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| Vol. 5 | Issue 12 | March 20, 2007 |    |
If you cherish secret dreams of being an astronaut but don’t have the $200,000
or the patience to wait for Virgin Galactic public spaceflights, you’re
in luck. Zero-G, an FAA-approved “space entertainment and tourism” company,
is beginning commercial, and scheduled, weightless flights for $3,750.
Zero-G uses G-Force 1, its specially modified B727-200 cargo aircraft, which has two cabins — the seating zone and the floating zone — to perform two-hour flights that make 15 parabolas, flying at a 45-degree angle from 24,000 feet to 32,000 feet and back, providing 25 seconds of weightlessness at the peak of each. It’s similar to the astronaut training NASA conducts in its KC-135 (the military version of the B707), but less arduous — NASA typically puts astronauts through 45 parabolas before landing.
Flyers, as Zero-G calls its customers, take flight training with an astronaut before their flight. The lower number of parabolas G-Force 1 performs allows for more straight-and-level flying in between, vastly improving the chance that most customers will hang onto their lunch. A special flight attendant is along to tend to anyone who gets queasy. No medical exam is required of would-be flyers unless a medical questionnaire indicates some reason the flyer might have difficulty with the maximum 2Gs experienced when the aircraft climbs; if you can handle a rollercoaster, they say, you can handle this. The minimum age for passengers is 15.
Once aboard, passengers are eased into weightlessness by parabolas that simulate “Martian-G” (one-third of Earth’s gravity) and “lunar-G” (one-sixth gravity) before attempting actual zero-G. During the weightless period, flyers can try all those cool maneuvers they’ve seen on TV and in the movies. The fare includes training before the flight, a dinner party afterward, souvenirs, photo, and a DVD of your experience captured by the six videocameras on board.
Zero-G has been operating educational and charter flights out of its home
base at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), but on April
21 begins a series of scheduled flights in four locations around the country
one or two weekends a month through September. Flights will be available in
Las Vegas, New York City, and Long Beach, Calif., and at Kennedy Space Center
in Florida. Details are available on ZeroG’s
Web site; click on “book a seat/flight.” 
In what they’re calling a first for the U.S. airline industry, Alaska
Airlines’ Mileage Plan
is now letting customers use miles to book one-way travel at half the redemption
rate
of round-trip flights. Not only does this allow redemption at lower levels — starting
at 10,000 miles for a coach leg within the United States and Canada — but
it also allows travelers to better customize their flights, mixing, for example,
a Saver award in one direction and a Peak award in the other. The airline has
also created a new, lower award level of 7,500 miles each way for travel inside
Alaska. Alaska Air’s mileage plan partners with more than a dozen other
airlines for awards accrual. Until the end of March, there is also a 20,000-mile
sign-up bonus for
the Alaska Airlines credit cards co-branded with Bank of America.
Fans of surrealism will find a lot to love, surreally, in London this spring.
The Victoria & Albert Museum in Kensington is opening its major spring
exhibition, Surreal Things, on March 29, featuring paintings by the major surrealists — Dali,
Ernst, Magritte — alongside objects they inspired, from fashion to furniture.
The exhibition will run through July 22; admission is $17. To get the surreal
ball rolling, Selfridges & Co., the big Oxford Street department store,
has commissioned local architects to design a surreal shop — called “This
Is Not A Shop,” although it is — for its ground floor. The shop,
which will sell a wide range of items from Dali-inspired fingernails to oversized
stationery, will be open for six weeks, starting March 23.
Calling all cavedwellers and wine aficionados: Here’s a spa for you.
The doors open April 15 at Spa
Terra at
The Meritage Resort in Napa Valley. Caves in wine country are thought of as
being cool and appropriate for saving wine, but it turns out they can be made
into respites for people, too. The constant temperature makes heating and cooling
easier, the quiet is an ideal spa atmosphere, and Mother Nature’s exterior
lets the design energies be expended on the interior. The resulting 9,000-square-foot
underground oasis has Mediterranean-inspired mosaics, fountains and other water
features, a spa menu, and a full palette of treatment options. The signature
treatment is Solo Vino, two hours filled by a grapeseed scrub, jet shower,
body wrap, mud mask, massage, wine and cheese. The spa opens April 15.
Imagineers used to be the term reserved for the technical wizards behind the
Disney theme parks, but the word now has a new meaning in Thailand. The
Sarojin resort
in Khao Lak on the country’s
Andaman coast has created a new position called the imagineer — a personal
concierge whose job is to create tailored experiences and fulfill whims and
wishes. An expert on local sights and activities, the imagineer can also commandeer
the resort’s fleet of luxury vehicles, its boat, and its chefs, guides
and spa therapists to help you accomplish anything from an elephant safari
to a private rainforest picnic.
