I'm jealous!!! Glad you got to see it. There are some days I really wish I would have gone into medicine. I used to love to watch the surgery shows so I can only imagine watching it close up.

Why?

Its not that crazy
I have done EZE-CDG-BKK and EZE-ATL-LGA-EWR-HKG
without any problems

A. Probably. The biggest risk is a sever delay of the LHR-MSP flight, although there are plenty of other options to get from LHR-LAX, if you could convince the agents to rebook you.

B. No, not at all. Do it.

I wish I were on my way to GRU.

My amazing Westin Time Square story
 

I know ALCO is a Starwoods fan, so I'll put this here:

- 3 weeks ago, I got the Westin TS for $152/night on PL for 7/4-7/6. About $360 total with taxes and fees.

- Showed up at around 3pm 7/4 wearing my Tripadvisor cap. Reception took my DL, went to backroom and came back and said "Sorry we were overbooked, and we'll put you at the Sheraton Towers". I said, "No way. Westin is 4* on PL, Sheraton is a 3*".

- She said, "No, you don't understand", and she found the manager to talk to me. "Mr. rkkwan, we'll refund your first night, and you'll stay at the Sheraton for free tonite", and he handed me his card.

- My god, that's $180 to be refunded. Of course, that's fine. Then the reception pulled out $20 from the drawer for me to take the cab. [I walked the 10 blocks north and one block east from 43/8th to 53/7th; took the E train next day back. So, I pocketed $18 there.]

- I asked what time I can come back. She said, anytime, you'll put you as a VIP, already checked-in. Whatever that meant, I thought.

- Got standard low floor room at Sheraton. Not bad, not much of a view.

- Got back to Westin around 11am on 7/5. They put me in a huge NE corner room on the 39th floor (out of 45)! I can see the Hudson, buildings to the north, and even the top 20 floors of the ESB! Bathroom has huge window. The HDTV there actually has HD programming, unlike the same set at the Sheraton which only has analog signals. [Of course, I'll post pictures later on.]

- They also gave me access to the Executive Lounge on the 8th floor. Didn't go for the hor d'oeuvres from 6-8pm, but I got the very nice breakfast next morning with smoked salmon and more. That must be worth $20.

- But there's more. Returning from the Met to my room, I found a tray sitting on the day couch. 2 bottles of Italian sparkling water and plates of cheeses and fruits. And a card apologizing for my inconvenience.

Amazing? Isn't it? :D

I have always wished I went into medicine as well. Unfortunately, I was never a big fan of school (I love to learn but I hate school) so all of the extra years for med school did not appeal to me.

I have a friend who is a PA at a heart hospital in PBI. I made a casual comment to him about how I had always wanted to watch a surgery. He called me the next day and asked me what I was doing Monday morning. :)

Very impressive. It is always nice to see them fix things when they have to walk a guest, and in NYC it is nice that "walking" a guest is usually actually accomplished by just walking.

Though you did come to town and not call. I'm not sure how to feel about that. :p

I'd do it; I'm assuming you already have the LAX-SYD booked, as well as getting to LHR somehow, right?

I was just looking at it and it looks like CO has published a $96 fare for this winter r/t on the route, so it may not be a fuel surcharge issue on the CO flights, though it may be on the other carriers, or they screwed up the seasonality.

$96 on which route ?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

Has anyone found a well priced routing to LHR that can be combined with the LHR-LAX deal?

I have LAX-SYD booked, I do not have USA-LHR booked, but I'll figure it out. :D;)

A close family member died when I was 9 of a terminal illness (cancer). Going through this as a child I felt helpless. I literally watched them deteriorate in front of me and, at the time, thanks to childhood ignorance - I had no idea what was happening.

Then, when they finally passed away, I went through all of the stages of grief. I was immensely angry at my family for not telling me the gravity of the situation (although they had tried) and at myself for not being aware of what was happening. Fast forward through the other stages of grief and I resolved that I would immerse myself in medical knowledge, to never be ignorant about the fragile balance of life and death.

I graduated high school and was accepted to college as a pre-med major. Went through the first year, plowing through the organic chems, the bios, and the calculus - hating every second of it. When other kids were out forgetting their names I was balancing equations that had no tangible value other than taking me one step closer to where I thought I wanted to be.

Finally, at the end of my freshman year I said screw it and dropped the pre-med major. I had pulled just about straight B's in everything, but I hated it. I hated waking up in the morning (I never really went to sleep) and I hated thinking I would have to spend the next 7 years of my life doing this.

So, I switched to communications. And I was angry at myself. I'm the type of guy that, when he puts his mind to it, accomplishes it. I'm not used to failure, and I had never really given up on something. Let alone something that was a long-standing personal goal.

I graduated school and entered the working world, and always felt this void in my life. Like I should be doing more.

One day while waiting in line at the bagel store I saw a little recruitment brochure for a local EMS agency. In the time it took me to order my breakfast I had filled out the application. The next day I went down for an interview and fast forward a few weeks later I was going through training.

Here I am, many moons later, and my involvement with EMS is, to this day, a defining part of my life. I give a tremendous amount of time and I want to only give more.

I've borne witness to some absolutely amazing things. I've saved a life and I've lost a life. I've held people's hands through tragedy, and I've stood by their side while they grieved. I've witnessed last good-byes, and seen the elation when hope returns - when all hope had seemingly been lost.

I've seen tragedy in every sense of the word.

But I've also seen the profound beauty that exists in the balance between life and death. I have an appreciation for the every day and a greater understanding of the most simple things. I now know what love and devotion are, and I believe that selflessness does exist in this world.

For anyone that ever tinkered with the notion of becoming a doc, or working in medicine, but never saw it through - consider giving some time to a local EMS agency. It's not for everyone (and not everywhere accepts volunteers), but it's worth looking into. No, you're not performing open heart surgery, but you see another side of medicine, that even the docs and the nurses don't get to see. A good EMT/Medic can make a palpable difference in the care of a patient. You can have an impact.

[/soapbox]

Nobody around here said that it was bad.The timing is better from MIA. Flight leaves sometime after 0830 and we did not need to leave South Palm until about 6.

LHR-LAX. It is one of the dozen or so X fares published on the route.

I published the fare rules in the MR thread. Sadly KVS no longer has all the good details like they used to.

[KVS Availability Tool 3.1.2/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/ZUJ/SG]