69 – Travel Hacks & Preferences

What do we travel with? How do we prefer to travel? What are our travel hacks? 

If you are seasoned travel or just getting into that hamster wheel, this is the episode for you. Our thoughts, best practices and hacks on traveling.

Share with us yours on LinkedIn or X.

Our co-hosts:

• Bertrand Schmitt, Entrepreneur in Residence at Red River West, co-founder of App Annie / Data.ai, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, @bschmitt
• Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro

Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news

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Nuno Goncalves Pedro

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to Episode 69 of Tech DECIPHERED. Today we’ll go on a slightly softer note and discuss our travel hacks and preferences. Bertrand and I often are asked, “What do you guys travel with? What do you prefer to travel with? What are your travel hacks?” And a few other questions in this world of hamster wheel travelling.

Today we’ll share a bunch of our preferences. We’ll share a lot of the things we travel with, from luggage to electronics to other services and devices. We will share to the best of our knowledge, how to really do it in style, if that’s at all possible, once you’re in that hamster wheel. We’ll share some of our hacks, not only for business travelling, but also for leisure travelling. Interesting stuff. We all have our hacks. We all have our stuff going on.

PREFERENCES TRAVEL

Airlines, alliances, loyalty programs

Maybe we start with airlines and all the things around that. Bertrand.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yeah, sure. Don’t get me started on Air France, who cancelled on me a huge quantity of miles without alerting me, without notice, just a few weeks before I was supposed to take a flight. I will try my best to never use them again.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

It was that bad. Air France is out, so that’s the beginning. Let’s maybe talk about the guys who are in. I’ll give you my top airlines around the world. Obviously this depends. Depends if you have to travel through that region or if you’re travelling to that region. My favourites, I think maybe not sure if it’s in full order, but I would say Emirates, obviously, Qatar Airways. If you’re hubbing through Middle East or if you’re going to the Middle East, two amazing airlines, probably two of the best in the world.

I would say maybe Emirates is my favourite now. I have to be thoughtful in how I put that forward. Qatar is also exceptional, obviously if you’re hubbing through Doha. Incredible airline as well. The Asian ones in general, we’ll leave the Chinese for a second because that’s a different ballgame all together. Let’s not say all Asian ones and obviously different ones are great.

I’d say Singapore Airlines continues being systematically an exceptional airline. They’ve become very expensive, but an exceptional airline. A little bit SOP driven, only airline in the world, true story, that I complained not once or twice, but three times on the same incident, and I actually never got a response from them on an incident which is interesting. In general, service is exceptional. Their facilities at Changi Airport are exceptional. The planes are really well-kept, the food is great, very attentious, and really like them.

Cathay, I haven’t flown with them in a while. They went through a bit of a slump at some point. They were my favourite for a long time. Then they went through a bit of a slump in terms of product in particular, in terms of the quality of the product, in terms of the quality of the seats, service on board, et cetera. I’ve heard positive things recently, so maybe worthwhile putting them back on my Top 5 list around the world.

Then the Korean Airlines in general are pretty strong on service. Depends a little bit on the plane. I’ve had always better experiences with Korean Air than with Asiana. Maybe Korean Air gets that last Top 5 thing.

Talking about the negative ones for me that I try to avoid. I try to avoid as much as possible some of the European ones. TAP Air Portugal, the Portuguese one, is actually pretty decent by European standards. British Airways depends on the format of the plane. I find their business class service and product not to be as compelling as other airlines right now. I always found the service on British Airways, you only get great service on reshares if you’re in first class. On long haul, even in business, it’s a little bit matron. It’s like, “Sit down and just stay put, and we’ll serve you, but we won’t really be particularly paying attention to you.” In some ways, TAP Air Portugal, I think they’re a little bit more thoughtful and nicer.

Lufthansa is similar to British Airways. I’ve had very mixed experiences, but in general not great. The service, they got a lot of bad rap on their first class stuff. In Europe, I’m not sure there’s anyone that I’m excited about. I haven’t flown with Air France a long time. Apparently I shouldn’t. Iberia I’ve flown with and it’s okay-ish. I don’t remember any airline in Europe that I’m particularly fond of. Maybe I’m missing someone. SAS is okay, I guess in the Nordics, but not a great deal of amazing airlines in there.

