Yeah, I'm really looking forward to trying out Aloft and Element. But it's still going to be a few years before they're really everywhere, and even looking at the list of future locations makes it evident Starwood still won't have any presence in many of the markets we do business in. And I'm not just talking about small towns here — there are a lot of places with a population of over 75,000, and in many cases a population of over 150,000, that Starwood has no presence. Yet it's often not hard to find a Marriott or Hilton property in a town with a population well below 10,000, and you're almost guaranteed to find at least one of those, if not both, in communities with a population over 10,000-15,000.

Don't get me wrong — I think SPG is a great program, and Starwood has some really amazing properties. They just don't have enough of them, in enough locations, at enough price points yet. But hopefully with time they'll get there, and as they grow, not dilute the SPG program too much.

Thanks. Yeah, I've thought about going for both Marriott Platinum and Starwood Gold (I could easily get SPG Gold with a couple of nights during my holiday travelers). But it would be difficult to switch nights to Marriott, due to constraints I have with where I stay in Lubbock, and I only have one more trip to Conway and that one is not convenient to move either.

Mattress run? How short would you be?

About five. I'd be close — I just don't know how much more personal travel I'll have this year.

Laugh as you may, but for more than a year Starwood had no property at all in Louisville, certainly a larger market than those ssullivan was talking about.

It was only recently that they converted a Ramada across the river in Indiana to a Sheraton flag. They are however conceding that this million plus market needs more and and are set to build a Westin downtown.

Most likely, just as with the new downtown Marriott, this one will shoot for rates higher than my company wants to pay and after the soft opening and the introductory discounts are no longer available, I will still need to stay across the river.

On his question however, I am not doing any hard calculations but my instinct tells me that his SPG deal is better.

Well my Dad keep referring to it as a reward. I dont have kids but rewards come after the person has done something nice.

I got a plat companion upgrade SFO to IAH on a 12 pm Monday flight. Did I mention it was Xmas Eve?

No he called me outta the blue, business card on the bag. I mentioned dropping the bag at the CO counter at the airport and that is when he started asking for CC. I couldnt really get him to confirm 100% contents in the bag, I was just pissed at the point of the move to extortion. I would have gladly given the guy a reward had he turned in and not been that way.

I did try calling the cell phone he called from and no luck.

What about 4-Points?

Do they have anything in AUS yet? That's another decent sized market where Marriott and HH have plenty and SPG had nothing for a long, long time.

What year did CO retire its DC-10s?

Yes, there has been a Sheraton Austin for about a year now. Decent Sheraton, IMO (especially the club rooms with a view of Austin's skyline). There's also a W being built (as well as an Aloft property, IIRC). Possibly a Westin being built, as well.

I want to say around 1999. I'm sure someone has the exact date.
One of my favorite aircraft types. I spent almost 8 years as a gate agent working that plane and the 747. Lots of fun and lots of trouble.

I think it was that by 2001, no more than a year after the incident in Paris with the Concorde.

October 2001. They were supposed to be gone in Q1 2002, but 9/11 accelerated that. They were retired very quickly by mid-October of that year.

The DC-10 was still doing IAH-SFO/LAX/EWR domestic runs right up until the end. I was in San Francisco several weeks for work in June 2001 and remember seeing the DC-10 there on one IAH flight a day that summer. The one time I ever flew the DC-10 was on IAH-LAX on a Saturday in early September 2001, about a month before they were quickly retired.