HOW DARE YOU BRING A SECOND SUITCASE ABOARD THIS AIRCRAFT
Like the lemmings of northern Norway, American Airlines went to the edge of the luggage cliff and decided to jump. They have joined United and all of the other legacy carriers in imposing a charge for economy passengers charging a second piec of luggage. The charge goes into effect on May 12th. All full-fare Y ticket holders and premium elite Advantage members arexempt. Also exempt are Business and First Class fliers. The extra fee does not apply to international rouutes.
It is easy to see why American had to cave. The airli lost $328 million during the first quarter. If fuel prices do not stabilize look for the additional add-on charges that airlis have ontemplated for years, to be put on the front burner in short order.
DOES YOUR PLANE HAVE AVOD?
If it does, you may be in for a more interesting and enjoyable long-haul flight. AVOD is Audio Video on Demand. Not all airlines or all aircraft types within a fleet have it. It provides in-seat entertainment that can be selected by the passenger to begin at any time during the flight. The newer versions of AVOD provide hundreds of video options. You can fast forward or pause if you need to get up to use the restroom. Many of the better airlines have AVOD systems in the front of the plane and some have installed the system in economy.
The following airlines are thought to have some of the best AVOD systems:
Air New Zealand, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore, and Thai.
THE BEST TIME TO BOOK A DOMESTIC AIRLINE TICKET
If you are flying on a budget and want to secure the best pricing close in to departure make your reservation on Wednesday morning at 9:00 am. two weeks prior to your scheduled departure. Although not widely known, most airlines release their weekend pricing and availability two Wednesdays prior to departure. Obviously the flights have been for sale for eleven months. But close in, the airline's brainy computer systems tell them when a flight is light and new, lower pricing hits the system. This is called the Wednesday Update Sale.
THE STILL SECRET EUROPEAN VACATION DESTINATION
It is simple really - fly to the European city with the highest percentage of Michelin three star-rated restaurants as well as the most memorable french fries, the world's best chocolate, and beautiful cities less than an hour away by comfortable train.  That would be Brussels, Belgium. While there, eat fresh baked waffles and cruise the city's lovely canals. Next, head to Mechelen, still rather undiscovered by American tour companies. While there, sample the famed white asparagus in season and order any of the chicken dishes on the menu at D'Hoogh, which sits right on the town square.
A VISIT INSIDE THE COCKPIT OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST COMMERCIAL JET
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to fly the new Airbus 380, you might want to click on the web address below: 
THE FIVE RESTAURANTS YOU MUST VISIT
IN THIS LIFETIME
For the past six months we have been working on a new report which will identify the Best Twenty Restaurants in the World. Surprisingly, many of them are a bit off the beaten path. But we can now identify the top Five Worldwide Restaurants that are so good, so memorable, and so revered by food critics, that any foodie has to put them on a list of “Must See” destinations. May we suggest that there are worse ways to choose an itinerary? Getting a table will require a strategy and far-in-advance planning. But these will be meals you will, we promise, remember for the rest of your life. We list them in order of our current rankings:
THE BEST RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD
# 1 – El Bulli – Montjoi, Spain – Chef Ferran Adria is the world’s most important chef at this moment. He has combined science and gastronomy and his disciples are coming to a city near you. Dining here will quite literally change the way you look at food and flavorings. The restaurant is only open from March to December. The rest of the time, Adria experiments in his laboratory in Barcelona, “designing” new tastes and techniques. Forget getting in this year and next year will be difficult.
# 2 – The Fat Duck – Berkshire, England – A relatively comfortable experience. If Chef Adria did not exist, the Duck’s Heston Bluementhal would be the most famous chef in the world. And yes, it is true, they do serve bacon and egg ice cream as well a snail porridge.
# 3– Pierre Gagnaire – Paris, France – Now challenged by Spain, where the culinary world is flocking, Gagnaire’s dedication to the freshest ingredients and his absolute, some would say divine, skills, seems to have elevated his game. He is sounding the first alarms about pending shortages of truly organic, high quality gourmet foodstuffs. The small farms can’t meet the demands of the growing gourmet aspirations of a worldwide clientele he argues.
# 4 - The French Laundry – Yountville, California – Thomas Keller is America’s chef of the year and the year before that and…… His inspiring Napa cuisine is served in a lovely but relatively laid back setting in the heart of the California wine country. This will help show you everything that our local restaurants are not.
