stimpy
Feb 3, 00, 12:07 pm
My UA flight from LAX to ORD was supposed to be upgraded to 1st on a DC-10, but they replaced that plane with a 747 with the First Suite! But since there were fewer F seats I lost my upgrade. However I did get a nice new upstairs C seat.
I connected to a 767 in first to EZE and slept almost the whole flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Arriving in Buenos Aires, I walked up to the limo desk and slapped by Black card on the desk. Most all the people down there were amazed at the card. Mira! Esta Negra!
I took the long ride into town and pulled up at the Park Hyatt which is one of the best in the world. I received a "Welcome back Mr. Holdrege" and was soon on my way to an upgraded room. I'm not sure if the upgrade was due to Diamond status or the Amex Fine Hotels program. Oh well.
Walked over to the Recoleto and spent an hour walking through the most amazing cemetary in the world. Had lunch at a 150 year old cafe. It was about 80 degrees and a perfect day.
That night at about 10:30pm, I went to an excellent steak house at Puerto Maria. Upon leaving I heard Tina Turner singing across the water. I walked around to Divino Buenos Aires which is a huge open air disco with a very large diamond vision screen showing a Tina concert. It was some kind of special event sponsored by Fox, invitation only. So I walked in behind some invitees and was welcomed by a gaggle of Fox marketing people.
It was a great night and I think I got back to the hotel around 3AM.
The next day I took a short taxi ride to AEP and boarded the AR 737 flight to PDP in J class. An hour or so later we were there and they had a private minivan for a biz passengers.
I went to the Hertz desk and picked up a small Chevy Corso. I made the 30KM drive into Punta Del Este and found the new Conrad Casino. I was warmly welcomed in English and given a double upgrade (Hilton Gold) to a nice room on the top floor (17) which had views of the sea wrapping around the peninsula. I could also see the match tennis courts where the Senior Open would soon take place with players such as Conners, McEnroe, Borg, etc.
The restaurants have excellent seafood as you might imagine, but the steaks aren't nearly as good as in Argentina. That's surprising since it seemed like half of Buenos Aires was vacationing there.
Saturday night I decided to try the La Barra district which has the famous discos. I went to Yenny's for dinner at 11:30 and again had a great dinner. After dinner I walked through 5 art galleries and some furniture and clothes shops. I don't think they ever close!
At 1:30AM there was a huge fireworks show on the beach which signalled the kickoff for the discos. I tried the Aquabar and it was incredible. Wall to wall people dancing to everything from Stayin Alive to Livin La Vida Loca to local Salsa. I estimated 5 girls to every guy. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Sunday I went to the Conrad lounge and turned the TV on to ESPN to watch the Super Bowl en Espanol. The lounge was half full, and a couple of people walked over to see what I was watching, then they walked away. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Later a couple of pilots from New Mexico joined me to watch a great game. We chatted about frequent travel and I told them about Flyertalk. These guys are serious about Hotel cards as they fly all over the world. They were very interested when I told them about the Starwood Platinum promotion.
During the second half, a band started playing in the lounge and the place was packed. Meanwhile we were watching the game, cheering and yelling while the band played on. We got a few stares. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Monday I downgraded myself to the Hotel Remanso for my meeting. It was OK, but nothing like the Conrad. Tuesday afternoon I drove to PDP and went to the excellent AR VIP lounge. After the plane was fully boarded in coach, they invited us into the minivan to take us to the plane. They really know how to do it right in South America!
Another short flight to AEP and a 30 limo ride to EZE where I found a private office for United 1st class. The check-in person sat me down asked me if I wanted anything anything from the mini-bar. Why can't United be like this everywhere!!!
I went to the RCC after picking up some items from Habana http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif and relaxed for a while. Later I boarded in seat 1A and found the plane was very cold. I figured that was because it was still very warm outside. I bundled up in blankets and waited. A few other 1st class passengers complained about the cold and the FA's went up to the cockpit to see what they could do. It quickly warmed up. 10 minutes later they said that people in coach were shucking out of their clothes since it was so hot. The air conditioning system had some control failure so they could not equalize the temperature. They decided to let 1st class freeze. I was already fighting a cold so I was pretty miserable. I really couldn't take it any longer so I went back to sit in coach.
The entire plane was full and I had to sit it the crew seat in the last row. But at least I was warm. The FA's were nice, but the flight pretty much sucked and I'll probably write to United to get some kind of refund for my "downgrade".
The connecting flight to LAX was at B7 and the Intl 1st class lounge is in C so I decided to go to the 1K room in B which opens at 5:30AM as I can now attest to. It seemed like the staff there knew everyone who came in but me. I guess there are a lot of regulars there.
I boarded the 757 to LAX in 1D. One problem I have with UA FA's in the U.S. is they wear blinders. They stroll up and down the aisle without double checking if everyone is OK. I must have been invisble since they missed my preflight drink, my breakfast drink and although I asked both of them for a paper cup of water for landing (my ears were shot due to my cold) they never brought it til I refused to give up my glass. Very poor crew. During the flight when I was waiting for the lavatory, I heard them complaining about how much training they have to do. I wanted to tell them they were in the wrong line of work. I came pretty close to going off on them.
