The Trannies

Hah! And what exactly were you thinking this article would be about? since it portends to be a travel blog then hopefully some of you will know that "trannie" in this context is jargon for "Transcon" or transcontinental service of the nonstop kind from coast to coast. It could also refer to Transatlantic or Transpacific flights but rarely if ever would it refer to something like Transasian or Translatin. A flight from Buenos Aires or Rio to Santiago, Chile would be considered a transcon flight but the distance is not quite four hours of flying time and I'm not sure they even have the term in that part of the world. That said, let's take a look at the three we're most familiar with.

A transcon almost invariably refers to a domestic flight within the United States that leaves from one coast state, flies across the continent and arrives at another coastal state. The primary routes for this would be New York to California with other serious contenders being Boston and Washington, D.C. to California. Others qualify, such as Seattle to Miami or Atlanta to Portland but those markets tend to be smaller and, in the case of Atlanta, the city is not right on the water like Los Angeles, San Diego or San Francisco. Still, Georgia has a coastline so if the good people of the Peach State want to call their Atlanta to the West Coast flights transcons then who am I to begrudge them. Et tu, Charlotte.

The other two are not as US-centric although certainly the United States plays a large role in both markets. When one thinks of a transatlantic service it almost always means from somewhere in the United States to some place in Europe. That is not fair, however, to the other countries that also enjoy nonstop service across the ocean such as Brazil and even Peru, the latter of which supports a nonstop service to Madrid on Iberia. It makes sense the minute you think about it but there are still others as well, such as Buenos Aires to Frankfurt and even Sao Paulo to Cape Town, South Africa, probably one of the loneliest flights on the planet as it is the only regularly scheduled service across the South Atlantic at only three times per week.

Transpac is comparatively easy to decipher: the US and Canada to Asia and Australia/New Zealand. Or is it. What about the flights BETWEEN Asia and the Anzac Region? While vacationing in Auckland, not the largest market in the world, I found nonstop services on offer to Australia (duh), Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong, any one of which could get the average Kiwi the rest of the way to Europe. Wow. Compared to that spread Los Angeles seemed almost a token market despite being the largest of the lot after Australia.

There is a lot of commercial flying out there, a lot of it seemingly concentrated on North America but certainly a respectable amount of it connecting people and places with literally no connections to the United States (or Canada) whatsoever. Know what? If they don't make the headlines you can assume every last one of those flights operated just as safely, too.

Gotta go.

You Touring YouTube

YouTube can be an even better way to see the larger world around us and in so many ways. Even better than some travel programming it is possible to see snippets of ordinary life in far away corners, spectacular scenery in places unheard of or experiences never even considered outside of our everyday lives. Just type in the YouTube search window and that is the extent of your wait to visit some exotic corner of the planet or specific moment in time - there is no waiting for scheduled programming.

The list is endless of the places one can go thanks to the camcorder efforts of the average tourist. YouTube to them is much easier to utilize than maintaining their own website while still wanting to share images of their vacations, honeymoons or family get-togethers with the rest of the world at large. The wisdom in posting some of these private moments is equally endless in debate but there they are for the curious and voyeuristic alike.

The thing that intrigues me about these images is being reminded that the rest of the world is alive and going about its business the same as I might be doing at that same moment in time. The more mundane things like rush hour traffic in Paris don't hold my attention for too long beyond simply seeing it and comparing it to the commute experience in, say, Washington, D.C. Simple things like people in other countries playing with their dogs just as I would mine at the end of a long day. Of course people have pets in other parts of the world but it doesn't register that they would or that the interactions appear to be exactly the same but for the language involved. A particularly funny moment involved unaware American tourists getting an up close view of a male camel bellowing romantically to any nearby female.

All of us have a list of places we've always wanted to go but for one reason or another are not quite sure we will ever get there. One of those for me is Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River in southern Africa on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. I stumbled across a video of a prone tourist floating in a tidal pool at the very edge of the 300-foot falls, his body at the surface with his head over the edge as if he could wash over the cataract at any second, proof of the power of the falls thundering seemingly at the end of his outstretched arms. I mean, seriously? The political environment in Zimbabwe and general health concerns in the area notwithstanding, I gotta do that!

Being an airplane nut I experienced as much of the inflight experience with the A380 as possible before actually flying on the plane for the first time in 2009. Watching 747s land in St. Maarten is not on my list of accomplishments yet but heaven knows there is plenty of footage taken by others who have experienced the good and bad of being that close to the engines on the beach head just at the end of the runway.

If I never get to any of these places they are only a click away on the internet without the marketing shills pushing upscale hotels and high end restaurants at me in to the bargain. The only thing I haven't done is post any of my own. Remember that debate about the wisdom of such a move?

Gotta go.

When, South Africa, When?

A few years ago my "Wingman" and I were wanting to go to South Africa. I call him my wingman because we are good friends who travel well together, having been to both Europe and the South Pacific with no trouble at all. Our elaborate plan for South Africa included trading in miles for First Class all the way on Emirates out of JFK on the new A380 and connect in Dubai for the flight to Capetown. Less than six months after the service began, however, Emirates pulled the A380 from New York which had been running twice a day and averaging maybe 150 people. That plus the falling economy scotched our plans for the trip but it wasn't the first time I had made plans for South Africa and cancelled them.