Then negative Chinese. Most of the Chinese airlines, I haven’t flown with them in a long time, so I obviously have to be careful in not pushing it forward. Not a huge fan of JAL and ANA in Japan. When in doubt, I would go ANA. Then in Taiwan, also not particularly excited about any of the Taiwanese airlines, but they’re not bad either, so it’s okay kind of thing. Then on the American Airlines, which I’m sure people are excited to know about, I’m really not a fan of United. Sadly, they’re on Star Alliance

Bertrand Schmitt

Do you remember this video on United? There was this guy being dragged out of the plane, bloodied and everything.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

It sounds about right, I think.

Bertrand Schmitt

I think it’s just before COVID or at the beginning of COVID. I forgot. It was bad. It was so bad.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

My favourite was only domestic flights with Virgin America. By the way, Virgin Atlantic, I’m going to fly again with them in a couple of months and I remember them fondly. Their upper class product was really cool back in the day. Their lounge was really cool at Heathrow. This was many years ago. Looking forward to experimenting with it again. Virgin America was really strong and then obviously they merged with Alaska. Alaska is okay. It’s good. I feel it still has a little bit of the Continental and Virgin America ethos, which is pretty good.

I’d say of the big ones in the US, the only one that I think has improved quite a bit in terms of service has been Delta Air Lines, although their hub is Atlanta, which as I call it, is where you get lost in space in general. It’s a black hole, I guess. We’ll come back to airports later. American is okay-ish, but I’ve had some really bad experiences as well in American. United is the bottom for me. Southwest, I haven’t flown in a while. They’re quite expensive now, Southwest, actually.

Bertrand Schmitt

I think they have changed dramatically, Southwest, from what I read in terms of what you get, what is included, not included, how they work. It’s not the same.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Top 5 guys that I would make an effort to fly with: Qatar Airways, Emirates. Emirates obviously doesn’t really belong to any of the alliances, which makes it a little bit more cumbersome for points gathering and all that stuff, but I think they’re really top end. I think Singapore Airlines belongs in that group. Then just below for me, Korean Air Lines and Cathay and then the rest.

There’s preferences. I have preferences as I said. If I have a chance, I’ll go Delta rather than American or United. If it’s to Europe, then I prefer a European airline to American and to United. To Asia, the same thing. I prefer an Asian airline to American and United. Delta, it depends a little bit on the plane and all that stuff. That’s my rough preferences. I’ve had my worst experiences with United. My worst experience I think probably were all with United, delayed flights issues and all that stuff, bad service.

Bertrand Schmitt

If I have to fly to Europe, I used to try to use Air France, but two issues again, they take away your miles. That was during COVID. Two, you run the risk to have a strike in France. That’s obviously the risk. Now I’m probably more trying to fly Delta if I go to Europe. Asia, I will try to stay away from Air China, that’s for sure. I got some memorable experience when they were so scared away I would bring down a plane by using my tablet. It was just as crazy. I would say the Taiwanese airlines, I have overall positive experience. Not great, not bad, I would say.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Which is your favourite of the two?

Bertrand Schmitt

Let me be careful. It’s China Airways, China Air. There is a new one, actually, a third one that started recently. I cannot say I have a big preference, a clear-cut preference between the Taiwanese airlines. Taipei Airport is quite convenient to branch from in Asia.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

It’s EVA Air or EVA Air and China Airlines?

Bertrand Schmitt

Yeah, EVA Air is one of them, China Airlines, and there is a third one now that just launched.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

STARLUX, is that the one? STARLUX Airlines?

Bertrand Schmitt

Maybe. Yes. In the US, living in Seattle, this is a hub for Alaska. We use Alaska quite a bit. I will use Delta as well, and United if no other choice.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

And American? Do you have a perspective on American?

Bertrand Schmitt

I have never used them, actually.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Really? It’s American Airlines.

