Monday, February 23, 2009

Airline Food Porn via airlinemeals.net


First airline food porn. Copyrights should be directed to airlinemeals.net somewhere I'm sure. I love grilled seafood and asparagus is great, here is the airline food porn of the day:

Less time searching, more time flying.

Well, this website: http://www.kayak.com/ is amazing. I must say, there isn't an option for food porn but that besides the point. Kayak essentially compiles all other search engines and airlines into one easy search. When I was looking at multi-city flights earlier I had so many options turn up I was rather entertained. Searching for the airline, airport, liquor stores or whatever is half the fun for me. Straight to the point, Kayak is great.

The Terminal, now with more food porn.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

United Airlines - To gripe or not to gripe?

When I went to London in 2004 I had a lot of flight problems. The first problem was the delay trying to leave Oklahoma. It took us nearly 5 hours to get out of Oklahoma City to Chicago. Well, we ended up in Chicago finally only to miss our connecting flight to London Heathrow. They claimed it was weather so that basically was a screw you. Anyhow, I saw some stupid American tourists (you know the ones I always hate who act like they're better than everyone else that is not them) bitching out the United Airlines help desk at O'hare. Well, I saw and heard they ended up with a hotel room because they were due to be on the same flight. They got a free damn hotel room while my friend and I literally slept overnight in the terminal. What kind of shit is that? I guess you have to bitch pretty hard to get something these days, well, that was 4 years ago so I guess things might have changed but I doubt it. I called United Airlines when I got back and had some rather calm words about how I was mistreated while other people got free rooms. By the way, those departure seats are not comfortable. So I was granted a free domestic flight eventually, but damn that sucked. United has screwed me and has sorted me out in the past.

Another United experience I had was to agree to give up my seat in exchange for some airline goods. I got a free flight and free food for staying at O'Hare an extra 3 hours. I'm all for that. I love airports so much, i mean, its wierd how much I love them so I didn't mind. What I don't like is when everything is shut down and I can't get outside to have a cigarette. I still remembe what that lady looks like that bitched out United to get that free room. I even saw her, fanny pack and map out, walking about in London sometime during that trip. I didn't even bother saying hi, i just mumbled to myself "rude bitch."

I'm good at my negotiating skills, I'll use those next time I'm in a jam at the airport. Next time I'll get sorted out proper. Maybe I'll use the "mystery method" on some unsuspecting female check in attendant.

Stocked up

I've come to realize that an aspect of travel has made an impact on my current keep of liquor and beer. I always buy cans of beer. However, it's always good beer. I always keep Asahi cans and recently bought Amstel light in cans as well. Just like on flights. Also, I keep scotch that is branded throughout the travel industry as well. Johnny Red Label or Black Label. Those are sort of my "go to" scotches. J&B rare on occasion. I've come to the conclusion that after all of the high end stuff I was buying for a while, albeit tasted extraordinary, I always come back to the basics. You know you're always at home when you have those certain liquors around. On the plane, in a foreign hotel, in an airport, Johnny Red Label or J&B always makes you feel like you're closer to home.

I went to a friends birthday party tonight and brought her a shot, like the smaller ones you get on planes. I'm a bit of a germ-o-phobe, similar to Adrian Monk. So it was natural to buy those. I still have my half mini bottle of jack daniels from my first trip abroad.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Lakers - Thunder

Got some tickets to the Lakers game on Tuesday. I wish my sister could go with me, but she cannot on that night. So now I need a date. I don't really feel like bringing a regular friend. Not travel related, but there will be pictures.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Hells Kitchen

First and foremost I'm a big fan of Gordon Ramsey and am delighted that I'll get to go eat at one of his pubs in London this summer. I turned on Hells Kitchen tonight to see that the men's team won their little challenge the women lost. So Gordan flies the men to eat at a prime steak house while the women are butchering whole cows. Then Gordon serves the women the cow parts. Liver, kindeys, etc. They women are throwing up and some don't even make it past a bite. Seriously? These women want to work in his kitchens and they cannot stand the nasty bits? What the hell is that about? Anthony Bourdain would be so pissed and I bet Gordon Ramsey gets pissed after the commercial break. YOU ARE CHEFS! Study up! Those parts are what everybody else is eating in the rest of the world. Shame.

