It was Monday morning and we (my mother, my husband, my son, and I) were in the rental car, a bright red Malibu, on our way from a relaxing long weekend in Ko Olina to the Honolulu airport, when I heard a long sigh from the back seat.

"I don't want to leave," said my mother, also a flight attendant, as she stared out the window at a city she once called home forty years ago. Believe it or not, this was her first trip back.

"Me, neither," I said, as the exit sign to Pearl Harbor, where my father had once worked, passed over our heads.

The husband, who was actually ready to leave, just shook his head. "Yeah, well, some of us have to go back to work."

Thank goodness I'm not one of us, I remember thinking, as the airport came into view. Way off in the distance, Diamond Head. That's when I heard my mother say, "You know I dropped my next trip, that Phoenix trip."

"Me, too! I dropped my horrid twenty-hour, three-day."

That's just one of the amazing things about my job, flexibility. We can pretty much work whenever we want, as long as there's a trip available to pick up, or someone willing to take our trip, which is usually not a problem when based in New York, the most junior base in the system.

I turned all the way around in my seat and looked at the woman who had a twinkle in her eye. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

My mother smiled real big and shrugged. "Maybe."

The husband just shook his head again. "You ladies better make up your mind! We're almost there."

As my mother flipped open her cell phone and started dialing the airline to check the passenger loads home on Wednesday, I dialed the Marriott hotel in Waikiki to see if they offered a crew discount.

Yet another amazing thing about the job. We actually get cheap rates at many hotels, as well as discounts on car rentals.

"The flight home is open," my mother said, snapping her phone shut.

A combination of growing demand from business travelers and a souring economy have led hotel developer Accor to focus on mid-range hotels in the world's largest countries. So far in India, the formula seems to be a good one. As the country grows economically, more people will be traveling there for business purposes. Smaller businesses or independent entrepreneurs who don't want to spring for a 5-star room have few options. Accor's budget brand, Ibis, has already opened one location in Gurgaon. The company also has two Novotels in Hyderabad. These hotels are focused on providing solid service with a few extras, but nothing in terms of the over-the-top luxury seen at a 4 or 5-star. The strategy is to be attractive both to domestic and international business travelers.

Currently, over half of Accor's India bookings come directly from corporate buyers seeking bulk rates. However, the mid-range prices and services could be attractive to independent travelers seeking an economical alternative to India's current hotel options.

My virtual book tour for Marco Polo Didn't Go There ended just last week, and -- while it was a lot of work -- it ended up being quite the success. Over course of ten days, I visited online venues like Tim Ferriss's 4-Hour Work Week and National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel to answer questions and share stories and photos. CNN.com ended up linking my interview with Budget Travel's "This Just In" from its front page, and both the New York Times' Ideas Blog and Arts & Letters Daily linked my Q&A at World Hum (which, while not an official part of my virtual tour, did coincide with the event).

During the course of this online tour, I answered all manner of questions about travel and travel writing, including advice for aspiring writers, my most shocking moments as a traveler, and the cross-cultural ramifications of wiping your ass. This was all great, and I loved tackling those kinds of queries.

What I wish sometimes, however, is that someone would ask me the kind of questions they ask rock stars in Blender Magazine.

Ever read Blender? It's great stuff -- a hilarious blend of music advice, brief celebrity interviews, and obsessively categorized music nostalgia and trivia. I mean, sure, I subscribe to The New Yorker, The Economist, Poets & Writers, and a whole pile of travel magazines -- but when I return home from a journey to dig into my stack of magazines, I often find myself going for Blender first. It's just good fun.

Since nobody ever asked my any Blender-style rock star questions during my virtual tour, I think I'll ask those questions of myself right now. Here goes!

Many business travelers hold a variety of memberships across the travel industry -- a Priority Club membership for points towards Holiday Inn stays, a Skymiles number for miles towards Delta flights, an Emerald Club membership for National rental cars. All of these come in handy for that one time that you're actually on vacation and want to reap some benefit for all of those days on the road with the company.

If you're anything like me, you also might accrue your points unevenly; I have a zillion miles on NW but only a few Hilton Honors points because usually when I travel places I stay with friends. Similarly, others might have many hotel or car rental points because their trips are longer or they don't fly places. Airlines realize this and want you to waste your miles in any way possible, so often craft up ways to purge miles irresponsibly (see our recent article on silly frequent flyer mile auctions).

In that guise, Starwood Hotels' member program Starwood Preferred Guest has cooked up an engine to use their SPG points to book plane tickets in addition to hotel stays. The nice thing is that the number of points required is tied to the price of the ticket -- it isn't poorly determined by route or demand -- so prices are somewhat tied to the open market.

The not-so-nice thing is that it isn't a super value for your SPG points. Most SPG members I've lurked over are finding that it's just more fiscially responsible to book expensive hotel rooms with points and pay for plane tickets with cash (or sell your SPG points for cash which, ooops, is illegal).

But hey, if you're rife with miles and aren't too anal retentive about them, this could be a way to get a few free plane tickets. Check out SPGflights.com for details on the promotion.

Those looking for a taste of the glamorous side of the 1950s can find it in Paris. The City of Lights and snobby waiters was a hot spot for the Brad Pitts and Angelina Jolies of yesteryear.

Grace Kelly is probably the ultimate example of 50s fame. An exhibit at the Hotel de Ville showcases the life and times of the American movie star who the French embraced after she married Prince Rainier of Monaco and became Princess Grace.

