CBP

US Customs Computers Had An “Outage” Tonight. What Does That Mean?

January 1, 2018By Edward Pizzarello2 Comments

How exactly do you screen passengers when your processing systems are down? That’s what the US Customs and Border Protection folks did for a couple of hours this evening.

Should The Government Have To Play By The Rules While Protecting Us While We Fly?

May 29, 2017By Edward Pizzarello6 Comments

What if you break a rule in an airport, except it’s not really a rule? What happens if they take away your Global Entry credentials for breaking the undocumented rule?

American Airlines Got It Right Today, Despite What Travel Bloggers Say

In case you hadn’t heard, American Airlines announced that they were giving every American Airlines AAdvantage member a free gift for the holidays today. All you had to do was login to your AAdvantage account to see what you had won. I was pretty bogged down with work calls today, but I kept seeing chatter in the background about what people were receiving as gifts. I saw mentions of people winning 100 miles, 250 miles and 500-mile upgrade certificates. And, I also noticed that most opinions weren’t positive. The first […]

AMEX Is Matching Your Donations 10:1 Today. And, I’m Matching Their Match!

Today is Giving Tuesday, an informal “holiday” that follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday to encourage a bit of charitable giving to go with all those purchases you may have made the past few days. There’s an opportunity to help today that can be done with your Membership Rewards points or cash. American Express sent me a note that they’re matching donations 10:1 to Feeding America today. Feeding America is a nationwide network of food banks. In the midst of the pandemic, food banks are a critical source of nutrition […]

15% Discount On Marriott Gift Cards Today. Should You Buy?

Marriott is offering a 15% discount on gift cards today and tomorrow.

Finding “Normal” In Crazy Times

The last eight months or so of the pandemic have moved by at an incredibly rapid pace and glacially slow at the same time. Prior to ye old COVID-19, life had a sort of cadence for me, though there were plenty of imbalances. With all of that upset, we’ve all tried to find ways to achieve normalcy. During the beginning of the pandemic, we escaped to a rural ski area a few hours from our house in western Maryland. A friend had a vacation house there they weren’t using, and […]

WIN: I’m Giving Away Aeroplan Elite Status

Psst, hey! Aeroplan dropped some hints on the podcast today about a potential change to the new program that you might really like. Oh, and I’ve got a pretty awesome prize I’m giving away.

I Flew Frontier, Saved $400 And Didn’t Die. My Frontier Airlines Review

Those low-cost carriers always have very appetizing fare sales. Who wouldn’t want to pay $20 to fly somewhere? But, what does $20 really buy you? I found out exactly what Frontier does (and doesn’t) offer customers on my first flight with them recently.

How To Use New Metro Silver Line To Get Between Dulles and Reagan National Airports

People talk about how bad the traffic is in places like Los Angeles with plenty of adjectives. And, it is quite bad. But, the traffic in DC is what I refer to as “stealthy bad”. It doesn’t get the same press that LA traffic does, but a trip that normally takes an hour can easily turn into a 3-hour ordeal. With visiting dignitaries, protests and construction as variables, weather can also wreak havoc on a system that consistently backs up during rush hour. For those of us that live in […]

A Summary Of United Airlines Global Services Benefits

As travel has gotten more stressful the benefits of elite status are even more valuable. In some cases, what used to be free for everyone is now only free for those customers that fly most frequently. I value my American Airlines Executive Platinum status more highly than any status I’ve earned, including 1K service with United Airlines. However, Global Services is another matter. For those not aware, Global Services is an invitation-only status level that United bestows on their best customers. What defines a best customer? Well, United doesn’t list […]

Update: American Airlines Variable Choice Plus Pricing A Feature, Not A Bug

I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with the original announcement that American Airlines was creating bundled pricing that included change fees at a lower apparent cost. Things got a little better when American also announced they were expanding the timeframe you could request a same day change to your flight. And, then things started to get a bit screwy. It started with just one flight I couldn’t get to price right with Choice Plus as an add-on. But, then I did a bit more digging and found out […]

Is Foursquare Dead?

Venture Beat doesn’t think so, and I’m not 100% sure they’re wrong. But, before I discuss the article, a little background on why someone allergic to social media like me became a Foursquare nut. A few years ago, a company called TopGuest came up with this concept where you could earn airline miles and hotel points for checking in at various places on Foursquare. I can’t say I thought it was a terribly good business model, but they convinced a bunch of hotel chains to hand out miles for this. […]