South Africa is simply not a place to "hit it and quit it" in some long weekend tour of highlights. It's too far for one thing, too big, too diverse in landscape and arguably the most complex western society on the planet. Kruger National Park, world famous for the "big five" rhino, hippo, lion, cape buffalo and elephant populations, is in the extreme northeast of the country, nearly 1000 miles away from the historic and volatile playground of Cape Town, home of Table Mountain, world class beaches, Robben Island and shark tours in False Bay. Durban and the KwaZulu Natal region lay nearly two hours by air along the coast to the east again, offering a heady mixture of Miami Beach climate and tribal war battlefields.

Then there is the rich music scene of which I've been a fan since Paul Simon came out with "Graceland." A pungent mixture of reggae, hip hop and tribal rhythms, South African music is on the world stage like never before thanks to acts such as Freshlyground, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Soweto Gospel Choir, Bongo Maffin, Thandiswa Mazwai, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, Danny K (listen to this one) and the many iterations of Johnny Clegg with his Zulu based band Savuka. Previous generations will remember the late Miriam Makeba for "The Click Song" and "Pata Pata."

That is a lot of land and sound to cover and the reasons most people schedule close to a full month in the country to make it all worthwhile. Like most Americans, however, I don't have four weeks to dedicate to one vacation. Like most people in general I have concerns for my health in a land where one in five is HIV Positive to go along with "lesser" illnesses such as diphtheria, malaria and hepatitis A and B! Like most people in general again I have concerns for my physical safety where news reports constantly stream stories of desperate poverty and endemic crime- tour books even blame baboons by the side of the road who have learned that foolish foreigners that stop for photos with their windows rolled down are easy pickings for a good carjacking.

Where the United States is a rough half-century ahead of South Africa in true freedom and democracy for all citizens, and where some will argue there is still some ways to go, South Africa remains in the grip of significant social teething.

Over twenty years after Mandela was released the recent murder of an extremist has the world press up in arms to report how the entire country is all but on the verge of social collapse. White Afrikaners are concerned with mounting evidence of corruption and largesse within the single-party government under the African National Congress - poor blacks remain disenfranchised and poor while, in a theme stretching the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, those in power live in luxury behind gated communities. That is, if I am to believe everything I read coming out of a country some 9,000 miles away.

It has been, again, 15 years since the 1995 Rugby World Cup that outsiders are led to believe did so much in beginning the healing and coming together of a truly dynamic society.

I have traveled to every "civilized" corner and continent of this planet and never been concerned with or thought to ask how my race will affect my experience overseas. That is the gift and benefit of 50 years of social progress in my own country, the confidence to travel abroad in both physical and social security. Three times I have tried and failed to get to this incredible country; I don't have 50 years left to play with.

When, South Africa, when can I come and visit you?

Gotta go.

Rarefied AAir

Earlier I had written about making "Gold" status with American Airlines' "AAdvantage" frequent flyer program. I wasn't planning on joining a program at all since I didn't expect to travel much for either work or pleasure, then the miles started piling up from business trips to both coasts. I felt I'd "arrived" when I made "Gold" and actually pondered what I would do first with a free domestic ticket and then, oh wonder of wonders, maybe even a roundtrip ticket to Europe!

The miles are still piling up and this year, through actual flying and an "Elite Qualifying" plan American offered during the summer to boost business I made AAdvantage "Platinum," exceeding 50,000 miles of flying and will enjoy the perks and privileges for all of this year.
For someone who has only ever bought the cheap seats, grudgingly gotten used to paying for checked luggage and traveled both under the radar and out of harm's way from wrathful customer service agents, I'm looking forward to how any or all of these experiences might change. Being "Gold" used to mean something, about the same as having a college degree used to signal a rare and wondrous achievement. I don't have an MBA but I do have "Platinum" status so now the question is whether or not one is as equally everyday and run-of-the-mill as the other.

In a phone call to AAdvantage Customer Service I was quickly greeted and thanked for my business but equally swiftly alerted that each level of status must be earned with every calendar year. If I don't hit 50,000 miles this year I will lose "Platinum" but only drop back to "Gold." That's ok with me. I will still enjoy priority check-in at the airport, priority boarding at the gate and free baggage checking. I won't get to board with the "Platinum" folks but right behind them. Other than that the biggest loss will be in bonus mileage. "Gold" members enjoy a 25% bonus for every mile flown while "Platinum" members earn 100% or double miles for every flight.

All this means that I need to enjoy it while I can and bank as many "redeemable" miles in to my account as possible at the double credit level. I can fly 25,000 miles, get another 25,000 bonus miles, add that combined 50,000 to the 53,000 already in my account and...you get the idea. If I lose "Platinum" for 2011, I'll still have over 100,000 miles in my account just itching to, as my mother likes to say, be put somewhere!

The "Executive Platinums" (100,000 miles each year) are all laughing at me, I know. I don't have that doctorate in frequent flying and don't expect to; the question for me and my run-of-the-mill Platinum status is where to put these precious miles and how many of them? TWO round-trip tickets to Europe in Coach, one round-trip to Asia or the South Pacific via one of the oneworld carriers, maybe?

Further scouring of the various options pulled the crown jewel in my mind. I've always wanted to go to South Africa, and for 100,000 miles I can fly round trip from London to Capetown in FIRST CLASS on British Airways!

Now if only they will put the A380 on the route at the right time.

Gotta go!