Bertrand Schmitt

Same for the other one we talk about, Southwest. I’ve rarely, rarely use it. I’m sure I use it once or twice, but I’m doing my best not to choose that. I feel already having three airlines to manage on points and stuff is enough.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

There’s these guys, JetSuite, JSX, which I do use once in a while. They’re pretty good for domestic flights. Obviously they don’t fly to all airports and they fly to some funky airports. The experience is almost a private jet kind of experience. Shout out to those guys because those guys are still delivering a really nice experience for pretty good prices.

Bertrand Schmitt

Are you using them for LA to SF, for instance? I’ve heard they are quite good.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Correct. I think they have LAX as well. I don’t know where LAX flies to, but it’s either Burbank or SNA, which is John Wayne, Orange County. I’ve used them in Burbank. Burbank right now is not very good for where I live. Then Burbank flies, I think it’s to Oakland and maybe Fremont, if I’m not mistaken. They have some funky airports in the Bay Area, so it’s like Oakland, Fremont and then one in Napa that they give you access to. Oakland is fine. If you’re going to San Francisco in particular, you fly to Oakland. As an airport, it’s actually pretty easy.

Bertrand Schmitt

You have to cross the bridge, so I guess it depends on traffic.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

It’s just you have to organise so that you’re not getting into heavy traffic. If you fly in the morning, that’s a pain in the neck, if you need to get to SF, but if you fly in the afternoon or evening, it’s normally less of a problem. If you come back in the morning, then it’s not a problem either. The experience is really, really good. I’ve flown Burbank to Oakland a couple times and it’s really a nice experience. They’re expanding all the time, so they’re in a bunch of other places around the country. I think they just expanded to New York, if I’m not mistaken, so that should be cool. I’m not sure which airports in New York, but pretty, pretty cool.

Bertrand Schmitt

Do you fly window or aisle?

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I’m an aisle kind of guy. I was window at the beginning. I’d like to be at the window and whatever. For two reasons I like to be aisle. I think the first reason we’re all intense people. I like to get out of the plane as fast as I can, and normally the aisle in your row is the first person that goes out, so just getting out, getting the bag, putting it on the floor, getting ready to go.

I’m not the guy that rushes through the cabin just to be clear. I think there’s a term for it now, but I am definitely the guy who gets ready quickly so that I can leave. If I’m flying in economy or premium economy, I’ll try to fly as much to the front of those classes as possible. If I’m flying in business class, then I would be the first seat if possible, certainly on domestic flights. Obviously on international flights, if I’m flying in premium economy or business, sometimes there’s a first class, so they are obviously the first guys to get out. I’ll fly obviously in the first row for my class.

The second reason is I’m on ketogenic diet, so I need to go to the restroom very often. If it’s a 15-hour flight or a 12-hour flight or whatever, being on the aisle is obviously easier because if there’s people around you that need to jump to or whatever, they can. You jumping over people like several times during the flights is a pain in the neck for everyone involved. I pay attention to those details and I prefer just to be on the aisle, so I can just go and come back and there’s no problem. I don’t need to bother anyone or everyone on my row

Bertrand Schmitt

For me, it really depends on, is it a long flight or short flight, is it business or premium economy? If it’s a long flight in premium economy, I will usually pick window. I don’t want to be disturbed by someone trying to cross me, waking me up and stuff. That would be where I would be careful. If it’s business, it’s usually not an issue, so it’s different. If it’s a short flight, I don’t mind window, I don’t need to go out. If it’s a longer flight but not too long, not sleeping, then aisle usually I would take. It really depends for me. As you, I will try to go in the first rows as you can for your given class. I don’t like to stay in the back and to wait.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

We’re impatient people. We want to get out quickly and people are like, “What difference does it make?” Getting in, it doesn’t make a huge difference, but it could. It depends how much space is there available for you to put your bags on if you’re carrying a bunch of bags or not. We’ll talk about bags in a bit and later on, what our preferences are on that. Getting in, it depends. Depends on how much you’re carrying with yourself.

Getting out, it matters because it could be a difference of 5, 10 minutes to get out on planes. If you’re all the way at the back versus you’re at the front, it could be material, in particular, if you don’t have bags that you’ve checked in, that you need to go into the conveyor belt to get in terms of baggage claim.

In terms of loyalty programs, what’s your preference? Who would you run with for the different ones? For Star Alliance, for SkyTeam, who do you run with? What are the airlines that you have?

