Tom, Author at Aspiring Snob

Airport Convenience

Arriving at the airport after a long-haul flight is the final hurdle you need to jump in any journey. Airports, especially the big hub airports like London Heathrow, Dubai, Hong Kong and New York’s JFK, can be large confusing affairs that can take time to navigate through with lots of walking and, more often than not, lots of queueing.

It is not uncommon to spend upwards of three hours upon arriving at the gate to leaving due to the terminal layout and queueing for immigration. That’s three hours less towards your business meeting, holiday or spending time with family and friends. In this day and age of common long-haul travel we’ve come to accept these delays as being part of the journey. A journey that turns a seven hour flight into a 10 hour trip.

So how can we avoid this? Surely there are options out there to make our lives easier? As it turns out, there are.

Top Shelf for Bottom Dollar

Alcohol, Experiences, Food & Drink, Home Tom

For those of us who enjoy a tipple every once in a while, appreciating a well made cocktail, a delicious wine or a smooth vodka is what it’s all about. Like any of the finer things in life, understanding the craft and the story behind what you’re enjoying only adds to the whole experience. Combine that with watching an expert create or select your drink means you can concentrate on the taste and the flavour of your chosen drop.

There are many amazing venues that will serve phenomenal cocktails often with creative themes and unique presentation. Top restaurants will always have a sommelier who will absolutely nail the wine pairing with your meal elevating both food and drink. Many small batch craft distilleries are creating some stunning spirits, especially around gin and vodka, often found at top and exclusive bars. However all of this comes with a price – quite literally.

Barista Coffee in Your Home

Coffee, Deals, Food & Drink, Gifts, Home, Lifestyle, Tips Tom

For me, the perfect day starts like this:

I wake up naturally five minutes before the alarm, feeling refreshed
I jump out of bed and spring straight into the shower
Feeling refreshed and cleansed, I make a healthy breakfast
I brew the perfect coffee
Reading the news, I enjoy my breakfast and my delicious coffee
I dive into my work for the day, with a smile on my face and a glint in my eye

As you can probably guess, the above list was created with my tongue firmly placed within my cheek. The truth of the matter is that none of those steps actually occur for me – except one.

Why Business Class can be cheaper than Economy

Deals, Experiences, Flights, Perks, Travel Tom

This article may seem ridiculous, but please do hear me out. There are some circumstances where a Business Class flight actually does cost less money overall than Economy.

Before starting into my main points, it is worth pointing out that it is possible to get cheaper seats in Business than in Economy due to demand on the aircraft. Let’s say there’s a flight within Europe that has one free seat in Economy while up front it’s pretty much empty. In this case the Business seats will go for their normal price, but Economy will be two, three or even four times the price. This results in the unusual situation where Business is legitimately cheaper than Economy.

Business at £89 less then Economy? Yes, please!

Of course this is quite rare, and I had to scroll through a few different destinations over a number of months each on the BA website to find this example. Still – it’s nice when it happens and it coincides with your plans!

But let’s talk about a more common scenario. You need to take a flight because of holidays, visiting friends and family, or work. In this scenario, we would want to focus on flights that are greater than two hours, and for at least one week. The reason for this is that a shorter flight and one that is hand-baggage only probably doesn’t justify Business over Economy.

The Art of Tasting Wine at a Restaurant

Alcohol, Fine Dining, Food & Drink Tom

So you’re on a big date. Or an important meeting. Or out with some good friends. You’re at a nice restaurant. The kind of restaurant that irons the table cloths before each service. Maybe there’s a star or two involved. You’ve read the menu, shared your choices with your fellow diner(s) and even progressed past the often heated “red or white” debate.

This is arguably the most mysterious, unknown and contested point during a fine dining experience

As a result of being an avid reader of Aspiring Snob, you’ve also taken it upon yourself, or been assigned, to decide on the wine to accompany your fine meal. You’ve browsed through and weighed up the merits of New World versus Old World, the type of grape, perhaps the year and – cutting right to the chase – the price. Finally you settle on what you believe will be an impressive accompaniment to your meal and will increase your standing by pairing perfectly.

British Airways Loyalty Scheme

Deals, Flights, Loyalty Schemes, Perks, Travel Tom

As an Aspiring Snob, one of the best ways to get started is by signing up to the free British Airways Executive Club (BAEC for short). As the loyalty scheme for BA, the BAEC offers two forms of “currency” that you may earn and spend.

The first form of currency is in the form of Avios points, as part of the Avois Program. You may have seen these before, especially if you’re based in the UK, and they can be earned from BA as well as oneworld alliance partner flights, shopping with partner sites and spending on a British Airways American Express card. It is also possible to buy Avios outright if you find yourself short.