Mike FriedmanIt’s time for the TWIT (This Week In Travel) notes! And what a week it’s been. In fact, it’s been so exciting that we won’t even mention the story about Delta dumping fuel on a school playground. So what’s this week? How about the best and worst American airlines, according to the Wall Street Journal? And the best of the new hotels in Asia (since the worst would be pretty scary). And finally, a sad goodbye to a website that has a cool name.
The Best and Worst Airlines of 2019 – Week In Travel
Every year, the Wall Street Journal publishes a list of the best and worst US airlines. Personally, I’ve always defined “best” as “any airline that gives me an upgrade,” but the WSJ insists on using quantitative data that can be backed up by facts, such as cancelled flights and mishandled bags. What’s the fun in that?
I’m not sure why they bother with the poll, since it says pretty much the same thing every year: Delta and Alaska finish near the top, while American and United end up at the bottom. But United gets credit for best excuse of the year, blaming climate change for the extreme weather that affected it. It’s odd how much climate change accelerated in 2019, not to mention the fact that it only troubled United.
We’ve all had those moments when we’ve said, “I’m never flying this airline again.” Inevitably, we do, since there aren’t a lot of choices. But a few years ago, I made the conscious decision that I was willing to pay more to fly Delta because of its strong operations. I haven’t looked back.
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New Luxury Properties in Asia for 2020
Even though I know that I’ll never stay at many of them, I love looking at pictures of luxury properties around the world. In this case, CNN Travel has packaged a bunch of them, picking 20 of its favorite new luxury properties in Asia. They start off the article with a couple of bucket list opportunities, including over-the-water bungalows in the Maldives and a new Aman property, this time in Kyoto.
Money Saving Tip: Whenever you book a hotel, access the hotel’s website by way of a cash back shopping portal. The portal will give you a rebate on the commission that the hotel directs its way. For instance, in the case of the overwater bungalows, our favorite portal Mr. Rebates will give you back 5% of what you spend.
Goodbye, Hipmunk, We Hardly Knew Thee
Seriously, I hardly knew thee. I saw a lot of banner ads for the site but never quite figured out what they did. Turns out that they were an all-encompassing booking site that did everything from give you prices to telling you just how miserable your flight was going to be through its agony index.
And now, the site with the cutest mascot since the Toys.com sock puppet has been relegated to the trash bin of the internet. Well, not quite, but the beginning of the end came when they were bought in 2016 by Concur, the corporate travel site that business travelers love to hate. Now, the new parent has decided to call it a day and is shutting Hipmunk down.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted.
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