Bertrand Schmitt

I have a few depending on where I need to go. Star Alliance for sure.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Star Alliance here with who? With Air France?

Bertrand Schmitt

I used to be Air France.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Air France is SkyTeam.

Bertrand Schmitt

So SkyTeam, Air Delta and United for the other one. That’s the two main I would use usually.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I did a stupid thing. Air France was my SkyTeam team, British Airways was my oneworld and Lufthansa with Miles & More was my Star Alliance. I’ve now switched all of them to American ones. Delta is my SkyTeam one, United now with MilesPlus is my Star Alliance one and then American Airlines is my oneworld one.

I found with the American Airlines it’s easier to have the loyalty card with them because you get the upgrade lists and all that stuff. For domestic flights, all that stuff is done automatically, so it’s easier to fly with them. Normally you get the status as well. In most cases, faster than some of the European airlines. Similar alignment on oneworld tiers and Star Alliance tiers and SkyTeam tiers. Then some of them are very, very bad. You mentioned Air France. I had the same issue as you did, which is all of a sudden my miles disappeared at Air France because they obviously don’t keep your miles for very, very long. They take away your miles, which is like robbery in my opinion.

Bertrand Schmitt

It’s robbery, and especially during the time around COVID, it was really disgusting to do that. The fact they do it without any notice, any warning, nothing, it’s just plain disgusting.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

It was exactly the experience I had, so very, very nasty kind of stuff. At a certain point in time, I was top end, I think on the three. I was still based in Asia, but I was top tier on oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam for a period of time. Honestly, it matters a lot if you have to do a lot of travel between classes like economy, premium economy, business, et cetera. If you can fly a bit more in business or if you don’t care, it matters a little bit less to have tierage with all these. I don’t optimise as much on tierage anymore, to be honest, for the different airlines. If I did, I’d probably have to do a lot more Star Alliance. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of American, a lot of oneworld, so something for me to think about, I guess.

Bertrand Schmitt

On this topic, I still remember a long time ago, someone who will stay unnamed, who would keep flying around late December to make sure he has enough miles and keeping his miles. So on purpose, not taking a direct flight, but flying through second, third airport to make sure that he would build enough miles, sustain the right tier. I just couldn’t believe that level of optimisation. Maybe it makes sense. The guy was smart, so no question. There was some logic behind it, but I was certainly not willing to do the trade-off to spend 10 more hours or more than necessary just to keep the right levels.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

To finalise maybe on the airline side, two things. One, I optimise for the time of the flight. I normally don’t like to hub, to do stops. I prefer to go one flight somewhere and willing to pay a little bit more and fly maybe in premium economy if it’s a very long flight. Obviously if it’s like a 16-hour flight to Dubai from San Francisco or LA, obviously better to do so in premium economy than in economy. Economy is obviously a killer for these flights.

Bertrand Schmitt

If you have to sleep, yes.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

If there’s prices that are compatible and there’s a lot of ways to hack pricing around business class travelling, it may be worthwhile. I always optimise for direct flights if I can. The big hack, and I think I’m going to regret this because a lot of people actually don’t know this, this is a hack I learned with one of my former partners in my first VC firm, this is back 2011, 2012, maybe even before that, is Round The World tickets. If you guys have never heard about this, those listening to us, you need to look into this stuff. It’s magical.

It has a bunch of rules to them, but you can get Round The World tickets with oneworld and Star Alliance. SkyTeam, I’ve never done it. I don’t know if it’s possible or not. With oneworld and Star Alliance you can for sure, and you book them. Look for oneworld Round The World ticket or Star Alliance Round The World ticket. It has a minimum number of sections that you need to do. You need to go in one direction only. Think of it as you have to cross the two oceans kind of thing. You have to go Atlantic on one side and then Pacific on the other side. You can’t go back on your trip.

For example, if you originate in, let’s say San Francisco, you start your trip in San Francisco and you said, “I want to go to Europe first.” Then you can go to a bunch of places, US, Europe, whatever, but then you need to move to another place, Asia, Middle East or whatever to go through the Pacific Ocean to get back to the US. You need to end in the same place that you start because it is around the world. You need to end at San Francisco, start in San Francisco.

