dgolds
Feb 1, 00, 1:40 pm
Last week was a typical business trip for me – a week in Columbus, Ohio – with a day in LA up front for a party with some friends there.
Time on board: 1 hour, 15 minutes; time at baggage claim: 50 minutes
I arrived at SFO at approximately 6:50 AM for my short 8 AM flight on AS to LAX. The ticketing area was in chaos. It seems AS 292 is primarily a feeder flight for connections to the Mexico coast resorts, and on this particular Saturday in mid-January, there were lots of folks who wanted to escape the dampness and gloom of our Northern California winter for some sun and fun on the beach. Well, apparently, the representative of one of the beach resorts, who was supposed to bring the tickets for 40 of these folks, was a no show, so many of my traveling companions to be didn’t know whether they were going to be able get on board or not. Lots of yelling and screaming. I used the AS ATM-style machine to check in and get my extra 500 Mileage Plan miles. But for some reason the machine never asked me if I had any bags to check, so there was no way to avoid the fun at ticketing. According to the ticketing agent who checked my bags, this is a feature of the SFO (and only the SFO) ATMs: they don’t ask pax if they are planning to check any bags.
Fortunately, I was using a coupon upgrade (thanks to my dear AS angels on this board), and stepped into the line to the left of where the hubbub was occurring. After a minute or so wait, I gave the nice ticketing agent my bag and was on my way to the Board Room. This was my first time in the SFO Board Room: I have passed it by (and looked longingly) many times on my way to CO’s gates. It’s extremely convenient, right next to the AS gates, and a lot more convenient to the CO gates I usually fly out of than the CO President’s Club, which is to the right of the ticket counter and outside of security. I got a nice greeting from Marcia, and we spent my entire time in the comfortable clubroom chatting away. Marcia’s very friendly and hospitable, and if you stop at SFO and have Board Room privileges, go in and say hello to her.
We had a slight delay out of SFO and touched down at LAX at 9:30, about 10 minutes late. Service was perfunctory on the short flight.
I checked a bag full of clothes that I would need in Ohio the next week. Four other non-connecting passengers had also checked bags on this short hop. We got to baggage claim at about 9:40, and waited…and waited…and waited. The agent at baggage service told us “bags are always late coming off of this flight because there are always so many connecting passengers.” After waiting a half an hour, I went up to baggage service again. They called the baggage workers, told them that none of the LA-bound passengers had gotten their bags yet, and were told there weren’t any more bags! Five minutes later, they managed to find our bags, sent them down the chute, and 10 minutes later, we were on their way.
Day of heaven
I got to the Westin LAX, where I had gotten a great ($79/night) rate through the Days of Heaven promotion, at around 11 AM. I was told not to come back until three; they couldn’t give me an early check in. True, I got in quite early, but I thought they could have come up with a room in such a big hotel. At any rate, as I was meeting a friend for lunch in West Hollywood, this really didn’t present a problem.
We had our lunch and we both had a little time to kill, so we went up to Hollywood to play tourist. For all the times I’ve been to LA (and I lived there for about a year), I’ve never been on the walk of the stars, or seen the Chinese Theatre. We toured both, and then went into the beautifully restored Egyptian Theatre to have a look. Great fun!
After my party on Saturday night, I made my way back to the hotel to try the famous Westin Heavenly Bed for the first time. It’s a good bed, but to be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference between it and any bed I’ve slept in at any other good hotel like Marriott or Hyatt. Strikes me that the Heavenly Bed is more marketing hype than anything of any real value.
I checked out, returned my rental car, and took the nice Easy Access Hertz bus (love ‘em) to LAX for my next flight.
In 1492, Columbus sailed…
Check in at CO’s counter at LAX was a mess; people lined up as far as the naked eye could see. I stepped into the first class line, as I had upgrades for both segments of my flight. Checked in, found my way to the nice President’s Club, only to discover that my flight was delayed because our equipment had not arrived yet. I was hungry and as the President’s Club was not offering much in the way of food, decided to try one of the sausages at the nice sausage stand I had seen on my way to the Club. It’s attached to a brew pub right across from the Club. I don’t remember the name of the stand, but I had a great sausage there! Highly recommended!
