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| Volume 5, Issue 24, June 12, 2007 |    |
Sometimes we just have to marvel at the things frequent travelers are asked to take in stride. (No, we don’t mean United’s “new, improved” customer service promise to give you $10 in meal vouchers and 20 percent off your next flight if you sit on the tarmac for more than four hours.) Here are some odd, wacky, or just plain strange things impacting travel these days.
Lucky sevens: Expect to have difficulty finding a hotel room for the first weekend in July. July 7 is going to be the busiest day for weddings ever. The confluence of lucky sevens — 7/7/7 — only happens once in a century, and the last time it fell on a Saturday, the most popular day for weddings, was in 1607. Las Vegas in particular will be mobbed, with many hotels planning mass weddings, mass receptions or both, and the concept of “lucky sevens” isn’t unique to American culture.
Hyperdrive: “Hypermiles” is the term for getting car miles per gallon that are better than the EPA rating for the model. While there are many sensible and environmentally appropriate approaches to hypermiles — keeping tires properly inflated; avoiding unnecessary acceleration and deceleration — a subculture of “hypermiling” has arisen that can impact other drivers. Taken to extremes, hypermiling can involve driving on overinflated tires, which can cause sudden skids; hugging the right-hand lane line, where theoretically the road is smoother; and coasting in neutral. Most frustrating to other drivers is the hypermilers’ habit of not accelerating when going uphill, which means they slow down rather than maintain speed; most dangerous, the extreme fringe of hypermilers who tailgate trucks for “drafting.”
Bizarre bathrooms: Why, we can’t imagine, but Concierge.com has done an extensive study of the world’s oddest public bathrooms. Our favorites: the theme bathrooms in the Chung Yo department store in Taichung City, Taiwan, where you can choose between the basketball bathroom, complete with hoops; the beer bathroom, lined with walls of refrigerated green Heineken bottles; the Coca-Cola bathroom, where each stall is a giant Coke can; or the jungle bathroom, where you must fight your way through tropical growth to find the loo. Then there’s the Dolce&Gabbana Gold restaurant in Milan, where the all-gold bathrooms pipe the theme from Goldfinger into every stall.
Where cellphones go to die: A survey of more than a million cellphone users in Great Britain found that the single biggest way to lose a mobile phone is by inadvertently flushing it down the loo. Almost 900,000 cellphones were lost that way, beating the 810,000 that were left behind in bars, the 116,000 that went through a laundry cycle, and the 58,000 that were chewed up by pets. 
Having eliminated its Avis Preferred Select program, the car rental company is introducing a new top-tier loyalty programmed called Avis First. Benefits of membership, which is open to Avis Preferred members who complete 12 qualifying rentals or 35 qualifying rental days within one calendar year, include a members-only Web site, a dedicated reservations phone line, free upgrades when available, and a free two-day weekend rental for each three qualifying rentals.
New York’s JFK has become the first of the area’s “big three” airports — the others being Newark Liberty (EWR) and LaGuardia (LGA) — to offer a free cellphone lot for those waiting to pick up arriving passengers. The lot is located just inside the airport, near Federal Circle, and is clearly marked from the Van Wyck Expressway entrance. Drivers can wait in the lot for a call from their arriving passengers indicating that they’ve got their baggage and are ready to roll.
Here’s a chance to play golf at two of the world’s northernmost courses and help sick children at the same time. The 2007 Special Children’s Travel Fund charity golf tournament will be held Aug. 24-26. For a donation of at least $2,500 per person, you get roundtrip air travel on Icelandair from Boston (BOS) including all taxes and fees, two nights at the four-star Nordica Hotel in Reykjavik, a round of golf at each of two top courses, a visit to the Blue Lagoon, daily breakfast, an awards dinner, gifts and memorabilia, and an acknowledgement of your donation to the charity, which is Iceland’s version of the Make-A-Wish foundation.
As of July 1, Emirates Airline begins its nonstop service between Dubai and Venice, Italy. And to parallel its popular chauffeured limousine service offered to premium passengers at other airports, Emirates is introducing a “water limousine” in Venice for its first- and business-class passengers. The partially enclosed boats will travel between a dedicated pontoon next to Venice International Airport (VCE) on the mainland and various stops on the Venetian archipelago, which normally requires a combination of road transport and water taxi. For more about Venice, see the upcoming "Go To: Venice" feature in the August issue of Global Traveler.
