How about some rowdiness for everyone in F? 3Young AAElites MileageRun PIT-DFW-SEA RT
Oct 5, 2010, 11:12 pm
#17
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: DFW
Programs: AS, BA, AA
Posts: 3,670
+1/2
Doing my own RDU-SEA run, sat next to Short hair Francis on the SEA-DFW redeye.
Apparently I've been slumming it by being based in DFW (mostly MD-80s), ShF gave me some tips for sleeping on a 738.
Also apparently I snagged El Chiflero's upgrade - he was in WhY!
Apparently I've been slumming it by being based in DFW (mostly MD-80s), ShF gave me some tips for sleeping on a 738.
Also apparently I snagged El Chiflero's upgrade - he was in WhY!
Oct 6, 2010, 9:59 am
#18
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
If your taller, your out of luck on that seat
And no you wouldn't have stolen El Chiflero's upgrade since he never requested it, you would've stole mine since I had to use my "Get out of Jail free card" for the flight.
Oct 6, 2010, 10:06 am
#19
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Part 1 - PIT-DFW-SEA section of the Mileage Run
Oct 2, 2010 – Saturday
AA 521 PIT–DFW 7:00am – 9:05am (S80/F) All 3 of us
AA 621 DFW-SEA 10:40am – 12:55pm (S80/F) jfkeze and El Chiflero
AA 491 DFW-SEA 12:30pm – 2:45pm (S80/F) Short hair Francis(original, standby cleared on 621)
Hello, New Yorkers, my terminology of the NYC bubble effect once again came into play. Remember that El Chiflero originally had an arrival time of midnight into downtown Pittsburgh. Due to his extreme craziness with the bus, still don’t fully understand why he decided to go the cheap way for your positioning sector. There are reasons why they sell some tickets for a buck afterall.
And guess what, when you arrive into Pittsburgh at 3am, don’t expect taxis to be available!!! So what was his alternate action, of course, waking up your frequent flyer buddy for a ride. And of course I have to bail him out there. He ended up waiting at the downtown Westin in PIT while I drove in from the Hyatt Place. Thank God he was SPG Gold because otherwise he would’ve been kicked out of the hotel lobby at 4am with temps in the upper 40’s.
Since I already lost an extra hour of sleep and I didn’t get a chance to pack up. I sped crazily in the Ft. Pitt tunnel and on I-376 at 4am. I think I drove around 85 but El Chiflero would have to verify me on that one. Oh he noticed a cop car sitting on the freeway on-ramp and this guy is driving a red college type looking car with out of state plates
Guess that’s what happens when I get woken up during the dead hours. And no, I didn’t get pulled over. We drove back to the Hyatt Place for some expertflyer and other preps for the mileage run. Oh and I show him where I puke in the HP parking lot, I having to be a little sick this weekend. My weekend went worse afterwards.
After getting some final things done in the HP, we’re off to the “Hotel in Nowhere.” Thankfully, I drove there last night before the sunset otherwise it would’ve took me a long time to find this place. At the 4 point counter, the check-in agent was getting yelled for many definicies. “Where is the shuttle to the airport, where was my wake-up call when I need it” were just some I remember. El Chiflero got his room key for his 15 min use of a hotel room. I guess it wasn’t so bad since he really did needed his hotel stays. And of course, since the 3 of us already knew each other from before, I had to have some fun with jfkeze. Knock Knock, “room service” at 5:15am . The fun was never going to end.
Well jfkeze advised El Chiflero to lie down on the bed at the very least to get some value from his 15 min use of the hotel room. And soon, we’re back downstairs to the car and off to the airport.