Our flight left about an hour left, which meant my connection was in jeopardy. The flight itself was uneventful. We arrived at IAH about 45 minutes late and by a stroke of good luck, my arriving gate was C-18 and connecting gate was C-19. That never happens! The connecting, which was flight #1492 to Columbus (too cute…), took off about 15 minutes later. Another uneventful flight; typical good CO service and pretty nice food.
I got to baggage claim, which I had been dreading, but CO came through like a champ. The good news: my bag had made the connection along with me. The bad news: my blue priority handling tag apparently means nothing at CMH. I’m so spoiled by CO, seeing my bag nearly always come off the chute among the first!
Columbus Westin Great Southern: the great car chase
I checked in at the Westin for my second stay as a Starwood Gold Preferred. Go up to my room to find I am right across from an elevator. I don’t think so. Returned to check in; they find another room for me. It’s on the inside wing of the hotel, which means no natural light in the room the entire stay, but I didn’t realize that. Oh, well, I’ll make a mental note for next time.
The Westin Great Southern is an historic, grand hotel that’s been restored. I normally enjoy this style of hotel, but for my taste, they didn’t take this particular restoration far enough. For instance, there’s no available electrical plugs or phone jacks anywhere near the writing desk for my laptop. The chair is a dining room style chair, with no ergonomic height adjustment. (Important for me, because I’m short.) The heavenly bed (sans duvet and megapillows) was about the same as at the Westin at LAX – surely a nice bed, but not the greatest bed I’ve ever slept in. The lobby, fitness club, and restaurant are OK, but nothing great. On the other hand, the bathroom was very nice and spacious, and the location is pretty good – a couple of blocks south of downtown Columbus’ shopping center, which has a nice Marshall Field’s and many typical mall stores. Importantly to me, it’s a five minute drive from my client, so it’s very convenient.
There were a few mishaps during my stay. On Tuesday morning, I received a bill under my door; the hotel computer system checked me out three days early. (Despite the fact that when I checked in on Sunday night, my check out date was correct on my reservation.) A visit to the hotel check in counter corrected that problem. On Tuesday night, my telephone didn’t work – I kept getting “fast busy” signals whenever I tried to make a call. As this happens when a hotel’s phone system is overloaded, and as the hotel was fully booked up, I just waited and thought the problem would clear itself up eventually. After about three hours of not being able to make a phone call, I called down to the front desk, who told me that for some reason, my telephone had been turned off. After three calls to the front desk, each time being told that the problem had been resolved, they finally figured out how to fix the problem.
But the really big fun was on Wednesday. I called down to valet parking for my car at about 8:10 AM. They said valet parking was really busy, and that I could get the car at around 8:30 but not earlier than that. Not good, because that meant I would be late to work. I guess everyone was using the valet because of the subzero temperatures. (I usually self park.) I went down at 8:30 – no car. I asked the bellman to look into it. 10 minutes of fumbling around between me, the bellman, and the valet guys. The manager of valet parking came up to me at around 8:40 and said, we’re sorry, but your car is nowhere to be found. Whoa! I was not a happy camper, but very quickly thought it through and decided it would be much better to stay calm, treat it as an adventure (as Rudi says), and see what would happen. The hotel staff was extremely apologetic and surprised by the fact that I was taking it all pretty calmly. I decided I ought to file a police report (in case there was a theft, plus I wanted to have something in writing that said it was the parking lot’s fault), but decided after talking it over with the hotel manager that an internal security report would be OK, as long as I could get something in writing from the hotel.
There was a very funny moment after that. The hotel manager was falling all over himself to do something nice for me, given my inconvenience plus the fact that he really appreciated the fact that I wasn’t yelling and screaming.
