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Vol.
4 | Issue 43 | October 31, 2006 | |
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At an initial cost of $2.5 million, a consortium of the affected airlines quickly bankrolled two new lounges, one for first-class and one for business-class fliers. Both new lounges were architect-designed to be “peaceful and relaxing,” and offer wireless Internet connectivity. The temporary first-class lounge is on the mezzanine level of the still-operating terminal, behind the food court. It has 4,000 square feet and can accommodate 133 passengers. Business-class passengers have a bit more hassle: To access their lounge, they must first pass through security, and then board a bus at Gate 118 for a four-minute ride to their 16,000-square-foot temporary lounge, which is in a building out on the tarmac, and can hold up to 578 people. Three buses will operate 20 hours a day, covering the 300-yard distance between the gate and the temporary lounge. New permanent lounges are scheduled to open in May 2007, but the individual airline facilities will not return. The airlines are paying upwards of $15 million for a total of four new lounges, one for each of the three major alliances (OneWorld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam) and one for elite passengers and club members of nonalliance airlines. The four new lounges will take up 72 percent more space than the previous 16 did among them. Elsewhere in the terminal, expect detours and
construction dust for three years. The interior renovation will include
new elevators and escalators, bomb-detection equipment, signage, lighting,
check-in technology and a paging system, as well as remodeling and
redesign. About $140 million is earmarked for a new inline baggage
security screening system. |
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Travel Auction |
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Redefining Japanese Food |
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London’s May Fair Reopens |
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Foreign Food Allergies |
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Miles For Charity |
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Tasty
and Trendy Azul, the signature restaurant of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Miami, is one of the city’s classiest, trendiest — and priciest. Many tables have a beautiful view of the bay, and you can also choose to sit outside. Conversely, if you like to watch the inner workings of a fine restaurant and don’t mind an increased noise level, you can choose a table by the open-plan kitchen and watch the chefs work their magic. If the view didn’t take my breath away, the prices would have, had I not been prepared by the restaurant’s elegant decor, well-spaced tables, assiduous service, and reputation. It’s not totally a “beautiful people” restaurant — when I was there, the clientele was a mix of local Latin socialites, families staying at the hotel, and groups of businessmen — but it’s definitely a place to go with an expense account and a desire to impress. That includes a wine list with some knock-your-socks-off vintages and prices ($38,500 for a magnum of 1947 Chateau Petrus), lots of great wines you’ve been dying to try, and low-end wines with a lot of markup. There’s a fairly good selection of wines by the glass, too, starting at $8, and a tasting menu with wines by the course. My meal started with an amuse bouche of an oyster wrapped in a thin slice of cucumber, with a dollop of crème fraiche topped with caviar, served in an oyster shell. For an appetizer, I had the “Study in Tuna” — three double-bite-size treatments of tuna on a stark rectangular plate. One was a slice of tuna carpaccio wrapped around a crabmeat filling; one was a bit of seared tuna topped with a tempura shrimp; and the third was a timbale of tuna tartare. Everything was perfect. Having had a large and gorgeous salad in the hotel’s other restaurant at lunch, I waived that option, not realizing that it meant I would have a totally greens-free meal. My entrée was the Moroccan lamb, another trilogy, this time served on a rimmed square plate. It came a bit from the school of architectural food, looking like an artwork, each morsel occupying its own discrete space in a triangular arrangement, with the perfectly grilled lamb chop standing on end in a bed of smoked eggplant puree. There was a Tunisian veal curry in a pastry timbale (not really curry, but using Tunisian harissa sauce instead), and the third pile was chunks of mouthwateringly braised lamb shank. In lieu of dessert, I had a cheese plate of artisanal domestic and imported cheeses. The menu specified whether the cheeses were cow or goat, as well as their origin, but didn’t say whether they were soft or hard, so I wound up with two that were rather rich and creamy when I’d been going for more variety — but I could have asked first. The total tab, with two glasses of wine, appetizer, entree and cheese, amounted to $104 before tip and tax, and I really should have added a salad (they start at $14) since my total veggie intake consisted of two teaspoons’ worth of eggplant puree. I’m a girl who likes these sampler-type menus with little bits of this and that, but I did overhear one of the businessmen at the next table say, after their meal was over, “Now what’s for dinner?” Fish entrees I saw passing by looked to be hefty portions, so that’s probably the route a hungry diner should take. Not only was the service excellent throughout — if anything, a bit too diligent; I wasn’t finished with that glass of wine, darn it! — but I was impressed by the low-key way I was handed a glossy magazine underneath the menu when I arrived. That’s a thoughtful gesture for someone dining alone — and there wasn’t even a review or ad for the restaurant in the magazine they gave me; I checked. Score: ••••• Mary
Hunt | ||
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Free Books Aloft |
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Prince Hawaii Bargains |
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More Hertz Points |
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| Continental Bonus Miles If you need extra miles to reach a desired awards level, here’s a new twist on a bonus-miles program: paying to earn them. OnePass program members can now register to earn 50 percent bonus miles on all Continental flights from now through 2007; registration for the Extra Mile program must be complete and a qualifying flight flown by Feb. 28. You decide how many bonus miles you want credited and pay a fee: $50 for up to 5,000 bonus miles, $100 for up to 10,000, and $150 for up to 15,000 miles. That comes out to a penny a mile (if you earn exactly the maximum number of miles in your category), which is a considerable savings over the 3.2 cents a mile that OnePass charges if you simply need to buy miles to reach an awards level. Only base-level miles will be counted toward bonuses, not any elite-level percentages.  |
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Fuel Surcharge Rollbacks |
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© 2006 FXExpress Publications Inc. All rights
reserved. Reproduction and/or distribution of eFlyer is strictly
forbidden without the written authorization of the publisher. |
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Produced by Mercury Solutions - www.mercury-solutions.com |
