And I had the fortune of a 6 hour maintenance delay on my US flight last Monday. The US rep at the Gold desk was trying to convince me no seats existed between EWR and SJD on any airline that day. :rolleyes: The PDA site corrected that little bit of convenient dis-information.

Got my tickets endorsed over and picked up a whopping big Y bonus for the OP account. Didn't clear the upgrade list though. Even as #1. :( I'm still not used to flying an airline where people actually buy F. And I ended up in SJD earlier than I was originally scheduled to be.

Best flight I've had on a US ticket in many moons.

I vote for any venue that has a wide selection of Belgians.

I got you beat, the CO flight got in late the previous night, so the flight I was supposed to be on was delayed to crew rest. The TA endorsed me over to DL, except the DL pilot didn't show and DL endorsed me back over to CO. I ended up on my original flight, even though it was delayed. I like getting 150% EQMs on an X fare. :D

Few weeks ago, I mentioned that my parents would be flying Omni MIA-MAO (Manaus) to catch a cruise in the Amazon. Here's what happened...

Monday morning at MIA. The DC-10 broke down. :rolleyes: They finally fixed it in the afternoon, but somehow the crew ran out of hours or something. They were eventually put up at the Sheraton for the night.

Tuesday. Early MIA departure. 4.5 hours later at MAO, weather was too bad, so they had to divert. Flew north for an hour to land at BVB (Boa Vista). Crew asked if any passenger speaks Portuguese. They need someone to communicate with the local ground handling person to buy fuel! Initially, they were kept onboard, as there was no immigration, but eventually, they let people off. Finally 3 hours later, they departed for MAO.

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Anyways, at this rate, not only will I never catch CO Insider with airport count, I will never even catch my dad. He doesn't have a FlightMemory, but he has been to about 150 airports in the world already.

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But the story started even before they got to MIA. The cruise line booked them a 34-minute connection at ATL. They missed the connection, and eventually DL put them on a flight to MIA in F, rather than FLL. And as I expected, they got 150% RDM and 150% EQM, I am not complaining. $7 of food voucher too. :)

My BF is flying US this week and next on a crazy, all over the US trip: ATL-PHX-SEA-PHX-LAS-PHX-IAH. The entire ticket was less than $400 when purchased less than 14 days out, and some of the flights are extremely empty. He was not only able to grab exit row seats on every flight with no status (he didn't even have a frequent flyer membership in any Star Alliance carrier), but on several flights he is the only passenger currently assigned to the exit row. That all seems like a totally foreign concept to me, as I'm so used to full exit rows and premium seats on CO.

Good God, man! What sort of people are you associating with?! :p

Unfortunately he needs a little training in things related to travel. However, we're slowly getting there. On our first few trips together he began to understand why the Presidents Club membership my employer is kind enough to reimburse me for matters, and the benefits of my status with Hilton and Marriott. Now we're working on frequent flier benefits and why one should avoid setting foot on a plane without making sure you'll earn miles from the trip. Next up is why he should try and stick to one program to maximize earnings and status, especially since his new job is sending him on about 10 trips/year. That's easily enough to earn elite status somewhere. The only problem is he loves FL, since they have lots of cheap flights out of ATL and XM radio. I see that as being similar to some of my Houston friends who love WN. It's great if all you want is a free domestic Y ticket. Doesn't do you much good toward getting that round the world first/business class award ticket for a month-long dream vacation involving multiple continents. On the other hand, if he racks up a bunch of FL credits that could take care of some of our domestic personal travel, and I'll save up for the big international trips. I did score a little victory with an upcoming trip to Houston in June for a friend's wedding. We're flying CO, even though it was the same price as FL. I redeemed some Travel Bank credits to bring the price down

We do have a pretty good thing going with hotel programs though. He is ending up in a lot of Starwood properties for work travel and will soon have Starwood Gold. Starwood is pretty much useless for me due to the nature of my work travel, which has me in a lot of Hamptons, Hilton Garden Inns, and Courtyards. So I've got Hilton and Marriott status and points wrapped up. If he can keep up the Starwood status, then we're all set with lots of points and status in all three of those programs.

Now if I can just convince him that mileage runs are a worthwhile investment... I still get a little grief from time to time about that IAH-SLC-ATL-MSY and back weekend run in February. :rolleyes:

Hehe -- I got the same too from my friends and family.

Now I just tell them it's "consulting" and when pressed I tell them it's in the field of "waste management."

That usually shuts 'em up.

Unless you happen to be dealing with an aggie in which case a shiny object or multisyllabic word can normally distract them; no advance subterfuge is required.

Yeah no aggies here so I doubt that will work.

At least he sort of understands the value of mistake fares. He was more than a little jealous last August when I spent a week in New Zealand, thanks to UA's little C fare mistake.

My favorite is "Franchione" :p

:)

How are mileage runs a worthwhile investment? Honestly curious here, not being a jerk.

Why is it so hard for family/significant others (and otters)/friends to understand that we like doing mileage runs and just flying places for fun? Everyone has their hobbies and interests - flying and accruing miles just happens to be one of our hobbies/interests.

I always get grief from my girlfriend when I go on random trips to nice places. She thinks that if I go to a country in Europe for a night or a long I won't want to go back there again. I always just try to tell her I'm checking out places for us to go together in the future but I'm not so sure she sees it that way yet. Although, to her credit, she is getting a little better as I heard very few complaints about my recent weekend trip to HNL.

Flying more to obtain a higher level of status with an airline leads to more perks (bonus miles, lounge access, more upgrades, etc). Many times, the miles earned on a mileage run will be worth more then the money spent on the ticket for the mileage run.

And, sometimes it's just to fulfill an urge to be on a plane, cruising at 36,000. :D

Well, if you get a decent opportunity to earn miles at a low cents-per-mile figure (generally 3cpm or less), you should generally be able to redeem the miles at a value greater than what you paid to get them. It can be a good way to stock up on miles for big-ticket items like premium-cabin tickets for vacations. Granted, there's always an opportunity cost, as the money you spend on the MR (even though a good value in relation to the miles earned), will not be available for spending on something else. So, MRs are a useful tool for those that enjoy traveling extensively, to obtain miles at a favorable rate/price.

If you don't enjoy traveling extensively using mileage redemptions, or if your employer already keeps you busy flying on a tight schedule 150K+ BIS each year (to the extent you don't have any free time to MR), then MRs may not be for you.