Catching up with American Airlines’ recent improvement to its mileage
awards booking (see eFlyer,
March 6), Delta Air Lines
has posted a new version of its SkyMiles booking engine for award travel. Members
looking to redeem their miles for flights can now see availability shown by
award levels on a monthly calendar, rather than having to search day by day.
The calendar pops up once you log into your SkyMiles account, enter your origin,
destination and cabin preference, and choose the timeframe you want to see.
Coming later this year: the ability to search based on miles required or flight
schedules, and the opportunity to see reward travel availability on partner
airlines.
Café Sambal
500 Brickell Key Dr.
Miami, FL 33131
tel 305 913 8358
www.mandarinoriental.com/hotel/526000040.asp
At the Mandarin Oriental Miami, the rooms were gorgeous, the spa great, and the formal restaurant impressive, but my favorite place of them all was the open-all-day Café Sambal, the casual dining venue with a dining patio right on the bay.
Dark wooden tables and white woven chairs carry the feeling of casual chic from the awninged patio to the copper-clad interior, with an open, airy feel enhanced by lots of glass and multiple access points. Although it’s close enough to downtown to pop in for lunch, and offers a stunning view of the city, Café Sambal manages to convey a tropical resort feel — I felt like I was on a lunchtime vacation.
The food was terrific, and ample. I had a salad of greens, goat cheese, nuts and blueberries in a balsamic vinaigrette that was so wonderful I’ve tried (and failed) to replicate it at home. Although an appetizer — dubbed “small plates” — portion, it was a meal in itself, so much so that I wound up saving some of my fabulous fresh fish entrée with baby vegetables to have for dinner. The menu combines Latin, Asian and European influences and manages to do them all well, from the sushi bar to the bento-box spa menu to the “large plates” items like the curried lamb loin with dried fruit, grilled pineapple and edible flowers. Service was terrific, there was a nice selection of wines by the glass (there’s also a sake bar), and the tables were well spaced. And did I mention the view and the ocean breeze? All in all — heavenly, in a down-to-earth sort of way.
Score: ••••• Mary
Hunt
Air Canada has just introduced its new Unlimited Flight Pass to Canada, with
an introductory price available until May 7. The pass allows an unlimited number
of flights within a three- or six-month period, starting at $1,657 a month.
Various pricing options are available: You can buy a Latitude-level pass starting
at $2,360 a month (Latitude allows the most reservation flexibility, free reservation
changes, and free upgrades to Executive Class), and buying a six-month version
automatically grants top-tier Elite frequent-flyer status. You can buy your
pass for four different flight zones, from the Canada Commuter area (flights
between four northern U.S. cities and four southern Canada cities) to the 120-city
North America version. You can also buy an annual pass for either 10 or 20
flights (or a multi-user business pass for 30 flights). The airline has created
a virtual
tour to explain all the options.
If you don’t want to leave it to the Easter Bunny to do all the work,
there might be an Easter weekend package in Belgium (famous for its chocolate)
that’s just what your family will love. Rocco Forte’s recently
restored Hotel Amigo in Brussels is offering a family
Easter Break package over Easter April 6-8, as well as on
the weekends immediately before and after. For $844, you get two rooms (connecting
or adjoining) for two nights for up to two adults and two children; full buffet
breakfast; a welcome basket of goodies and sweets; kids’ gifts by Bulgari;
and kids’ activities on Sunday including face-painting and an Easter
egg hunt. Babysitting is available for an additional fee.
It’s so nice when bonuses are flexible. In a new offer from Hertz and
Marriott, renting a car from Hertz for at least one night qualifies you to
get three weekend nights for the price of two at any participating Marriott
International property worldwide. The flexibility: The hotel stay does not
have to be at the same time as the car rental. After reserving your car through
the special
promotion page
online, book your Marriott stay citing the Global Hertz/Marriott Offer and
pay for three nights. Once you’ve completed both reservations, you’ll
be credited back the third hotel night at checkout. The hotel check-in can
be as late as June 30.
EVA Air wants to help travelers get acquainted with its new route between
Taiwan (TPE) and Mumbai (BOM), with connecting service from Los Angeles (LAX)
and San Francisco (SFO). So it has launched a special Web site for the route,
including connection schedules, at http://Mumbai.Evaair.com.
To attract visitors, the new site is featuring a sweepstakes
awarding round-trip tickets in three classes of service; prizes will be awarded
on March
28, April 16 and May 1.
If you’ve got a last-minute business trip to China, you can check out
the brand-new Shangri-La
Hotel Guangzhou at its special introductory rates
through March 25. The bargain price is about $114 during the hotel’s “soft” opening,
preceding the official grand opening on March 26. That rate also includes a
buffet breakfast in the Wok Too café and free broadband Internet. Two
other dining venues in the hotel are already open, with three more, and a spa,
to follow. For more about Guangzhou, including the Shangri-La, see the April
issue of Global Traveler.