Pittsburgh International Airport
The drive to the airport took around 10 mins, I parked the car at the long term parking then off to the terminal. Wait no Priority Access line in PIT? What, so me and jfkeze immediately got our EXP cards and start waving them, lol. Both of us got checked in first, then finally El Chiflero got checked in. Apparently he left his AA GLD card at home so obviously I had to have some fun. Here’s a loaner, an actual AA GLD card which I had which was still valid. On the way to the security line, jfkeze noticed a more hidden black security line which helped in avoiding the kettles. Unfortunately, I got the nude-o-scope. Opt out please!!! No one seeing what’s down there unless I like you and you better be a chick My morning security consisted of a over 60 y.o guy with balding hair and little tooth giving you a pat-down. Sorry sir, you can’t give you bp to your friend while your getting patted down. Sir, please raise your leg so I can pat you down there too. Sir, please don’t move, we aren’t done yet. Eek, what do you mean your not done, you touched every part of my body basically. Yikes, I’m starting to get creep out by all this patting down. We soon made our way downstairs to the shuttle train to the airside terminal where we saw such a large amount of kettle-like travellers. Do we take this train to get to the gate It was not even funny. A Pittsburgh magnet to add to my collection then off to the gate. I checked with the GA to see how my standby for the earlier SEA flight was looking, it was turning out to be very good as I was still both #1 on the standby and upgrade list. And soon we’re parked on the red carpet, hey GLD, don’t get in our EXP shadow, we are the god you know
American Airlines 521
Pittsburgh to Dallas Ft. Worth
7:00am – 9:05am, 3 hr 5 min flight
First Class, Seat 6E, 5E, 6F
Food – Continental Breakfast
Equipment – McDonnall Douglas MD 80
After getting on the plane, we’re all looking forward to our omelettes. After take-off, me and El Chiflero both took short naps on the flight. I guess that’s what happens when you drive 4 hrs to PIT or take a 9 hr bus ride. Despite being the mid-con person of the group, I had no clue PIT was a double catered station so we unfortunately had cereal for a 3 hr flight
AA 521 Continental Breakfast
Breakfast Bread
Raisin Bagel or Biscuit
Cereal
Double K cereal with cold milk and raisin package on the side
It was a very underwhelming meal, I previously knew of some stations such as Fresno that was double catered but I didn’t know PIT was also in the same category. The FA, Kirk however was fantastic, he really tried very hard to make do with what he was supplied. I still have his quote, “when we are flying American, it feels like he’s welcoming us into his family and our airfare are keeping him along with all of his fellow FA’s in work” Sometime I wish all AA FA’s were as hard working as he was. We all had some amount of boozes, glenlivet for El Chiflero, rum for myself and vodka for jfkeze. Both me and El Chiflero got double bread, raisin bagels! Soon back to more sleep then descent into DFW began.
Later on the flight, all 3 of us had a joint talk as to what’s defined as our territory. Our territory being places we travelled so much it’s very reactionary to the way we do things. For me of course, it was DFW, YYZ, eagle/mid-con flights, CX flights, and the Pac NW. For jfkeze, it was JFK/MIA, AA 777, Europe, South America and IFS service. And for El Chiflero, there was rental cars, SDQ and transcon 762s. Guess it’s a little hard to earn your category as a GLD. I know, next year the jokes is on me.
We arrived into gate A15, connecting flight to SEA to was out of C12. If It was normally just myself, I would’ve gone to the C Club but seeing all 3 of us wanted shower. How about going to enjoy the best showers in the whole system, the A club of course. A nice shower for all 3 of us, then off to discover what was the new complementary alcohol available? What is McCormick’s?? Sorry guys, I’m out but both El Chiflero and jfkeze both had a drink. They ranked it as closer to college boozes Well this college guy doesn’t drink college boozes
A short skylink ride to C12 and we’re at the gate for Seattle-Tacoma. For El Chiflero and jfkeze, they were originally booked on this flight already since they booked their flights way earlier for EXP qualification. For me, I was done with EXP already but since the family needed more RDM, back on the road I go. So I was confirmed on 491 which was 1 flight behind 621. Being kinda lucky, I was both #1 on the standby and upgrade list which surprised me heavily since this was a Seattle flight which isn’t what I put under the easy upgrade category.
My name was the only one on the cleared list but I did white it out.
American Airlines 621
Dallas Ft. Worth to Seattle-Tacoma
10:40am – 12:55pm, 4 hr 15 min flight
First Class, Seat 4E, 5E, 5F
Food – Snack/Brunch
Equipment – McDonnall Douglas MD 80
Similar to how the UAers had their regional jet fun with gate crash on Flyertalker 1, the 3 of us decided to crash the gate as well. Onto the plane, the FAs noticed why they were so many young elites on the flight and we said mileage run of course. The first officer not liking his job afterall said “Get a Life”. Really, you are going to say that to a paying customer? The FAs on this flight was also nowhere near as fun as the first flight but was still decent. During the boarding process, 5B noticed we were all travelling together and is asking us if we’re going to be quiet. No way, I never have the opportunity to see my FF buddies very much, we’re going to have some fun today.
