Take Alcohol to Drink on Your Flight

Posted on May 16, 2012 by

I was recently tipped off to one of the most unbelievable travel tricks ever. In this day and age of insane security, invasive procedures and removal of freedoms, here’s a bright ray of sunshine. With an unintentional loophole (maybe intentional with some of the drinking habits in Congress), you have the freedom to take the alcohol (or non-alcohol) of your choice on your flight with you.

I first had a discussion with a TSA supervisor about this a couple of months back. My clarifying question was in regards to the 1 qt bag of liquids you are allowed to take through security. The rule is that you can take as many containers (less than 3 oz each) that you can fit in a 1 qt Ziploc style bag. I then specifically asked if alcohol was allowed. The answer was a resounding “Yes!” In fact, he was enthusiastic about it.

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Trick to Earn 2 Additional Bonus Miles per Dollar Spent with Your Citi AAdvantage Card

Posted on May 9, 2012 by

In past posts, I’ve mentioned the benefits of a credit card that earns you frequent flyer miles. The card I’ve used for the last three years is the Citi Platinum Select / AAdvantage World MasterCard. This post is going to tell you how to earn 3 miles per dollar spent (4 miles per dollar spent on AA purchases) for six months, up to 10,000 additional bonus miles, on your Citi AAdvantage card.

First, I’ll walk you through how I stumbled upon this offer.

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A Few Random Travel Pics

Posted on April 25, 2012 by

This week’s post is a quick one. Here are some things I’ve seen lately that I find humor in.

This lavatory is for women and Big Foot.

Exit Row for bad-asses only. If you need to stand up to use the emergency exit, sit somewhere else wimp.

She's a true Travel Ninja.

This really counts more as a FAIL. I ran across this nice closed bar that never closes when I was in Austin, TX last.

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Poutine: It’s Not a Dirty Word. Well, Maybe.

Posted on April 18, 2012 by

I traveled to Montreal this year for the first time. Several friends had told me that it was their favorite city in the world, so I decided to take a vacation day and check it out. What I didn’t consider is that my trip was in January and Montreal is freaking cold! Since I was battling negative temperatures, and all of the wonderful patios were closed, I had to search to find a way to truly experience Montreal. In comes poutine.

Let’s face it, poutine sounds like a dirty word no matter how you use it. After tasting it, I might make an argument that it is, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Poutine is basically the provincial dish of Quebec. It contains three simple ingredients: French fries, cheese curds and gravy. It is known as a comfort food, finding its roots in rural Quebec during recessionary times when families couldn’t afford finer ingredients. Today, poutine is available across Canada in small diners, pubs and even fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, A&W and Burger King.

Blog made possible by Pace Industries: North America’s Best Aluminum Die Casting Company

Since I was in Montreal, the heart of poutine country, I decided to give the dish a shot. I tried to order it at Les 3 Brasseurs (The 3 Brewers) pub in old town, but the bar tender talked me out of it. Instead, she recommended a café a few miles away that is known for having the best poutine in Montreal: Resto la Banquise. I accepted her recommendation and made plans to eat lunch there the following day.

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Great Food Options at DFW

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

Layovers are part of travel. They aren’t much fun, and unless you have a membership in an airline club, such as American’s Admiral’s Club, each airport presents its own challenge to find a good place to pass the time. In a previous post, I introduced readers to Chicago O’Hare’s Urban Garden. This post is about a couple of my favorite options at Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW).

Because I attended college at the University of Oklahoma, I have quite a few trips to Dallas under my belt. Each October, OU and Texas fight it out in the Red River Rivalry, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest college rivalry games. This creates a migration of students from both schools to the DFW area, which is almost exactly halfway between both schools. Starting my freshman year, I made 10 consecutive annual trips to Dallas for the game. During this time, I developed my favorite restaurants that I tried to hit up each trip.

Near Northwest Highway and I-35E, you will find a small collection of restaurants with Pappa in their name. Pappa Bros. Steakhouse, Pappasito’s Cantina, Pappadeaux Seafood and Pappas BBQ all reside in a small area. I discovered these restaurants on my first trip and typically visit at least one of them on each trip to Dallas.

Even though the Pappas story officially began in Houston, the restaurants are a big piece of Dallas to me. That’s why I was thrilled when they opened a Pappasito’s Cantina near Gate A28 at the DFW Airport. It added a quality, known eatery to the airport. Even better, it apparently had enough success that the Pappas Brothers decided to add a second offering, Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. It opened last year near Gate A24, only a few gates from Pappasito’s Cantina.

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Best iOS Travel Apps

Posted on March 28, 2012 by

A friend of mine recently lost his company issued Blackberry and it was replaced with an iPhone 4S. He knew I was a pretty advanced user of my iPhone, and a big fan, so he asked me for advice. After I made some setting changes to his phone, I made him a list of my favorite apps. This is a quick rundown of the Travel category.

Note that these are iPhone apps, but most have Android versions available as well.

TripIt – Free or $3.99 for Ad Free Version 

My love for TripIt runs deep. TripIt is much more than an iPhone App, but its app is what makes it so useful. For a larger review of TripIt, see my earlier post here.

Note that several of the apps in this list integrate with TripIt to improve their usefulness. That makes TripIt both a necessity for convenience, and a great place to start.

GateGuru – Free  GateGuru App

GateGuru is one of the most feature rich apps for travel. Its core use is to help you find the right restaurant in over 125 airports worldwide. It lists them by terminal and makes the gates they are near obvious, so they are quick to find. It also integrates with TripIt, so it can notify you of flight status changes and give you quick access to trip details.

It’s also a very social media focused app by integrating with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. To take it a step further, they have created their own “High Flyers” ranking program globally, and for each airport. They also have a tips section and user reviews for most restaurants.

A distant 2nd is FlySmart, which is also free, but lacking most of the features listed above. It is also pretty difficult to navigate.

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Pack Like a Ninja…a Travel Ninja

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

Packing is a skill you learn over time. I’ll admit, before I went to work at Pace, I used to be the guy that packed two suitcases for a vacation. I wanted to be prepared for any and every situation and I made sure I was. When I returned, I had only worn about 1/3 of what I took and all that packing, unpacking and hauling was a waste of time. This lead me to the conclusion that if I’m standing on a suitcase trying to zip it, it’s probably a bad thing.

This being said, good packing begins with a good plan, then good execution. Here are my top tips for better packing, in chronological order.

Pick a color: black or brown?
Q: What takes up more room than any other item in your suitcase?
A: Other colors of everything you’ve already packed.

If you wear both colors, you’ll need shirts, pants, socks, shoes and belts to match both. Women will have a hard time going with one pair of shoes, but keeping this in mind will at least help reduce “shoe creep.”

So, simplify everything by deciding whether this trip will be a brown trip or a black trip and then pack accordingly.

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