Ahoy Box.

Just got back from the mall myself. Wasn't too bad. I bought an entire Banana Republic for $18. Yup, I now own the store.

Not really. But the 50% off everything -- yes everything, was very nice. I should have also bought a larger suitcase to bring it all home. :rolleyes:

We call them tourists. ;) This time of year I often just walk in the street to avoid them. It is either that or painting a line on the sidewalk to separate the locals from the slow folks. Had you walked down 5th ave towards Union Square instead of up it you would've hit all the same stores but without the crowds. I was in and out of the Verizon store with a new BB for Mrs. sbm12 in under 20 minutes today. :eek:

40D or Cash and Miles to AKL in NZ J

suggestions?

Well no malls for me today. I dont want to get in the car or on a plane for that matter. After 18 flights this week I am happy. Well I was until on my CO Account it should how many miles/segments I needed for Platnium. I almost wanted to buy more flights. I fought the urge and will move on with my Gold status for next year.

BagLady - I hope you and BagLady Jr have a good time in London for the day!

I will say that at the rate that I am drinking the New Club Cosmo's in the E PC that I may soon earn more miles drinking than flying. :)

IN FM news, I was bummed last week to find out that I lost two countries on my list because I listed Texas and United States (insted of USA) on a few flights and thus miscalculated. This is yet another reason to get on a plane and go to BRU!

Hope ever one has a great weekend!

Gosh, I love NY. When I moved to Ohio, it took me almost a month to get use to the polite drivers who would actually let you change lanes or go first without glaring at you.
It takes me all of 5 minutes to get back into NY mode when I return to visit my mother. It's kind of scary.

How long would you have in NZ? And what is your current camera rig?

I am probably going for little over a week. My current rig is a cannon point-and-shoot.

I'd get the camera and save NZ for when you have more time. We did 12 days and it wasn't enough. If you never expect to have more time to go to NZ then take the award seats while you can get them, but I'm guessing that the opportunity will come up again at some point.

Sage advice, I like it.

In May, we did a hit and run 3 days on the way to Oz and just stayed in AKL and did some day trips. There is no need to bite off more than you can chew and we agree with sbm12 that a total of 12 days would seem to be the dead minimum in order to really see a good part of what is there.

However, those of us who need to pay attention to business cannot take all of those 12 days at once so we bite off the chunks as the award tickets become available. All the CO flyers should now be well aware that their miles will soon buy fights on NZ and that is a great way to get downunder.

This is generally my approach as well, but for a trip like NZ or Oz you're looking at a about 48 hours travel time r/t, so only spending a couple days and then coming back just plain sucks. I don't mind doing it for a 8-10 hour flight, but when you start getting into the 16-18 hours each way thing, it really can be painful to only be there such a short amount of time.

I'm doing my best to set up my company such that I can just work from anywhere. Thus far I've been reasonably successfully, working from HKG, IST, ASR and HNL this year. Nothing quite like paying for the vacation while on the vacation.

Where'd y'all go tonight???

Dinner at the usual place and then home for a bit of FT and then bed for me. And a bit of wondering if CO elites really need more benefits and what form those benefits would take. That was fun. :D

The length of the visit is inversely proportional to the amount of the surroundings we can handle. Last year the trip was a day longer but the fiancee and I had a bunch of stuff planned. The discretionary cash for escaping the house wasn't there this time around. :(

And yeah, the weather lifted about 12 seconds after my flight took off. My mother called me today from poolside, 82 and sunny. :rolleyes:

We saw a husband and wife dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Claus in FLL at 6:30am Christmas morning. There's nothing quite so surreal as watching Santa get on a flight to DTW...the faux Clauses also had a daughter that was too embarrassed to get in on the gig and only wore a Santa hat.

We just got home about 20 minutes ago from doing the extended family :rolleyes:-abration. No further comment needed, except one small ^ to the relatives that got us a WN gift card.

One small observation: go to TGI Friday's and try the chicken and sausage penne in roasted red pepper sauce. We went to the Friday's just off Glades Road in Boca the other night and went in with the appropriate craptastic expectations, only to have left thinking that I just ate the result of a recipe that I have to find and try to repeat myself. That stuff was great and we were extremely surprised.

That gang carrying on in the "Elite Benefits" thread have obviously not flown too much on UA as they sing the praises of the E+. UA provides one of the crappiest flying environments in the airline business and it will impact seriously on the CO flyers if, as they do with other *A members, ignore their status and require them to pay for those seats.

And just wait until a CO Elite buys a premium class ticket on UA and finds himself ignored completely and more or less denied proper service as the FAs fawn over the 1Ks and GSs to the almost complete exclusion of any other passenger who is not a UA employee.

We all know that any flyer who is not trapped in a UA hub and patronizes them almost exclusively has been lured by the high status and the SWUs. There really cannot be any other reason.

You know that I was well aware of that and did not even try to tempt you with the thought of the hockey game one of the nights you were here. I knew that your time would be locked up and also, since you were between jobs, you needed to be watching your wallet. And if you can get an interview at one of the resorts or casinos down here, grab it. You will enjoy being here, at least for a few years.

I hope that you had a good time down here and that next time you put a few fat days in there (the customary procedure is not even to let them know you are here) and stuff can be arranged. BTW, I will try to check out the Friday's you were talking about altho I am guessing it is the one out there at SR7 near Glades and we do not often get that far west.