Happy talk like a pirate day!

Arghhhhh!!! It's me favorite day of the year!

Talk Like a Pirate Day [Official Site]
How to talk like a pirate [WikiHow]
Pirate talk translator [TalkLikeAPirateDay.com]

How to score the best hotel room

There was a great article in the New York Times over the weekend about how to score the best room possible for your next hotel stay. Quite honestly, it was a concept that I haven't thought much about personally, but I am going to try some of these tricks during my next stay...

Some tips:

• Ask the check-in staff for a preferred room. If you state your expectations upfront, surprisingly, they are often met.
  
• Consider asking the check-in staff to let you view a few rooms before you make your final selection. Oftentimes rooms on several floors - and with several views and noise levels - can be reserved for the same price. (Also, if the check-in staff doesn't want to be bothered by accommodating this request - and if the hotel has availability - sometimes you can score a free room upgrade just by asking to do this...)
• Want to increase your odds? Consider offering a $20-$40 tip. It works. If you feel uncomfortable tipping, find out how to do it more effectively. Tipping really is a required skill for every savvy world traveler.
• Women are pickier. I guess that's true about a lot of things, but when it comes to room selection women are more likely to ask for a better room than the dudes. Dudes just want a minibar...
  
• Visit TripKick - like one of my favorite sites for choosing the best seat on an airplane, SeatGuru, TripKick aims to provide the same guidance for hotels. For the hotels they list - and yes, the pickings are slim today, but they are growing as fast as they can - TripKick will tell you want hotel rooms to seek out and what hotel rooms to avoid.

Finally, I will put in my two cents for my favorite hotel chain, Starwood. I'm a low level member in their loyalty program and even carry their AMEX card. This means that I'll get upgraded to their nicer Club Floors if a room is available during my stay. For my 2+ week visit to Kuwait City where I stayed at Starwood's Le Meridien, it was absolutely fab. So, I stay loyal to Starwood properties as they treat me well on room selection. If you are loyal to any hotel chain, I suspect you get the same treatment.

But I guess even among that preferred status, I could still spend a little more time choosing a room with the best view. Good to know!

Heads Up - You're giving me that room? No way! [New York Times]
TripKick [Official Site]
TripKick's Insider Tips [Official Site]
International tipping etiquette [BBC]

You mean this airline wasn't already bankrupt?

Alitalia just declared bankruptcy today? I could have sworn it had been there for years. What a piece of crap this airline is.

Alitalia is so bad ("how bad is it?") that it makes US Airways look awesome...and you know how bad you have to be to do that!

Alitalia seeks bankruptcy measure [BBC News]
Alitalia [Official Site]

High gas prices force P. Diddy fly AA

Awww...pitty poor P. Diddy who informs us in his odd vlog post that he has been forced to fly commercial now that gas prices are "too motherf&*(ing high" (yes, the attached video clip does contain some bad language).

Diddy shares a bit of insight into the high price of flying private...informing us that two round trips between NYC and LAX on his personal jet now cost him between $200,000 and $250,000. I have no idea what the price was before, but this is too motherf&*(ing high, people!

So, there he is in his video post boarding an American Airlines flight...and, it gets better...he's sitting in coach. Diddy doesn't seem too happy about it, so I'm not sure AA will be using him in their next ad campaign. Who knows? Maybe he'd like that new wifi service.

You know it's hard out there for a pimp when Diddy has to fly commercial.

It's a motherf&*(ing tragedy.