Take off was on runway 18L so that took considerable time getting from terminal C all the way to the west side to the airport. Both me and El Chiflero decided to use GoGo for this flight as some of you noticed earlier
AA 621 Snack/Brunch
To Start
Warm Mixed Nuts
Main Meal
Chicken Parmesan
Fried Chicken with Cheese On-top with Green beans
or
Salmon Salad
Salmon Fillet on a Big Salad of Greens with Italian Vinaigrette
Sides
Pita chips with hummus
Side Salad with pepper and radish on Italian Vinaigrette
Dessert
Freshly Baked on board Cookies (Raspberry)
Tray Service
Cookie with Inflight map
Where can your miles take you today?
Surprisingly we all settled for the Chicken Parm, then soon after we started off to get some serious drinking done. Loads of fun with Dhammer53 and SFO777 while on the flight, thank you the inventor of the inflight internet and because of the stupid TSA, I got molested and of course large amount of boozes. About 2 thirds through the flight, we have not only have empty out the planes supply of Glenlivet, but also cleaned out all the rum, the Pepsi and Coke in First Class. I guess the other people in First had some effect to that as well, but we’re having one LAS type of flight today We also got our group photo taken during this flight by the FA’s, you probably have to add us on facebook to see it because of privacy concerns.
Near the end of the flight, we once again defined territory again and Seattle is still within my sphere of influence, hehe. The plan was to get the Museum of Flight, Space Needle, First Starbucks store, Pike Place Market, Lunchbox Laboratory and maybe even a Mariners game in if we had time in. Well I guess it helps when you have a human GPS with you. SEA awaits!
Next Section
Part 2 – 10 Hours in Seattle
Oct 2, 2010 – Saturday
AA 521 PIT–DFW 7:00am – 9:05am (S80/F) All 3 of us
AA 621 DFW-SEA 10:40am – 12:55pm (S80/F) jfkeze and El Chiflero
AA 491 DFW-SEA 12:30pm – 2:45pm (S80/F) Short hair Francis(original, standby cleared on 621)
Hello, New Yorkers, my terminology of the NYC bubble effect once again came into play. Remember that El Chiflero originally had an arrival time of midnight into downtown Pittsburgh. Due to his extreme craziness with the bus, still don’t fully understand why he decided to go the cheap way for your positioning sector. There are reasons why they sell some tickets for a buck afterall.
And guess what, when you arrive into Pittsburgh at 3am, don’t expect taxis to be available!!! So what was his alternate action, of course, waking up your frequent flyer buddy for a ride. And of course I have to bail him out there. He ended up waiting at the downtown Westin in PIT while I drove in from the Hyatt Place. Thank God he was SPG Gold because otherwise he would’ve been kicked out of the hotel lobby at 4am with temps in the upper 40’s.
Since I already lost an extra hour of sleep and I didn’t get a chance to pack up. I sped crazily in the Ft. Pitt tunnel and on I-376 at 4am. I think I drove around 85 but El Chiflero would have to verify me on that one. Oh he noticed a cop car sitting on the freeway on-ramp and this guy is driving a red college type looking car with out of state plates
Guess that’s what happens when I get woken up during the dead hours. And no, I didn’t get pulled over. We drove back to the Hyatt Place for some expertflyer and other preps for the mileage run. Oh and I show him where I puke in the HP parking lot, I having to be a little sick this weekend. My weekend went worse afterwards. After getting some final things done in the HP, we’re off to the “Hotel in Nowhere.” Thankfully, I drove there last night before the sunset otherwise it would’ve took me a long time to find this place. At the 4 point counter, the check-in agent was getting yelled for many definicies. “Where is the shuttle to the airport, where was my wake-up call when I need it” were just some I remember. El Chiflero got his room key for his 15 min use of a hotel room. I guess it wasn’t so bad since he really did needed his hotel stays. And of course, since the 3 of us already knew each other from before, I had to have some fun with jfkeze. Knock Knock, “room service” at 5:15am
. The fun was never going to end. Well jfkeze advised El Chiflero to lie down on the bed at the very least to get some value from his 15 min use of the hotel room. And soon, we’re back downstairs to the car and off to the airport.
