0 Mailbag Monday: May 17, 2010

How come you have never been to Canada?  You have something against your neighbors to the north?
-Rob, Ottawa, Canada


To the contrary, we love Canada! The poutine, the hockey, the "eh"... Katrina actually went to college in Montreal, which was, in fact, the first stop on our first travel adventure together back in 2006. Patrick also had his bachelor party there just about a year ago, but for some reason he never got around to blogging about it. Hmmm...


Katrina has spent some time in different parts of Canada and loves the seaside cuteness of Halifax, the empty wilderness of northern British Columbia, and the food at Gingerbread Cottage in Victoria. We hope to do some more exploring north of the border in the nearish future. We're open to suggestions :)


You mentioned the Admirals Club a couple times during your travels.  Did you find the experience overall postive/worthwhile?
-Aubrey, Wilmington, DE USA


Given that we were planning to be in a crazy number of airports over the course of six months, that it was our honeymoon, and that we'd gotten a discounted membership offer in the mail, we decided to splurge on an Admiral's Club membership. Overall, we loved it. The comfy, hospitable, and calm environment to wait for our flights. Free food. Open bar. But there were definitely some cons

• We originally thought the membership would be valid for any airline in the OneWorld Alliance, but this was not the case. We only got access to American, British, and Qantas's clubs.
• We only got access to the club if we were flying that airline. This might seem like a no brainer, but when we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on Qantas and had five hours to wait until our domestic flight to the South Island, we were not allowed into the Qantas Club since the flight we were waiting for was another airline. (Lucky for us we got a super nice guy at the door who let us in anyway, even though it was against the rules.)  
• The quality varied. Both Boston and London's Admiral's Clubs were under construction, crowded and really skimped on the food. While the Qantas Clubs offered hot buffets and full bars, the club at Logan offered up nuts, apples, and a single drink ticket.
• It's a lot of money. At an annual (non-discounted) membership fee of $500, you have to spend a lot of time at airports to get your value. 

You can send your own questions for the mailbag to patrinadoestheglobe@gmail.com