02.12.10
Los Angeles Times (Associated Press) | Next time you think about flying standby on American Airlines, be prepared to give the gate agent your name and $50.
The days of hanging around the agent's desk, hoping for a free switch to an earlier flight are over at American for many passengers.
The nation's second-largest airline said Wednesday that starting with tickets bought on Feb. 22, only elite frequent fliers, travelers in first or business class, military personnel and people who bought pricey coach tickets will be allowed to fly standby for free.
Everyone else switching flights on their day of travel will have to pay $50 to get a confirmed seat.
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02.11.10
Where’s the best place to practice your hole-in-one double entendres? Golf travel website, The A Position released a list of the World’s Sexiest Golf Resorts.
What makes for a particularly sexy golf resort? Warm weather, spa treatments, dark corners for stolen…putting practice? The site’s press release goes so far as to suggest “provocative golf course mounding” as a qualifying factor. That’s odd, usually I get frustrated when caught between moguls. But maybe that's the point...
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02.11.10
NBC Los Angeles | The Hollywood sign might look different Thursday—as in, completely covered.
Trust
For Public Lands, a nature conservation group, said it has reached a
deal that would protect a huge swath of land above the Hollywood sign
from being developed into luxury homes. The group's president, Will Rogers, said Monday that the Trust secured an option to buy the rugged 138-acre parcel for about $12 million from Chicago-based Fox River Financial Resources.
As
part of its initiative to save land near the sign from development,
Trust for Public Lands wants to cover the sign with a shroud that
reads, "Save the Peak."
Credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid
02.10.10
Whether you're happily single or madly in love, there appears to be a bartender in each corner of the country ready to lubricate your weekend's activities (with alcohol, of course!). Take a sip of the "Skinny Dip" Cocktail in Denver, knock back a vile of Love Potion #299 in New York, or fit in a few MO'Kisses in Boston. Keep reading to find out what's in each of these love-inducing drinks, and more.
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02.10.10
Reuters | The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co will close its five-diamond property in Las Vegas this May, after the hotel struggled with a slide in demand and revenue.
"It's nothing the hotel did. It's a simple lack of business and a decline in the tourism industry," said Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl.
The owners of the 348-room property, Village Hospitality LLC, an arm of Deutsche Bank, will stop funding the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas day-to-day operations on May 2.
"That was the owner's decision and we reluctantly agreed to go along with it," Deuschl said.
Luxury properties have been hit hard in the past year and a half. Corporate travel and business from associations accounts for the bulk revenue of these hotels, but companies and groups have cut back on travel spending in the past year.
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02.09.10
New York Times | American Airlines quietly announced last week that it would
eliminate free blankets in coach and sell an $8 packet that includes a
pillow and blanket starting May 1.
According to Joesentme.com, a
subscription travel site that reported the move last Friday, the
airline based its decision on consumer surveys. Joe Brancatelli, the
site’s publisher, raised a skeptical brow. “American executives run
focus groups on blankets?,” he said. “You think they’d look for
customer focus group data on what fliers think about American’s
worst-in-the-nation on-time performance, its atrocious baggage-handling
ability or the hideous condition of its planes.”
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02.09.10
For all you singletons out there, fear not that you might find yourself sitting home alone on Valentine’s Day sipping champagne and eating an entire pint of chocolate chip ice cream. But as anyone who has a pet knows, you're never really alone.
There are options—and good ones—that allow you and your dog to spend some real quality time together and get your respective paws pampered at the same time. While exploring spas for me and my dog Max, I came across a company called Specialty International Tours who offers a program called “Voyages with Dogs.” I’m already liking the sound of this.
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02.09.10
If watching the video of last Saturday’s gleeful, well-attended snowball fight at Dupont Circle makes you as envious as it makes me, maybe you’re ready to head to D.C. for some cold comfort. The Jefferson, a posh Beaux-Arts hotel between Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, has dropped the rates on their deluxe rooms from their usual $380 to $195 for the next couple of days.
So, own your own piece of the Snowpocalypse (or, D.C. residents, wait out the approaching storm in luxury, no snow shovels required). Call the Jefferson directly at (202) 448-2300 and ask for the Winter Storm Special. Pack your snowpants and mittens.
(By the way, you can keep up with plans for the next organized snowball fight by going to the Official Dupont Circle Snowball Fight page on Facebook.com.)
UPDATE: The D.C.-area Kimpton hotels (including the Hotel George, Hotel Helix, Hotel Madera, Hotel Monaco, Hotel Palomar, Hotel Rouge, and Topaz Hotel) have jumped on the wagon with a special snow-day rate that starts at $99. Use SNW as the booking code. (See if you can talk them into combining the snow special with the Rub the One You're With spa treatment package!)
Ann Shields is an online senior editor at Travel + Leisure.
Photo credit: Stirling Elmendorf
02.08.10
Have you heard of Momondo.com yet? I’m always scouting for affordable flights, like every savvy traveler these days, and recently came across this Copenhagen-based aggregator (U.S. searches make up one-third of its market).
Whenever I encounter a site like this, I’m skeptical—how can this site really be better than the rest?—but it’s hard to argue with Momondo’s credentials. It claims to search more than 750 airfare sources (U.S. competitor Kayak covers roughly half that), including low-cost carriers, consolidators, aggregators, fledgling and major airlines. And when traveler advocate Arthur Frommer tested the top American agreegators—including Kayak, SideStep, and FareChase—only to find that the European Momondo consistently found fares that were 20 to 40 percent less.
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02.08.10
Think for a second: When’s the last time you heard any welcome news—news really worth celebrating—out of New York City’s Financial District? (Here’s a hint: it was likely back in the days when Lehman Brothers was considered a bastion of solvency.)
Once the epicenter of Manhattan’s high-rolling, fat-cat corporate culture, Wall Street has lately been in serious need of a boost. That’s why the opening of the Andaz Wall Street hotel earlier this month couldn’t have been better timed; finally, in their hour of need, both weary business visitors and beleaguered hometown financiers were granted a new sanctuary.
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