business travel convention and a couple of parties; one sane, the other not so much.
This week, I have some tips and tricks for you, about flying coast-to-coast, news and pictures from the National Business Travel
Association conference I attended, including shots of many airlines' new premium class seats, and pictures from a six-man volleyball
tournament that should really be played on October 31. We also have Buzzy Gordon's review of
travel gear for people on the go and
Marc Meredith introduces us to
The Custom Hotel,
a boutique airport hotel in Los Angeles, which he says is anything but typical. Plus, our newest writer, “Million Mile Flyer”,
gives us a quick review of service on
jetBlue.
MY BROTHER
Before we get started, I want to thank you for your incredible support. I wasn't expecting to get the kind of response that the news of my brother's cancer garnered. I read every one of them; a few are listed below in this week's reader email. I felt a lump in my throat as I read them and my brother was deeply touched as well. Emails like those are what motivate me to pack my bags each week and write about my life and my journeys. I hope to encourage and inspire others to travel, to meet new people and to see the world through new eyes.
NEW YORK TO LOS ANGELES FARES
I used to think that traveling from New York to Los Angeles was such a big deal. In fact, I used to get anxiety just thinking about sitting on a plane for five plus hours. Fortunately, these days I've done it so many times I treat it like the hour-long commuter train from Connecticut to Grand Central – except, of course, that the fare is a lot more expensive. Speaking of fares from JFK to LAX … they were ridiculously reasonable until a week or two ago. As long as I was flexible with my travel dates and times, I could find coast-to-coast fares (on JohnnyJet.com, of course) for just $159 each way – even at the last minute. Virgin America and American Airlines were the cheapest airlines;
Delta Air Lines was just a few dollars more and
United wasn't even in the same ballpark. In the past month, I have flown back and forth numerous times to go to meetings/events in Los Angeles and spend time with my brother in New York. However, the fares haven't been too kind as of late. Last-minute fares this week were -- get this -- $535 each way! The absolute cheapest deal I could find with over a week's notice was $220 one-way.
USING MILES
Frequent trips and countless hours on the Internet pricing out fares, this is what I've learned. First of all, if you see a bargain fare, jump on it! Or at least put it on hold for 24 hours; American allows you to do this on their website. Second: Using miles at the last minute is a joke. I have a healthy amount of mileage on United, American and Delta but none of them have had flights that are convenient for me -- and if they do by chance -- the hefty "last-minute" service fee makes them not worth it. United and American have similar fees. They both charge $100 for tickets booked six days or fewer prior to departure. It's $75 for seven to 20 days (American charges $50) and $0 for 21 days advance notice. Delta charges $75 per ticket for 20 days or fewer and there's no charge for booking 21 days in advance. Obviously, the goal here is to plan ahead. I rarely do that so it kills me to use 25,000 miles, plus have to pay a $100 fee, especially when I used to be able to spend a little bit more and buy a ticket outright, which allowed me to upgrade and earn miles. BTW: Does it make sense to you that the airlines charge a fee for last-minute mileage tickets? It seems to me that these are the flights they would want people to use their miles on since the seat is most likely going empty anyway. When you book way in advance, you're probably taking a seat away from a paying customer. Go figure.
FLYING OUT OF JFK
It's no secret that flying out of JFK is usually not a pleasant experience, especially if you're departing in the late afternoon or evening, when all the international flights are jamming the taxiways. It's an even worse experience when there are storms. When I booked my $159 fare, the only flight available from JFK was either at 6:30am or 8:30pm. Well, I sure as heck didn't want to get up at 4am, so I chose the later flight. I monitored the weather and when I saw afternoon thunderstorms forecasted, I knew there was going to be trouble. Sure enough, there was. Flights that day to JFK were delayed an average of four hours and some were even canceled. I called American Airlines' customer service agents three times until I could get someone to change my flight to the following day for free. I made the right choice because my original flight was severely delayed and my new one (AA Flight 21) left the gate on time and took off within 12 minutes! I overheard the flight attendants seated next to me (I was in an exit row) saying to each other, "Can this really be true? Are we in Boston or New York?" As a bonus, we arrived into Los Angeles 30 minutes early. When was the last time that happened? Useful websites, besides your airline's, to check on flight status: Weather.com, The FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center, and FlightExplorer.com.