Burning on your doorstep

So I bagged a "Random Crap" today on Woot.com. Finally! It's apparent I have too much time on my hands. Here is the wikipeda description of what I bought or how it's bought:

In lieu of typical product sales, Woot occasionally offers a fukubukuro-like blind grab bag officially called "Random Crap". Its accompanying picture has lent it the name "Bag O' Crap" (BOC). The BOC sells for $1.00 but users are advised to buy the maximum of 3. The BOC typically includes dollar store items and may include significantly more expensive items such as large flat-screen televisions.[7] The BOC typically triggers the flooding and subsequent overload of Woot's servers with thousands and thousands of order requests. The available BOCs typically sell out within seconds. Processing a customer's order for a BOC, assuming he or she is first lucky enough to get one before everyone else, may sometimes take over an hour.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Ok, the blog shows up.

Took me a blog to see my blogs. No travel research today. Just been sort of refreshing Woot.com all damn day. It's actually been kind of lame today. :( Less than an hour of wooting off left.

Where did all of my bloggings go?

Strange, I can has no blogs visible. :(

Woot Off !

Sound's like some sort of chicken breakdance battle or something, but Woot.com is doing a "Woot Off.' In which they offer an item at a good price and after they sell out they move onto the next. Normally, they offer one deal per day. The reason I mention it is because of the random things they sell. Travel related. There are multiple digital cameras, storage devices, laptops and other related offerings they pertain to traveling. Anyhow, I'm waiting for them to sell RANDOM BAG OF CARP.

http://www.woot.com

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Europe on Sale via AirfareWatchdog.com

Apparently Europe is cheap right now and at the end of summer. airfarewatchdog.com is reporting that you can fly to Europe (Paris, London) for under 700 and some flights for under 600 bucks. If you don't mind a little cold (or perhaps London's massive snowfall this Winter), you could see the sites you always wanted to see. There is also a flight from Charlotte to London for UNDER 300 bucks. One could easily put together a package with this flight from their hometown to Charlotte, then Charlotte to London + hostel (or hotel) + transfers (heathrow express, gatwick express, tube pass) + food and easily get away with a trip abroad for 1000 bucks. My flight this summer is costing me around 1300 bucks! Wicked.

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City is a terrible place to fly out of if you go by discount standards. We are not a large city therefor we have to get on connecting flights in larger cities. Don't get me wrong, our airport is beautiful, most flights year round are on time, security is easy to get through and it's just not that busy, BUT, there are not that many discounted fares that are listed out of Oklahoma City. I've been on a few airlines email lists for quite some time now that list their discounted fares and rarely do you see flights from Oklahoma City. It sort of makes me wonder that if this is the reason not that many Oklahomans really get out of this state. Is this the reason? Is it more expensive to fly from here? That may be the case.

AirFareWatchdog.com is another website I've come across that really isn't mentioned on other websites. All you have to do is type in your home city or destination city and it pulls up all the deals from all of the airlines that depart from your city or go to your destination city. Pretty neat.

I need to put all of these websites onto a list and put them in the links section.

Monday, February 16, 2009

FareCompare.com

I stumbled upon this site via 3 other sites. This is actually really neat. Most air travel sites are really cluttered and really don't get to the bottom line anymore, however they are improving. This website actually shows how much it is to leave every day of the month from wherever you are and returning. Once you put in your Location and Destination, it starts calculating. So you can just pull up the months.

I really should work on revamping my travel writing or I could say screw it and just write it however it comes out. Yeah, screw it. This is not the Travel Channel, however I could see Anthony Bourdain not giving a damn.

WebFlyer.com

I should have looked at this site before investing in the BA Executive Club. I might have had a reward already. If you pay attention to this particular sentence: BA has clearly refocused its frequent flyer energies on rewarding higher-end spenders.

For a guy like me, it's all about finding the best deals. So I am going to consider trading in the executive club membership for something with a little better effort to bend for the cheap world traveler. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be part of the executive club when I'm older and much more successful. But I guess I was always looking at flying in the long run.

