For those of you not familiar with Amex Offers, it’s a program available through most Amex cards, where different cards are eligible for different savings and bonus offers. In many cases the offers can be huge, and more than offset the annual fee on…
As aviation geeks, many of us have a tendency to want to take some aspects of the flying experience home. For example, this is something United had a huge issue with when they introduced their new Polaris experience, as they found a lot of people were…
I got married just over two weeks ago (on Friday, September 28), and since then a day hasn't gone by where I haven't sat down and started to write a post about it, only to eventually give up. But I think of you guys as being part of my extended family,…
Well, it looks we now know the exact end date of a Citi increased welcome bonus. Since mid-July, Citi has been offering a nice welcome bonus on the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ Mastercard®. The card is currently offering 75,000 AAdvantage…
The past few weeks have been quiet for me when it comes to longhaul travel, though I have been taking the time to plan several review trips between now and the end of the year, which I'm quite excited about. I've shared some of the details of these upcoming…
A few weeks ago I wrote about how Lufthansa is launching what's almost unarguably the world's worst flight. As of November 1, 2018, they'll resume flights between Frankfurt and Pune. The challenge with this flight is as follows: -- Pune has a short runway,…
When I moved from Australia to London I was worried about the long, cold winters because I don't love cold weather. But friends who lived or had lived in Europe before all said exactly the same thing: The best thing about Europe in winter is Christmas…
One of the greatest improvements we’ve seen to Priority Pass the past couple of years is the addition of airport restaurants. Priority Pass has partnered with some airport restaurants to offer members a certain dollar amount credit (typically $28-30)…
Hello from Ecuador! It's Ford's birthday this weekend, so we're spending a few days in Ecuador. I'll have more on our time here in a separate post soon, but it has been really fun. The upcoming weeks I'll be taking some really cool flights, including…
At the beginning of this month I finally fell under 5/24, which is one of Chase's limits where they typically won't approve you for a card if you've opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months. So the first thing I did on October 1 is…
I came across an interesting story about a New Zealand man on a recent Hong Kong Airlines flight. The 6 foot, 6 inch (1.98 metres) man, whose name is, would you believe it, Richard Mountain, was travelling on flight HX27 from Hong Kong to Auckland, which…
To increase ancillary revenue, some airlines have begun selling lounge access to passengers without status, travelling in economy or premium economy, who would not have otherwise had access, including: -- Emirates selling access to their business class…
My thoughts on filling out airline and hotel surveys after a flight or hotel stay have shifted over time. Why you should be filling out airline and hotel surveys I used to not fill them out because I tend to think my time is more valuable than filling…
Yesterday I wrote about why I think the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Chase Freedom® are worth applying for, and why they're often overlooked. For many people, the Chase Freedom Unlimited® is a no-brainer. The card offers 1.5x points per dollar spent,…
Aegean's Miles+Bonus program is one of the most lucrative Star Alliance award programs in terms of the ease with which you can earn elite status, and also in terms of their redemption costs. The catch is that the program can be complicated, though that…
Last week we saw the introduction of the new American Express® Gold Card, which is an incredible card that is in some ways giving the Chase Sapphire Reserve® a run for its money. The card offers the following return on spend:
Over the years I've reviewed several hotels in Frankfurt, most of which I consider to be pretty mediocre. However, there's one hotel I had heard good things about but had never stayed at, which would be Villa Kennedy, a Rocco Forte hotel. This is generally…
Our flight from Riga to Frankfurt was scheduled to depart at 6:05AM. We got to the airport shortly before 5AM, and were through security in no time. While Riga Airport isn't quite as cute as Tallinn Airport, it's still a reasonably nice facility. Security…
After three great nights in Tallinn we were spending two nights in Riga. While Riga's population is about 50% bigger than Tallinn's, it doesn't have as many major international hotel chains. I'm generally a Marriott/Starwood and Hyatt loyalist, and there…
I don't have a whole lot to say about a 30 minute flight with a buy on board menu in economy, but I figure some review is better than none. I've long been intrigued by Riga-based AirBaltic. Interestingly the airline was the launch customer for the CSeries…
After a few amazing days in Tallinn, it was time to fly to Riga. We booked a paid ticket on airBaltic from Tallinn to Riga that was departing at 10:45AM. We arrived at the airport at around 9AM. I forgot to print the online boarding passes the night…
We had three nights in Tallinn, and only after booking the flights did I realize we were going during a very challenging time hotel-wise. We were in Tallinn during the same time as the Super Cup, which some described as the country's biggest event ever.…
Delta is the first US airline to take delivery of the Airbus A220 (formerly known as the Bombardier CSeries). This is a fabulous plane from a passenger experience standpoint, and the airline has 75 of these planes on order. In terms of size, the A220…
When it comes to evaluating the benefits of credit cards, most of my focus is on the welcome bonus and the bonus categories for continued earning. I fully recognize that there are a number of valuable benefits such as trip delay insurance -- I've used…
Hotels, especially those that market themselves to millennials (who are apparently the next big revenue stream for major hotels), love adopting new technology. There are some technology advancements that undoubtedly improve the guests experience. For…
The type of luggage you travel with and what you pack in it has been an ongoing topic of discussion here at OMAAT. I am with Tiffany in support of the spinner bag. They are particularly helpful when trying to get around with little ones. My last few…
This most definitely won’t last. Thanks to a kind reader for pointing out some insane fares that British Airways has. At the moment British Airways has ~$880 roundtrip first class fares from Johannesburg and Cape Town to both Barcelona and Madrid. Other…
Well this looks... unpleasant. As reported by BBC, Air India Express flight 611 was scheduled to travel today from Trichy to Dubai, when it sustained some significant damage on takeoff. The flight was operated by a Boeing 737-800, and hit a wall on takeoff.…
All of us around here love to travel, and a honeymoon can be the one time in your life when you throw logic out the window and price and value doesn't matter, so you can truly have that 'once in a lifetime' experience. You know that I rarely stay in…
A few weeks ago we officially launched the OMAAT YouTube channel, and for the time being we’re uploading one video per week (on Tuesdays), though we’re soon hoping to increase that to two videos per week. For those of you who are interested and haven't…
Since the end of September, Marriott has been offering a global promotion valid for stays through January 31, 2019. With this promotion you can receive 2,000 bonus points for every qualifying stay of two nights or more, plus you earn 1,000 bonus points…
Through November 30, 2018, United MileagePlus is offering a 30% bonus when you convert hotel points into airline miles. The bonus applies for transfers made between October 9 and November 30, 2018, and you can earn up to 25,000 bonus MileagePlus miles…
