Passport Renewal Fun in Tel Aviv - NOT!

Passport Renewal Fun in Tel Aviv - NOT!
If you can avoid a trip to the US Embassy in Tel Aviv to renew your passport - avoid it! Most adults can renew by mail. The problem is the under 21 crowd. You can get all the relevant details on the US Embassy Website, except for [...]

US Air cancels in-flight movies

US Air has tossed the movies from the plane in an effort to save their company. It turns out that the in-flight entertainment system weighs 500 pounds (or about the same as 4,000 ipod Nano MP4 players). So, to save fuel - no movies on US Air domestic flights. More suggestions:
- make the food out [...]

El Al discontinues flights to Miami

A little beyond our scope, but because we do have some people from Boca that we like - ElAl has announced that its non-stop (3 times a week) to Miami will stop for good in September. Reason given is high cost of fuel. (We all know gas is cheaper in Jersey - at the tunnel). [...]

Make sure your passport has at least 6 months to go or you may stay home

I know it is not really in the scope of this blog - but if your passport expires less than 6 months before your trip - you may even be allowed on the plane. Take this seriously - a friend of mine is having a big wedding in Panama and a few people can’t go [...]

Splurge for a One Day Lounge Pass

Executive summary - if your plans involve waiting time at the airport, access to the airport lounges is relatively inexpensive. Plan ahead - there is some research involved.
There are six ways to get access to the airport lounge:

Fly business class
Have the right kind of credit card (e.g. Amex Platinum, Citi Chairman)
Have super elite status on [...]

Zipcar - More Convenient and Greener than Avis, etc.

Recently tried Zipcar as an alternative to traditional car rental. It is worth it in cities that have good public transportation, expensive car rental and hard to find (expensive) parking. New York, Boston and Washington DC, definitely qualify. LA , San Jose and Dallas do not.
The idea is that most of your meetings and your [...]

Take My Wife, Please …….. or A Good ElAl Offer Does Not Come Every Day

Actually, your wife, or husband or kid, or ME.
What seems to be a good deal from ElAl has just been announced. Buy one business class ticket and get the second at a very reduced price. $499 to NY/ $699 to LA (plus give up 200 - 400 worthless points). Valid from now till the end [...]

Avoid Atlanta Immigration

Hi. I wanted to contribute my 2 cents to elliot’s blog. I always fly BA and noticed that there was nothing on the blog about BA. So, here is my first post. I am not British!
Avoid international arrivals in Atlanta at all cost. When I arrived there on an international flight I had [...]

Water on the Plane - An Arbitrage Opportunity

An arbitrage opportunity is “the opportunity to buy an asset at a low price then immediately selling it on a different market for a higher price.” Not so simple for the average man/woman in the street to do. But now its easy - at an airport near you.
Value of a small bottle of water [...]

$15 luggage charge - whats next? water? YUP

United and US Air have joined American in charging $15 for the first bag. Two bags round trip now cost $80. One group on a 500 mile trip actually selected a driver to drive all the bags back and forth. If the plane left from LGA - the driver probably got there first.
Good news for [...]

California - Got old relatives on the lower east side?

Did you know that a close relative of the Giant Sequoia tree lives on the lower east side???

It is called a metasequoia (aka Dawn Redwood) and is planted all over the city. At 100 feet, the tallest one is in the Liz Christy Community Garden on East Houston and the Bowery. Picture courtesy of [...]

Acela and Amtrak Service Outage New York Boston

There will be very limited service on the New York - Boston route on Saturday June 14 - Tuesday June 17. Anti-semites. Why couldn’t they fix the bridge on Shavuot!
Ashley Express to DC runs as scheduled.

The West Coast and the Three Day Work Week

Problem - in order to be back in Israel Friday afternoon, you have to leave the West Coast on Wednesday, effectively giving you a 3 day work week. Here are the general options for travel from the West Coast Wednesday evening back to Israel on Friday (before sundown).
OPTION 1 - Travel through Europe - [...]

