Travel

a group of tall buildings at night
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Six Initial Thoughts on My Trip Around the World

After two weeks and just under 22,000 miles of travel around the world, I’m finally getting acclimated to the real world after arriving back in Washington from Tokyo last week. I’d initially planned to publish trip reports as I went on this trip, but after a pretty intense first few days of Oktoberfest in Munich, that whole…

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First Look: ANA First Class Tokyo to Washington

Last week, I finished up my around the World trip by flying from Tokyo-Narita to Washington-Dulles in ANA First Class in its new ANA First Square product. How would I describe the experience in a word? Spectacular. The 12+ hour flight on this new, ANA B777-300ER will surely serve as the benchmark to which I…

a seat in an airplane
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First Look: Air China Forbidden Pavilion First Class Shanghai to Tokyo

Earlier this week, I got to experience a relatively quick flight in Air China’s Forbidden Pavilion First Class on a flight between Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport.   This 2.5 hour flight was booked as part of my around the world trip using US Airways miles. Compared to my flight in…

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First Look: THAI Royal First Class Munich to Bangkok

Good Evening from THAI’s Royal First Class lounge in Bangkok.  I’m about to hop a redeye flight to Shanghai, but wanted to share a few initial impressions from my flight last night from Munich to Bangkok in THAI Royal First Class. Overall, I was quite impressed.  With everything… and I’m not even including the THAI ground…

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First Look: United Global First Class Chicago to Munich

Good afternoon from Munich! After four days here in Munich, I’ve finally acquired some wifi good enough for a post at the Le Meridien Munich.  I put together some initial thoughts on the flight, but a full review is forthcoming. I  arrived in Munich last Thursday on United flight 952 from Chicago on a three-class B777-200 in…

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An Around the World Trip — Introduction

As I previously wrote, I will be embarking on a two-week journey around the World starting tonight.  While I’m meeting twelve other friends in Munich, two of them will be joining me for our exploits in Asia. Though we all have somewhat different flights, we all did manage to get on the same THAI flight…

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Live Blog: A Mileage Run to Anchorage — 33 hours of InsAAnity

Three weeks ago, I flew to Anchorage for the weekend to kickoff my status challenge to American Executive Platinum.  Well, today, I begin the last trip to finish that challenge of 25,000 Elite Qualifying Points in three months… only I’m completing this challenge in a mere 21 days! In order finish this challenge, I’ll be…

a large crowd of people in a large room
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Ten Tips for Planning an Oktoberfest Trip to Munich

My favorite trip  of the year is always my annual pilgrimage to Munich for the World’s largest festival — Oktoberfest! This will be the fifth year in a row that I’ve attended the Wiesn in Germany, so I’ve learned on the fly, but at this point,  I think I know what I’m doing pretty well. Oktoberfest…

a map of the world
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Around the World with US Airways Miles

A week from today, I will be embarking on another around the world adventure — this time it will include a stop at one of my favorite places in the World — Munich during Oktoberfest.  The Oktoberfest trip is one that I’ve taken the past four years, so it was a no-brainer to book a fifth…