Monday, November 30, 2009

No surprises. Luggage limits helps you avoid expensive baggage fees.

From Life hacker.com

Nobody wants to get hit with a massive over-limit luggage charge when they're already stressed and rushing to catch their flight. Hit up Luggage Limits before you travel to avoid any check-in counter surprises. We don't know if you've visited the web site of a major airline lately and attempted to decode their baggage policies but a significant number of the airlines have baggage policies that are not only buried deeply in their sites but written in a less than clear fashion.
Luggage Limits catalogs the baggage policies of over 90 airlines. Plug in what airline you are traveling with, your departure and arrival airports, and the class of your ticket—no surprise that first class has a higher luggage limit—and Luggage Limits spits out a comprehensive breakdown of cost of checking bags, the size limits for both standard and overweight/oversize baggage—and the associated fees—and the size and weight allowance for your carry-on and personal items. Reading the information on Luggage Limits for Northwest Airlines was much clearer than reading it on the Northwest web site, that's for sure.
Luggage Limits is a free service and requires no registration or personal information.









Click the above link for more information

Sunday, November 29, 2009

800 Passenger A380 Superjumbo debuts

From Time Magazine:

The A380 is the largest airliner to ever part with the pavement: it can hold as many as 800 passengers in full sardine-can configuration, although Air France has mercifully limited the crowd to 535 in first, business and coach classes. In preparation for its entry into service in 2007, airports widened runways and hardened taxiways. Its catering trucks rise two stories off the ground to reach the galleys. 

France's national carrier got the debut of the Europe-built jet off with considerable élan. The flight leaving John F. Kennedy Airport was packed with partying Francophiles, journalists and airline junkies. A band on board played "C'est Magnifique" before takeoff and during the flight; birthdays were celebrated; the champagne flowed.


Air France is trying to bring back the party to the skies. There are six bars on the plane, which encourages passengers to mingle (in their own class, of course). In the front of the upper deck, in the business section, there's even an art gallery of sorts: flat-screen TVs displaying digital previews of the New York and Paris cultural scenes, a somewhat lavish use of space.


Read more by clicking the above link.

$8.5 billion CityCenter opens next week

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

In the 61 months between the announcement MGM Mirage was creating an urban metropolis on the Strip called Project CityCenter and Tuesday's planned opening of its first hotel, Vdara, the $8.5 billion development seemed to be on constant life support.
Almost as soon as MGM Mirage imploded the shuttered Boardwalk casino on May 9, 2006, to clear a major portion of the CityCenter site, the project seemed to be shrouded in bad news.

.
The recession, which led to the collapse of the credit markets, and other outside financial factors nearly derailed CityCenter, which saw its budget more than double beyond the initially announced $3 billion to $4 billion.

The project came within hours of filing bankruptcy at the end of March, which would have halted construction and shelved the jobs of 8,500 construction workers. With little time to spare, MGM Mirage was given permission to make a $200 million equity payment to keep the project funded.

The demise of the high-rise condominium market forced MGM Mirage to cut prices for CityCenter's 2,400 residential units by 30 percent in order to spur sales.


Read more by clicking the above link

Monday, November 23, 2009

Finding Loose Slot Machines

From about.com the myths and facts about finding a loose slot machine.


Fact or Myth
Over the years there has been much speculation and conjecture amongst slot players as to where the loose slot machines are located. There are many myths that have been circulating associated with the placement these loose slot machines on the casino floor. Here are a few to consider and some reasoning behind the myth.



Click the above link to read more 

The CityCenter of its time.

From the Las Vegas Journal Register:

Twenty years ago, The Mirage was the CityCenter of its time. Built by Steve Wynn's Golden Nugget Corp. for a then unheard of cost of $620 million, The Mirage was the first new resort added to the Strip's skyline in more than 15 years.

But with the city still recovering from the economic doldrums of the early 1980s, many financial experts didn't think The Mirage would succeed. About $565 million of the construction costs were financed with junk bonds. Analysts said The Mirage would need to make more than $1 million a day in revenues just to cover its costs.

Some wondered if The Mirage would really grow the market. Most expected it would just steal customers from neighboring hotel-casinos.

Sound familiar?


Click the above link to read more.