Free Ticket for your Kids 18th Birthday

It turns out my readers like the free stuff - so here is our best one yet:

Your kid turns 18 and he or she is headed to the army or whatever. Time for a free trip. Step by step process would make Abbie Hoffman proud.
Step 1: Sign up for American Airlines (should have done that [...]

Good Things about ElAl Gold and Platinum (for serious flyers only)

In the interest of fairness and zionism - I decided to write a post about what is good about accruing miles on ElAl. This is not to be confused with actually flying ElAl. I love flying ElAl.
But, you can fly ElAl and get much more valuable miles on other airlines. So, today I decided [...]

Frequent Flyer Guide to US (even for this summer)

With the rising cost of airfare - there is only one real solution to vacation travel to the US - use free tickets. Since I know many readers of this blog have 100,000’s of miles sitting in their accounts, I decided to summarize the options available for using them for trips to the States [...]

Free Mobile Phone in US

Probably most TLV2JFK readers live a double life - besides taking the kids to school in Ranana - offices in the city, house in Teaneck, family in Queens and of course, a US Cellphone. I don’t - my office, house, family and bank account are all in Ranana. But I needed a phone for a [...]

Los Angeles Kosher Dining - not just pizza!

I am not a blogger. People actually PAY ME to write. But since I really love this blog - I decided to contibute. For free. Not even for a corned beef on rye! And I decided to write about two things I really like - a nice kosher meal and Los Angeles. Here goes [...]

ElAl Best Frequent flyer freddie awards - Hutzpah!!

I hate to have to bash ElAl every day - especially in the spirit of the 60th year Independence Celebrations, but this takes the industry Hutzpah award.
ElAl flyers received a nice email with this ad:

Wow, we all said - little old Israel makes it to the world frequent flyer stage. Well, not quite. Kind of [...]

Getting to LGA from Manhattan

I usually stay in Manhattan and getting to Newark or Kennedy is easy (max 30 minutes from Penn Station).
This trip - I had to be in LGA at 7am (for an AirTran flight). Cab would probably be at least $40. Israeli car service $30 + tips and tolls. Public transportation is almost non-existent.
This trip [...]

Cheap Dollar - Buy in USA

My parents would always return from US with 14 suitcases loaded with clothes, shoes, toys, tuna, plastic bags, etc. The zionist reality did not include purchasing low quality expensive stuff in Israel.
While I like a nice trip to the Galleria as much as the next woman - in the past few years buying in the [...]

Bad Kosher Airline food - funny?

Right now I am on the plane eating my “Economy Class Chicken Dinner” for breakfast and I am thinking of yesterdays kosher meal on Turkish Airlines. Worst ever. And I have had a lot of bad ones, including 18 lettuce only salads once.
Please don’t read this if you plan to eat in the next 3 [...]

Selecting an Airline Seat

More than once in the past I selected or got a seat on an airplane that just did not fit my needs. Personally, I prefer aisle seats that are as close as possible to the exit door of the aircraft I am flying on. The reason is simple, most of my flights are long haul [...]

Great report on Turkish Airways (including electric outlets on planes)

I selected them because they were the cheapest by far when flying with only 3 days notice. They certainly have come a long way since I flew them from Bangkok with 400 Thai workers all smoking.
Plane was a brand new A330-200. Individual screens (Rain Main, The Fugitive) and electric outlets - so you can keep [...]

ElAl hidden bargains

It turns out that not only is the on-board security man well hidden, so are their good deals. Its only on the Hebrew version of the site. It is called “Spontani” and is kind of last minute. Kind of, since sometimes there are deals for the next 72 hours only and sometimes way in [...]

Car Rental Dropoff Charges

At $18 a day you don’t have to be Agatha Christie to figure out that Avis is not making money on the rental fee. We know they make it on insurance and gas (”we will refill for $7 a gallon” - if you are lazy enough). Now - beware the drop-off fee scam. You rented [...]

Frequent Flyer Change - Turkish Airlines

Turkish Airlines is out of the oneworld alliance and in the star alliance. Effective today!
So, you will no longer be able to get AA miles, but you will be able to get UA miles. (UA has not updated their website - but take my word for it).
And you can get all the way to Hawaii [...]