You have 12 months to do all the trips. I think it’s up to 15 flights if I’m not mistaken. I’ve never been able to optimise much beyond. I think 11 is my record, maybe. There are some people who do all sorts of funky optimisations like back and forth. They have two tickets running at the same time. I’ve never figured out how to do it. I’m sure there are people smarter than me.

These tickets are actually super, super value for money. With taxes and stuff, they might go a little bit beyond that, but it’s in the 10K, 11K range for business class travelling around the world. If you get in seven flights in, if you’re going through a bunch of different countries… For example, if you’re roadshowing, if you’re going to a bunch of different funky places, it’s more than worthwhile because if you just did one trips around, that alone would be over 10K if you’re flying in business, and it’s done.

Now, obviously 10K for business class is still quite expensive. It might be that you want to fly in premium economy or economy, there’s also tickets available for that. A huge hack that I found over the years. You can fly in economy, premium economy, business or first class. You get the ticket, the ticket issuer becomes the first airline that does the first flight effectively. The systems are a bit clunky, in particular the Star Alliance one. I remember super clunky, but their customer service is really good. It’s used to dealing with issues. You can change stuff, you can change flights last minute as well if you need to, et cetera. It’s really, really a great experience.

Bertrand Schmitt

That’s so good to know. I don’t think I ever used it, but I knew about it.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

You can also use it for leisure, or a mix. You can do like oh, it’s part business, part leisure or just fully for leisure or fully for business. As I said, it’s a really great package opportunity. I don’t know if SkyTeam actually need to look into it, but definitely you can do it for oneworld and Star Alliance.

Airports, lounges

Let’s move on quickly to airports. My top airports in the world versus my top hated ones. I would say top loved, probably, I think Dubai DXB, Qatar, the Diu Airport’s wonderful as well. Anything else that I would highlight, Incheon, I’ve had pretty good experiences there. It’s just very far from Seoul, so if you’re not hubbing through it, if you’re actually going into town, it’s very far. That makes it a little bit more painful. What else? I would say Haneda in Japan is a wonderful airport. Narita is very far from Tokyo, so it’s a bit of a pain in the neck and not as nice as an airport as Haneda is.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yes. I like Haneda. It had some food options that I really like there.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Maybe the last one I would highlight. I used to like Hong Kong International Airport a lot. It’s a bit mixed now, it’s become really big. Changi in Singapore is probably one of my favourite airport in the world, I would say. I did have great experiences.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yeah. Changi is great. I like the Hong Kong one. I think it’s quite good. I have used the Taipei one quite a few times. It’s quite efficient as a hub, but it’s not to the level of Hong Kong or Singapore. If you take in Europe, I’m not sure I would have a big one I would recommend.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Let me say, I mean, Lisbon, I have to say, this has become a mess, like a tragedy. An airport that’s been 50 years, a discussion to build another airport, and nobody can come to a conclusion. Fifty years, right? Now it’s a mess, because obviously there’s too much traffic into Lisbon, and out of Lisbon.

I’m not a fan of Heathrow. Even Terminal 5, it’s sort of messy-ish. I mean, they’ve done a decent job now, but it’s still a bit messy. It used to be worse, so I guess they’ve improved it.

Frankfurt is a total mess most of the time. You have to get really lucky for it to work well. Munich’s okay. I’d say Charles de Gaulle, I’ve had some of the worst experiences in my life, so I’m not sure I like going through Charles de Gaulle. Amsterdam, I’m not a fan either.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yes. Have you noticed that it has been getting worse for ground transportation? I used to be able to get an Uber relatively easily from any airport, and now there are a lot of airports outside the US where I’m taking taxi because it’s actually much easier, much more convenient, at least from the airport. They make it on purpose, I guess, a nightmare to use Uber from the airport.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I think some of it’s related to local regulations. Some of it is just to your point, they’re making it worse. But I agree. It’s like, even Lisbon, the way that Bolt and Uber operates out of the airport in Lisbon is a mess. They’ve now created a new area for pickups only. I haven’t used that area. I don’t know if it’s better or not. But the old area they had it in was absolutely awful. Mind-boggling awful.