Hotel Manager: Well, we could take something off your bill. No, you probably wouldn’t see any of that since I imagine your hotel expenses are being reimbursed.
dgolds: That’s right.
HM: I want you to benefit out of this, since it’s your inconvenience. How about if we gave you a free night?
dg: Would that be in any Westin or here in Columbus?
HM: Here in Columbus.
dg: Sorry, that’s very nice of you to offer, but I don’t think I’ll be taking a vacation in Columbus this year. How about some Starpoints or a free night somewhere else?
HM: We can’t do that since we’re a franchisee. How about if you just cleared out your refrigerator bar at the end of the week?
dg: Sorry, I don’t drink.
HM (joking): Well, we could call an escort service…
dg: Oops, I’m gay, so that wouldn’t work out too well for me, either!
We both had a good laugh at that point.
He eventually came up with a really nice solution. I don’t feel like it would be right to post it here, but it will probably ensure that I’ll be staying in lots of Starwood properties in my future.
The parking manager, Dave, a great guy by the way, took me to my client’s office in his truck. When I came back to the hotel that night, the car had been recovered. Seems that one of the other hotel guests took off with my car as she was in a hurry and thought it was hers. I totally understand, given that I rent a lot of cars and after a while they all start looking the same. The entire rest of my stay, the hotel staff was falling all over me to be as nice as possible. Everyone on staff knew me by name. I don’t think I have ever received such good service at any hotel – I highly recommend having your car taken by someone else!
When I checked out on Friday, one of my dinners and 2 nights of parking had thoughtfully been taken off the bill.
Adventures in dining
It was chilly while I was in Columbus. Temperatures didn’t go above 20 degrees F all week, and they were subzero most nights. I lose my sense of adventure for dining out when it is that cold.
The first night, armed with my Jon Toner tips for driving in the snow and ice, I headed to the western suburbs of Columbus for the Taj Majal, and Indian restaurant I visited twice the last time I was in Columbus. Very nice Indian food, and enough to pack a lunch the next day. Another reason to recommend the Taj Mahal: across the street is a Krispy Kreme store! Mmmmm….hot donuts! I ate at a place called Out on Main on Wednesday night. Very beautiful restaurant, very nice menu, chef trained in Europe. I really wanted to like this place, but I have to say that the food didn’t meet my expectations. The restaurant is rated one of the top 10 in Columbus by the local food critics (according to the restaurant’s publicity), but the escargot stuffed in artichoke appetizer was off (both escargot and artichokes tasted like they came right out of the can), and the wiener schnitzel was oversalted and a little tough. Thursday night, I enjoyed a Reuben sandwich at a local deli named Katzinger’s, just south of downtown Columbus and about 4 blocks from the Westin. I gather it’s something of a local institution; I very much enjoyed the deli fare there. [i]Terrific[i] rye bread.
Only regret: as I wasn’t feeling adventuresome, I didn’t have a chance to try Scali’s, as was recommended here. I’ll keep the tip, and next time in Columbus, I’ll give it a try.
Bean ravioli?
I checked in for my return at Port Columbus International about an hour and a half early. As CMH has no Presidents Club or America West Club (surprising, since it’s an HP hub), I waited in the gate area with the rest of the herd. Got on board, took off, and got the word on the dinner choices: a pasta, and “bean ravioli.”
Well, curiosity got the best of me. I had to try the bean ravioli. It was an odd dish, fresh pasta ravioli stuffed with refried pinto beans and a green chile salsa on top. Weird – but not bad.
Connecting through IAH was a snap. Saw the new signage for the terminal D gates, nee IAB. I am going to miss terminal IAB, just because I love the way it’s rendered by some staff in Houston who have that beautiful Texas twang: “ah eh beee.” Boarded on time and made it to SFO with no delays. CO served its usual snack in first on that flight, a pasta salad with tuna and chicken. I collected my bag, second out of the chute, caught a taxi, and was home and dreaming sweet dreams on my own heavenly bed by 11:00.
