MichaelW Travels...

Lonely Planet- The World's Best Booze

2012-03-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

While traveling, I love to seek out food and drinks that are local to the area or country that I am visiting. It's especially fun to try out alcoholic drinks native to the area.

Lonely Planet put out a list of The World's Best Booze. They say that a great way to warm the hearts of locals is by drinking the local beverage.

Drinking is a really great way to get to interact with locals. I've had many memorable experiences at the local watering holes!

While visiting breweries and brew halls around Munich & Cologne Germany, my brother and I met many friendly Germans at pretty much every stop. They were happy to tell us about their favorite brew and explain the different types of beers.
My wife and I had a similar experience at a bar in Bratislava, Slovakia. We stopped into a local place and were immediately offered a shot of the local beverage. (I can't remember the name of it at this point) We ended up hanging out with the group and eventually moved on to another bar with them. This made our experience so much more interesting and we got to learn a bit about them. We found out that Bratislavans love Chuck Norris and liked NYC's "chief" at the time Rudy Giuliani. (When they first told us they liked our chief, we thought they were referring to a famous chef!)

Here is the list of World's Best Booze by Lonely Planet:

Sake, Japan
Guinness, Ireland
Beer, Belgium
Absinther, Czech Republic
Burgundy wine, France
Caipiroska, Brazil
Becherovka, Czech Republic
George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey, USA
Tequila, Mexico
Vodka, Poland

To read about each beverage on the list, read the full Lonely Planet article here.

A-Club: 3 Nights For the Price of 2

2012-03-07T00:03:00.001-05:00

A-Club is offering 3 Nights For the Price of 2 in over 1200 Accor hotels around the world.

A-Club members can book between March 6 and April 9
General public can book between March 13 and April 9
Good for stays between March 9 and April 15
A-Club points can be earned during the stay

Free night is calculated by applying a 33.33% reduction per night- baseed on the normal, unrestriced rate

A-Club Accor Hotels include:
Sofitel, Pullman, MGallery, Novotel, Suite Novotel, Mercure, Adagio, Ibis,
All Seasons, Etap Hotel, Formula1, HotelF1, Orbis and Thalassa sea & spa

Book your stay here

Jeffrey Dahmer Tour- Milwaukee

2012-03-06T07:51:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Dahmer Mug Shot

This has to be one of the weirder tours that I've heard about in a while and I have to say that I'd be totally interested in it...

I'm a big fan of the movie Silence of the Lambs and the show Criminal Minds. Both focus on serial killers which have always been an interesting topic to me.

BAM Marketing and Media is offering a walking tour of Jeffrey Dahmer sites in Milwaukee.

Jeffrey Dahmer is a famous serial killer who murdered 17 men & boys in the late 1970's until he was caught in 1991. He was beaten to death in prison in 1994. Read about his sick crimes if you are interested by clicking on the link above.

The tour which has caused outrage in Milwaukee was recently offered on Groupon which brought it additional attention.

Read more about the story from MSNBC click here.

To find out more about the tour & bookings go to Dahmer Tours

Citi AAdvantage Credit Card- We Removed Your Annual Mileage Cap

2012-03-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

I received an e-mail this morning from Citi/ AAdvantage. They are removing my annual mileage cap for my AA credit card. This is not such a big deal or useful thing for me as I tend to spread my charges out on a variety of cards.

I also don't know if this offer applies to all Citi/ AAdvantage credit cards or if it is targeted. This e-mail does show details for a specific card that I have. (I currently have a few Citi/ AA cards)

Here is the e-mail:

How far can more American Airlines AAdvantage miles take you
Dear Michael,
Your Citi^® / AAdvantage^® credit card is now better than ever.
That's because we've removed your annual mileage cap on purchases made with your card.
Now the only question is, where will all those AAdvantage^® miles take you?
This great new benefit has already been applied to your account. Simply use your Citi^® / AAdvantage^® credit card for all your eligible purchases* and watch your AAdvantage^® miles add up.

