Photo of the Week!*
F 5.6; 1/250; 135mm
Shot at the end of the “D” concourse at Doha’s Hamad International Airport.
*But why stop there? This can be the “Photo of the Year!” too.
Continue reading “To 2021 we go!”
The great American West meets higher flyer luxury
Moab, Utah, despite its remote location on the Colorado Plateau, is a hub for intrepid explorers, nature enthusiasts, and backpacking tourists. Its close proximity to two ruggedly beautiful national parks — Arches and Canyonlands — is the main draw, and Moab attracts more and more visitors with each passing year. The local hotel scene is expanding in order to cater to them, and the town’s first upscale property, the Hoodoo, opened in Summer 2019. As part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, it’s a charming, well-designed, and luxurious four-star, but it’s also one of the most expensive places in the area. To the delight of higher flyers though, these costs can be easily offset with points and, better yet, there’s plenty good value to be had!
Continue reading “Hoodoo Moab, Curio Collection by Hilton Review”
The Daily Flyer
Welcome to the ninth edition of “The Daily Flyer,” The Higher Flyer‘s newsletter that gathers up and summarizes some of the day’s most important travel-related happenings. Today, May 20, 2020, we’re venturing out of our coronavirus slumber (it’s been two months!) to cover the measures airlines and hotels are taking to prepare for the post-outbreak “return-to-normalcy,” and the hurdles that some must clear to get there. Read further for coverage on a potentially interesting service concept from Delta, a guide to aspirational hotels worth visiting after this is all said and done, and the story of a single man living in a massive luxury hotel.
A convenient, comfortable, and cost-effective way to hop through the Northeastern United States.
In a very, very crowded field of competitors all vying for the customers who transit the lucrative Northeast Corridor, American Airlines has perhaps the most robust offering. Just about every hour on the hour for fifteen straight hours — from 6am to 9pm to be precise — every single day, you can fly AA between Washington, New York, and Boston. It couldn’t get more convenient than that and, if you’re running late to the airport, no worries! You can just get on the next flight without changing your schedule too drastically. This level of flexibility is great for the business travelers who frequent these routes, and the comfortable seats and relatively cheap fares are just icing on the cake.
Continue reading “American Airlines First Class Shuttle Review”
The most recent review published on The Higher Flyer evaluates international business class onboard American Airlines’s now-retired fleet of Boeing 767s. There’s nothing particularly exciting nor noteworthy about the experience, but with lie-flat seats, direct aisle access for all passengers, and upgraded dining options on offer, your expectations for a product marketed as “Flagship Business” are likely going to be met but not exceeded. It delivers all that you could want in decidedly-average fashion, but because the fares are prohibitively expensive, it’s nearly impossible for me to recommend it. When compared to significantly cheaper, if not better, alternatives, it’s the textbook definition of a terrible deal… although some might disagree with that assessment. There’s an inherent ambiguousness to higher flying reflected here, and that poses an interesting question: what makes a “good value” good?
Continue reading “On perceiving “good” value”
A recently-refurbished plane remains retro thanks to an underwhelming premium product
Across its expansive fleet, American Airlines features eight different kinds of business class seats. Naturally, as you might expect, some are better than others. On one end of the spectrum you have excellent reverse herringbones found on its Boeing 777s and 787-9s. On the opposite end, on its Boeing 767s, you have staggered seats that would’ve been state-of-the-art 15 years ago. Of the these two extremes, they share unlikely commonalities: AA installed them on its planes only as recently as a few years ago, and it typically charges comparable, astronomically-priced fares for both. If the airline brings the goods — so tasty dining options and warm, amicable service (among other things) to complement a comfortable chair that reclines 180 degrees — then it can get away with this pricing model. If it doesn’t, well, such a poor value isn’t “higher flyer” and it probably isn’t worth your time. By those metrics, the business class experience on AA’s 767s is, while more pleasant than economy, probably one to avoid.
Continue reading “American Airlines 767 Business Class Review”
Photo of the Week!
F 7.1; 1/80; ISO 100; 79mm.
Shot at Wat Arun in Bangkok, Thailand.
How far is too far to walk?
It feels weird to be writing a review — even if it is just a mini-review — of walking through an airport. There’s hardly anything noteworthy (let alone higher flyer) about these experiences, but Madrid-Barajas’s Adolfo Suárez is a special case. Its Terminal 4, which serves as the home base for the Spanish flag carrier Iberia, is big, beautiful, and kinda controversial. The building’s aesthetic is top-notch, but the sprawl of it can be overwhelming. If you’re flying out of Madrid, well, you’re going to want to prepare for it more than you otherwise would… hence the reason for The Higher Flyer to publish a guide!
Continue reading “Navigating Madrid-Barajas’s Terminal 4”
The Higher Flyer 