The exhibit is no mere collection of black and white snapshots. Kelly's Oscar is on display alongside ball gowns and other articles of clothing. Also of interest are a collection of Kelly's letters. I suppose it might be interesting to learn that people actually wrote letters once upon a time, but Kelly's letters where to the who's who of the day. The collection includes correspondences with Alfred Hitchcock and Jackie Kennedy.

So this exhibit might be a bit over the top, but perhaps a bit refreshing. After all, Grace Kelly defined glamor before glamor became all silicone and botox. I doubt there will be a similar exhibit featuring any of today's starlets in 50 years.

Source

Those of you sick of hostels, bed&breakfasts, and motels, wanting to go upscale on your accommodation when you travel without spending a fortune, this new brand of Citizen M Hotels might be just what you're looking for.

Go to their website and you'll find a great brand-building and marketing effort targeting the "mobile citizen" who is a new generation traveler, explorer, culture seeker, shopper and professional, looking for low-price luxury.

By its description, it seems more like a big apartment than a hotel. It has modern rooms up to date with all the technology you need including free movies on demand and free wifi, a living room to hang in, and a 24-hour canteen area for food and beverages.

Other than the fact that you can self check-in and you "shouldn't pay for bits of hotel that you don't need" (butler, chocolate on pillows?), it's not clear how they manage to offer their so called low-price luxury rates, whatever they may be (not mentioned either).

Their first hotel has just opened at Amsterdam Schipol Airport and currently has two offers running: 1) become a Citizen and the first 100 to book with them will get a free room, 2) if you aren't one of the lucky 100, throughout summer you can avail of their special room rate of €69 a night. Considering the fact that in Amsterdam any decent 2-star hotel is not available for less than €45 a night, for €69 if you are getting the luxury they promise, it's not a bad deal.

In the future, they plan to spread this concept throughout Europe.

All-in-all, a unique concept -- but no one has been here yet, so we'll just have to see .

With a title like that, it may surprise you that this article has absolutely nothing to do with ladyboys. I'm a little bit ashamed to say that when I first headed to Bangkok, I didn't expect much beyond backpacker bars and a ubiquitous haze of sleaze covering everything.

Boy, was I wrong. Bangkok is an incredible place to visit, and possibly even to live. I've only carved two weeks out to visit this year, but next year I'll be back for a month or two.

Here are some hidden gems that I discovered in Bangkok that really made my stay a whole lot better.

To fully experience Taiwan's natural beauty, there's one destination that is universally praised: Sun Moon Lake.

It's the largest lake in Taiwan, and is so beautiful that Chang Kai Shek, Taiwan's first president, built a house there to vacation.

In 1997, after an earthquake destroyed his house, the lot was purchased and after five years of construction Taiwan's only six star hotel, The Lalu Hotel, was built. Shortly after it joined the ranks of Design Hotels, a premiere group of international boutique and luxury hotels.

I recently had the chance to stay there for a few nights and meet with the manager of the hotel to get the full tour.

When, after waiting a full six months, the chairman received the blueprints from the architect, he was furious. They showed a very simple design with long straight lines and no curves at all. For what would become the best hotel in Taiwan, it didn't seem very fancy.

The chairman was calmed down and after some convincing agreed to build the hotel according to the blueprints. The result, as it stands today, is a building which relies on high quality materials and workmanship, rather than gimmicks or fancy veneers.

This attitude doesn't stop with the architecture, but rather is echoed throughout the entire experience of staying at The Lalu.

I learned something new today. Apparently, the coded way for a hotel guest to ask for a prostitute is "Can I have another pillow?" At least that is what Matt Rudd says in his very funny Times article about his life as a concierge in a 5-star hotel in London. It is well worth reading, even if one pillow is typically your speed. The whims of some luxury hotel guests are entertaining, to say the least.

Just in case you were wondering, the concierge is not supposed to arrange anything illegal, be it drugs or "extra pillows." Miraculously, call girls apparently do make it into hotel bars and staff discovers indecent behavior in the bathrooms quite regularly. At that point, a staff member can suggest the couple might want a room next time. That, of course, is perfectly legal.

If you travel with any regular frequency, hopefully you've started stockpiling rewards points. Whether these are frequent flyer miles with an airline or reward points with a credit card or hotel chain, it's surprising how quickly things will add up when you're on the road.

Most rewards programs have tiers of earning and rewards -- American Airlines, for example has Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum. At each of these levels, one earns and can redeem their awards at different rates. The problem is that you have to travel a certain amount to obtain each level. In AA's case, you have to fly 25k, 50k or 75k miles to reach these tiers, so most people won't reach these levels and be able to reap the benefits.

Occasionally, however, one can sneak into higher brackets by participating in a promotion or being granted "status" by a customer representative. In the case of a new Priority Club promo code that came out, this is the case.

Priority Club is the frequent traveler rewards program of the Intercontinental Hotels system, home to Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza and a few other, smaller chains.

Apparently by going to the secret promotion link and plugging in code 5446 you can catapult from your lowly plebeian status all of the way up to Ambassador Status in one, swift, ordinary-traveler-smiting move after staying in an IC hotels group three times before June 30.

And what do you get with this hifalutin Ambassador Status? According to members of the underground, you get "5,000 bonus points along with the usual perks of the Ambassador Status - Weekend Night Certificate, Guaranteed room upgrade to superior, Extended check-out (4 p.m.), Special check-in desk, Gold Elite Reward Status, and fresh fruit and mineral water upon arrival"

Not a bad deal for three nights in the next few months.

I'm not really sure how widespread or publicized this promo goes, or whether it was ever meant for the general public. So if you do decide to indulge, register as soon as you can before they yank the promo.