Just a brief note before I continue posting trip reports. 1. Life right now is crazy for all of us due to Covid-19. I am having my own difficulties handling it, though I am fortunate in that I am financially secure, and so far my friends and family are all… Read more »
One travel blogger has recently engaged in conduct that I find morally problematic, but also raises some basic legal issues that are often misunderstood, relating to a glitch that made redeeming miles for Swiss First Class (explicitly not allowed under program rules) possible. Most of the legal issues are covered… Read more »
In February 2014, I spent a week in France, with stops in Lyon, Montpelier, and Paris. I haven’t thought much about the trip in a while, but I had stayed at the Hilton in Lyon at Cite Internationale. It was fine, and I made a review post that was nothing… Read more »
We interrupt this series of trip reports for another kind of post… I recently got into a dispute with a travel blogger who I don’t know why I even follow how unsophisticated and uninformative her writing is. What spurred it was her tweeting about how Oman is on her “bucket… Read more »
I have spent most of my professional life thinking about issues of injustice and inequality. When I travel, I try not to let these concerns dominate my thinking. I remember a speaker I heard in college, some noted activist whose name I can’t recall, who made the point that people… Read more »
My day (and sometimes night) job is as an attorney. Although we get a terrible rap and are accused of being unethical, the reality is that most good lawyers (and many bad ones) actually think about ethics A LOT. We have to take a separate ethics exam before we get… Read more »
Things have been crazy with a new job and a new schedule. Hope to finish trip reports soon. But today, another blogger posted something that may be the most morally bankrupt post ever, and it compelled me to take a break and stay up later than I should. Some background… Read more »
A lot of bloggers have spoken more at length about DOJ’s decision to file an antitrust lawsuit to stop the US/AA merger. Most of the blog posts I’ve seen are patently ridiculous, as they either claim that “consumer advocacy” in form of some ridiculous air travel consumer organizations deserve the… Read more »
If you are a regular reader of a few of the major travel/points blogs, it would be understandable if you thought two things: (1) every two or three days, there is an AMAZING credit card deal you would be a fool not to sign up for, and (2) American Airlines… Read more »
Trip Report: Weekend in Madrid Part 1: JFK-FCO and a Missed Connection Alitalia Flt. 609, Boeing 777, Economy Sched. Dep. 5:35pm, Actual Dep. 7:05pm Sched. Arr. 8:10am, Actual Arr. 9:10am In the fall, Alitalia had a promo on its Japanese website that effectively took $250 off the price of any… Read more »