Trip Reports - PIT-ALB-BOS-DCA-PIT

The first in an ongoing series of this week's consulting fun.

12/11/200 US 1963 PIT-ALB 0745

Blast out of bed at about 5am, shower, dress, eat, and roll to PIT. Gotta love PIT. $6/day for long term, at the airport. And, the guy in the bus rolled right up to my car. I curb-checked the bags, and rolled out to B27. Uh-oh. F100.

Since I'm not going to make silver until my PIT-FRA vaction run later this month, I knew it was the back of the bus. Not to sweat, as I have all of rows 15-19 to myself. Except for the fact that F100s are loud as heck in the back. Push was on time. Taxi was fairly long by PIT standards (12 min or so) due to the heavy fog.

At level-off (with a killer-looking cloud deck pattern today) the two FAs in coach literally ran the drink cart up and back, and came around for trash about 3 minutes after I got my drink (being the last guy towards the back). I spent the remaining 40 minutes of the flight wondering why the heck US does not run a big CRJ or something a bit quieter on this route. It never seems to be full, and I would not be suprised if the overheads on a CRJ are actually bigger than the fokker. Oh well. Arrived right on time.

Zipped thru the Albany terminal, grabbed my car at Hertz (no upgrade for you, but here is a neverlost). Did I mention that the neverlost can actually get lost outside of big metro areas? Albany apparently qualifies, as I've been up here a couple of times, and I know better than the **** GPS. That, and since Hertz did not let loose with the upgrade, I decided not to double my price and get a 4x4, which may prove to be fatal tomorrow as I drive to Boston. Whoops.

After finishing at the client site, I rolled out to the Hilton Garden Inn Albany (airport). I then try out my newly minted Hhonors gold number. Hey, no hhonors "floor" per se, but they do give you a rather huge and well furnished room, breakfast, and the like. Plus, since I fixed the apparently dead data-port in the room, I'm sitting here with the freebie high-speed access and not having to tolerate dialup. I'm also pondering tomorrow nights delimma--

I can drive to Boston (well, Woburn) and knock out my client's business early, catch the shuttle to DCA, and spend the night in the Arlington Hilton and Towers, which I am told has a pretty nice Hhonors floor. Or, I can tolerate Boston traffic on Wednesday morning, and crash at the Hampton Inn in Woburn. Hmm. See you on the shuttle tomorrow evening (assuming that the weather is passable...)


[This message has been edited by ClueByFour (edited 12-11-2000).]

So I call Hhonors and ask what they can do for me about getting into the Boston Aiport Hilton. No sweat (except the 55 mph crosswind on the drive from ALB-BOS). Quick work of the client site, and off to check in.

Rolled to the executive lounge on the 10th (honors/exec) floor, grab an amstel lite and some munchies, and ponder the next move. This turns out to be back down to the Irish Pub in the hotel to enjoy some live Irish Folk Music and the Supreme Court decision, which is really funny when/if you caught it on CNN with the captions on.

Wake up at 7, back to the lounge for breakfast, and a quick jaunt thru Logan Central Parking to terminal (b?) for:

12/13 US Shuttle 1615 BOS-DCA 0900

First of all, I'd love to know why it took US so **** long to get automated checkin kiosks. I absolutely love these things. Drop the credit card, dump baggage with attendent, get boarding pass and 1k miles to boot. Off to the gate. Boarding, as I hear they do with shuttle flights, begins promptly at 0830.

Which would have been fine, except following the 0855 push was a 20 minute taxi and hold routine. With only about 50 souls on-board, the A319 lept (insofar as an airbus can) aloft. The shuttle 319s are 3-3, single class, but with 50 people it does not really matter (I had 5 d,e,f) to myself. The service consisted of a bagged bagel and cream cheese plus drink. Yummy. Coming into DC, I get a great view of DC as they made the break into National from the south. While I stopped to buy a drink, US not only unloaded all the luggage, but the belt was stopped by the time I got there. Whoa.

Of course, the good folks at Hertz decide that even though I called the day before to move my 1900 reservation up to 1100 that they had no car, no record (despite a new confirmation number) of the change, and that "things are tight, so we can't help you until 1900." Not being one to mince words, I tell the supervising manager that, #1 Gold or not, my very first New Year's Resolution is to start sampling other rental outfits, CDP or not.

All is not lost, as the Hilton Arlington and Towers sits right over the Ballston Metro station. I cruise over, dump my bags, discover that the honors floor is under renovation, promptly get comped for 2 days of breakfast and 2 days of cocktails, and grab my camera for some sightseeing.

DC is the winter is officially great. I have played the tourist in the Nation's Capital twice before, but never in the middle of December. There is nobody around. You can take pictures undisturbed, breeze thru the Archives without being rushed, get the tour of everything save the Supreme Court (wonder why) and the Washington Monument (renovation). I spent the day and a few rolls of film on the Mall and a bit beyond.

