Luxury Travel 101

Everybody wants to indulge once in a while and some are smarter, or let's say more informed than others, when it comes to Luxury Travel. So, here are my best tips as to how to spend as little as possible for as great an experience as possible.

First, you should check Flyertalk out. It is one the oldest and best online community for everything travel-related. You will find forums with detailed and accurate information from seasoned travelers. Whether you're looking for information about The American Express Centurion Card, Frequent Flyer Programs, upgrade deals or budget hotels in Bhutan, you will find the answer there. The community is very friendly and whenever I post a question, I usually get an answer within minutes! I can and must say that Flyertalk has changed my traveling habits and it is, in my opinion, the best information source when it comes to travel. They also organize "Dos" where fellow Flyertalkers meet. There are Dos almost every week on every continent! I've been to some and always had a great time with great people!

If you're 2000 miles shy of renewing your platinum status and need to find a mileage run deal, Flyertalk's mileage run forum is the place to go. I know it sounds crazy to fly just to renew one's status but believe me, many people do it... And I must confess I've done it too.

Thanks to Flyertalk's tips, I've been a Flying Blue (Air France & KLM frequent flyer program) Platinum member for 5 years and I'm now 5 years away from reaching lifetime Platinum status. Thanks again to Flyertalk, I fly most of my long-haul flights in Business class. There, unexpectedly, is a flood of business class deals around. It only takes some knowledge and time to find them. I've come to the point that I see this exercise as a challenge and even enjoy doing it for me, my family and sometimes friends.

Keep in mind that you can subscribe to Flyertalk forums and receive daily email alerts on deals and tips that you might be interested in. Sometimes there are crazy deals: like less than USD 100 for transcontinental flights.

As a demonstration to what I have learned on Flyertalk, here are some tips for travelers based in Strasbourg (France) as to how to find the cheapest airfares:
- Check for fares departing from Strasbourg (SXB), Mulhouse (MLH), Basel (BSL), Frankfurt (FRA) and Stuttgart (STR). Flying from BSL is sometimes cheaper than from MLH although it is the same airport and flight and the crazy thing is that you might also accrue more miles!
- Check different airlines and alliances. Keep in mind not to trust your instincts: flying Air France is usually cheaper departing from Germany than from France. Same for Lufthansa that is usually cheaper departing from France than from Germany (Major airlines try to attract foreign customers with competitive fares).
- Check the same itineraries on different websites or even the same website but based in a different country. Expedia US is usually cheaper than Expedia France for instance. Same for the carriers. You will sometimes find different fares if you check Air France US compared to Air France French or German website. You will find the best British Airways fares on American Airlines website!

The Holy Grail Of All Luxury Travel Questions: How Can I Be Upgraded On A Long-Haul? Simple answer: it is very unlikely that you will be unless you hold top-tier status with the carrier that you're flying. And even so, it is still rare. To maximize your chances of being upgraded: don't ask for it, be nice to the check-in agent & dress smart. There is really no other working tip. Be aware that 99% of upgrades on long-haul flights come when one of the classes of travel is full or overbooked (if Economy is overbooked, the carrier will upgrade passengers to Business class on Premium Economy depending on their status & paid fare).


Other noteworthy websites:
- Jaunted: The Pop Culture Travel Guide
- Vacationist: exclusive offers for members
- BonVoyou: great deals
- Jetsetters: great deals
- Premium Travel News: Business Class Fare Alerts
- ExpertFlyer: Very useful tools (award availability, fare buckets etc...) for subscribers
- TripTrace: more of a social network travel tool
- Trip Advisor: Great review website
- Yelp: Great review iPhone app and social network
- Urban Daddy: great website & daily newsletter on new trendy venues to discover. They have a cool iPhone app!
- Kayak: Fare Comparison engine
- Orbitz: Travel booking website
- Expedia: Travel booking website

The Complete Unabridged Partial Guide To Living The Life 2.0

If living the life seems like a dream to you and you think you'll never be able to be successful enough in order to achieve it then focus on something even better: The Life 2.0. Luckily, you happen to be reading this post where  I intend to give out a few tips on how to live the Grand Life 2.0!

First of all, you should realize that living the old-fashioned way, as opposed to the digital Life 2.0, is out-dated. None of your geek friends will find you cool if you continue to avoid new technologies and stubbornly claim that they are useless. Embrace your digital self and try to excel at your new life. Everybody around you will end up copying you (or unfriending you).

Here are the few apps and habits that you should focus on mastering in each aspect of your life:

1) Music: Don't listen to CDs anymore! Use Spotify, Pandora or Deezer. They're music streaming services that, for a limited monthly fee, allow you to listen to almost all music. Don't own your music. It's too old-fashioned, rent and stream it. When you're invited to a private party, replace the DJ's iPhone with yours and play hip hop when everybody wants to listen to techno music. They will love it (or might get yourself kicked out of that party).

2) Letting your friends know where you are: Don't call your friends to let them know where you are or enquire about their location. Check-in using Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl, Yelp, Plyce, Brightkite, Twitter AND Facebook. This will allow you to never be bored ever again as you will use most of your time to check-in from places to places on your Smartphone. Try to take pictures while you're at it. None of your friends will find them interesting but it will make you lose a lot more time. Moreover, strangers may like your pictures more than your friends and in turn, you will broaden your horizons by getting to know many perverts whose path you would never have crossed otherwise. Always keep in mind that there is no such thing as a check-in to be ashamed of (think toilets, bedroom, seat 45E on a plane).

3) Letting your friends know what you eat and drink: Use the aforementioned social networks to accurately document everything that will go through your intestines and bladder. You will manage to alienate a lot more friends who will be horrified by your lack of concern for your own health.

4) Use cloud storage services: I'm not talking about parking your private jet in the clouds but rather about keeping a copy of your precious files in the clouds in case anything would happen to your computers or home. Great services like SugarSync or Dropbox let you save all your digital data online and synchronize it across multiple computers.  Your friends' jaws will drop when you show them that you can access all your files from your smartphone, explaining: "This is panmnesia, I can access all my data and knowledge anywhere, anytime. Isn't it cool???". They will literally think: "that guy suffers from OCD, let's avoid him".

5) Movies: The Holy Grail of Entertainment! Get rid of your cable provider. How could you have time to watch anything on TV since you're constantly using Foursquare? If you happen to be dying to watch a specific movie or series, rent them on iTunes and watch them on your iPad in the toilets. It's probably the calmest place on Earth. Make sure you document having watched this movie on Miso and your location at the time on Foursquare.

6) Books: Buy a Kindle to show off, install the Kindle app on your iPad or use iBooks. Anyway, this is just to show off. Who has time to read nowadays? I don't... I never did either... Ok, so this might be due to the fact that I'm lazy. It might indeed have nothing to do with the digital revolution. I dread the birth of a social network like Miso dedicated to books. Everyone will know I'm not as smart as I try to make everyone think I am.

7) If you're into onanism, try Chatroulette!

And if you know BASIC:

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