musings

Question for Readers: Do You Lie Compulsively on Planes?

Instead of answering reader questions, I’m asking questions of readers this week. I often find myself lying compulsively on planes. Mostly, I lie because it’s easier. I find that it makes people more comfortable for me just to say that I’m flying for work, which is a reason that easily fits into people’s schemas of…

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Question for Readers: What is Good Service?

Instead of the typical answering reader questions, I’m instead posing a series of questions for readers to share their thoughts on this week. I appreciate good service. But even as I write that, I think it’s ambiguous what I mean by “good service”. Is good service unobserved and unobtrusive? Is it fawning and obsequious? A service…

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Words That You Need to Stop Using in Trip Reports: “Intuitive”

I write a lot of trip reports; I read a lot of trip reports. And one of the words that makes me cringe every time I read it is “intuitive”. I blame Lucky for it, as I’m pretty sure his was the first blog where I read someone saying that the seat controls were “intuitive”. I remember reading…

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Question for Readers: Do You Leave Your Bags Unattended in Airport Lounges?

Instead of answering reader questions, I’m going to pose some questions to readers. One of my habits upon entering any airport lounge is to find a place to dump my stuff and then traipse off to take photos for lounge reviews. I often leave my laptop, passport, boarding passes, and bags out in the open,…

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2014 Year in Review

I know this is a couple of weeks late, but better late than never, right? 2014 was my heaviest year for travel yet. I flew 189,524 miles in 2014, almost all of which were for leisure (5,739 miles were for work). Most of my miles came from flying to Asia. I started off 2014 in Tokyo,…

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Why I’m Afraid of American Airline’s Increased Mileage Earning

Lots of bloggers have already posted about the details of AA’s increased mileage earning for premium fares. Essentially, everything stays the same, except that people booking first or business class fares earn even more. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? You can’t earn fewer miles than before, so how can you lose? I always get…

Myths About Travel Blogging: Bloggers Are Experts You Can Trust

You shouldn’t believe everything that you read on the internet. Crazy, right? There are definitely bloggers who know what they’re talking about, and there are some I trust for the most part, but you should not take what bloggers write as gospel. There are extremely low barriers to entry, so anyone can become a “points/miles…