Business doesn’t seem to have picked up in
Las Vegas (to put it mildly). I use, as my indicator of that, the calendars of room prices posted by the MGM Mirage (
www.mgmmirage.com) organization for its ultra-deluxe, 4,000-room Aria Hotel in Vegas’ new City Center development. Those show plenty of dates in February and March when rooms are available at $149 and $159 per night, and scattered dates in April when rooms are available for $159 a room per night. Prior to the slowdown, badly affecting Vegas, the Aria was undoubtedly hoping for $300 a night — a rate supported by the amenities of that spectacular structure… Add the more recent news that the Ritz Carlton in Lake Las Vegas (about 16 miles from the Strip) is closing permanently… But people in Vegas are apparently thanking their lucky stars they made no attempt to build the world’s tallest skyscraper, as
Dubai recently did. The 160-story, 2,700-foot-high Burj Dubai (now renamed the Burj Khalifa in homage to the ruler of neighboring Abu Dubai, which recently bailed out Dubai) has recently suffered the ultimate ignominy. Almost immediately after its well-publicized recent opening, it was closed to the public because 60 sightseers were stranded for a time on the 124th-floor observation deck and 15 others apparently trapped in a non-functioning elevator very high up. Power outages, electrical malfunctions, other engineering problems, are cited.
If I’m not trapped in a snowbound New York City and unable to fly out on Thursday, I will be joining Pauline (who flew there yesterday) in
Los Angeles, to speak at the
Los Angeles Times traveler Show at 11am this Saturday. That’s at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 South Figueroa. Immediately afterwards, I’ll be signing copies of
Ask Arthur Frommer and would be delighted if readers were to stop by to say hello. Pauline will then be delivering a second talk, this time by herself, on Sunday in the very same 11am time slot; I will have flown back to New York on Saturday afternoon to present our T
ravel Show on WOR radio from noon-to-two Sunday. That schedule depends on the weather… The very next Saturday, Pauline and I will be speaking at the
Boston Globe traveler Show in Boston, about which more tomorrow.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the unspeakable news that American Airlines will henceforth be charging $8 for a blanket and pillow on most of its domestic flights (joining US Airways and JetBlue, which already do so)… CapitalOne Credit Cards has launched a major campaign to persuade travelers that it is the best credit card for them, one that charges no transaction fee on foreign purchases (that pesky 1% and 2% extra that most other credit cards impose) and that grants one mile per dollar spent, to be used for frequent flyer privileges on airlines. To learn more, you go to
www.capitalone.com.
Original post by Travel Robot
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