AMERICAN AIRLINES
My last two flights from JFK to LAX were both on American Airlines. Each time I booked my ticket, I reserved an exit row (use the airline's seating charts or SeatGuru.com). I also requested an upgrade since I have elite status (you need to fly at least 25,000 actual air miles in a year or 30 segments). One of the perks of membership is that you can upgrade for cheap -- $150 each way, coast-to-coast. American Airlines flies a wide-body 767 with three classes of service (United and Delta fly single aisle 757s; Delta also has some 737s). On one of the trips, I got upgraded, which made the flight that much easier. Besides the extra space, the better meal and the bottles of water, they pass out Bose headsets and personal entertainment systems with movies, shows, videos, games and music on demand. But to be honest, getting the exit row in coach wasn't that bad either. On a short flight, I don't care that much about the entertainment, free drinks or food. What I care about is space to work and I had just as much legroom, if not more. I don't mind spending $10 to buy one of their turkey sandwiches with chips because that's what I would pay at home and it was decent. If you do care about entertainment on this route, then fly Delta, Virgin America or jetBlue to Long Beach. NOTE: One observation about American Airlines is that their new, modern JFK terminal requires a heck of a lot of walking, including going up and down long escalators to get to the gates.
NBTA
I was in Los Angeles this past week to attend a National Business Travel Association (NBTA) tradeshow. NBTA connects members of the business travel world and promotes the value of business travel management. They represent over 3,000 corporate travel managers and travel service providers who together, manage and direct more than $170 billion of expenditures within the business travel industry, primarily for Fortune 1000 companies. This is the granddaddy of business travel shows and all the airlines, hotels, car rentals, travel service suppliers were in town with their sales reps. I love to walk the tradeshow floor and check out all the airlines' new business and first class seats, which they were showcasing for the first time. Here are some pictures of premium class seating on: Qatar Airways, Iberia, Jet Airways, JAL, EVA, and new start-up airline V Australia. Some of the booths are the size of a house and they have all kinds of goodies from champagne and cookies to flight attendants (Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Qantas) and former NBA stars trying to drum up some business. Another highlight is attending the press conferences where companies go into full detail about their new products.
EARTHQUAKE
This year, the NBTA conference took place at the L.A. Convention Center. I was listening to Dale Moss from Open Skies describe their new 757 all-premium service from New York to Paris (and soon JFK to Amsterdam in mid-October) when the 5.4 quake hit. I was sitting next to my buddy Brett Snyder from CrankyFlier.com when the shaking began. We looked at each other and said, "Earthquake", then instinctively headed for the door. I was about to dive under the coffee table if it got any worse but instead, I settled for the doorframe. It shook pretty good for about five seconds (it felt longer) and I knew it wasn't that bad if the epicenter was nearby but who knew where it was located? If the epicenter was a few hundred miles away, it would have been catastrophic. To find out, I pulled out my laptop and quickly logged on to the USGS website. Within a minute, I learned and informed everyone in the room that it was a 5.8 magnitude quake (later downgraded to a 5.4) and the whereabouts of the epicenter. People gathered around my laptop to get the 411. A few minutes later, I received a CNN text message alert confirming the magnitude and at about the same time, a representative from the Convention Center made an announcement over the PA system with details of the quake and said that the facility had been checked for cracks and everything was fine. Many of the attendees were from out of town and had never experienced a quake before and were visibly shaken. I overheard one person call their airline to change their flight so they could leave ASAP, and there were still two days left of the conference.
EARTHQUAKE SAFETY
This earthquake got me thinking: Maybe I should brush up on my earthquake survival skills. I did a Google search and read what FEMA recommends you do during an earthquake.
