Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

JAL Business Class Sky Suite III Seat

Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

Is there anything more satisfying in life than taking a bite of a big, juicy, rare steak while sitting in an aluminum tube traveling through the sky at 500 mph? The answer is very clearly, “who knows?”, as this tiny little hunk of beef on the tray in front of me offers no insight into this quandary. Is this little piece of beef indicative of the JAL Business Class experience, or is it merely the dim bulb in an otherwise bright business class flight? Continue reading Steaks On A Plane! JAL Business Class Review

Alaska Airlines 40k Credit Card Offer And An award Sweet Spot

Alaska 40K Offer

A strange thing happened this morning when I headed out to the cardmatch tool to check to see if I was targeted for the Amex Platinum 100k offer (I was not); I came across an offer for the Alaska Airlines personal credit card that offered 40,000 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles after spending $2,000 within 90 days. As many of you know, the usual Alaska Airlines Personal offer is 30,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 within 90 days, so this is a significantly better offer than usual.

Cathay First class caviar
Cathay First class caviar

Alaska Miles For First Class To Asia

Alaska miles are super valuable for flying business or first class to Asia. They charge just 50,000 miles to fly Cathay Pacific Business Class to almost anywhere in Asia, and 70,000 miles if you wish to enjoy the mid-flight caviar in Cathay Pacific First Class. Continue reading Alaska Airlines 40k Credit Card Offer And An award Sweet Spot

Mountains Of Flowers In Hokkaido Japan

Shibazakura in Hokkaido Japan

A Surreal Floral Experience In Hokkaido

Babies! I’ve spent the last year bouncing around the globe shooting videos for the site and I’m really excited to finally be able to start sharing them with you!

This first video is from an incredible and surreal adventure I had in Hokkaido, Japan this last May. While researching an upcoming Spring trip to Japan I came across a picture of these mountains covered in flowers and I just couldn’t believe they were real. I had to see it for myself, so I planned a trip to experience Shibazakura in Japan first hand.

Continue reading Mountains Of Flowers In Hokkaido Japan

The Best Option For Traveling Around Japan

Temple in Nagano

Why You Should Use Award Tickets To Travel In Japan

The first time I visited Japan back in 2012 (which was also the first time I used miles to fly first class) common wisdom held that the JR pass was by far the best and most cost effective way to travel within Japan and so I shelled out the $600 or so dollars to Shinkansen my posterior all over the country. I went to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Miyazaki, Arita and Nagano and while I definitely got my money’s worth out of the pass, I have since found a faster and cheaper way to get my Japan fix without spending all my cat cafe money on a JR pass.

AA first class
Where it all began…

I have since learned that award tickets present a much better value than the JR pass.

Continue reading The Best Option For Traveling Around Japan

The JAL Promotion That Just Won’t Die

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JAL Discount Mileage Promotion

I first came across a post about a JAL 5,000 mile discount on Angelina Travels back in April of 2015 and made a mental note that the next time I wanted to fly Bangkok Airways this was a pretty solid option. The fact that many of these awards were discounted by 50 – 66% caught my attention and while I had intended to do a post about it then, it got lost in my drafts pile.

Continue reading The JAL Promotion That Just Won’t Die

In The Air: JAL First Class Chicago to Tokyo, Narita

Flight du jour:

JAL 009

Chicago (ORD) to Tokyo (NRT)

September 6, 2015

Departs: 12:35 PM

Arrives: (Next Day) 3:35 PM

Duration: 13 Hours 15 Minutes

Jal First Class Seat
Jal First Class Seat

I love JAL first class. After the mediocrity that is domestic first class on American Airlines, what a lovely feeling it is to get settled into my JAL first class suite.

When boarding it is common for first class passengers to board through one door while the rest of the plane boards through the other. This time everyone boarded through the same door and first class passengers broke left, everyone else broke right. We were lucky enough to get the window seats on the right hand side of the plane; seats 1K and 2K, and were escorted there by one of the very friendly flight attendants who would be making the next 13+ hours a really wonderful experience.

Continue reading In The Air: JAL First Class Chicago to Tokyo, Narita