Texas travels

Forget the Alamo: Here's how you do a weekend getaway in San Antonio

The pool at Mokara Hotel & Spa has fabulous views of the city.
La Gloira tacos are a must.
Bands like Emory Quinn jam at Pearl Farmers Market.
The Japanese Tea Garden is a lush, green respite.
Bartenders mix it up at Esquire Tavern.

When Santa Anna and William B. Travis fought it out during the Battle of the Alamo, they probably did not forsee the fort becoming a Texas landmark. Although San Antonio takes prides in this crucial part in Texas history, the city now flourishes thanks to vibrants arts, culture and cuisine.

Friday

8 pm: Deplane and unwind
Fly from Love Field Airport and arrive at San Antonio International Airport. Taxis would suffice (at a hefty price), but consider renting a car — or skip the flight and drive in. Check in at the Mokara Hotel & Spa located on the city's famous River Walk. Check in to your guest room, complete with marble and wood touches, high ceilings, luxurious linens and Jacuzzi tub.

9 pm: Nourish yourself
Head to The Sandbar Fish House & Market (book a reservation in advance) at the Pearl Brewery. This is where Andrew Weissman creates impeccable seafood dishes a la minute. The cool colors create a relaxed, beachy chic environment for dining. For two: Sip on bubbly or indulge in a bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc. Then start with curry shrimp and tuna chip n' dip, share a mixed green salad and half a dozen oysters, and finish off with Key lime pie.

Saturday

10 am: Epicurean adventure
Venture down to the Pearl Farmers Market. First stop should be Sol Y Luna Baking Company for a baguette and kolache. Savor a cup of French roast coffee from San Antonio Coffee Roasters. Then sample Texas honey from Gretchen Bee Ranch and browse the goods from more than 35 vendors while listening to a local band jam.

1 pm: Get artsy
Go to The McNay museum for a dose of 19th through 21st century art. In the early 20th century, Marion Koogler moved from Ohio to San Antonio, married Don Denton McNay, remarried Donald T. Atkinson after McNay's death, and began collecting art. The pair commissioned notable architects Atlee and Robert Ayres to design a Spanish Colonial revival house, which later became the McNay Art Museum. (After Marion ended her second marriage, she used her first husband's name.) The current exhibition is Estampas De La Raza: Contemporary prints from the Romo Collection, a survey of Mexican-American and Latino printmakers.

3 pm: Late lunch
Eat outside at The Cove — a gluten-free, vegetarian and child-friendly beer garden and restaurant (as well as an on-site car wash and laundrymat) — where a chill vibe and comforting food sate your cravings. Order the warm beet salad, Texas burger and organic sweet potato fries.

6 pm: Happy hour
Head to the dark, saloon-like Esquire Tavern for a drink. Bartenders at the oldest watering hole on the River Walk mix up tasty cocktails. Try Bittersweet Symphony with rye, aperol, fernet, carpano antica, rhubarb and bitters; Sacrilage with chamomile pisco, green chartreuse, lime, honey syrup and cracked pepper; or Oaxaca Mule with mezcal, lime and ginger beer.

8 pm: More than a taste
Head to Feast for dinner, where chef Stefan Bowers dishes up a series of small plates — hot, chilled, grilled, crispy, comfort and mains. Eat the grilled pear salad, Hungarian wax peppers, duck breast tostadas and sweet corn fritters.

Sunday

10 am: French fare
It's a rarity to find French croissants as good as the ones in Paris. Bistro Bakery is the place to go for an almond croissant and cafe au lait that will send you back to your favorite patisserie in Le Marais. The sweet, buttery treat and charming decor are the best reasons to wake up early on a Sunday.

11 am: Green getaway
The lush Japanese Tea Garden is a peaceful place to relax. Take a walk on stone bridges and admire the serene surrounding. Jingu House Cafe is ideal for a picnic and picture-perfect shots of the green garden.

Noon: Taco time
Your trip would not be complete without indulging in cocina Mexicana. Go to La Gloria for tacos, ceviche and flan de coco. Chef Johnny Hernandez does Mexican street food with a sophisticated and gourmet twist.

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Airline News

American Airlines to take things up a notch at DFW Airport

Photo courtesy of American Airlines

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Fort Worth-based American Airlines is making changes at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), its largest hub and hometown airport, including departure times spread throughout the day.

DFW has an outsized impact on the rest of the airline’s operation and on the journeys of the nearly 700,000 customers the airline serves every day across its global network. More customers and more bags travel and connect through DFW every day than any other airport in American's network. What's good for DFW is good for everyone.

More banks
For more than a decade, American’s schedule at DFW has been concentrated across nine banks, or large clusters of flights across the operating day. As all airline bank structures do, this times large groups of flights together, coordinating arrivals and departures, and ultimately, coordinating quick and seamless connections.

Beginning in April — and visible in the airline’s schedules starting December 27 — American’s DFW operation is evolving to a 13-bank structure, providing more certainty to the airline’s average 100,000 peak daily customers traveling on the more than 930 average peak DFW daily departing flights.

With this structural schedule change, customers will find more departure options in highly desired time windows and fewer early morning departures to DFW.

American is also making an investment in block time for flights to and from DFW. (Block time is the total scheduled time between pushback from the departure gate to arrival at the destination gate.) The goal is more on-time departures, which lead to more on-time arrivals and fewer delays.

Connections
They're also working on improving connection times, making it easier to connect through DFW. The new structure should reduce the concentration of very short connection times.

Customers on the go such as business travelers can still book tight connections when time matters — but the schedule enhancements will now provide more options for a stress-free experience with more time between flights. Reflowing their schedule means fewer air traffic delays and more on-time departures and arrivals.

By spreading out its DFW flight schedule across the day, the airline is also spreading out customer volume, including everything from local customers arriving in parking garages, checking in at lobbies, and clearing security, to connecting customers making their way through American’s terminals to their next flights.

Terminals
Other improvements include modernizing American’s facilities and airport terminals, including Terminal A and C Pier extensions adding nine incremental gates.

They're also adding Terminal F to be completed in 2030, with 31 new gates that can accommodate increased widebody capacity, state-of-the-art baggage technology, dedicated premium lounges, Flagship check-in, and a new U.S. Customs facility.

New programs in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection include TSA PreCheck Touchless ID — allowing customers at DFW (and 16 other locations across American’s U.S. network) to use facial recognition technology for more secure and efficient identity verification.

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