I wonder if I will receive notifications of this offer for my other Citi/ AA credit card accounts. Either way this offer will not benefit me. If they want to throw me a double or triple miles bonus, then i'll be sure to put more spending on my cards...

NY Times Travel Show Seminars & Demo

2012-03-05T07:57:00.000-05:00

I went back to the New York Times Travel Show on Sunday to attend a few seminars and a cooking demonstration. I found all of the presentations to be interesting and worth checking out. I heard some great stories, picked up a few pointers, had some laughs and got to taste some awesome meatballs.

The seminars I saw were:

Patricia Schultz- Author of 1,000 Places To See Before You Die
Adam Richman- Travel Channel's Man vs. Food: Exploring Fork First
Brian Kelly- The Points Guy: Travel Points Pointers For A First Class Lifestyle on a Budget
Cooking Demo with Daniel Holzman- The Meatball Shop (restaurant in NYC)

I had a chance to chat with Patricia Schultz, Adam Richman and Daniel Holzman ( & his partner at The Meatball Shop Michael Chernow) after their presentations.
I'll be writing a post about each of these seminars/ demos this week.

The biggest crowd from all of the seminars I attended was for Brian Kelly- The Points Guy.
I found the info presented to be geared towards beginners. The crowd was really interested in what Brian had to say and after his presentation he had a pretty large crowd surround him for a lengthy Q & A session. I had planned to chat with him but decided to pass after the crowd did not thin out for quite a while.

Keep checking back for more posts about the travel show this week!

Hilton HHonors- Last Chance For More Points Bonus

2012-03-04T00:15:00.000-05:00

March is the last month to earn thousands of extra HHonors Bonus Points with the More Points Promotion.

You need to sign up for this bonus offer and can earn:

1,000 Bonus Points per night
An additional 5,000 Bonus Points for every weekend stay of 2 nights or more.

Some of the rules:

A weekend stay is 2 or more consecutive nights between Thursday and Sunday
There is no limit to the amount of Bonus Points you can earn
Bonus Points do not count towards elite tier qualification
Offer ends March 31, 2012

Outrageous American Roadside Attractions

2012-03-03T20:24:00.002-05:00

CNBC has an interesting slideshow- Outrageous American Roadside Attractions.

There are 10 attractions on the list and one of the most interesting to me was the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama. They attract over one million visitors per year. You might want to stop by to find a bargain or just check out what other travelers left behind.

To see what else is on the list, click here

Industry Day At The NY Times Travel Show

2012-03-03T10:50:00.000-05:00

I had a great time at industry day at the NY Times Travel Show.
(Read my posts about my plans to attend the show here)

I didn't get to attend any of the travel seminars in the morning but it was nice getting to visit the exhibition area before it was open to the public.

I got to speak with representatives from a bunch of tourism boards and took a few business cards for places that I plan to visit in the near future. I also spoke with reps from some new travel-related websites and businesses including some that have not even launched yet.

In some upcoming posts I plan to write about a few of the new travel sites & businesses.

I'll be heading back to the travel show on Sunday to attend a few presentations.

More posts soon to follow!

Become An Astronaut With Space Expedition Curacao

2012-03-02T08:12:00.002-05:00

Many people have heard about going to space with Virgin Galactic but there's other competition out there for space travel.
I came across Space Expedition Curacao a couple of weeks ago.

For $95,000 you can be a part of the Founder Program. Only 100 people will have the honor to be a part of this program. They will make the first flights into space with SXC. A full payment is required to sign up. Founders will get a complementary training mission and 3 night stay in a luxury hotel in Curacao.

Another program they are running is the Future Astronaut Program. After the initial 100 astronauts have been to space they will get a turn to go. This also includes a 3 night stay in a luxury hotel and costs $95,000 broken up into two payments.

I guess if you have a lot of money to burn and have traveled all over the world, then this is the right adventure for you. I could think of tons of better things to do with $95,000...

Check out Space Expedition Curacao here.

NY Times Travel Show Media Access

2012-03-01T21:09:00.002-05:00

The New York Times Travel Show is coming up this weekend at the Jacob Javits Center.