Pittsburgh International Airport
The drive to the airport took around 10 mins, I parked the car at the long term parking then off to the terminal. Wait no Priority Access line in PIT? What, so me and jfkeze immediately got our EXP cards and start waving them, lol
. Both of us got checked in first, then finally El Chiflero got checked in. Apparently he left his AA GLD card at home so obviously I had to have some fun. Here’s a loaner, an actual AA GLD card which I had which was still valid. On the way to the security line, jfkeze noticed a more hidden black security line which helped in avoiding the kettles. Unfortunately, I got the nude-o-scope. Opt out please!!! No one seeing what’s down there unless I like you and you better be a chick My morning security consisted of a over 60 y.o guy with balding hair and little tooth giving you a pat-down. Sorry sir, you can’t give you bp to your friend while your getting patted down. Sir, please raise your leg so I can pat you down there too. Sir, please don’t move, we aren’t done yet. Eek, what do you mean your not done, you touched every part of my body basically. Yikes, I’m starting to get creep out by all this patting down. We soon made our way downstairs to the shuttle train to the airside terminal where we saw such a large amount of kettle-like travellers. Do we take this train to get to the gate It was not even funny. A Pittsburgh magnet to add to my collection then off to the gate. I checked with the GA to see how my standby for the earlier SEA flight was looking, it was turning out to be very good as I was still both #1 on the standby and upgrade list. And soon we’re parked on the red carpet, hey GLD, don’t get in our EXP shadow, we are the god you know American Airlines 521
Pittsburgh to Dallas Ft. Worth
7:00am – 9:05am, 3 hr 5 min flight
First Class, Seat 6E, 5E, 6F
Food – Continental Breakfast
Equipment – McDonnall Douglas MD 80
After getting on the plane, we’re all looking forward to our omelettes. After take-off, me and El Chiflero both took short naps on the flight. I guess that’s what happens when you drive 4 hrs to PIT or take a 9 hr bus ride. Despite being the mid-con person of the group, I had no clue PIT was a double catered station so we unfortunately had cereal for a 3 hr flight
AA 521 Continental Breakfast
Breakfast Bread
Raisin Bagel or Biscuit
Cereal
Double K cereal with cold milk and raisin package on the side
It was a very underwhelming meal, I previously knew of some stations such as Fresno that was double catered but I didn’t know PIT was also in the same category. The FA, Kirk however was fantastic, he really tried very hard to make do with what he was supplied. I still have his quote, “when we are flying American, it feels like he’s welcoming us into his family and our airfare are keeping him along with all of his fellow FA’s in work” Sometime I wish all AA FA’s were as hard working as he was. We all had some amount of boozes, glenlivet for El Chiflero, rum for myself and vodka for jfkeze. Both me and El Chiflero got double bread, raisin bagels! Soon back to more sleep then descent into DFW began.
Later on the flight, all 3 of us had a joint talk as to what’s defined as our territory. Our territory being places we travelled so much it’s very reactionary to the way we do things. For me of course, it was DFW, YYZ, eagle/mid-con flights, CX flights, and the Pac NW. For jfkeze, it was JFK/MIA, AA 777, Europe, South America and IFS service. And for El Chiflero, there was rental cars, SDQ and transcon 762s. Guess it’s a little hard to earn your category as a GLD. I know, next year the jokes is on me.
We arrived into gate A15, connecting flight to SEA to was out of C12. If It was normally just myself, I would’ve gone to the C Club but seeing all 3 of us wanted shower. How about going to enjoy the best showers in the whole system, the A club of course. A nice shower for all 3 of us, then off to discover what was the new complementary alcohol available? What is McCormick’s?? Sorry guys, I’m out but both El Chiflero and jfkeze both had a drink. They ranked it as closer to college boozes
Well this college guy doesn’t drink college boozes A short skylink ride to C12 and we’re at the gate for Seattle-Tacoma. For El Chiflero and jfkeze, they were originally booked on this flight already since they booked their flights way earlier for EXP qualification. For me, I was done with EXP already but since the family needed more RDM, back on the road I go. So I was confirmed on 491 which was 1 flight behind 621. Being kinda lucky, I was both #1 on the standby and upgrade list which surprised me heavily since this was a Seattle flight which isn’t what I put under the easy upgrade category.
My name was the only one on the cleared list but I did white it out.
