The final pre-season, exhibition MHD, now with longer-lasting BMG, was much more successful. Having had a practice run, and learned about some of the pitfalls, I was ready for a never-say-die run. Twelve segments, three countries, and four states, all within 8 days. It would all be anchored to the originating 4 segment, 3 country MHD, now with chewable children's BMG.
The remaining segments were side trips to Houston from DFW, and a Sloppy Southwest Seconds (for details, search for Bonus Q-Miles thread in this forum.) Instead of just a boring old DFW-RDU-DFW, go DFW-TUL-DFW-RDU-DFW-TUL-DFW. (I thought about calling it the Daffy DFW, 'cause every second stop takes place there -- YVR-DFW-HOU-DFW-MEX-DFW-TUL-DFW-RDU-DFW-TUL-DFW-YVR. But credit where credit is due meant that credit should go to Southwest.)
All went according to plan. But this time, I kept running into the same flight crews on back to back segments. This caused no end of consternation and amusement to them. Invariably, I ended up monopolizing the entire FA staff on every flight. I ended up thinking of witty one-liners as to why I was getting back on the plane. They were dependent upon the purpose of the reply:
- To unnerve -- "They won't be saying nasty things about me anymore"
- To amuse -- "Nobody was home"
- To really suck-up for great service -- "It was such a great flight crew, I just had to come back"
- To confuse -- "Huh? No. What are you talking about?" (Best used with a confused facial expression)
... and on it goes.
Like I said, the FA's pretty much clustered around me to hear of my exploits (like the time I was carried down a mountain by two women dressed in their underwear -- no wait, sorry, wrong story.) In return, they offered up all sorts of great information -- the best days and flights to get bumped if your looking for vouchers, the toll-free number for AA from the AirPhones, how meal serving order is determined, and so on. The flights always seemed to go much faster when I was the centre of attention. ('Course, my hat doesn't fit anymore. I suppose I'll have to buy a new one. A new Mexican one.)
In the end, with all the bugs worked out and lots of practice, it was time to commission the FT MHD, now available with crunchy BMG. With poetic justice, BlondeBomber, the inspiration, and myself, the field tester, successfully completed the first official FT MHD, with extra BMG (void where prohibited by law,) in October. By all accounts, and accounts are available on-line in the Trip Reports forum, it was a raging success.
It's now up to the rest of the gang to maintain the tradition. And develop secret handshakes. And a cool slogan. And a really scary looking tattoo.