Is it just me...

or do other frequent travelers find themselves pressing 9 to get an outside line, even when you're at home?

-Dave

The most I've ever paid for a room

Untill a few weeks ago the most I had ever paid was $350 a night at the
Marriott Wardman Park in D.C. The new record is $450 a night at the
Marriott Chicago Downtown, Magnificent Mile. The whole town was sold out
for a cardio conference at McCormick place. Luckily, I was only in town
for two nights.

--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.

No smoking please, or we'll ALL die.

I think it's safe to say that most fuels, especially aircraft fuels are probably a bit on the flammable side.

If you haven't been through the ghetto "G" concourse at IAD yet, you cannot quite appreciate how bad some airport terminals can be. I'll have to start YET ANOTHER blog on why some airports find it acceptable to leave feces on the bathroom floor....

Anyway, I digress... So, as I was saying, on a recent trip thru IAD, I fought the crowd to get to my gate when my flight was boarding, handed the agent my boarding pass and walked out to the covered walkway towards to my flight at G26. Just 5 feet after passing a "No Smoking" sign, a couple of rednecks decide it that they would get a quick smoke in before getting on the plane. So sure enough, Bill-Bob and Jim-Bob light up and start puffing away all this in light of the overwhelming odor of aircraft fuel in the air.

Since this flight was heading for my home in Greensboro, NC, one can only presume that these yokels were red-necks from way out in "the county". As I walked past these guys, I asked them to kindly wait until I am a safe distance away before they put their cigarettes out on the ground in the event it comes into contact with some JET FUEL that could have gone astray. Oh, and I reminded them that it says "No smoking" for a reason.

*sigh* What is it with people?!?!

(Posted using gnome-blog-poster)

-Dave

More Broken Seats

On a recent trip thru ORD I had the (mis)fortune of connecting to a Star Alliance partner carrier flying regional jets into GSO. The name escapes me at the moment but I think it's irrelevant at this point.

After securing what I feel is prime real estate on a ERJ (other than exit rows), Seat 1B, I board this extremely delayed flight only to find that my seat bottom is, for the lack of a better word, broken. It's more like the back 2/3 of the seat bottom supports were sorta.... gone.... Basically when you sat down, the back of your seat sort of sank down into a hole. At first I thought I would just sit quiet and be a good passenger because if I raised the issue, then maintenance would have to get involved and next thing you know, the whole flight would be delayed because I wanted to bitch about worn out seat and we'd be even later than we already were. So... I sit quitely albeit very uncomfortable.

After departure and we're well on our way - I ask the less than involved flight attendant (who by the way never ONCE made a trip to the back of the aircraft during the flight - he simply sat in his crew seat the entire 1 1/2 hour flight and played games on his cell phone).... Anyway, I digress... So I ask our fearless flight leader for a pillow so I can put it in the seat bottom to sit on so my knees would at least be level with my hips and not my forehead. Imagine this... Without looking, he informs me that they don't have any pillows.... I started to say "how do you know, you have not left the galley since we boarded" but I thought the better of it and just we back to what I was doing... Playing Klondike Solitaire on my Blackberry... Ahhh... Kindred souls...

-Dave

Travel tale: 5F - Mike Harris

So I'm boarding my flight in Salt Lake City last week to fly home. The gate agent is checking in the First Class cabin (myself included) but asks us to wait at the Jetway door for a few minutes. As we're standing there, the gate agent calls out "Is someone in seat 5F?" "Yes" comes the confirmation from another guy in the line. "Are you Mike Harris?" asks the agent. "Yes" he responds.
The gate agent turns back to the gentleman who had just presented his boarding pass and asks "What's your name?" "Mike Harris" comes the reply!

So two Mike Harris' were on the same flight and were assigned to the same seat at check-in!

