Trying to get squared away here with an idea or two for travel. Life continues to fight me on the idea, coming up with little roadblocks here and there (Doctors, house repairs, vehicle repairs, etc.) But it will all get sorted, I hope!

Have fun!

The links today were particularly good.

And don’t tell me, is it gold for the overheated desert rats?

On birds, did you ever see that cartoon in the New Yorker in which one bird is interviewing another bird for a job? The interviewer asks “Where do you see yourself in 5 seconds?”

Great article on risk. Really great.

Is it too late for some warm nuts jokes?

I had two separate award reservations to Bangkok, one for 100k AA miles flying AA First Class from Detroit to Dallas to Tokyo Haneda and then on business Class to Bangkok on JAL. The other one was for 118.500 Air Canada Aeroplan miles for Detroit to Frankfurt to Munich on Lufthansa Business Class and then to Bangkok on Thair Airways Business Class on a new A350-900. I really had a hard time which one to cancel. About 30 hours out I decided to cancel the Air Canada Aeroplan award.

One of the downsides of the AA award was that the first flight was at 5.41 am! Which meant a ridiculously early start of the day. Surprisingly, AA did not let me down this time. The first flight to Dallas was on time and the flight there was as expected. Which was definitely not much at all lol. The seat was very comfortable and the breakfast was not edible as I just had the banana and the grapes and skipped everything else. The gate agent pimped the amazing 65k Citi AAdvantage credit card this time as well, I mean, we expect the Flight Attendants to this. Which of course they did. Get to Dallas and take the airlink train and first ad you see is one for the Chase Sapphire Reserve inside the train door. And then you arrive at the next station and boom, your eyes are attacked with an ad for Capital One Lounges. Which of course implies you have the Capital One Venture X card.

The AA Flagship lounge in Dallas is great. It is huge with a wide variety of food and beverages. Too bad the separate First Dining section was closed, I guess they don’t do breakfast. It started getting a bit busier after 8.30 am but still it was a really nice experience.

Flight on an ancient 777 to Tokyo Haneda was fine. Lots of stuff revolved around 100, the ongoing branding for AA’s 100th birthday. I loved the pajamas and the cool amenity kit bag. And something AA does well that is completely under rated, the amazing warm nuts! The food was ok. Most servings were more of a miss than a hit. I was expecting more from the braised short rib entrée I chose, oh well. In retrospect, maybe I should have chosen the Japanese meal. The ice cream sundae was good. The breakfast eggs were not edible. Just a very under par for an F experience. And I clearly expected it so when an experience matches your expectations you are okay with it lol. Also, is it a requirement that all AA FA’s on these long international flight be over 60 years old, WTF! Not that the service was bad. It was just, well, average and they clearly did not try a bit harder than the absolute minimum required.

My daughter recommended to me to watch the 2nd season of BEEF on Netflix. So I started and then I binged all eight of them (great show). Which meant I did not sleep at all on my flight to Tokyo. Which made me really sleepy and I had a very long layover in Tokay, 11 hours!

I decided to try entering the Amex Centurion lounge only to be told to come back about 5 hours before my flight to Bangkok. No surprises at all. So I then walked one minute next door to the Sakura Lounge which is great. I had an awesome shower in a very comfortable and spacious room. It is a very large lounge with two separate food/beverage sections. Both had the same exact food offerings and setup. I did not eat much here as I did not really care for many of the selections. Or maybe I am working on my lounge food addiction. Or maybe I was just not feeling so hungry after being up for so long. I caught up with work and about 5 hours before my flight I walked to the Amex Centurion lounge next door. I am shocked about how subpar this Amex lounge is. First, it is very small. But one thing that stood out to me was how dark it was. In every room. I had to wait a bit to find me a table. Which is probably now a feature of Amex lounges lol. I found the food selection lacking as well. Or maybe I was just not feeling hungry at all still. And it closes at 10 pm. Which meant I walked back to the Sakura lounge again, so much brighter and just more pleasing all around. Shame on Amex, I thought they could so much better in a location that could do wonders in targeting affluent Japanese.

And now for the best part of my 100k AA First Class award: My flight on JAL Business Class. I loved it. On a Boeing Dreamliner. I loved the Sky Suites seat and whole set up, so comfortable. And the food was amazing! I was so glad I picked the Japanese meal, I ate everything (except the small plate that had shrimp as I am allergic to it). And that miso soup was heavenly, omg. Amazing that it held the taste of it up in the air! The FA service was great as expected. I find the Asian Airlines FA service to be a bit robotic, but give me robotic an compared to US airlines any day. I got some good sleep on this flight at last.

Going through immigration at the BKK airport at 5.30 am was such a breeze. I basically walked right up to the immigration officer booth. This is one of the many benefits flying up front, you get to walk out first after landing and usually get to the immigration/passport control area also first. I entered Thailand for the first time with my DTV Visa. I made a mental note that the immigration officer will sure appreciate me having the visa printout inserted in my passport photo page. Immigration officer did not ask to see my TDAC form (Thailand Digital Arrival Card) which can be done online within 72 hours before arrival.

This to be continued…