Time on board: 1 hour, 15 minutes; time at baggage claim: 50 minutes
I arrived at SFO at approximately 6:50 AM for my short 8 AM flight on AS to LAX. The ticketing area was in chaos. It seems AS 292 is primarily a feeder flight for connections to the Mexico coast resorts, and on this particular Saturday in mid-January, there were lots of folks who wanted to escape the dampness and gloom of our Northern California winter for some sun and fun on the beach. Well, apparently, the representative of one of the beach resorts, who was supposed to bring the tickets for 40 of these folks, was a no show, so many of my traveling companions to be didn’t know whether they were going to be able get on board or not. Lots of yelling and screaming. I used the AS ATM-style machine to check in and get my extra 500 Mileage Plan miles. But for some reason the machine never asked me if I had any bags to check, so there was no way to avoid the fun at ticketing. According to the ticketing agent who checked my bags, this is a feature of the SFO (and only the SFO) ATMs: they don’t ask pax if they are planning to check any bags.
Fortunately, I was using a coupon upgrade (thanks to my dear AS angels on this board), and stepped into the line to the left of where the hubbub was occurring. After a minute or so wait, I gave the nice ticketing agent my bag and was on my way to the Board Room. This was my first time in the SFO Board Room: I have passed it by (and looked longingly) many times on my way to CO’s gates. It’s extremely convenient, right next to the AS gates, and a lot more convenient to the CO gates I usually fly out of than the CO President’s Club, which is to the right of the ticket counter and outside of security. I got a nice greeting from Marcia, and we spent my entire time in the comfortable clubroom chatting away. Marcia’s very friendly and hospitable, and if you stop at SFO and have Board Room privileges, go in and say hello to her.
We had a slight delay out of SFO and touched down at LAX at 9:30, about 10 minutes late. Service was perfunctory on the short flight.
I checked a bag full of clothes that I would need in Ohio the next week. Four other non-connecting passengers had also checked bags on this short hop. We got to baggage claim at about 9:40, and waited…and waited…and waited. The agent at baggage service told us “bags are always late coming off of this flight because there are always so many connecting passengers.” After waiting a half an hour, I went up to baggage service again. They called the baggage workers, told them that none of the LA-bound passengers had gotten their bags yet, and were told there weren’t any more bags! Five minutes later, they managed to find our bags, sent them down the chute, and 10 minutes later, we were on their way.
Day of heaven
I got to the Westin LAX, where I had gotten a great ($79/night) rate through the Days of Heaven promotion, at around 11 AM. I was told not to come back until three; they couldn’t give me an early check in. True, I got in quite early, but I thought they could have come up with a room in such a big hotel. At any rate, as I was meeting a friend for lunch in West Hollywood, this really didn’t present a problem.
We had our lunch and we both had a little time to kill, so we went up to Hollywood to play tourist. For all the times I’ve been to LA (and I lived there for about a year), I’ve never been on the walk of the stars, or seen the Chinese Theatre. We toured both, and then went into the beautifully restored Egyptian Theatre to have a look. Great fun!
After my party on Saturday night, I made my way back to the hotel to try the famous Westin Heavenly Bed for the first time. It’s a good bed, but to be honest, I couldn’t tell the difference between it and any bed I’ve slept in at any other good hotel like Marriott or Hyatt. Strikes me that the Heavenly Bed is more marketing hype than anything of any real value.
I checked out, returned my rental car, and took the nice Easy Access Hertz bus (love ‘em) to LAX for my next flight.
In 1492, Columbus sailed…
Check in at CO’s counter at LAX was a mess; people lined up as far as the naked eye could see. I stepped into the first class line, as I had upgrades for both segments of my flight. Checked in, found my way to the nice President’s Club, only to discover that my flight was delayed because our equipment had not arrived yet. I was hungry and as the President’s Club was not offering much in the way of food, decided to try one of the sausages at the nice sausage stand I had seen on my way to the Club. It’s attached to a brew pub right across from the Club. I don’t remember the name of the stand, but I had a great sausage there! Highly recommended!