To look at it like this, when I do go abroad, I won't be getting any extra miles for flying British Airways with my executive card flying to Europe. If I was using a United Airlines card flying abroad I could receive up to 10,000 miles. Plus, I might be able to gain access to a United Lounge.

Funny story about United Lounges. I was heading to Atlanta for baseball and I had a flight to Chicago before departing to my destination. I ran into Jeremy Dawson and Chad of Shiny Toy Guns. They were headed to Boston to play a "My Super Sweet Sixteen" for MTV. Well, we ended up on the same flight and ended up in Chicago on a lay over together. I got to go inside my first travel lounge which might have been the arrivals lounge at Chicago O'Hare. Well, we drank 3 drinks in less than an hour and I was already drunk. I ended up trying to pay for my drinks as well as theirs, but Jeremy and Chad had this sort of deal where they traded off paying for drinks at airports. So Chad paid for mine. "You owe me." was the last thing I remember him saying. I ended up buying him a drink at a random bar here in Oklahoma City sometime later. Thanks Jeremy! Not really funny, but interesting. That was my first trip to a travel lounge.

Well, it may have not been funny or interesting, but it was cool for me being in that lounge.

As for using WebFlyer.com for comparing Airline programs it's clear that my BA card might not be for me. Comparing it to other airlines such as American Advantage, United Mileage Plus and Delta Sky Miles it's far inferior. I think if I can't book a day pass for the Executive Club I will more than likely switch to United or American. Maybe One World?

Sunday, February 15, 2009

British Airways Terrace and other Lounges


I've just spent the last 2 hours trying to figure out if I can book a day pass for a British Airways lounge at Heathrow on my way back to hang out in before I depart back to the US. I haven't found anything. I'm just going to have to call the executive club tomorrow and see what's up.

I've been looking about on the internet looking at other lounges that offer day passes and I've come to the conclusion that the ones that allow an easily bookable pass are pretty crummy. Who the f*** wants to go to the Holideck or Servisair?! Not me. I want to get in on the place I want to be.

I have an affinity for airports and have spent a long time in numerous ones and well, that's my favorite thing to do. I wish I could find a job that would allow me to airport hop and evaluate services.

Above is a picture of the British Airways 1st Lounge taken from airlinemeals.net. A site that is out of order (supposedly going to be redone). What a great site that was for the Airport/Airline-phile.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

International Travel

Testing out the adSense part of the blog. I've also featured a newsfeed with tag line as "AIRLINE". I was thinking about adding "in-flight food" but that did not work out so well.

Stupid College Students and Tourists

Well, I've decided to stay in Europe longer than previously planned. I plan on studying in the Netherlands for 2 weeks then hopping around for another 2 weeks afterwords.

Now, I plan on avoiding other college students as much as possible. I cannot stand stupid American college students or Americans abroad. I'm not ripping into my country, I love the country I live in and I love the state I'm in. However, there is the exception.

I was having lunch at Pepe Delgado's maybe 2 weeks before last semester as out and I was eavesdropping in on these two cookie cutter Real World looking people. Well, it was a date I think and it was hardly worthwhile. I bet they never had a second. Anyhow, I remember the blonde (dyed) girl talking about "like I so overslept, like all of my friends were going to Amsterdam and I so like missed the train." WTF, you wonder why people in other countries don't like Americans, it's because of douche bags like that! Another instance I can recall is being in London at breakfast at the hotel and I remember these American tourists (dressed in Hawaiin shirts and with optional fanny packs) just talking down on the waiter there. Why do people go abroad and act like that?!

Anyhow, I want to avoid these type of people as much as possible. I want to blend into the European psyche. You don't get to true experience of being abroad if you stand out like that.

To sum it up:

College Students Abroad (in frats or sorieties) = SUPER FAIL
Typical Tourists (Hawaiin shirts, fanny packs and passports around necks) = UBER FAIL

Back on track: I plan on going to the Netherlands, France, Belgium, England and MAYBE another country less traveled by tourists. Maybe Denmark or Luxembourg. I'd love to go Monaco, but I doubt I could afford that.

"Be a traveler, not a tourist." - Anthony Bourdain