I wasn't planning to go to the show this year but decided for fun to send in a request for media credentials. My request was accepted so I might as well take advantage and go to the show.

I've been to the show two times. I enjoyed presentations by some of the travel experts and TV personalities. I heard presentations by Andrew Zimmern , Samantha Brown, Ian Wright, Patricia Schultz and many others.

The show is from March 2-4, with the first day open only to travel professionals.

There will be lots of travel information from various tourism boards and tour companies, tips from travel experts at various seminars and cultural & culinary presentations on five stages.

I plan to attend the show two of the days. I am going to check out the travel professionals day for a few hours and one of the public days.

I am leaning towards going on Sunday since I'd like to hear Adam Richman (Man vs Food) & Brian Kelly's (The Points Guy) presentations. I would also like to try to see the demonstration by Daniel Holzman of the Meatball Shop.

Find out more about the NY Times Travel Show here.

No More Comments (For Now) from American Airlines & Award Wallet

2012-03-01T08:26:00.024-05:00

After posting Award Wallet Responds To My Posts About The American Airlines Situation to the blog, I sent e-mails to

The PR Rep for AA (that had contacted me initially) to see what his thoughts were on Award Wallet's comments in the post.
The Award Wallet President letting him know about my post (that included the comments he had e-mailed me regarding AA) and asked him a bunch of questions...

This is my e-mail sent to PR for American:

Hi Alan,
Just wanted to let you know that the President of Award Wallet sent me an e-mail and the Co-Founder & CTO responded to my post that included AA's response to why the extension could be not used.
I made another post to my blog with both of their comments...
You can check the post out here.
If you get to check out the post, I'd love to know what your thoughts are on what AW had to say.
Thanks,
Michael W.

The response was:

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sending this. I appreciate you sharing the thoughts from AW. However, what I provided earlier is all we can say at this time.

Best,

Alan

This is my e-mail sent back to the President of AW:

Hey Jeff,

Thanks for writing to me. I made a post to my blog with the e-mail you sent me and a comment left on one of my posts by Alexi V.

I had a couple of questions for you.

1- Why do you think AA is so against being tracked on Award Wallet?

2- Has AA tried to charge Award Wallet a fee to be allowed the rights to be tracked?

3- Has AA tried to help or asked AW to do something to comply with their "rigorous security requirements"?

4- Is Award Wallet being considered as one of the mileage tracking sites that will qualify to track AA? I am assuming no...

Sincerely,

Michael W.

The response was:
Hi Michael,

Unfortunately, I can’t address your (perfectly reasonable) other questions at this point but I hope to be able to do so within a couple of weeks.

Jeff Bianco

President Award Wallet

I was hoping to get some more answers but it is definitely understandable that both sides can not comment any further for now.

Ridiculous Street Signs #2- Restaurant Parking Lot- Trinidad

2012-02-29T08:14:00.000-05:00

After touring the Nariva Swamp in Trinidad, the small group we were with stopped for lunch before heading back to our hotel in Port of Spain.
As we pulled into the lot, I noticed this sign. It was posted on the wall in a few places!

I guess the parking lot wall is a favorite place for doing your business rather than being civil and finding the bathroom inside...

KLM Facebook Contest- Win A Trip To Amsterdam

2012-02-28T19:08:00.000-05:00

KLM is running a contest through Facebook called the Holland Classics.
The prize is a very nice trip to Amsterdam!

Prize includes:

Two economy class round trip tickets to Amsterdam on KLM
Trip to the Keukenhof (flower exhibition) including a tour and tulip bulb package
Visit to the Van Gogh Museum (probably my favorite art museum)
Cheese tasting by Henry Willig
Tour through the Amsterdam canals
City tour by bus through Amsterdam
Hotel stay in Amsterdam

Click here to enter the KLM Holland Classic Contest

New Winner of Kiva $25 Gift Card

2012-02-28T08:02:00.000-05:00

The winners of my Kiva $25 Gift Card Contest were selected a little over a week ago. One of the GCs was claimed immediately and put to great use. Due to the other winner not claiming his card, I have selected a new winner.