Our flight left about an hour left, which meant my connection was in jeopardy. The flight itself was uneventful. We arrived at IAH about 45 minutes late and by a stroke of good luck, my arriving gate was C-18 and connecting gate was C-19. That never happens! The connecting, which was flight #1492 to Columbus (too cute…), took off about 15 minutes later. Another uneventful flight; typical good CO service and pretty nice food.
I got to baggage claim, which I had been dreading, but CO came through like a champ. The good news: my bag had made the connection along with me. The bad news: my blue priority handling tag apparently means nothing at CMH. I’m so spoiled by CO, seeing my bag nearly always come off the chute among the first!
Columbus Westin Great Southern: the great car chase
I checked in at the Westin for my second stay as a Starwood Gold Preferred. Go up to my room to find I am right across from an elevator. I don’t think so. Returned to check in; they find another room for me. It’s on the inside wing of the hotel, which means no natural light in the room the entire stay, but I didn’t realize that. Oh, well, I’ll make a mental note for next time.
The Westin Great Southern is an historic, grand hotel that’s been restored. I normally enjoy this style of hotel, but for my taste, they didn’t take this particular restoration far enough. For instance, there’s no available electrical plugs or phone jacks anywhere near the writing desk for my laptop. The chair is a dining room style chair, with no ergonomic height adjustment. (Important for me, because I’m short.) The heavenly bed (sans duvet and megapillows) was about the same as at the Westin at LAX – surely a nice bed, but not the greatest bed I’ve ever slept in. The lobby, fitness club, and restaurant are OK, but nothing great. On the other hand, the bathroom was very nice and spacious, and the location is pretty good – a couple of blocks south of downtown Columbus’ shopping center, which has a nice Marshall Field’s and many typical mall stores. Importantly to me, it’s a five minute drive from my client, so it’s very convenient.
There were a few mishaps during my stay. On Tuesday morning, I received a bill under my door; the hotel computer system checked me out three days early. (Despite the fact that when I checked in on Sunday night, my check out date was correct on my reservation.) A visit to the hotel check in counter corrected that problem. On Tuesday night, my telephone didn’t work – I kept getting “fast busy” signals whenever I tried to make a call. As this happens when a hotel’s phone system is overloaded, and as the hotel was fully booked up, I just waited and thought the problem would clear itself up eventually. After about three hours of not being able to make a phone call, I called down to the front desk, who told me that for some reason, my telephone had been turned off. After three calls to the front desk, each time being told that the problem had been resolved, they finally figured out how to fix the problem.
But the really big fun was on Wednesday. I called down to valet parking for my car at about 8:10 AM. They said valet parking was really busy, and that I could get the car at around 8:30 but not earlier than that. Not good, because that meant I would be late to work. I guess everyone was using the valet because of the subzero temperatures. (I usually self park.) I went down at 8:30 – no car. I asked the bellman to look into it. 10 minutes of fumbling around between me, the bellman, and the valet guys. The manager of valet parking came up to me at around 8:40 and said, we’re sorry, but your car is nowhere to be found. Whoa! I was not a happy camper, but very quickly thought it through and decided it would be much better to stay calm, treat it as an adventure (as Rudi says), and see what would happen. The hotel staff was extremely apologetic and surprised by the fact that I was taking it all pretty calmly. I decided I ought to file a police report (in case there was a theft, plus I wanted to have something in writing that said it was the parking lot’s fault), but decided after talking it over with the hotel manager that an internal security report would be OK, as long as I could get something in writing from the hotel.
There was a very funny moment after that. The hotel manager was falling all over himself to do something nice for me, given my inconvenience plus the fact that he really appreciated the fact that I wasn’t yelling and screaming.
