Traveling Tiger

Choosing your Alliance

First of all, apologies for not having posted in a few days now – thanks to the hectic schedule of work, there hasn’t been time for much else. I had some time to think the other day and it occurred to me that I had not mentioned the options available when selecting an airline alliance.

There are many things to keep in mind when making a decision like this, such as how much you expect to travel, your home airport, the options available for upgrades and award tickets, and so on. Another big factor is if you will be flying for work or pleasure, or both. It is a lot easier to attain status when you are having to travel anyway!

The Big 3

The three main alliances available to flyers in the US are the Star Alliance (United), OneWorld (American), and SkyTeam (Delta). Keep in mind that there are other options, such as Alaska Airlines and Southwest. You can earn some very nice perks with these two such as a very nice partner chart as is the case with Alaska, or the Companion Pass with Southwest.

Another important factor is that when you are flying on an alliance member flight, you can credit your miles earnings to another airline belonging to that alliance. For example, you can use your Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer number to earn miles when flying on United or Lufthansa flights. Though you would have StarAlliance Gold, you would not have access to the upgrade perks and similar options available to a 1K with United.

Many travel bloggers have detailed the differences between the upgrade policies of the three representative airlines, miles values, and similar factors, so I will spare you the spiel.

Home Airport

From a practical standpoint, your home airport (and those in the surrounding area) has the biggest impact on what airline alliance you join. It directly impacts what destinations are available and on which carriers. Near Raleigh-Durham we have Greensboro, Fayetteville, and Charlotte. Each of these airports have pros and cons, and some fun little quirks.

Don’t be afraid to fly out of an airport further away, as it can save you a substantial amount of money! It is not uncommon for an airline to poach business on another airline’s home turf — Delta is particularly fond of offering lower cost flights from Charlotte, though it is primarily a focus city for both American and United. You will have to sacrifice some time on the initial transit and most likely connect through a hub like Atlanta or Detroit, but savings tend to be in the hundreds of dollars when comparing business class tickets.

Google Flights is particularly helpful in this regard as it offers an analysis for flights with different originating airports. It even offers suggestions for nearby airports that would offer cheaper tickets.

Happy flying!

Cancún Gem: El Fish Fritanga

While visiting Cancún for a timeshare presentation (I won’t say no to 5 days at a resort for dirt cheap!), the concierge at the Westin Lagunamar suggested what we visit El Fish Fritanga if we wanted some fresh seafood. Given our location, I thought this would be an excellent idea, and after a day of exploring Tulum, we made our way down from our room.

Location

El Fish Fritanga is facing the Nichupté lagoon with the entrance on the main-road that runs through the resort district. Though you have to walk between two buildings to get to the actual restaurant, you get to eat on the sand! Plus, it is located in walking distance of most of the hotels and resorts on the peninsula — a short 10 minute walk from the Westin Lagunamar.

Review

The food was spectacular — this was one of the few restaurants that had large chunks of octopus in their ceviche, whole fish for the same price as Chinese delivery in the States, and though I generally stay far away from sugary drinks… the best piña coladas I have ever had. If you enjoy seafood and well made drinks, do not pass up this opportunity!

Raleigh Gem: Tasca Brava

On December 30th, my brother and his girlfriend drove up from South Carolina to spend New Years with my girlfriend and myself. After some poking about online, we agreed on Spanish tapas for dinner at Tasca Brava.

Tasca Brava is a delightful hole-in-the-wall owned and operated by a very passionate married couple: Juan and Marta. I say very passionate because of how enthusiastic they are about their creations — it’s infectious! Give them a chance to wow you and you will not be disappointed!

You can find it at 607 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh, NC 27603, and there is parking immediately behind the restaurant so there’s no need to fight for parking on the streets.

For dinner, my brother and his girlfriend shared a massive paella (made in the traditional manner, no less), while my girlfriend opted for octopus. I had the lamb, pictured below.

Juan makes wine choices easy by pairing Spanish wines with the larger dishes so even someone as inexperienced as myself can really enjoy themselves!

I can’t say enough good things about this restaurant and the experience we had; all you need to do is let Juan and Marta work their magic and you will not regret it!

Airport Information: Raleigh-Durham International Airport

As the start a series on various airports from the viewpoint of a traveler (frequent or otherwise), it felt the natural to begin with my local airport: Raleigh-Durham International Airport, RDU.

RDU is quite a gem given its physical location. As the airport for the Research Triangle region, it has a great deal of demand placed upon it, and as a result has some very interesting routes. For example, you can take direct flights to London, Toronto, Los Angeles, and soon to Paris!

There is also very nice availability of choices when it comes to airlines. The list below is a small cross-section of the carriers that travel to and from RDU:

Alaska
American
Delta
JetBlue
Southwest
United

As I mentioned earlier, there are quite a few options when it comes to direct flights that use Raleigh as a origin or destination. A full list is available here, but a few interesting options are listed below:

London Heathrow
Cancun
Salt Lake City (starting March 2016)
Paris Charles De Gaulle (starting May 2016)
Toronto Pearson
Los Angeles
San Francisco

As with many airports in the United States, RDU offers standard priority security and support services for the “big three” carriers. Additionally, TSA PreCheck is also available as an option. The real surprise is the presence of Global Entry! Global Entry makes for a much easier return from some of the locations that you can reach from Raleigh, and I see it becoming more of a prominent feature as additional routes are added.

There are both a SkyClub and Admiral’s Club located in Terminal 2 – the terminal that houses all airlines other than Southwest. Located immediately after security, it makes it easy to rest a little before or after a flight. Just keep in mind that alcohol isn’t available before noon on Sundays!

What about you? Have a favorite airport or one I should cover?

