www.kristraveler.com » Miscellaneous

Favorite Restaurant in St. Michael’s, MD

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 13:14:17 +0000

Photo Credit: Jason Pier

From the outside it looked like one of the best restaurants in town, so we had to go inside and check it out.

208 Talbot in St Michaels, Maryland, is an elegant little restaurant perfect for any occasion: a romantic dinner with your loved one, family gatherings or even a happy hour with friends.

Prices seemed fair for the ambience and food/service you get – it was certainly not too expensive, especially considering that food was simply exquisite, and service impecable. So much so that even after a couple of years this restaurant still lies in the back of my mind whenever I think about St Michaels or Chesapeake Bay

Favorite Restaurant in St. Michael’s, MD is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

This post was submitted by Kris.

Expert Flyer – How to upgrade your seats

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:01:28 +0000

I’ve used Expert Flyer’s service before, and while I’m still not convinced it was worth my $9.99 a month for finding upgradeable seats - as with other free tools such as SeatCounter (which I talk about in this post) I can track the flights I need myself – I found it useful for other features, such as the ‘Fare Information’ that would give me more options for itineraries and carriers that a typical search engine wouldn’t find.

As I said, I’m still debating if it’s worth it or not, so I may give it a try again in the future.

For those that haven’t heard of their service, here’s a recent article on the Wall Street Journal with more details.

Stuck in a middle seat? Here’s a trick for upgrading

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Nov 16 2009 | By Scott McCartney

Can’t get the seat you want on an upcoming flight? Now there’s a waiting list, of sorts.

ExpertFlyer.com, a subscription service popular with hard-core road warriors, has added a feature that will alert you when a currently occupied seat you want opens up for a flight. If you want a specific seat, such as a bulkhead or exit row, you can get notice if it becomes available. If you are stuck in a middle seat, for example, you can sign up for alerts for any aisle or window seat.

ExpertFlyer.com

A screen shot from ExpertFlyerLike fares, seat inventory jumps around a lot before a flight departs. Sometimes airlines block seats and then open them. Other times people with reserved seats cancel or change flights. Seats open up as premium customers get upgraded. But unless you keep checking the seat map for your flight, it’s hard to follow. ExpertFlyer can now check for you on 84 different airlines around the world.

ExpertFlyer costs $4.99 a month for basic service, or $9.99 a month (or $99.99 for one year) for premium service. The seat alert function is available only with premium service. Two other nifty features that alert you when specific frequent flier award tickets and upgrades become available, or when a specific fare class such as discounted business class opens up, are also available only with premium service. The fare class and upgrade/award alert features work on only 22 airlines, but include Delta, American, Alaska and Hawaii in the U.S.

ExpertFlyer’s bread-and-butter service for heavy duty travelers allows users to peer into the booking inventory of airlines. ExpertFlyer lets you hunt for a specific fare class that may come with upgrade privileges, for example, but you have to immerse yourself in the arcane world of airline booking codes.

The growing number of alert tools available to frequent fliers can really help cut through the complexity of airline tickets. Yapta.com offers alerts on fares for specific flights you may be shopping, or specific hotels. FlightStats.com offers alerts on flight delays and cancellations. Airlines and larger booking sites are offering more and more, and savvy travelers are finding they can help. Share some of your favorites with other travelers in comments.

Expert Flyer – How to upgrade your seats is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Travel Insurance – the peace of mind that airlines can’t offer anymore….

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:11:34 +0000

As airlines change their policies daily and add fees or restrictions to every step of yours from the buying process until you land back home, travel insurance may be the only alternative left for you to have some flexibility and peace of mind in your trip.

InsureMyTrip is a ‘travel insurance aggregator’, basically a one-stop-shop site that allows you to quote different types of insurances, compare policies and buy the one that best fits to your need.

I haven’t used their services yet, but I’m guessing that in a situation where you need help (with your luggage, ticket refund, etc), any third party customer service will be better than of the airlines these days…..

Travel Insurance – the peace of mind that airlines can’t offer anymore…. is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

8 things an airline would never tell you

admin — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:49:48 +0000

This would actually be quite funny if it wasn’t so real….

8 things an airline would never tell you - Insiders expose little-known facts the industry would rather you didn’t think about

By Alexander Basek | Updated: 5:49 p.m. ET Sept. 1, 2009

“Airport luggage scales often lie.”

It’s bad enough that the airlines charge a fee for overweight luggage, varying from $39 to $300 per bag industrywide. But it’s galling that they may also hit you with the fee by mistake.

At JFK last November, New York City’s Department of Consumer Affairs found that 14 percent of the airport’s scales were not properly calibrated.

At Boston’s Logan airport, 10 percent of the scales recently inspected gave incorrect readings.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel has discovered numerous busted scales at area airports.

And the list goes on.