Just then the Mike Harris waiting in line pipes up to the other Mike Harris - "Did you pick up a rental car here in Salt Lake City about 3 weeks ago?" He told us that when he got to the Hertz Rental Counter his car was already gone - and he got into one of those "Where's my car?" - "But you have the car, Sir" dilemmas...

I think I'll have to watch out for other Jim Marshalls!

-Jim Marshall

"We are only pre-boarding those who need special assistance and are psychotic please."

No, I'm not talking about those of us fortunate enough to be in "Zone 1" or "Group 1" (which by the way is now about 70% of the aircraft). No, I'm talking about those people who, for whatever reason, are in need of special assistance to get on the aircraft.

Before you start flaming me, I'm all for special assistance when needed. I can totally understand Grandma Betty can't quite get around like she used to. It's OK. What I don't want to see is the REST of us have to board 30 minutes late becuase your psychopathic great aunt who is wheelchair bound and is afraid to fly. If Aunt Ruby don't wanna fly, either friggin sedate her or Go-Greyhound for crying out loud!!!

Last night when leaving GSO on UAL for ORD, we left nearly 20 minutes late because some old woman, who was wheelchair bound, was throwing a hissy fit at the end of the jetway because she didn't want to "get on no damn airplane". Meanwhile, the rest of us had to wait.... and wait... and wait... and wait... Net result, that hussy got a free first class upgrade just to get on the plane. Nice! I have flown 150 segments on USAir this year (which only gets you pre-boarding in the Star Alliance airlines - yet ANOTHER blog) and for some reason, I cannot get up front on UAL but psycho Aunt Ruby get's it as a bribe.

Perhaps there should be 2 pre-boards? The first one for the psychoitc passengers (straight jackets required), and the second for those who genuinely want to travel but just need some help getting on the plane...

Lastly - PLEASE ONLY BOARD WHEN YOUR ZONE IS CALLED!!!! Nothing chaps my ass more than when a butt load of zone 5 & 6 folks get on the plane and take up the overhead bins above where I'm sitting.....

Note to self: Start a spitting fit and temper tantrum when you want a free first class upgrade.

Early at O'hare (ORD)

This morning it was -4 when we took off, a very cold morning for flying.
No de-icing, haven't at all this winter yet? Does it cost too much or
are we trying to have an accident?

We landed 14 minutes early and there is no room for us so we are stuck
on the tarmac for at least 10 minutes. Argh, this doesn't make flying
all that fun. Lucky us we are headed to the gate after waiting only 5
minutes. A small hoorah.


--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.

Landed but not there yet

So much for a nice morning to fky. We landed pretty much on time and now we are sitting on the tarmac waiting for our gate to clear. This is one aspect of flight ops and customer service I don't get, mostly the customer service side. We spend roughly as much time on the tarmac as our entire flight time. Two weeks in a row we are arriving late thanks to American Airlines incompetence!

--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.

New terminal opening at GRB

Well after too many months of construction they are finally opening up the new wing of the terminal in Green Bay. This will bring several welcome changes. No more walking out onb the tarmaac to get to American and United flights. Hopefully they will also be moving security back from the one tiny hallway into each of the wings of the new terminal. This will be very nice, two checkpoints rather than one and a much bigger area for waiting in line so it won't push the line down the escelator!

--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.

What a nice morning for flying

Its is bitterly cold out!! But it is also very clear. We are taking off at just about sunrise. The sun is that very bright deep pink off in the horizon. There is a light dusting of white snow on the ground. Pleasantly picturesque. Thes are the mornings I like to fly.
--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.

Taking care of passengers

Not on Deltta they don't. You take care to chose them as a service
provider, then you take care with your purchase and coice of seat. Then
they swap planes and move you from a premium bulkhead seat to a really
nasty one in the back of the plane. No notification from the gate agent.
No attempt to shift passengers around. No appology. So much for earning
repeat business. I was skepticval coming into this travel day and now it
plays out that I wasn't all that paranoid.


--

Rich
----------------------------
Sent from my crackberry.