Delta Air Lines has just introduced an online auction site for SkyMiles members with U.S. addresses. SkyMiles members can go to the site at any time to see what’s available for auction, and bid. Bidding and payment are strictly in miles. Initial items up for auction include a game-day lunch in New York with Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera, and tickets to the Toronto premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza show, including seats in the VIP suite and a private party after.
The Savoy
91 Strand
London WC2R 0EU, England
tel 44 20 7836 4343
www.fairmont.com/savoy/
I arrived at London’s Savoy in my usual form — running late. The cheerful doorman, in tails and a top hat, escorted me to the front desk. The receptionist, polite and proper, checked me in and I asked if she could hold onto the key for me, as I had to dash to a meeting. She handed me the key and said not to worry, the bellman would take my bags to my room in order to save me another trip to the front desk.
Once I returned to the hotel, I was able to take in my surroundings. The Savoy, which opened its doors in 1889, gave me a lovely room, traditional in decoration. I was feeling as if I had stepped back in time into a Jane Austen novel, until I switched on my laptop.
Broadband service was available, not wireless, for a charge, but I remembered that I was a Fairmont President’s club member, so sure enough, the fee was waived. The room was spacious with two double beds, an artisan’s wooden desk for working, plenty of closet space, and a beautiful bathroom with plenty of water pressure (often hard to find in London).
I fell fast asleep my first night and was unfortunately awoken by a fire alarm about midnight. After a few moments of confusion and sleepy exchanges with my neighbors in the hall, the alarm was shut off. No staff members came around, nor was there any announcement that all was okay. If I hadn’t been so jetlagged, I would have been nervous and perturbed.
The next night I enjoyed an English dinner at the hotel’s famous neighbor, Simpson’s-in-the-Strand. The restaurant, famous for its all-British ingredients, was a treat. Roasts of Scottish beef and lamb served on silver trolleys made me feel like a Jane Austen character again; these traditions of food and service date back 150 years. The hotel’s own River Restaurant is closed, and won’t reopen until 2009. The American Bar, a great place to meet and greet colleagues, is open, and I hope they leave it unspoiled.
The Savoy will be closing in December for renovations, and will reopen in 2009. While the old charm of the hotel is priceless, the modern-day traveler will welcome planned improvements such as modern guestroom locks and keys, the latest technology and room upgrades. Plans for one of London’s most extensive hotel renovations ever — about $200 million over 16 months — make us wonder, but general manager Kiaran MacDonald said the renovation will “honor the Art Deco heritage and traditional English design of the hotel, while upgrading the property to meet the expectations of today’s most discerning guests. When The Savoy reopens, we hope to set new British standards for excellence in design, décor and personalized services.”
Score: ••••• Alex Young
The Nam Hai, the six-month-old luxury resort on central Vietnam’s China Beach near Danang, is offering its first summer specials: two nights for the price of one, three nights for the price of two, or four nights for the price of three, for a savings of at least $550. Bookings of at least four nights also get a free upgrade valued at $300 a night. The resort features beachfront swimming pools, a spa, wide views of the China Sea, several restaurants, and all the “mod cons” including Internet access.
Take the family — or clients you want to impress — on a yacht charter around the Caribbean, the Bahamas or Baja for less this summer, courtesy of The Moorings. Bareboat charters of boats over 42 feet booked by June 30 for sailing anytime between now and Sept. 30 are being discounted 25 percent. If you’ve captained a charter from The Moorings before, you get an extra 5 percent off.
If you have business in Tampa between now and Sept. 10, stay at any of several convenient Marriotts, including the Tampa Airport Marriott and the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina, and get a $50 credit for immediate use toward anything on-site except your room rate. Prices for the Hotel Credit Package (booking code: D58) start at $139 a night. Similar deals are available at other Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott and Residence Inn properties in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater.
Guests of The Kitano hotel in New York booking any rate, including packages, for stays from now through Labor Day (Sept. 3) will receive a 15 percent discount at the hotel’s Garden Café, located in a historic townhouse next to the hotel. The urban-garden bistro serves contemporary American and French cuisine and is open for lunch and dinner.
US Airways is holding a sweepstakes with a big grand prize: one million Dividend Miles. Although it’s a tie-in with Walt Disney World’s Year of a Million Dreams — anyone who books a US Airways vacation package to Disney World is automatically entered — the sweepstakes is open to all Dividend Miles members, no purchase required. You can enter up to once a day, through July 31, at www.usairways.com/millionmiles. The winner will be chosen on Aug. 10; the prize is valued at $20,000.