Bertrand Schmitt

Actually, LAX in the US is also bad. If you want to take an Uber, you have to walk 10 minutes.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Ten minutes if you’re lucky. If you want to get UberX up to, I think up to Black. Black and above does curbside, which could be actually slow as well because LAX is a mess of an airport. Talking about messes of airport really depends on the terminal, I guess. The international terminal is very nice, but then the ground transportation in and out is messy. It depends what time of the day, departures, arrivals. I haven’t really figured out the patterns to that airport yet.

San Francisco is doable for the most. Although Terminal 3 right now in San Francisco is a total mess as well because it’s under construction at least until I think it’s 2027 or 2028. It’s going to be a while.

A lot of airports that are not great, some of them in the US. I mean, Atlanta is a mess. I know they’re working on stuff, but it’s a total mess. One of the largest airports in the world by movements, I believe. Newark, I’ve had some good experiences in New York. It’s in New Jersey, I guess. Then you have these funky airports, the smaller airports that somehow managed to be better. Like John Wayne in Orange County. Long Beach Airport, which is mostly Southwest.

Bertrand Schmitt

I was going to say in New York, usually the issue is the traffic to get to the airport. You have to be very careful about that.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Yeah.

Bertrand Schmitt

Or coming from the airport. If you are taking ground transportation.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Do you have any big favourites? Any ones that you really dislike that you avoid at all costs?

Bertrand Schmitt

I’m not sure. I can just say that Seattle Airport that I’m using now as my base airport. We recently got two luggage lost. It was on some minor airlines. You could argue they were not lost in Seattle, but before. But that’s still not a great experience from that perspective. I must say I like the airport so far. As you say Charles de Gaulle is not so great, but sometimes I have to go there travelling to France, so no other options are there.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

In Madrid, I’ve had some bad experiences.

Bertrand Schmitt

The mainland Chinese airport, in terms of food options are just usually not great. Yeah, that’s not why you want to use them.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I still have nightmares with Beijing Capital Terminal 3. But honestly it wasn’t a bad terminal. It’s just I guess I spent too much time there, and you have to walk a lot in and out. But yes.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yes, it’s a big one. You have to walk a lot. Usually the food options are quite limited. But I mean clean and modern, that part was okay. No, it’s not as if the other ones I will [inaudible 00:25:05]. To be frank, I try to go direct as much as possible. Usually I have. If I’m in an airport, it’s because I have to be there, if you see what I mean. It’s not I have to go somewhere close by.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Let’s switch to lounges. Loves and hates. Your most beloved and hated lounges, Bertrand.

Bertrand Schmitt

Honestly, at least from my perspective, they’re all crap for food and coffee.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Is that what you want? You want just food and coffee? That’s the play?

Bertrand Schmitt

That’s a core part. Either I’m not so hungry or just snacks and okay, whatever. If it’s food and coffee, then usually I will pick somewhere else my food and coffee, and go to the lounge for a bit more safety, a bit more relaxation, less noise. I would say relatively whatever.

I would be a bit more picky if I have really a long time to be at the lounge. That’s when I start to check, “Okay, what are my options?” If I know I have 5, 6, 7 hours to stay because some random stuff. Last time was a cancelled flight last minute and I had to pick another one. Yeah, I end up to spend 6 hours, 7 hours. That’s when you have to start to be a bit picky of which one you take. Also, some might not let you go in. Some might say, “Oh, you can only come in before the flight” or whatever. I would be a bit more picky.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I like to go early to airports. I don’t like to stress out, and I work from airports. I either do calls or work on stuff on my laptop, et cetera. Going to the lounge is really mostly to have a place where I can just hang out and work for a bit. Silence could be or not very important, but maybe not super important. Food’s probably a little bit less. It’s great to have something to eat while you’re there. To your point, most lounges are crap on food.

I have a couple of notable amazing ones. Obviously lounges normally are business class or first class as people would know. There’s a couple of other options with Priority Pass that you get access to business class level lounges. My experience with Pass is very mixed. Some lounges are really good, some lounges are all but crap.