MORE ON NBTA
Once everyone had called their loved ones to let them know they were okay, the conference continued. Lunch was served and it always amazes me how food can be provided in such a timely fashion for over 4,000 guests. Heck, short order cooks amaze me too. Each day, NBTA had a different keynote speaker. They usually have A-listers like Al Gore, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Ridge and George H. Bush. This year, they had Craig Ferguson, Alec Baldwin and Alan Greenspan. I was only at the conference one day and I saw Alec Baldwin speak. He was very funny but he definitely crossed the P.C. line by talking about the Mile High Club (of which he is a proud member) and gay flight attendants. "You know what's wrong with the commercial airline industry today?" he asked. "It's that all the female flight attendants look and act like menopausal gym teachers and the male flight attendants are good looking, fit gay guys," he continued. I don't think NBTA will be airing his speech on their website like they are doing with the Airline CEO Panel, which took place earlier in the day. This panel itself was entertaining and educational and was moderated by Peter Greenberg. Click here to watch all 70 minutes of it. FYI: Next year's NBTA tradeshow will be held in San Diego from August 23rd to 26th.
PETER GREENBERG'S BOAT PARTY
Speaking of Peter Greenberg, he's not only one of my travel gurus, but he's also a friend and I'm fortunate to often be a guest on his weekly radio show and attend his bi-annual boat parties, which are always great fun. There are usually about 50 people or so on his 70-something-foot-yacht for the cruise around Marina Del Rey. The last party was in December and it was chilly but last Wednesday, the weather was absolutely perfect. Peter slowed the engines when we floated by one of the biggest private ships I have ever seen: The Princess Mariana. This monster, complete with a helipad, is just unreal. When I got home that night I did a Google search and learned that Carlos Peralta Quintero, who's the president of a Mexican cellular phone company and the Mexico City Tigres baseball team, owns the boat. I have no idea how much this 258-foot, deluxe power boat costs but I read you can rent it for $606,500 a week and that it has a 1,000-bottle tequila cellar onboard. One thing is for sure: It reminded of me of the yachts I've seen in Cannes, Sardegna and Monaco.
MB SIX-MAN VOLLEYBALL TOURNEY
Despite only being in Los Angeles for a few days, it was perfect timing to attend the Manhattan Beach Surf Festival. The highlight is the annual Six-Man/Six-Woman Charlie Saikley Volleyball Tournament. This event is getting downright out of control ... in a good way! The tipping point was probably when it was featured on Wild On E a few years back but each year, this 200-team tournament is maxed out. Most are stacked with top players, including pros. They aren't too difficult to find since Manhattan Beach is the beach volleyball capital of the world. What makes this tourney so much fun is that every team has a theme and they dress the part. There's Team Fletch (all wearing Lakers jerseys with six-inch 'fros and even has ex-Laker great Kurt Rambis as a member), the clan from The 80’s WWF, The Flying Nuns, The GrandMamas (one uses a walker) and the Cougar Hunters. This should give you an idea how big the tournament is getting: two years ago, you could stroll into City Hall 90 minutes after applications were being accepted (usually June 1) and get a spot in the tournament. Last year, there was a line down the street 90 minutes before the doors opened and our team didn't get in. This year, if you wanted to play, you had to camp out the night before to get in line as teams are coming from all over the country. I wonder how many nights people are going to need to camp out next year. One thing that was different this year is that the cops were really cracking down on the drinking on the beach. If they saw a beer can in your tent, they would come in and take your beer away (probably for one bigger party back at the station). However, if you were discreet, they would leave you be, which was cool. To see the craziness, check out my two-minute photomontage below. For more information on the tournament, log on to SurfFestival.org and remember Saturday is the day you want to attend.
VIDEO
This week we don't just have one video but two! One is of this year's Manhattan Beach Six-Man Volleyball Tournament and the other is last year's. Check them out here!
NEXT WEEK
Next week, we go for a spin on the world's largest commercial plane that's just beginning to service America.
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