American Airlines 621
Dallas Ft. Worth to Seattle-Tacoma
10:40am – 12:55pm, 4 hr 15 min flight
First Class, Seat 4E, 5E, 5F
Food – Snack/Brunch
Equipment – McDonnall Douglas MD 80
Similar to how the UAers had their regional jet fun with gate crash on Flyertalker 1, the 3 of us decided to crash the gate as well. Onto the plane, the FAs noticed why they were so many young elites on the flight and we said mileage run of course. The first officer not liking his job afterall said “Get a Life”. Really, you are going to say that to a paying customer? The FAs on this flight was also nowhere near as fun as the first flight but was still decent. During the boarding process, 5B noticed we were all travelling together and is asking us if we’re going to be quiet. No way, I never have the opportunity to see my FF buddies very much, we’re going to have some fun today.
Take off was on runway 18L so that took considerable time getting from terminal C all the way to the west side to the airport. Both me and El Chiflero decided to use GoGo for this flight as some of you noticed earlier
AA 621 Snack/Brunch
To Start
Warm Mixed Nuts
Main Meal
Chicken Parmesan
Fried Chicken with Cheese On-top with Green beans
or
Salmon Salad
Salmon Fillet on a Big Salad of Greens with Italian Vinaigrette
Sides
Pita chips with hummus
Side Salad with pepper and radish on Italian Vinaigrette
Dessert
Freshly Baked on board Cookies (Raspberry)
Tray Service
Cookie with Inflight map
Where can your miles take you today?
Surprisingly we all settled for the Chicken Parm, then soon after we started off to get some serious drinking done. Loads of fun with Dhammer53 and SFO777 while on the flight, thank you the inventor of the inflight internet and because of the stupid TSA, I got molested
and of course large amount of boozes. About 2 thirds through the flight, we have not only have empty out the planes supply of Glenlivet, but also cleaned out all the rum, the Pepsi and Coke in First Class. I guess the other people in First had some effect to that as well, but we’re having one LAS type of flight today We also got our group photo taken during this flight by the FA’s, you probably have to add us on facebook to see it because of privacy concerns. Near the end of the flight, we once again defined territory again and Seattle is still within my sphere of influence, hehe. The plan was to get the Museum of Flight, Space Needle, First Starbucks store, Pike Place Market, Lunchbox Laboratory and maybe even a Mariners game in if we had time in. Well I guess it helps when you have a human GPS with you. SEA awaits!
Next Section
Part 2 – 10 Hours in Seattle
Oct 6, 2010, 10:29 am
#20
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,602
Francis, great report and stories!
Poor guy, hope he remembered that single most important word... Bose.
Poor guy, hope he remembered that single most important word... Bose.
Oct 7, 2010, 9:34 am
#21
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
Programs: Oceanic Airlines Gold Elite
Posts: 20,394
The first officer not liking his job afterall said “Get a Life”. Really, you are going to say that to a paying customer?
Oct 7, 2010, 10:49 am
#22
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: PHX/NYC/LA
Programs: AA Plt, Marriott Gold, National EE, Hertz PC, El Mambero De Mucci, PWP Aide to Generalissimo Godot
Posts: 4,893
Oct 8, 2010, 1:22 pm
#23
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: DFW
Programs: AS, BA, AA
Posts: 3,670
Yeah, I felt bad about the casual wave, but I was near-delirious from lack of sleep! I had a short connection and I was under the misapprehension that my next flight was on time!
My flight schedule for that weekend was
Oct 1:
SJD-DFW (7:30 am - 11:30 am) with a three-year old niece and my parents
1. Customs with a 3-year-old and 8 carryons between 3 adults
2. Lunch with the fam in Terminal D
3. Escort everyone to Terminal B for their connecting flight
4. Home, laundry
5. Desperate call from my mother as her flight is about to take off: she left her laptop at either gate B11, B29, or the TGI Fridays in Terminal D
6. Call TGI Fridays, no one has found laptop. Reluctant to call airport and ask if they could locate missing laptop, I return to airport and search the B terminal. Turns out the laptop was at TGI Fridays, under the booth table. Interrupted nice couple to recover laptop from under their feet.
7. Return home to pack for MR/Nexus interview
DFW-RDU (7:10 pm - 11:30 pm)
Oct 2:
1. 4:30 wake up in RDU
RDU-DFW 6 - 8 am
2. 8:20 am meet hubby in front of terminal D to get laptop charger
DFW-SEA 9 am - noon
3. Drive to the Canadian border,
4. Get mixed up and go into Canada then back to the US (explaining to 3 border agents that I needed to get to the Nexus office)
5. 10 minutes late for my 15 minute Nexus interview
6. Spend bulk of interview time trying to explain that, yes I did come from DFW to SEA just for a Nexus card, and I was late because I accidentally crossed the border
7. Drive to YVR for iris scan
8. Drive back to SEA for redeye
SEA-DFW (midnight - 5:30 am)
9. Despite eye mask and earplugs, find myself unable to sleep, bolt Glenlivet, talk to ShF for a while, and finally get an hour of sleep
10. Tumble off plane at 5:20 am DFW time (unaware that we're early) and focus on stumbling over to the next gate, which should board at 5:40 am. Casually wave at fellow FTers instead of stopping to chat like a civilized person.