What to do? Stand up for yourself, especially when a scale barely tips the balance into the “overweight” category.

Brandon Macsata, executive editor of the D.C.-based lobbying group Association for Airline Passenger Rights advises passengers to weigh their bags at home first, and if the airport scale comes up with a different number, insist that your bags be weighed on a different scale.

Yes, it’s come to that.

“Our air may make you sick.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether potentially harmful fumes have been circulating in airplane cabins.

Between 1999 and 2008, air became contaminated on 926 flights, reports the FAA, without specifying any possible health risks.

Currently, the agency is looking at a particular type of “fume event” that involves “bleed air,” or air that’s been compressed by the airplane’s engines.

If there’s a malfunction in plane equipment, the air that’s fed into the cabin can be contaminated with chemical residues from engine oil — specifically TCP, or tricresyl phosphate.

“Passengers may have symptoms like tremors,” says Clement Furlong, a research professor of genome sciences and medicine at the University of Washington.

So far, federal reviews of the research have been inconclusive about whether bleed air actually endangers the health of passengers and flight crews, though two civil lawsuits about fume events are under way.

“That nonstop flight you booked? We can add a layover to it — without explanation.”

Think you scored a sweet fare on that transcontinental flight? Think again.

You may be making a previously unscheduled layover. Airlines can cancel your nonstop and rebook passengers onto flights with connections, which are obviously less desirable.

Advises Brett Snyder, author of “The Cranky Flier” and a former pricing analyst at America West: As soon as you find out that your nonstop flight has been canceled, check to see if there’s another nonstop option. If there is, call the airline and ask — nicely — to be put on it.

But if nonstop service on the route has disappeared, threaten to switch to another carrier for the trip. Major airlines will typically agree to refund your money without any fees if you refuse to accept a new, multistop flight that will arrive at your destination more than two hours later than you were originally scheduled.

“We wouldn’t tell you right away if there’s an emergency.”

The FAA leaves it up to the airline to decide if it wants to tell passengers about an engine failure or other significant crisis. And many flight crews opt to keep their lips sealed.

The reason? Flight crews don’t want to scare passengers or say something they’ll regret later.

“In one recent emergency, the cockpit crew was faulted for making a public announcement before some of the required procedures were accomplished,” explains Kent Wien, a pilot for a U.S. carrier.

So attendants tend to err on the side of being secretive to avoid trouble.

Last June, passengers traveling from Brussels to Newark on Continental Airlines were not informed when the captain died during the flight. The plane continued along its scheduled route with nary a peep from the rest of the crew, beyond a cryptic question: “Is there a doctor on board?”

“When we let you pick your seat assignment, we were only joking.”

As the airlines decrease the number of seats they fly in an attempt to eke out a profit, they’re swapping out larger planes for smaller ones more often.

Whenever fliers are put on a new plane, seat assignments are scrambled. A traveler may end up in a middle seat he or she would never have selected.

If it happens to you, there’s not much you can do — airlines aren’t obligated to honor any seat assignment.

“Passengers are actually purchasing a fare and not a seat,” says Macsata of the Association for Airline Passenger Rights.

Checking in online 24 hours prior to departure is often the best you can do to boost your chances of getting the seat assignment you want. Print your boarding pass with your seat assignment on it before you get to the airport as proof in case you need to argue with a gate agent over a last-minute switcheroo.

“Our planes are antiques.”

Compared to the rest of the world, we’re flying the airplane equivalent of grandma’s Cutlass Supreme — except Uncle Sam isn’t interested in paying cash for these clunkers.

American owns 268 MD-80 class airplanes, with an average age of 18 years old. Meanwhile, thanks to a geriatric fleet of DC-9s, Delta and Northwest’s average fleet age is 13 years old.

In contrast, Emirates has an average fleet age of about 5 years. Singapore Air’s is 6 years. And, while Ryanair is often faulted for lacking basic amenities, its planes average less than 3 years of age.

Luckily, U.S. airlines aren’t having problems maintaining their aging aircraft from a safety standpoint, notes Bill Voss, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation. “There’s no real indication of anyone cutting corners,” says Voss. “Planes don’t age like wine, but they do remain flight-worthy with proper maintenance.”

The FAA doesn’t have a maximum age limit for planes, though it does require more frequent inspections for planes that have flown for more than 14 years.

So if you’ve ever wished you had a personal seatback flat-screen TV instead of having to share a view of a cathode-ray tube in the aisle — well, now you know the reason.

“Our crew is totally exhausted.”

Airline jobs are famously hard on the Circadian rhythms, and flight crews simply aren’t getting enough rest.

Pilot fatigue has been a factor in crashes that have led to over 250 fatalities in the past 16 years, including the recent crash of a Colgan Air flight to Buffalo, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. The night before that accident, the copilot commuted from the West Coast to Newark while the pilot slept on a couch in a crew lounge at the airport.