The new winner is Commet #3: Maxi Leyerer who wrote "brilliant idea!!!"
(Please comment on this post with your e-mail address to claim the gift card)

I hope that Maxi will put the Kiva card to great use and have fun deciding who to give his loan to!

If you would like to sign up for Kiva Click Here

Award Wallet Responds To My Posts About The American Airlines Situation

2012-02-27T20:25:00.000-05:00

Last Friday I wrote about AA forcing Award Wallet to discontinue the browser extension. This has made a lot of people annoyed and upset at American Airlines. Many feel that AA is not playing fairly with a small company and has other issues to worry about while in bankruptcy.

A couple of hours after publishing the above post, I received an e-mail from AA regarding Award Wallet which you can read here. American Airlines is saying that security is the issue with our miles being tracked on AW.

The weekend passed and there wasn't much else to report regarding AA and Award Wallet until today.

I was checking e-mail from my phone and had a message from the President of AwardWallet, Jeff Bianco regarding the response I received from AA. A few hours later, I also had a comment on my AA Response post from Alexi Vereschaga, Co-Founder & CTO of AwardWallet.

Here is what they had to say:
E-Mail from Jeff Bianco, President of AwardWallet:

American Airlines response to you is missing the point.

AwardWallet’s browser extension allows you the user,to store your username and password on your own computer. It was never transmitted to AwardWallet. Your computer accesses the AA.com site and stores the resulting balance information locally on your computer. It is then displayed within the context of AwardWallet but the information was not transmitted to our site or our servers.

Their response to you makes no sense in regard to AwardWallet. It may make sense in regard to other mileage tracking sitesbut not in regard to what we were doing.

Comment to my AA response post from Alexi Vereschaga,Co-Founder & CTO of AW

Hi, this is Alexi from AwardWallet. I just wanted to point out one important thing - AwardWallet (a third party website) is not accessing aa.com and is not storing any data related to AA in our database. With the browser extension it is the user who is accessing their site via their own browser and all the data is stored in that browser so it never reaches our server at any point.

Based on what AwardWallet is saying, it does seem like American's talk of security being an issue makes little sense. I do want to believe the reasoning AA has given me but if all of the data is being stored locally on our own computers how can this be?

If AwardWallet does not have any of our information transmitted to their servers, then how is security really an issue?

I am going to send the Award Wallet responses to the PR rep for American Airlines. Hopefully he will get back to me.
I also plan to e-mail the president of Award Wallet to see why he thinks American is so against being tracked on their site.

Newark Airpot Closed Due To Emergency Landing

2012-02-27T19:16:00.005-05:00

Newark Airport (EWR) is currently closed due to an emergency landing.
A Shuttle America flight from Atlanta came in without a nose wheel.
It landed without the nose wheel and passengers had to evacuate down the emergency slides.

There are no flights in and out of Newark for now.

From the Port Authority of NY &NJ website:
Newark Airport is CLOSED due to an aircraft incident until further notice.
(This alert was posted on the Port Aurthority of NY/NJ at 6:54PM)

Win The Ultimate Travel Library from Lonely Planet & Get a Free Digital Chapter

2012-02-27T08:39:00.000-05:00

Sign up fo Lonely Planet's weekly newsletter for a chance to win a great prize.
By signing up, you will be entered for a chance to win the ultimate travel library & receive a free digital chapter of your choice!

Lonely Planet guides are my first choice when I am looking for a guidebook so I'd love to win this prize.

The Ultimate Travel Library is made up of over 55 books.