Oct 3:
DFW-RDU (6:10 am - 9:45 am)
1. Get off plane and realize I'm on the same metal, same gate for return flight
2. Despair at inexplicable lack of upgrade on next flight (Saturday morning in Raleigh, EXP booked more than a month in advance, really?!? The only thing I can figure out is that is was a 'direct' flight to SFO with a stop in DFW and somehow the SFO people trumped me?)
3. Note they are asking for 4 volunteers
4. Volunteer, plan to go standby for 7 pm flight and go to hotel to sleep for 6 hours
5. VDB denied because I was 5th to volunteer
RDU - DFW (10:35 am - 12:35 pm)
6. Walk of shame through first class cabin, greeting from FA: "You're back?" janetdoe: "It's a long story"
7. Sit in exit row
8. Fidget and annoy couple next to me because I am unable to sleep and unable to sit still for the next 3 hours (adrenaline buzz from lack of sleep)
9. Go home and sleep for 6 hours
10. Wake up for 3 hours and then go back to bed at 10 pm
I guess I should write my own trip report!
My flight schedule for that weekend was
Oct 1:
SJD-DFW (7:30 am - 11:30 am) with a three-year old niece and my parents
1. Customs with a 3-year-old and 8 carryons between 3 adults
2. Lunch with the fam in Terminal D
3. Escort everyone to Terminal B for their connecting flight
4. Home, laundry
5. Desperate call from my mother as her flight is about to take off: she left her laptop at either gate B11, B29, or the TGI Fridays in Terminal D
6. Call TGI Fridays, no one has found laptop. Reluctant to call airport and ask if they could locate missing laptop, I return to airport and search the B terminal. Turns out the laptop was at TGI Fridays, under the booth table. Interrupted nice couple to recover laptop from under their feet.
7. Return home to pack for MR/Nexus interview
DFW-RDU (7:10 pm - 11:30 pm)
Oct 2:
1. 4:30 wake up in RDU
RDU-DFW 6 - 8 am
2. 8:20 am meet hubby in front of terminal D to get laptop charger
DFW-SEA 9 am - noon
3. Drive to the Canadian border,
4. Get mixed up and go into Canada then back to the US (explaining to 3 border agents that I needed to get to the Nexus office)
5. 10 minutes late for my 15 minute Nexus interview
6. Spend bulk of interview time trying to explain that, yes I did come from DFW to SEA just for a Nexus card, and I was late because I accidentally crossed the border
7. Drive to YVR for iris scan
8. Drive back to SEA for redeye
SEA-DFW (midnight - 5:30 am)
9. Despite eye mask and earplugs, find myself unable to sleep, bolt Glenlivet, talk to ShF for a while, and finally get an hour of sleep
10. Tumble off plane at 5:20 am DFW time (unaware that we're early) and focus on stumbling over to the next gate, which should board at 5:40 am. Casually wave at fellow FTers instead of stopping to chat like a civilized person.
Oct 3:
DFW-RDU (6:10 am - 9:45 am)
1. Get off plane and realize I'm on the same metal, same gate for return flight
2. Despair at inexplicable lack of upgrade on next flight (Saturday morning in Raleigh, EXP booked more than a month in advance, really?!? The only thing I can figure out is that is was a 'direct' flight to SFO with a stop in DFW and somehow the SFO people trumped me?)
3. Note they are asking for 4 volunteers
4. Volunteer, plan to go standby for 7 pm flight and go to hotel to sleep for 6 hours
5. VDB denied because I was 5th to volunteer
RDU - DFW (10:35 am - 12:35 pm)
6. Walk of shame through first class cabin, greeting from FA: "You're back?" janetdoe: "It's a long story"
7. Sit in exit row
8. Fidget and annoy couple next to me because I am unable to sleep and unable to sit still for the next 3 hours (adrenaline buzz from lack of sleep)
9. Go home and sleep for 6 hours
10. Wake up for 3 hours and then go back to bed at 10 pm
I guess I should write my own trip report!