On the positive side, I’d say again, the Middle Eastern airlines just are silly. Emirates business class, Qatar Airways business class. I’ve never been to the Qatar Airways first class one. I’ve been to the Emirates first class one once, and it was a bit silly because they have counters for any type of food. Like counters for desserts and ice cream, a counter for desserts and ice cream, a counter for sushi and sashimi, a counter for whatever.

You can still order stuff à la carte because that’s what you do. I was in that lounge at night and I recall clearly it’s like maybe it was 20 of us in the lounge and there were like, I don’t know, five or six counters like this open, and you’re like, “Really?” There were more people working there than… Just the counters than people I guess actually eating. It’s absolutely exceptional.

Singapore Airline, their business class lounges are very good. I’ve been only to their first class lounge once. Changi, it was really exceptional as well. À la carte, very nice kind of service. I would give a shout-out actually to United Airlines. I think they’ve won a bunch of awards. The United Airlines lounge at SFO for international. They’ve won a bunch of awards I think, and it’s actually pretty good by American Airlines in any way kind of lounges. It’s really, really good.

Delta has a really nice lounge at the LAX, Delta Air Lines. There’s a couple of really good American Airlines’ lounges around. My last shout-out, I think on the positive side is the Concorde lounge for British Airways, which I’ve been to a few of them and that’s when you’re flying first class.

Just to explain, I don’t fly first class. It just happened to be… I’m a hacker. It just happened to be that at some point in time British Airways had this promotion that if you booked a ticket, I think it was July to September, if you booked a ticket, and it was considered a full ticket in business class, you could upgrade one of the legs to first class based on availability. I ended up doing a bunch of those where there was Concorde lounges, which was I think New York at JFK. In London, Heathrow, you can go to the Concorde lounge, not the first class lounge, but the Concorde lounge. It was very nice and very fancy. I remember that fondly.

Bertrand Schmitt

In terms of first class lounge, I did once the Air France La Première, and I must say it was quite amazing. From the lounge to the first class in the plane, it was quite amazing experience. The food was top level. You even have a spa if you want. They bring you to the plane by a private luxury car. You get in not seeing any other passenger but people in first. I must say it was quite an amazing experience. I forgot how I ended up doing it, but price wise it was expensive, but it was not so insane versus the other option basically. That’s why I end up doing it.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

American Express has a bunch of lounges, as we know, for Platinum and Centurion members around the world. I’ve been to a few of them. They’re normally pretty good. Recent issue with American Express has been that there’s always a wait list because there’s too many people I guess with Platinum cards. They’ve again increased the price of Platinum card and whatever. Then Centurion as we know is very complex as well to attain.

Then on the negative side, I would say as I mentioned before, some of the Priority Pass access ones, those lounge-y things that are the commonly used ones are not great. TAP’s I think still running out of SFO, the Portuguese Airline. Still running out of SFO with this China Airlines Lounge, which is really not very good. I mean no disrespect to the people who work there, but it’s just the lounge is not very good. There’s a bunch of lounges that I feel are just a bit of a waste. Like you might as well go to the gate and wait.

In some airports there are actually good food options. Maybe just go to one of the food options and have dinner there or lunch or some snack and just use it as a place to work from. Something like that.

Hotels chains, AirBnB

Hotel chains, Airbnb, what’s your preference, Bertrand? Loyalty cards, whatever. What do you go for? What’s your addiction?

Bertrand Schmitt

I would say I don’t do Airbnb too often. Once in a while, and typically for vacations, short vacation, I will say. Sometimes I use it for short vacation, few days. Usually typically I’m using hotel chains. I don’t want to bother take a chance in a lot of situations. Do I have a favourite hotel chain? I used to like Hotel W. I still remember the one in Taipei very well. It was really a nice place. But it really depends where. I’m doing Bonvoy quite often that’s probably one of the main one I’m using.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Yeah, I’m a big Bonvoy guy.

Bertrand Schmitt

Yeah. At the end of the day it really depends on where I go, what the price are. I mean I’m not forcing myself basically.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I have one force mechanism which is Marriott Bonvoy. I was a Starwood member back in the day and I got to Lifetime Gold. I think I missed Lifetime Platinum on the Starwood terms by 1 year to be a Lifetime Platinum. I used to fly and travel a lot in particular when I was at McKinsey. When they merged with Marriott I think the merger wasn’t too bad in terms of their loyalty program, but now you need a lot more years to get to Lifetime Platinum. I think I’m 2 years out from Lifetime Platinum or something like that.

