The Flying Critic

Photos and Review of the InterContinental Le Grand Paris by One Mile at a Time

One Mile at a Time posted a detailed review with photos of the InterContinental Le Grand Paris.  It looks like a great place to stay (especially if you are a Royal Ambassador with InterContinental Hotels).

A deeper look at The Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) Blog

If you've been following The Flying Critic for awhile you may have already read about when I discovered the BRG blog and suggested that you check it out. 

I've been digging deeper into the Best Rate Guarantee program and the BRG Blog and I'm convinced this is currently the best way to consistently get free hotel rooms.  In fact, the program just got expanded and should work with more and better hotels.

Hotels are usually my biggest expense when traveling.  So finding ways to stay for free is attractive to me. 

But let's be clear.  I don't like most of the chains in the Wyndham family.  Their lack of many great hotels is the biggest problem with the BRG program and the only good excuse you have for not subscribing to the BRG blog. 

But for those times when it just doesn't matter where you stay it's hard to argue with free.

The BRG blog is THE SOURCE for learning how to use the Wyndham Best Rate Guarantee to snag free hotels.  As the BRG blog says, "Free Hotel Rooms Today, and Forever."  While I'm not so sure about the BRG program being around forever, it works now and the BRG blog keeps you current with the latest BRG deals and program updates.

The BRG blog runs a free e-mail list where you can get an advance warning of new BRG hotel opportunities  before they get posted to the blog.  Also, every Wednesday the BRG blog posts weekly Expedia deals that can help you snag free BRG rooms.

I recommend that you check out these introductory posts at the BRG blog to learn more about the BRG program:

My first post: What is a BRG anyways?
(BRGs, defined)

Multiple Nights? Sure, why not?
(learn how to stay more than one night on a BRG and still follow the T&C's)

How to file a claim 101
(this one is an important read for those of you who have sent ME your claims - hehe)

Ten ways to get your claim denied
(Learn the biggest mistakes to avoid when filing a claim)

As I've said before, if you want to learn how to get free hotel stays you need to read the BRG Blog.  I highly recommend it.

Daily Blog Review: Mommy Poppins

Do you have kids?  Are you going to New York City?  If so, you need to be reading Mommy Poppins.  It is the blog for info on NYC with Kids.  But even if you don't have kids it still provides lots of useful NYC fun.  And even if you won't be in NYC it has lots of info about travel with kids. And if none of the above applies to you, you might just like its great design style.

Daily Blog Review: Nomadic Matt's Travel Blog

Nomadic Matt’s Travel Blog provides information, advice, and commentary on world travel. His most recent post describes the issues that long (and short) term travelers face with respect to the ups and downs of currency exchange rates. He offers some suggestions on places where the dollar can take you a bit farther (hint: it’s not Western Europe).

The gem of Nomadic Matt’s Travel Blog is his extensive archive section. When Nomadic Matt finished grad school in 2006 he quit his job and went on a 537 day round the world trip. You can relive his trip and in the process learn all sorts of useful tips and info about enjoying extended stays in foreign countries. Enjoy.

Daily Blog Review: American Airlines' New Blog: AA Conversation

American Airlines launched a new blog last Friday. When I first went to it, I thought it was a joke site as the only thing that made it seem like it was their official blog was that it said it was their official blog. 

I did some fact checking and confirmed that it is their official blog despite it not even having their logo.  It's also not hosted on their own aa.com domain but on blogspot.com - the domain Google uses to host free Blogger accounts.

I read that it was put up quickly to try and open up additional lines of communication in response to AA's week of cancellations and chaos.  I guess that explains why they went with Blogger instead of putting it on their own aa.com domain.  And Blogger isn't the easiest blog platform for uploading logos - but I'm sure someone at AA could have figured it out.

Their first post is an apology with a YouTube video walking people through how to fill out the compensation request form.  A very good start.

Their second post informs us that their service was back to normal on Sunday, apologizes again, and provides a link encouraging people to request compensation.  Not trying to hide the compensation from people scores them points with me.  A great second post and bringing some closure to the service disruption issue.

But their third (and currently last) post tells us nothing.  Here are the first two sentences:

We have been getting several questions about industry consolidation, so we wanted to share American’s current position.

We generally don’t comment on what role AMR might play, if any, in consolidation.

I replied to their post with this comment, which sums up my thoughts on their third post:

Thanks for clearing up your position... not. 

While I'm glad to see AA is trying to figure out ways to increase communications with their customers through a blog, posts like this that provide a non-answer are pointless.

So you have been getting questions about consolidation. That makes sense. But your answer didn't comment on it in any meaningful way.

Use your new blog to provide new or useful information. If you can't talk about something for legal or other reasons, then just don't talk about it.

It is too early to tell if their new blog will be a success or a big waste of time.  But I hope American Airlines decides to take advantage of their new blog by embracing it, using it to provide 2-way communication with their customers and highlighting new and interesting things about American Airlines. 

Daily Blog Review: The BRG Blog

The BRG Blog is hotel and travel deal blog.  It is the source for information on how to use the Wyndham Worldwide Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) to get free hotel rooms when there are price mismatches between the corporate site and other booking sites.  From what I can gather, it takes some work to make a successful BRG claim and this blog breaks it all down for you. 

If you want fee hotel rooms you should spend some time reading the BRG Blog to see how it is done and where the hotel deals can be found.

The blog operator also runs a free e-mail list that you can join by giving him your e-mail address and he promises to e-mail you with new BRG hotel finds 2 hours before they get posted to his blog. 

Daily Blog Review: Everything Everywhere Travel Blog

Everything Everywhere Travel Blog is an outstanding example of a travel photo blog. Most posts are a picture of the amazing travels of Gary Arndt. He has been traveling around the world since March 2007 and has the pictures to prove it. I love the formatting and style of his blog – they compliment the pictures that dominate his posts.

Daily Blog Review: Travelhacker

Travelhacker is the blog of the travel credit card advisory site AirlineCreditCards.com.  The Travelhacker blog posts every week or two with large informative posts that provide links to lots of useful travel resources and travel blog posts.  Two of my favorite recent posts were Top 50 Resources for Getting a Cheap Flight and And Then There Were Two: 100 Best Vacations for Singles of Every Persuasion.

Daily Blog Review: One Mile at a Time

One Mile at a Time is the blog written by FlyerTalk’s prolific poster lucky9876coins. He blogs frequently about his experiences on United Airlines and the Star Alliance in addition to tracking changes to most frequent flyer programs.