No joke. Regardless of your side of the aisle, you would think that he could have done more with the situation.

For that amount of stuff I just use my regular Jansport backpack from my high school/college days. Put the laptop in a neoprene sleve and go. That bag gets a lot more use now than it did in college. ;)

That's what I figured. I gave my backpack from school to my brother so I'll just buy another one.

I'm going to try to do the ZRH trip with a backpack but my laptop is a monster (still the Dell D620).

My eastpack works for that and the two main compartments helps keep the clothing flatter. The only issue I have with it is the bottom is not padded which is a concern when there's a laptop in there. The back is padded though.

I've got a TravelPro Wall Street backpack. It holds a lot and is not bad.

Reporters are now targets of crime in Houston. Scary stuff.

I wouldn't say he was a target. He was a victim of a random crime who happened to be a reporter. Scary either way.

Was searching the SA website for February of 2010 and found that if I tried to book IAH-CPT it would bring up IAH-LHR on CO and LHR-CPT on SA. ;)

How much do they want for that ticket in J?

I really need to get on with planning a trip there for my then wife's birthday...

IAH-LHR-CPT-JNB-IAD-IAH prices out to $11k but it lists the IAH-LHR segment as Economy (Z) which I'm guessing is a mistake.

CO is like 9000 , AF, NW, DL, KL are around 4300-4500

Oh, $22k for both of us, that's not too bad! :p I think I'll defintely be burning miles to take her down there... We'd like to spend a few days in London on the way there so I might consider buying a ticket to London (cheap in February) and then burning miles (looks like 80k) from LHR to CPT/JNB.

I like this :
Houston, TX to Cape Town, South Africa: 9352 miles 28 hrs 0 min

Continental Airlines Flight CO 51 on a Boeing 767 (jet) in first class
(dinner, movie)
Departs Houston, TX (IAH) Tue, Feb 16 9:00p 10 hrs 20 min
Arrives Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) Wed, Feb 17 11:20a
Layover in Buenos Aires 10 hrs 0 min
Malaysia Airlines Flight MH202 on a Boeing 747 (jet) in business class
(meal)
Departs Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) Wed, Feb 17 9:20p 7 hrs 40 min
Arrives Cape Town, South Africa (CPT) Thur, Feb 18 9:00a
Note: The flight from Houston (IAH) to Buenos Aires (EZE) is overnight.
Note: The flight from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Cape Town (CPT) is overnight.


Cape Town, South Africa to Houston, TX: 9352 miles 27 hrs 20 min

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH201 on a Boeing 747 (jet) in business class
(meal)
Departs Cape Town, South Africa (CPT) Wed, Feb 24 11:00a 9 hrs 35 min
Arrives Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) 4:35p
Layover in Buenos Aires 7 hrs 15 min
Continental Airlines Flight CO 52 on a Boeing 767 (jet) in business class
(movie)
Departs Buenos Aires, Argentina (EZE) Wed, Feb 24 11:50p 10 hrs 30 min
Arrives Houston, TX (IAH) Thur, Feb 25 6:20a
Note: The flight from Buenos Aires (EZE) to Houston (IAH) is overnight.

If you have a Costco near you, check them out. they have a good range of backpacks at the moment (back to school time). I have a Janssport one I bought from there a couple of years ago that I use on my MRs. It's sturdy, lots of space, light, and best of all it was only $14.99. Bargain!