A dozen Pictoral & Gift Titles
Any 5 country guides
Any 5 city guides
Any 10 Encounters guides
Any 10 phrasebooks
All of the LP Shoestring Travel guides

Enter by March 31 2012

You must remain subscribed to the newsletter until April 2, 2012

Win A Vermont Maple Weekend Getaway

2012-02-26T09:47:00.000-05:00

VermontVacation.com and The Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing

is giving away a Vermont Maple Weekend Getaway

Grand Prize:

Three day stay for two at Baked Apples at Shearer Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast
Full delicious Vermont Breakfast included that starts with Baked Apples and Ice Cream followed by many delicious treats.
Sit at breakfast and learn farm wisdom from Innkeeper, Bill. He will share his knowledge of life on the farm in Vermont.
While staying on the farm, depending on the season, you can enjoy making Maple Syrup in the Spring; harvesting raspberries or food from the large gardens; harvesting the crops before the first frost in the fall or feeding the cows year round.

Baked Apples at Shearer Hill Farm Bed & Breakfast is located on a quiet pristine country road three miles from any major highway just 5 miles from the center of Wilmington, Vermont.

Contest ends March 30, 2012

Open to residents of the U.S. and Canada, ages 18 and older

Enter the contest Here

Virgin America Sale on Gilt City

2012-02-25T10:50:00.000-05:00

Gilt City is offering "Insider Pricing" on Virgin America Round-Trip Flights in Main Cabin Select. You can buy the deals as a two or four pack of tickets.

The Deal:

Two-Pack of Round-Trip Flights in Main Cabin Select:

Short Haul Flights- $594
Medium Haul Flights- $1146
Long Haul Flights- $1942

Four-Pack of Round-Trip Flights in Main Cabin Select:

Short Haul Flights- $1134
Medium Haul Flights- $2172
Long Haul Flights- $3710

Travel between February 29, 2012- June 15, 2012
Offer ends on June 8, 2012
Blackout Dates- April 6 & 9, May 25 & 28
Deal includes all mandatory taxes & fees
Earn five Virgin Elevate points for every $1 spent on purchase

A little about Virgin America Main Cabin Select:
Fly with more leg room, complimentary food and drinks, free entertainment, dedicated luggage space and priority checkin.

Custom black leather seats with 38-inch seat pitch (6 more inches of legroom that main cabin
One free checked bag

If you are not a member of Gilt City, Sign Up Here.
By using my link you will get 20% off of your first purchase and I will get 20% off of my next purchase. I am not sure if the 20% offer will apply to this deal.

To purchase this Virgin America deal, Click Here

I Received A Response from AA Regarding Award Wallet

2012-02-24T23:11:00.003-05:00

I wrote a post about AA Forces Award Wallet to Discontinue Extension earlier today.

A couple of hours ago I received an e-mail from Alan Phillips of Weber Shandwick, the PR firm for American Airlines.
Mr. Phillips wrote to me responding to my post regarding AA and the Award Wallet extension.

I did not expect to get a response from AA regarding Award Wallet when I made my post but am really glad that I did. I'd say that pretty much everyone is taking sides with Award Wallet so why not hear AA's thoughts on this matter. It's always nice to hear both sides to a story!

Here is the e-mail:
Hello Michael,

I saw this post “http://michaelwtravels.blogspot.com/2012/02/aa-forces-award-wallet-to-discontinue.html” from you regarding American Airlines.

I want to provide you with American’s perspective on this topic. This is attributable to American Airlines or an American Airlines spokesperson.

· Upholding its long-held stance on how third-party websites access proprietary AAdvantage member details is just one of the ways American protects the benefits afforded through the AAdvantage program.

· Because travelers’ AAdvantage account numbers and passwords can be used to claim AAdvantage mileage awards out of their accounts and access personal details, American will always protect this information.

· Security is chief among our points of consideration when we make decisions regarding the sharing of our customers’ data with third-party websites

· We simply cannot permit websites that have not satisfied our security requirements the access needed to track AAdvantage balances or any other function that is otherwise secured behind AA.com login credentials.

· Consistent with these principles, it is worth noting that Points.com, an AAdvantage participant, allows many of the same types of services as other mileage tracker websites – but has fully satisfied our rigorous security requirements.

· We are also in the process of qualifying a number of other mileage tracker websites.