I connected to a 767 in first to EZE and slept almost the whole flight. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Arriving in Buenos Aires, I walked up to the limo desk and slapped by Black card on the desk. Most all the people down there were amazed at the card. Mira! Esta Negra!
I took the long ride into town and pulled up at the Park Hyatt which is one of the best in the world. I received a "Welcome back Mr. Holdrege" and was soon on my way to an upgraded room. I'm not sure if the upgrade was due to Diamond status or the Amex Fine Hotels program. Oh well.
Walked over to the Recoleto and spent an hour walking through the most amazing cemetary in the world. Had lunch at a 150 year old cafe. It was about 80 degrees and a perfect day.
That night at about 10:30pm, I went to an excellent steak house at Puerto Maria. Upon leaving I heard Tina Turner singing across the water. I walked around to Divino Buenos Aires which is a huge open air disco with a very large diamond vision screen showing a Tina concert. It was some kind of special event sponsored by Fox, invitation only. So I walked in behind some invitees and was welcomed by a gaggle of Fox marketing people.
It was a great night and I think I got back to the hotel around 3AM.
The next day I took a short taxi ride to AEP and boarded the AR 737 flight to PDP in J class. An hour or so later we were there and they had a private minivan for a biz passengers.
I went to the Hertz desk and picked up a small Chevy Corso. I made the 30KM drive into Punta Del Este and found the new Conrad Casino. I was warmly welcomed in English and given a double upgrade (Hilton Gold) to a nice room on the top floor (17) which had views of the sea wrapping around the peninsula. I could also see the match tennis courts where the Senior Open would soon take place with players such as Conners, McEnroe, Borg, etc.
The restaurants have excellent seafood as you might imagine, but the steaks aren't nearly as good as in Argentina. That's surprising since it seemed like half of Buenos Aires was vacationing there.
Saturday night I decided to try the La Barra district which has the famous discos. I went to Yenny's for dinner at 11:30 and again had a great dinner. After dinner I walked through 5 art galleries and some furniture and clothes shops. I don't think they ever close!
At 1:30AM there was a huge fireworks show on the beach which signalled the kickoff for the discos. I tried the Aquabar and it was incredible. Wall to wall people dancing to everything from Stayin Alive to Livin La Vida Loca to local Salsa. I estimated 5 girls to every guy. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Sunday I went to the Conrad lounge and turned the TV on to ESPN to watch the Super Bowl en Espanol. The lounge was half full, and a couple of people walked over to see what I was watching, then they walked away. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Later a couple of pilots from New Mexico joined me to watch a great game. We chatted about frequent travel and I told them about Flyertalk. These guys are serious about Hotel cards as they fly all over the world. They were very interested when I told them about the Starwood Platinum promotion.
During the second half, a band started playing in the lounge and the place was packed. Meanwhile we were watching the game, cheering and yelling while the band played on. We got a few stares. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Monday I downgraded myself to the Hotel Remanso for my meeting. It was OK, but nothing like the Conrad. Tuesday afternoon I drove to PDP and went to the excellent AR VIP lounge. After the plane was fully boarded in coach, they invited us into the minivan to take us to the plane. They really know how to do it right in South America!
Another short flight to AEP and a 30 limo ride to EZE where I found a private office for United 1st class. The check-in person sat me down asked me if I wanted anything anything from the mini-bar. Why can't United be like this everywhere!!!
I went to the RCC after picking up some items from Habana http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif and relaxed for a while. Later I boarded in seat 1A and found the plane was very cold. I figured that was because it was still very warm outside. I bundled up in blankets and waited. A few other 1st class passengers complained about the cold and the FA's went up to the cockpit to see what they could do. It quickly warmed up. 10 minutes later they said that people in coach were shucking out of their clothes since it was so hot. The air conditioning system had some control failure so they could not equalize the temperature. They decided to let 1st class freeze. I was already fighting a cold so I was pretty miserable. I really couldn't take it any longer so I went back to sit in coach.
The entire plane was full and I had to sit it the crew seat in the last row. But at least I was warm. The FA's were nice, but the flight pretty much sucked and I'll probably write to United to get some kind of refund for my "downgrade".
The connecting flight to LAX was at B7 and the Intl 1st class lounge is in C so I decided to go to the 1K room in B which opens at 5:30AM as I can now attest to. It seemed like the staff there knew everyone who came in but me. I guess there are a lot of regulars there.
I boarded the 757 to LAX in 1D. One problem I have with UA FA's in the U.S. is they wear blinders. They stroll up and down the aisle without double checking if everyone is OK. I must have been invisble since they missed my preflight drink, my breakfast drink and although I asked both of them for a paper cup of water for landing (my ears were shot due to my cold) they never brought it til I refused to give up my glass. Very poor crew. During the flight when I was waiting for the lavatory, I heard them complaining about how much training they have to do. I wanted to tell them they were in the wrong line of work. I came pretty close to going off on them.