# 5 - Tetsuya’s – Sydney, Australia – Young chef Tetsuya Wakuda arrived in Sydney from Japan with a single suitcase and a plan to merge French and Japanese cuisine in a superb setting near the water. This is the restaurant to beat in both the South Pacific and Asia.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN UPGRADING ON PARTNER CARRIERS:
All of the fine print boils down to this. Most of the major airlines will not allow you to upgrade a coach ticket using miles unless the airline is literally operating all flight sectors. However, if you want to simply use your accumulated miles to purchase a free Business ticket that can be done using a combination of your airline and its partners.
Here is an example. Let's say you want to fly from Chicago to Vienna round-trip from Chicago. Your miles are with American. You can do the trip using AA's partner, British Airways between London and Vienna. If you want to use 90,000 miles you can get a "free" Business Class ticket. But what you cannot do is buy a coach ticket and then use your miles, far less then 90,000 to upgrade to Business Class. You can;t even though the BA flights may have AA flight numbers.
If, however, you want to upgrade from coach on American flying round-trip Chicago-London, there is no problem since those are both true AA flights.
IS FINE DINING SUSTAINABLE?
One of ther world's most respected culinary pracftitioners, Pierre Gagnaire of the triple Michelin-starred Balzac in Paris, is waging an unusual campaign. He is trying to warn the consumers of fine dining that the environment cannot sustain the demands of a worldwide audience for truly natural food products. Aming ius specific warnings:
01 - Wild fish will disappear in th enext five to ten years. What will remain will be "farmed" fish.
02 - Demand for certain species of fish will soon make
them extinct. The list includes many species of shark and blue fin tuna.
03 - Exotic and in demand fruits and vegetables are getting so hard to find, that there is danger that restaurants without the best sup[pliers may have to close
His bottom line is that suppliers just can;pt cope with the demands of good restaurants.
He predicts large numbers of closings in the years to come along with prices that may double or triple today's top-level menu prices.
WHO REALLY GETS UPGRADED AT THE GATE? THE PRIORITY LIST USED BY MOST MAJOR AIRLINES
The following list highlights the very best strategies to get upgraded from coach to Business or First Class at the check-in gate. This is what really works – and what doesn’t. This is the pecking order – from top to bottom. This is the order in which upgrades at the counter are generally assigned:
THE ALMOST SURE THING:
Make sure you have elite frequent flier program status and an upgrade certificate to present at check-in.
THE SECOND GROUP TO BE UPGRADED AT THE GATE:
OK, you don’t belong to the top status frequent flier program – but you do have that upgrade certificate in your possession.
THE THIRD GROUP TO BE UPGRADED:
High level Platinum or Gold Frequent Flier Members on a flight that is overbooked in coach.
Since the average flight is overbooked by about 12%, this happens more then you might imagine.
THE FOURTH UPGRADE CATEGORY AND THE FIRST FOR “NON FF’S”
These are coach passengers flying on a non-discounted Y Class economy fare. Last-minute business travelers often fall into this category.
THE FITTH UPGRADE CATEGORY FOR FLYING ‘PARTNERS”
If you are flying on a partner airline and are a Top Tier, Gold or Platinum, Frequent Flier, you are next in line for n upgrade. American and British Airways, United and Lufthansa, and Delta and Northwest are examples of these partner airlines.
THE SIXTH UPGRADE CATEGORY FOR OVERSOLD PARTNERS:
You are a top tier member of a partner airline FF Program and your flight is oversold in coach.
THE SEVENTH SOLUTION WHEN WEIGHT MATTERS:
This one is a bit unusual. On lightly-booked flights, weight issues sometimes require that coach passengers be moved to the front of the aircraft for “balance.” It helps if you have been assigned a seat in the middle of the aircraft – those are the seats they move first.
THE EIGHTH OR ‘REGULAR FOLKS’ UPGRADE STRATEGY:
If you are traveling alone and have no airline affiliation or a low level FF mileage account, this one could work. But the gods have to be smiling in your favor. Sit within site of the gate agent and be dressed in business attire. If a civilian needs to be upgraded and none of the category fliers listed above are available, you may be asked to vacate your coach seat for something in business.
THE NINTH UPGRADE FOR THOSE ON CHEAP TICKETS ON OVERSOLD FLIGHTS;
Yes, you may be offer4ed an upgrade if you volunteer. But the chances are that you will have to fly later, perhaps much later, an possibly on a connection.
THE TENTH UPGRADE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NATURALLY NICE:
This one is hard to quantify but enough gate agents have told us this actually happens for us to believe it. They can place a comment on your record that reads something like “really nice pax”. When the supervisor of the flight is searching the passenger list, your namecould jump out when candidates for an upgrade are needed. But this one has to be played carefully. Gate agents were unanimous in telling us that they virtually never give upgrades to passengers who ask for one unless they meet some of the stringent criteria above.
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