Best,

Alan

Mr. Phillips is making a case for AA using protection and security as the reasons why Award Wallet can not be allowed to track our AAdvantage accounts.
If this is a real concern and issue then I am fine with AA's stance regarding this. My AA miles are definitely valuable and pretty much as good as money to me. I just wonder why other airlines are not concerned about the security of our accounts. Why is United,Delta & US Airways (among others) still being tracked on Award Wallet? Are their sites more secure than AA?

I sent a couple of questions back to Mr. Phillips and am waiting for a response.

I'd like to know what other mileage tracking sites are in the process of being qualified by AA?
I would also like to know if making money from tracking sites is an issue? If Award Wallet was able to pay a fee, would they be allowed to track our accounts?

AA Forces Award Wallet to Discontinue Extension

2012-02-24T17:46:00.003-05:00

American Airlines has once again put a stop to allowing people to track their mileage balances on Award Wallet.

When AA ~~sued~~ Award Wallet (I believe they threatened to sue) last year they came up with a browser extension as a solution. AA felt that Award Wallet was collecting customer's mileage data. The extension seemed to solve this issue by storing data locally on your computer.

The extension will be discontinued on 2/25/12.

Here is the post about this from Award Wallet:

"We regret to inform you that we will be discontinuing support for the AwardWallet browser extension on February 25, 2012. This means that you will no longer be able to track your American Airlines related information (balance, status, etc.) on AwardWallet.com.   We have been forced to take this action by American Airlines' stance toward AwardWallet. We created the browser extension in order to address American Airlines' concern that AwardWallet was collecting customers' mileage data. We believe the extension addressed this concern because it simply collected your mileage data and stored it locally on your computer. American Airlines, however, objects to the extension. It's position appears to be that AwardWallet is prohibited from providing any software tool that facilitates the ability to track the customer's American Airlines' mileage information. We think this is unfortunate.

Please make a note of your AAdvantage number and password as you will not be able to see it on AwardWallet.com after we make this change. Thank you for your continued support of AwardWallet.com!"

Award Wallet posted the info regarding the AA Extension here

Earn Up To 500 Bonus Miles with US Airways Hotels

2012-02-24T08:01:00.002-05:00

For a limited time you can earn up to 500 miles by booking your hotel stay on the US Airways website.

Here's how to qualify:

Book February 20 – March 31, 2012 and earn 500 bonus miles
Book April 1 - 15, 2012 and earn 250 bonus miles
Offer valid for hotels stays of 2 or more consecutive nights
Stay by April 30, 2012

**US Airways Vacations bookings don't earn miles**

Book your stay here

SPG Breakfast Plus- Members Only Savings

2012-02-23T20:20:00.000-05:00

SPG is offering a new promo called Breakfast Plus

With this offer you:

can save 35% off at participating hotels
get continental breakfast for 2 or a hotel food and beverage credit

This promo is for SPG members only. (If you are not a member, sign up here)

35% discount is applied to rack rates. Best available rate will be given if lower than 35% off rack.
Good for stays through 2012.

Check out the SPG Breakfast Plus page here

Win The Ultimate USVI Unscripted Vacation

2012-02-23T08:18:00.002-05:00

Caribbean Travel & Life Magazine is running a contest: The Ultimate USVI Unscripted Vacation

You get to pick the vacation that best fits your interests.
There are 5 unique experiences to choose from:

Romance & Spa: includes a couple massage and wedding or vow renewal ceremony
Yachting: includes a half-day sailing ship.
Dive: includes a dive excursion for 2
Fishing: includes a half-day charter
Cultural: includes a private VIP tour of cultural landmarks and a private cooking lesson with a USVI chef

The US Virgin Islands are St Croix, St John & St Thomas

Enter sweepstakes by March 15, 2012
Open to legal residents of the U.S.
Must be 18 or older at time of entry

Enter The Contest Here

Save 20% on JetBlue flights on 2/22/12 Only

2012-02-22T11:53:00.008-05:00

Jetblue is offering a one day only promo-code to save 20% on flights

Offer is good on 2/22/12
Valid for flights from 5/1-6/13/12
Flight must originate in the U.S. including Puerto Rico
Use Promo Code- SPRING12 (all caps)

Book your flight here