Sharing the tricks and tools of better travel
I’ve used the Great Circle Mapper website (GCMap.com) for a couple years and found it useful to plot my itineraries and get some basic distance information. However, I’ve never really understood all the cool features that some others like to use. I set out last weekend to teach myself more about it. First, a Cartography Lesson It helps if you … [Read more...]
I always say that earning elite status, especially when you're aiming for the top tier, multiple programs, or paying for it yourself, requires a lot of strategy. In my case, I'm trying to do all three. Strategy helped me earn Premier 1K for the first time in 2011, when 500-mile minimums gave me a 5,000 mile boost over the course of the year (and … [Read more...]
This was a pretty successful year for me. I hit almost every one of my travel goals, even if I didn’t make it to South America, Australia, or Africa this year. But I did get to see Asia and the Middle East for the first time. Singapore and Hong Kong were great experiences. My trip reports are way behind, but I can’t wait to return to Hong … [Read more...]
I was introduced to a new blog yesterday, "Taking Sense Away," ostensibly written by a former employee of the Transportation Security Administration. Also described by my dad as "Thousands Standing Around," this is the government agency we all know an love for being very good at preventing transportation from taking place and securing us against … [Read more...]
On Friday last week, I provided a brief introduction to how airline inventory works and why that matters when you try to understand how much a particular ticket should cost. There are two factors in particular, the published fares (which require to specific "fare classes" or "booking classes") and the number of tickets available in these booking … [Read more...]
