Diplomat Resort

Westin Diplomat Leaving Starwood Preferred Guest October 30, 2014

August 30, 2014By Edward Pizzarello4 Comments

Effective October 30, 2014, Starwood will no longer be affiliated with the Westin Diplomat in Hollywood, FL. I was majorly bummed when I read this news on One Mile at a Time. I had read about the sale of the property recently but didn’t internalize that a change like this could come so quickly. This property was always phenomenal about upgrading Starwood Platinum members to beautiful wrap-around suites in the oceanfront tower. They had tons of them (96, iirc), so upgrades were frequent. They had a VIP manager who made […]

One Day Price Drop! My Favorite Anker Charging Products Are On Sale Today

My Amazon Deal of the Day email shows that half a dozen of my favorite Anker products are on sale today. If you follow my blog, you know I’m a big fan of pretty much all the Anker gadgets I own. Here are some of the Anker gear I like best: Anker Braided 6ft Lightning Cable for $9.09 Historically speaking, this is the cheapest price I can recall for my favorite cable. It was just over $10 the last time I noticed it on sale. I’ve never had one of […]

The Next DC-Area Travel Meetup Is Set. Come Join Us!

Things have been a bit quiet here the past week or so. Between some work travel overseas and ending up sick (sick travel is the worst) I’ve done a bad job keeping up with all of you. I’m hoping we can get back to some normalcy pretty quickly. In the interim, I have some good news for local DC folks. Many of you have asked me when our next DC travel Meetup would be. Well, thanks to persistence by my partner-in-crime Jeanne as well as Trevor, we’re back in business. […]

The Best Portable Tech I’ve Seen In A While

I do earn a small commission from some of the links in these posts. If you’re a regular visitor to my site, you know I don’t hawk a ton of things around here. Clicking on my links doesn’t cost you any extra and it’s surely appreciated. Those of you that follow my blog on a regular basis know I’m a big fan of Anker products. Their batteries have had a place in my backpack for years. I use their cables and a power strips as well. In fact, I have […]

If You Had One Day In Porto, Portugal

Let’s get back to our “If you had one day in…” series where readers help each other with the best tips for a destination. Recommend only the top things you would do if you had just one day. We’re not looking for run-of-the-mill. We’ve already covered: Rome Sydney Dallas This week, what would you do if you had one day in Porto, Portugal? I had just that recently, and did a really poor job planning it. Flying by the seat of my pants has had hit or miss results over […]

How To Get From New York City To Newark Airport Via Train

I was born and raised in New York, so I don’t think much about getting around. The subway is second nature to me, as are trains like Metro North and NJ Transit. I figured there’s plenty of people who may not know how to navigate public transportation. You can save a bunch of money taking the train to Newark Airport. Here’s how to get from Manhattan in New York City to Newark Airport via train, originating at Penn Station, buying a ticket and connecting to AirTrain.

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.

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. […]

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 […]