On the way back to the hotel, my cell phone rang, which struck me as odd, being in the metro. A friend of mine from my college days, who is attending law school in DC. "Meet me at the ESPNzone."

If you can imagine a sports bar with really nice seats, really big TVs, and outrageous prices for bar food, you have an ESPNzone. DC, Baltimore, Denver, wherever. This leads us up to going back to DCA to get the car.

At DCA, we jump off the metro and jump back on the shuttle bus over to the rental garage. I find my name, walk to the slot, and find a ford contour. Back into the office. I asked how one goes from a reservation for a Crown Vic "or similar" to a contour. "It's all that's left."

I'm sure my client will be thrilled to be headed to lunch and meetings with 2 of his employees in a ford contour. Anybody with any suggestions on rental folks besides Hertz, please let me know.

Tomorrow--work calls, and a side trip, assuming that I can chisel the ice off the aforementioned rental.

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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

Forget Hertz and call National's Emerald Club.. they'll waive the $50 fee. At the Emerald Sisle you get to PICK your own car, not beg for a cool one.

When times are busy, selection will be slim but at most times you get a cool car, SUV, or minivan of your choice.


I'm sure my client will be thrilled to be headed to lunch and meetings with 2 of his employees in a ford contour. Anybody with any suggestions on rental folks besides Hertz, please let me know.
[/B]

Originally posted by ClueByFour:
DC is the winter is officially great. I have played the tourist in the Nation's Capital twice before, but never in the middle of December. There is nobody around. You can take pictures undisturbed, breeze thru the Archives without being rushed, get the tour of everything

I concur, CBF. My first trip to DC ten years ago in December was a real treat. I felt like I had the Mall all to myself.

Great trip report.

Originally posted by essxjay:
My first trip to DC ten years ago in December was a real treat.


I hear subsequent visits get better and better. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

After returning the rental early, due to its relative uselessness and not wanting to deal with DC traffic, I spent the remaining day wondering if I might get out of DC a bit early. A quick call to US indicated that yes, there was a seat left on:

US 115 DCA-PIT 1555 (A320).

Took the metro orange line to Rosslyn and swiched to the blue line for the quick jaunt to national. Arrived to a relatively huge line at the checkin counter (this about 50 minutes prior to the flight). Not having silver until an upcoming PIT-FRA vacation run, I begin to not only dread the wait but wonder if I can make the flight.... Until I notice that DCA is one of the first places US has the automated checkin kiosks. Great. 2 minutes later, my luggage is on its way to the plane, and I head for gate 38, BP in hand.

Uh-oh. They announce that boarding will begin 40 minutes beforehand, due to an "extremely full flight." Having 21D, I board fairly early. I find my seat, settle in, and open a book for the wait. Fortunately, my seatmates were already in place.

Now I remember why I hate flying coach--not so much for the seat or anything (I'm usually pretty good about getting a whole row on longer flights and that kind of whatnot), but that people tend to do stupid things. As usual, everybody tried to carry everything they owned on, resulting in the first 10 rows of people trying to find overhead space......


I carry a laptop computer bag on every flight I'm on. It will pass US and European carry-on size and weight limitations. That's all I take. I'm a firm believer that every **** airline outta have the "sizing-box" outside the jetway. If it don't fit, it gets gate checked. Further, if you have to "roll it" aboard, it should be gate-checked. If you cannot lift it into the overhead, it should be gate-checked. The FAs were desperately searching for space, and asked me to put the laptop under my seat. I said that my coat was already under the seat, the laptop fits and is within specs, and whatnot. He tries to explain that a woman in 10D needs it moved to get her rollaboard into the overhead (over row 21). I refuse. Can we gate-check it, he asks. I said sure, but I'm not taking the flight if you do (I have enough vital information on the laptop that this is unnacceptable--I've not gotten on flights in the past because of it......) The "rollaboard" gets checked.


After this nonsense completes, they taxi out and takeoff; always a treat from DCA. A short flight to PIT with a 20 minute deplaning process (due to the aforementioned overhead stupidity).

I guess the only good news was it took me so long to get off the plane and to the baggage claim that my bag was waiting. Off to the car, and I'm home. Finally.

Next week--PIT-FRA-INN for the holidays.


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Saving the world, one clue at a time.

I agree with your sentiments about the F-100...
I've been on three flights with the F-100, all with American, and was not pleased. My first two were last year OMA-DFW-OMA... unfortunately American has seen fit to use the F-100 for their added OMA frequency. Even the ERJ is better than the Fokker. Overheads are small, back is incredibly noisy... and these AA aircraft didn't have the more room throughout coach. My other F-100 leg was PHL-ORD this year.. I was a bit more pleased, as I was in the second row of coach and slept most of the flight. However, AA only put two F/A's on the aircraft and one had to do coach by herself. Why does AA do this?



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Jason Seiple
OMA