Last edited by janetdoe; Oct 8, 2010 at 1:45 pm Reason: more info
Oct 8, 2010, 1:56 pm
#25
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: DFW
Programs: AS, BA, AA
Posts: 3,670
Oct 8, 2010, 2:11 pm
#26
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: PHX/NYC/LA
Programs: AA Plt, Marriott Gold, National EE, Hertz PC, El Mambero De Mucci, PWP Aide to Generalissimo Godot
Posts: 4,893
Oct 8, 2010, 2:31 pm
#27
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: PHX/NYC/LA
Programs: AA Plt, Marriott Gold, National EE, Hertz PC, El Mambero De Mucci, PWP Aide to Generalissimo Godot
Posts: 4,893
Oct 8, 2010, 2:36 pm
#28
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: DFW/STL
Programs: AA EXP, AA Admirals Club, Marriott PLT Premier, Hertz President's Circle
Posts: 762
I am sitting at around 28k EQMs and have just booked a Europe trip from STL. The only issue that while I leave in Dec I wont be back until Jan..so therefor cant get the DEQMs from STL bonus bc I dont think my trip will qualify due to the fact it extends past dec 31. If I could have, I would I think it would have been worth it to MR for PLT but there is no way I am going to get around 15k by my Europe trip in Dec. Just dont have the time.
Oh well.. there is always next year with the 5k EQM start Ill have by the beginning of Jan...
Oct 19, 2010, 10:19 am
#29
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: PHX/NYC/LA
Programs: AA Plt, Marriott Gold, National EE, Hertz PC, El Mambero De Mucci, PWP Aide to Generalissimo Godot
Posts: 4,893
mY Colleagues seem to have forgotten to update you all on Part 2 and Part 3. I will make sure this gets resolved asap!
Oct 26, 2010, 2:10 pm
#30
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: HKG/YVR/NYC
Programs: AC 75K, A3*G, AS MVPG, AA LT Gold 1MM, JL/JGC (OWS) , Marriott Titanium, Hertz 5*, Avis PC
Posts: 3,697
Part 2 – 10 hours in Seattle
Landing of AA 621 was at the the newer runway of 16R/34L, taxi into gate A8 was relatively quick. Sorry guys, Pacific Northwest was still my turf We soon made our way into the rental car center. We had the nastiest most unhelpful rental car centers agents ever. Unable to acquire better cars, we were stuck with a Toyota Camry. I guess that was a slight damper to our trip. After all, three under 30 y.o flying first class stuck with a family car designed to take kids to soccer practices, we needed a party car!
The first stop was at the Museum of Flight near Boeing Field
Jfkeze was the most experienced in recognition with military aircraft, way more so than me and El Chiflero, some of the easier ones such as SR-71 were of course rather easy. Me and jfkeze also nativgated through the NATO alphabets rather nicely, guess El Chiflero needs to phone up the AA EXP desk more to practice
The hardest one was surprisingly a cut-out of an old US air Boeing 737 that none of us got right. It was a Boeing 737-200
Didn’t know US can afford overhead TVs
Soon afterwards was dash outside where they have a BA Concorde and AA 727 sitting around
Sure feels like a Regional Jet flying on this thing, a Supersonic Regional Jet
The whole Museum of flight took us around 1 hr 30 mins then off we went for my mattress run, Hyatt Place Downtown Seattle. A quick check-in then off to the Space Needle.
Space Needle
We were extremely lucky to get a sunny 67F day in Seattle during rain season. I for one would know
All 3 of us decided to skip the elevator ride up to the top. Doesn’t hurt to save some cash. Then it was off to Pike Place Market where we had somehow found an NYC type parking spot on Pike Place. Thank you our NY Driver, El Chiflero which had loads of fun parking at that spot.
The first thing we needed was a good Starbucks coffee, so the first official store of course was perfect just for that.
First Starbucks Store
Wow, I needed that 4 shot coffee badly, was falling asleep in the car prior already, then off to the Pike Place Market for some smoked salmon.
