Air Canada, the worst airline in North America?

Read this article below to see how Air Canada overbooks and then bumps its passengers. A truly shocking attitude from an airline which was selected by some misguided travel magazine as the 'best airline in North America'.  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/couple-incensed-as-air-canada-overbooking-continues-1.1894951?cmp=rss

The best and worst airports in the world

All travelers have an opinion about the worst airports they had the misfortune to spent a few hours or in worse cases, overnight. Some of these are decrepit, poorly-designed structures, lack basic services and are notorious for long line-up, rude custom officials, or are staffed by over-zealous staff who ran the airport as their personal fiefdom. Others are just plain dangerous, corrupt and littered with pickpockets and miscreants. My own personal least-favourite airport is the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila – lack of basic services and amenities, an archaic in-transit system, cold, hard steel chairs without any cover, unscrupulous taxi-drivers and dangerous modes of transport to the city. But there are also many great airports where you actually want to spend more time – these are beautifully designed and offer top-quality restaurants, pubs, free Wi-Fi, clean washrooms, showers, ‘quiet spaces’, large-screen TV’s and more – Vancouver, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Cape Town come to mind, but there are many others.


A recent survey by the Travel Leaders Group listed the top 10 USA airports for business travel as chosen by 700 travel agents owners, managers and agents. Glancing through the criteria that were used, the presence of many of the following services helped to ensure that a particular airport made the list: free Wi-Fi, showers, spas, shoeshine, currency exchange, baggage storage, meditation room, rapid charge stations. The top 10 US business airports are:

1. Atlanta (with Wi-Fi, shoeshine, Minute Suites for napping or watching TV, a quick visa denier boarding desk, currency exchange, four Brookstone shops and an Express spa).
2. Chicago O’Hare
3. Dallas/Fort Worth
4. Minneapolis/St Paul
5. New York JFK
6. Detroit Metro International
7. Houston Intercontinetal
8. Los Angeles
9. New York (Laguardia)
10. San Francisco, Washington (Dulles), Newark (tied)

The 20 overall best airports, according to the 2012 World Airport Awards:
1.Incheon International Airport
2.Singapore Changi Airport
3.Hong Kong International Airport
4.Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
5.Beijing Capital International Airport
6.Munich Airport
7.Zurich Airport
8.Kuala Lumpur International Airport
9.Vancouver International Airport
10.Central Japan International Airport
11.London Heathrow Airport
12.Copenhagen Airport
13.Auckland International Airport
14.Tokyo International Airport Haneda
15.Frankfurt Main Airport
16.Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport
17.Narita International Airport
18.Abu Dhabi International Airport
19.Kansai International Airport
20.Sydney Airport

The ten worst airports in the world in 2012, according to Frommer’s, are:
1. New York JFK Airport Terminal 3
2. Manila, Philippines Airport Terminal 1
3. Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport Terminal B/C
4. Nairobi, Kenya Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
5. Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, Terminal 3
6. Amman, Jordan Queen Alia Airport
7. New York LaGuardia Airport Terminal 5
8.Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport
9. Paris’ Beauvais Airport

10. Chicago Midway Airport

Silver Reef Casino review

This is a review of one of the  hotels on the busy cross-border corridor between Vancouver and Seattle. This is an extremely popular route for Canadians on day- and overnight shopping trips to Washington State. During 2011 Canadians made 44 million visits to the US and spent about C$16.5 billion, of which at least 5 million visits occurred across the BC border with WA. We start with the Silver Reef Casino and Spa in Ferndale, WA.

This casino hotel is about 15 minutes from the Canadian border just off the I5 and is in a relatively isolated spot. We arrived at about 4pm and by then the parking lot was already filled to the brim with day visitors to the casino. Reception and check-in was adequate, but lacked a touch of warmth and a welcoming atmosphere. The room on the 4th floor was huge non-smoking room with a comfortable king bed, large flat-screen TV, bathroom and separate basin area. Amenities included free wifi, a coffee-maker and ice bucket(unfortunately the plastic bag in the ice-bucket was too small, making it impossible to gather ice in a sanitary way). The casino is large, but incredibly smoky – if smoking is allowed (and most patrons were smoking like chimneys), surely there should be sufficient ventilators to properly extract smoke and replace the stale air? We stopped for a couple of beers at a pub during happy hour, but the Budweiser tasted watered down and hardly worth the $2. Supper was at the La Cantina Mexican restaurant, probably the biggest disappointment of the stay – the sampler of three Salsas was tasteless and I had to send back the chicken lime taquitos due to a very strange taste.b Its replacement, the quesadillas with asadero cheese, sour cream, guacamole, pico de gallo and lime crema, was simply bland. The Queso Fundito, a pot of melted cheese and white sauce, chorizo and poblano chile, was good. The next morning we had a complimentary continental breakfast with eggs, waffles, fruit etc, but it would have been nice to have had some bacon or sausages added for free. Checkout was efficient and the staff friendly and we received a free newspaper. What impressed me was the security car driving back and forth the whole night in between the rows of cars, presumably to ensure safe parking and a safe visitor environment. Would we go back? Probably at some time, as we generally had a pleasant visit, but to be honest, the Skaggit Valley and Snohomish Casino probably offer equal if not better value for roughly the same price.