Christmas Vacation! Honolulu, Day 5

Honolulu, Day 1: Arrival
Honolulu, Day 2: Dole Plantation and North Shore
Honolulu, Day 3: Submarine Tour and Magic of Polynesia
Honolulu, Day 4: Polynesian Cultural Center
Honolulu, Day 5: Return Home

Alas, all trips must eventually come to an end, and we realized that 5 days really isn’t enough time to see even one island of Hawaii — some follow-up trips are clearly in order! The airport is very easy to navigate, thankfully, and there are many lounge options available.

Priority Pass

Since I had access to Priority Pass lounges through my Citi Prestige [non-affiliate link] card (with two guests, no less!), I took Carrie to the IASS Lounge on the garden level. Though there were no alcoholic beverages available, they had interesting drink options — guava juice, for example!

Other lounges available at HNL include a Delta SkyClub, KoreanAir Lounge, JAL Sakura Lounge, United Club, Hawaiian Airlines Lounge, and Quantas Lounge. Quite a few options!

HNL → JFK

The return flight was on a Boeing 767-300ER and though we were not able to sit in DeltaOne seats, we were in the Comfort Plus cabin. Unfortunately Delta does not allow complimentary upgrades to DeltaOne even within the US. This made for a somewhat difficult flight back as the lavs in the middle were nonfunctional and the lights over the left third of the plane (where we were sitting) were also nonfunctional.

The flight was a whopping 9 and a half hours, from boarding to deplaning, after a 45 minute delay on leaving Honolulu, so Carrie and I were all kinds of stiff. It didn’t help that the couple in front of us were discourteous in reclining their seats completely only to give us nasty looks if we so much as bumped them.

Given the length of the flight, we were given a rest-kits including earplugs, an eye mask, and a toothbrush with toothpaste. Definitely practical!

After our second snack service, two of the cabin crew walked down the aisles handing out chocolate to the passengers, which was as nice touch and certainly appreciated after the flight.

JFK → RDU

Oof… here is where the fun began… our flight from JFK to RDU was delayed by three hours according to the Delta app, so I made my way to a counter to inquire to the nature of the delay. I knew the plane was there already thanks to FlightAware, and it turns out one of the pilots was delayed on an earlier connection.

The agent suggested we fly out of LaGuardia instead and provided a taxi voucher. Unfortunately, as our bags were checked we had to hope they would eventually make it home that night.

Thankfully, due to our status, we were able to upgrade to first class on the return leg (even if it was on a CRJ 700), and the SkyClub attendant was nice enough to allow my girlfriend in for free. Honestly, it is their customer service that makes me keep returning to Delta over other airlines.

Their website, however, is ridiculously buggy and would not allow us to track our bags after we filed our delayed baggage claim, so we weren’t able to stay abreast of the situation without calling periodically. The truly frustrating thing is that each time I called, I received a different answer from the representative. The bags finally made their way to us at 1 AM the following day, so everything wrapped up okay in the end, albeit a little stiff from that first flight!

Christmas Vacation! Honolulu, Day 4

Polynesian Cultural Center

Though we were unable to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center on Christmas day, there were seats available the following day. The bus ride was just over an hour and a half each way, but the interior was air conditioned and the seats were comfortable.

We were lucky that our driver also worked with the agency that ran circle island tours of Oahu, so he made sure to point out all the sights on our way to the center. He showed us shooting locations for various well known films including The Karate Kid Part 2, Jurassic Park, and others.

As we purchased Ambassador tickets, we were able to skip quite a few lines and even received shell leis! The tour started with a canoe ride through the canals in the middle of the center that explained the way it was laid out as well as how to navigate it.

After exploring a little with the tour group, we were directed back to the canal area for a canoe parade. Each canoe was manned by individuals representing the indigenous people of the various islands, and they showed off their native dances on the water.

Following the parade, we resumed the tour and explored the islands of Tonga and Samoa, having visited Aotearoa at the start of the day. Finally, we wrapped up our day with a traditional lu’au experience (complete with fire dancing and poi) and then the presentation of “Ha: The Breath of Life”. Unfortunately, photography was not allowed during this, either. I strongly recommend the Ambassador package as it is an amazing value (lunch, dinner, leis, better seating for “Ha”, and dessert) and a significant improvement to the experience as you have shorter lines for everything.

Christmas Vacation! Honolulu, Day 3

With the help of the hotel concierge, Carrie and I booked a submarine excursion with Atlantis Adventures. They conveniently dock their ferry at the pier at the Hilton Grand Vacation village, a short walk from the Doubletree that we were staying at.

The Hilton village is a series of towers with a large shopping area in the middle (more on that later!), and with some delightful animals spread throughout the grounds. We saw some massive koi, which appear to have been conditioned to beg for food from passerbys, as well as macaws!

Atlantis Adventures

Upon reaching the pier, we were allowed onto the ferry vessel which took us to our submarine — there were three submarines available, two of which seated 48 passengers, and the third holding 64. Carrie and I were on one of the 48-passenger vessels, where the individuals were seated in two rows.

Though we did not see too many forms of wildlife we did make a friend which followed us throughout the duration of the tour.

Upon returning to the surface, we made our way back to the pier and began exploring the Rainbow Bazaar — the stores and restaurants located in the middle of the Hilton village. After picking up some whole-bean Kona coffee, we noticed the time and decided some fresh fish was in order!

We happily discovered a Japanese sushi restaurant, Hatsuhana, which had extremely reasonably priced sashimi and excellent presentation. Lunch was a bit of an exploration as well as neither Carrie or I had eaten Sea Urchin or Butterfish. Both were excellent!

Magic of Polynesia

After lunch, we made our way back to our hotel to rest before dinner and a magic show. Unfortunately, photography was not permitted at the venue, so you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that it was quite the experience!

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