Pike Place Market
I don’t think I’ve seen this market this packed before but it was a Saturday afterall. A good comparison for the NYCers would be the Lexington Avenue line during evening rush hour. Just packed to the gill. After some touring, El Chiflero somehow digged out the 3rd best burger joint in the United States, Lunchbox Laboratory for some nice burger
Lunchbox Laboratory
After a nice early dinner at 4pm, I would dead tired so they left me back into the hotel room while they went on their bar-hopping. I guess that Hyatt Place room did come handy afterall. A phone down to the front desk for a 9:15pm wake-up call, zzzzzz….
What the, ring ring. 8:15pm! What is going on, where am I? lol
The call was apparently for my payment which wasn’t going through in full, great maxed out credit card. Ok, I’ll come down in a bit. Then soon jfkeze and El Chiflero came back. Then I got more bad news from email, apparently something really bad happened back at home. I can’t believe this is happening at the worst time possible. Literally broke down in front of the frequent flyer friends. Great, something happened so that I had to get home, usually the road cheers me up but this definitely didn’t. A shower for me first to calm me down and my sickness from the prior night was killing me once again. Why do I keep puking in HPs these days???
I finally explained everything for jfkeze and El Chiflero. Thanks guys again for helping me that night!
Well down to check-in desk, to fix the problem then back out to Seattle airport.
The adventure continues…
Part 3 – The return journey with another FTer onboard
Landing of AA 621 was at the the newer runway of 16R/34L, taxi into gate A8 was relatively quick. Sorry guys, Pacific Northwest was still my turf
We soon made our way into the rental car center. We had the nastiest most unhelpful rental car centers agents ever. Unable to acquire better cars, we were stuck with a Toyota Camry. I guess that was a slight damper to our trip. After all, three under 30 y.o flying first class stuck with a family car designed to take kids to soccer practices, we needed a party car! The first stop was at the Museum of Flight near Boeing Field
Jfkeze was the most experienced in recognition with military aircraft, way more so than me and El Chiflero, some of the easier ones such as SR-71 were of course rather easy. Me and jfkeze also nativgated through the NATO alphabets rather nicely, guess El Chiflero needs to phone up the AA EXP desk more to practice
The hardest one was surprisingly a cut-out of an old US air Boeing 737 that none of us got right. It was a Boeing 737-200
Didn’t know US can afford overhead TVs
Soon afterwards was dash outside where they have a BA Concorde and AA 727 sitting around
Sure feels like a Regional Jet flying on this thing, a Supersonic Regional Jet
The whole Museum of flight took us around 1 hr 30 mins then off we went for my mattress run, Hyatt Place Downtown Seattle. A quick check-in then off to the Space Needle.
Space Needle
We were extremely lucky to get a sunny 67F day in Seattle during rain season. I for one would know
All 3 of us decided to skip the elevator ride up to the top. Doesn’t hurt to save some cash. Then it was off to Pike Place Market where we had somehow found an NYC type parking spot on Pike Place. Thank you our NY Driver, El Chiflero which had loads of fun parking at that spot.
The first thing we needed was a good Starbucks coffee, so the first official store of course was perfect just for that.
First Starbucks Store
Wow, I needed that 4 shot coffee badly, was falling asleep in the car prior already, then off to the Pike Place Market for some smoked salmon.
Pike Place Market
I don’t think I’ve seen this market this packed before but it was a Saturday afterall. A good comparison for the NYCers would be the Lexington Avenue line during evening rush hour. Just packed to the gill. After some touring, El Chiflero somehow digged out the 3rd best burger joint in the United States, Lunchbox Laboratory for some nice burger
Lunchbox Laboratory
After a nice early dinner at 4pm, I would dead tired so they left me back into the hotel room while they went on their bar-hopping. I guess that Hyatt Place room did come handy afterall. A phone down to the front desk for a 9:15pm wake-up call, zzzzzz….
What the, ring ring. 8:15pm! What is going on, where am I? lol
The call was apparently for my payment which wasn’t going through in full, great maxed out credit card. Ok, I’ll come down in a bit. Then soon jfkeze and El Chiflero came back. Then I got more bad news from email, apparently something really bad happened back at home. I can’t believe this is happening at the worst time possible. Literally broke down in front of the frequent flyer friends. Great, something happened so that I had to get home, usually the road cheers me up but this definitely didn’t. A shower for me first to calm me down and my sickness from the prior night was killing me once again. Why do I keep puking in HPs these days???
I finally explained everything for jfkeze and El Chiflero. Thanks guys again for helping me that night!
Well down to check-in desk, to fix the problem then back out to Seattle airport.
The adventure continues…
Part 3 – The return journey with another FTer onboard