Hotel Manager: Well, we could take something off your bill. No, you probably wouldn’t see any of that since I imagine your hotel expenses are being reimbursed.
dgolds: That’s right.
HM: I want you to benefit out of this, since it’s your inconvenience. How about if we gave you a free night?
dg: Would that be in any Westin or here in Columbus?
HM: Here in Columbus.
dg: Sorry, that’s very nice of you to offer, but I don’t think I’ll be taking a vacation in Columbus this year. How about some Starpoints or a free night somewhere else?
HM: We can’t do that since we’re a franchisee. How about if you just cleared out your refrigerator bar at the end of the week?
dg: Sorry, I don’t drink.
HM (joking): Well, we could call an escort service…
dg: Oops, I’m gay, so that wouldn’t work out too well for me, either!
We both had a good laugh at that point.
He eventually came up with a really nice solution. I don’t feel like it would be right to post it here, but it will probably ensure that I’ll be staying in lots of Starwood properties in my future.
The parking manager, Dave, a great guy by the way, took me to my client’s office in his truck. When I came back to the hotel that night, the car had been recovered. Seems that one of the other hotel guests took off with my car as she was in a hurry and thought it was hers. I totally understand, given that I rent a lot of cars and after a while they all start looking the same. The entire rest of my stay, the hotel staff was falling all over me to be as nice as possible. Everyone on staff knew me by name. I don’t think I have ever received such good service at any hotel – I highly recommend having your car taken by someone else!
When I checked out on Friday, one of my dinners and 2 nights of parking had thoughtfully been taken off the bill.
Adventures in dining
It was chilly while I was in Columbus. Temperatures didn’t go above 20 degrees F all week, and they were subzero most nights. I lose my sense of adventure for dining out when it is that cold.
The first night, armed with my Jon Toner tips for driving in the snow and ice, I headed to the western suburbs of Columbus for the Taj Majal, and Indian restaurant I visited twice the last time I was in Columbus. Very nice Indian food, and enough to pack a lunch the next day. Another reason to recommend the Taj Mahal: across the street is a Krispy Kreme store! Mmmmm….hot donuts! I ate at a place called Out on Main on Wednesday night. Very beautiful restaurant, very nice menu, chef trained in Europe. I really wanted to like this place, but I have to say that the food didn’t meet my expectations. The restaurant is rated one of the top 10 in Columbus by the local food critics (according to the restaurant’s publicity), but the escargot stuffed in artichoke appetizer was off (both escargot and artichokes tasted like they came right out of the can), and the wiener schnitzel was oversalted and a little tough. Thursday night, I enjoyed a Reuben sandwich at a local deli named Katzinger’s, just south of downtown Columbus and about 4 blocks from the Westin. I gather it’s something of a local institution; I very much enjoyed the deli fare there. [i]Terrific[i] rye bread.
Only regret: as I wasn’t feeling adventuresome, I didn’t have a chance to try Scali’s, as was recommended here. I’ll keep the tip, and next time in Columbus, I’ll give it a try.
Bean ravioli?
I checked in for my return at Port Columbus International about an hour and a half early. As CMH has no Presidents Club or America West Club (surprising, since it’s an HP hub), I waited in the gate area with the rest of the herd. Got on board, took off, and got the word on the dinner choices: a pasta, and “bean ravioli.”
Well, curiosity got the best of me. I had to try the bean ravioli. It was an odd dish, fresh pasta ravioli stuffed with refried pinto beans and a green chile salsa on top. Weird – but not bad.
Connecting through IAH was a snap. Saw the new signage for the terminal D gates, nee IAB. I am going to miss terminal IAB, just because I love the way it’s rendered by some staff in Houston who have that beautiful Texas twang: “ah eh beee.” Boarded on time and made it to SFO with no delays. CO served its usual snack in first on that flight, a pasta salad with tuna and chicken. I collected my bag, second out of the chute, caught a taxi, and was home and dreaming sweet dreams on my own heavenly bed by 11:00.