But that’s the one that I have preference on. I think the largest in the world, the Marriott as a chain, and they have a lot of brands that are exceptional. I mean on the top end obviously the St. Regis of the world, the Ritz-Carltons, et cetera. But even if you go one level below, you can find some of the boutique things are actually very nice as well with Marriott like Edition.

The Ws have gone one level down. I think the Edition has taken that place, more top-end boutique. Ws are now a little bit more accessible as well in terms of cost and price. Westons depends on the part of the world you’re in. I mean in Asia the Westons are very nice. Some parts of Europe they’re also very nice.

Sheratons similarly, not great in the US but in other parts of the world they might be okay. They have so many brands like I’ve stated, Residence Inns. There’s so many lower end brands, longer stay brands that they have that are really, really nice. I mean, you get really big rooms for not a lot of money, and they’re exceptional.

Bertrand Schmitt

I think often for me, it’s a question of location. Do you get access to a real, not just like is it a good hotel? You have the facility, but is it a special location? We were in vacation this summer in Banff in Canada. We spent a few days around Lake Louise, and we went to the Fairmont because that was the only hotel authorised at Lake Louise per se. It was just amazing. It was just an amazing experience. If you don’t stay at this hotel obviously you have to stay much further away, they limit access to cars, I mean it’s a total nightmare. But if you are at the Fairmont Lake Louise it’s just a magical experience. I mean prices are insane to be clear, but you have a special experience for a few days that cannot be replicated with another hotel.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I mean we could do an episode just on hotels, so I’ll just cut to the chase. I think there’s a couple of chains that I quite like. I do like the Grand Heights of the world, the Park Heights of the world are very top end. Prices vary a lot, I mean, some of these hotels are very, very expensive.

Hotels have become more expensive. Hopefully at some point it will be a step back. There’s amazing resorts as you were saying, all around the world. I have this love for Aman Resorts, A-M-A-N Resorts. They’ve become super expensive, almost unbearable. I was an Aman junkie back in the day. I’ve been to a lot of their properties. They’re very beautiful location kind of properties, but they’re super expensive now as well.

But there’s great places, as we were saying, that are great value for money. I’ve stayed at places that I wouldn’t have thought of spending time on, and they’re really, really, really nice for not a lot of money, and I think location matters a lot to me, but at the end of the day also having a place where for example if I need to work from the hotel room that I can work from the hotel room. If I don’t need to, then potentially that’s less of an important thing in terms of space and desk space et cetera. But Marriott’s is really the only obsession that I have just to get my layer at least of Platinum every year if I can so that I get to that Lifetime Platinum thing at some point in time, and then I can just get it.

Mandarin Oriental, huge shout-out probably of the urban hotels. They’re quite expensive in some parts of the world but of the urban hotels.

Bertrand Schmitt

Which one, sorry?

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Mandarin Oriental.

Bertrand Schmitt

Ah, Mandarin Oriental, yes, amazing.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

I’ve always had exceptional experiences with them but again very expensive.

Bertrand Schmitt

Amazing in Hong Kong.

Nuno Goncalves Pedro

Hong Kong. I’ve not stayed at the one in Paris, but I’ve been to the one in Paris, and it seemed exceptional as well. I’ve been to the one in Barcelona, I’ve been to a few of their other Mandarin Orientals around the world, and I’ve never had a bad experience. They’re all very, very exceptional. Very, very thoughtful in terms of how they do service, et cetera.

Four Seasons, for example, I’ve had mixed experiences in different places. A lot of people love them. But anyway, that’s our addictions.

Ground transportation

Ground transportation. We just heard from you. Now you’re preferring taxis to Ubers and Lyfts in some parts of the world.

Bertrand Schmitt

If they make the Uber experience terrible, yes. I’m discovering that more and more I’m picking up especially… Where did that happen? In Hong Kong, in Paris. I end up picking up taxi versus Uber. In some location, even in the US if you have to do a 10, 15 minutes walk, sometimes I mi