Crews on reserve (that is, crews readily available for service on short notice) don’t have it much better. “On reserve, we don’t have control over what we’re doing,” says Heather Poole, a flight attendant for a U.S. carrier and a contributor to travel blog Gadling. “One day we’re flying a 5 a.m. departure, and the next day we’re working a red-eye. Do this for a few trips in a row — add the delays in there — and that’s when it gets bad.”

Working reserve can stretch crews to the limit. “Once during a terrible reserve month, I remember staring at my emergency exit door, thinking, Is it armed? Is it armed? Is it armed? I could see that it was, indeed, armed (the evacuation slide was attached to the door properly). But it wasn’t clicking in my brain because I was so tired.”

“Your ticket might not be with the airline you booked.”

Two airlines may sell seats on the same flight, a sales strategy called code sharing. You may think you’ll be traveling on one airline, but you actually fly on another.

The situation seems harmless enough but can cause major headaches for passengers. For example, most major airlines farm out their short, commuter flights to regional airlines.

“By and large, you haven’t heard of Chautauqua or Republic, but you may be flying them when you click to buy a ticket on Continental,” explains Randy Petersen, publisher of InsideFlyer. “With two airlines involved, there’s a constant passing of the buck. Worse, many regional carriers operating on code shares are exempt from reporting their on-time statistics. And God forbid if you need to file a claim with them for lost baggage.”

Source: 8 things airline will never tell you – MSNBC / Budget Travel

8 things an airline would never tell you is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Flight arrivals and departures around the world

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:11:37 +0000

Whenever I go pick up someone at the airport, or am going to catch a flight myself, I always have to find the local airport’s website and go through many confusing pages and clicks to find information on flight arrivals and departures. Another alternative was to go to Flightview.com, which allowed me to get alerts on the status of a flight on your phone, but their database is limited to major US and some world cities.

I recently discovered Flightstats.com, which is probably the best website I found to date that has updated and clear information not just on arrivals and departures, but other stats such ontime ratings for each flight, airport ratings, alerts on weather delays, and more. The flight tracker is also a fun feature to check – select a specific or random flight and view their current location on a map and the flight information. Apart from being easy to use and having lots of interactive features, what makes it a winner is that it covers most, if not all, airports around the world. So no matter where you are, you can always go to the same source, and in one click you’re done!

Flight arrivals and departures around the world is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Tip of the Day – Flying to several places in a foreign country? Book local!

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:40:39 +0000

If your trip includes several destinations in the same country or even continent, you might want to compare prices for your hotel, flight or car rental with local search engines and booking sites.

Many times the prices at these local search engines will be much lower, as they’ll be able to find more options and deals for the destination which they’re specialized.

And while these local sites may already show lower prices, you may still be able to get it cheaper. The prices shown for foreigners sometimes can be more expensive than the ones shown to locals.

For example, if you are traveling from the US to Argentina, and after your stay in Buenos Aires you want to go to Bariloche, in the Patagonia, you will get cheaper fares if you book the Buenos Aires – Bariloche leg from Argentina. Unfortunately if you’d really have to be in Argentina to get that fare, as your computer’s location can be tracked by your IP address…

Of course not always we have that option, but perhaps you know a person that resides in that country that could buy it for you or can wait until you arrive at your first destination and get your air tickets there.

For more information on search engines and bookings sites for different countries, check this post: Best Search Engines

Tip of the Day – Flying to several places in a foreign country? Book local! is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

…because no one enjoys sitting by the bathroom on a plane

admin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 03:04:36 +0000

If you ever had to sit on the last row of the plane, right by the bathroom where the seats don’t recline, or sat on the first row thinking you’d have lots of space, and ended up with no place for your legs and a very cold emergency exit seat, you’ll love this website.

Seatguru.com has seating charts for most aircrafts from airlines all over the world.

Before confirming the seat for your next flight, go to their website, select the airline and the aircraft model. The seating chart will show where the exit rows and bathrooms are, how many seats per row, and what are the in-flight amenities such as video, ac power, etc. Mouse over the seats and get a detailed description about them

…because no one enjoys sitting by the bathroom on a plane is a post from: www.kristraveler.com

Essential Travel Accessory For Wine Lovers

admin — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 01:46:37 +0000

Found the perfect accessory for those travelers that love to buy local wines in their trips, but are afraid of being caught with a broken bottle and stained clothes in their suitcase when arriving home: I got this Wine Bottle Travel bag at Sonoma Hardware Store for about $9, a well-spent money given the peace of mind it gives me when catching the flight. Doesn’t take a lot of space in the bag, it’s safe and it’s easy to carry it around.

You can buy it directly through the manufacturer’s website - Grande Passione, though I’ve seen it for sale also in other major wine accessories websites

Essential Travel Accessory For Wine Lovers is a post from: www.kristraveler.com