Hmm... is this worth fighting the corporate travel agent for?
 

So I'm pricing out work travel for January, and I need to fly IAH-RDU in about a month. Trying to maximize my CO mileage, and exploit the loopholes of the corporate travel agent's web booking system to avoid them sticking me on US via CLT, I ran a multi-stop search via EWR to see if it would price out on CO as about the same as the nonstop IAH-RDU. It didn't. But what I did find was a nice little 8 segment trip on UA, for less than the CO nonstop flight. Sure it takes about 12 hours each way, requires connections at ORD, EWR, and IAD, but it's 8 segments, which is more than 25% of what I need to renew my UA Premier status. And if I wanted to go for a higher level with UA next year, it would help get me there faster. So... is it worth having to argue with the travel agent about why I need four flights each way to get between IAH and RDU, and having to depart on flights before 7:00 AM on both Monday and Friday of that week to get those 8 segments?

Will you be my attorney if I do?

::Trying to resist the temptation of adding to that thread on OMNI...::

Uh, I'm still working on getting in debt and tacking on yet another degree. Perhaps, someday, they'll actually let me take that "bar" thingy (or grant me a work visa in the UK).

For starters, you could always rely on the Free OMNI Legal Clinic :p

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

Give in!

Haha. Well I have mixed feelings about my home city -- parts of it I love, but there are the things I hate. But I'm afraid if I lose my OMNI virginity to that thread, it will be as bad as the Box is, and I'll waste far too much time over there. I must admit I've already read several pages of the Houston hater thread in the last half hour...

I know OMNI will be the death of me. I'll spend all my time taking shots at people from USC...trojan fans are out of control.

Just to note, there is little to no money in crack, powder cocaine is where the big bucks are at. Plus if you go to jail you spend significantly less time in jail then you would if you got busted with the same amount of crack.

Well, for now I'll keep my consulting job.

You will make "enemies" quickly in OMNI. There is a strong USC contingent in the CFB thread there (at least one very active poster). He's cool though, and not "out of control" by any means. Best to play nice and pick your battles for when you're good and drunk :D

Also, on the crack front, the Federal Sentencing guidelines just got revised downwards to be more in keeping with the penalties assessed for powder cocaine.

Speaking of white stuff, I'm enjoying a snow afternoon - skipped out of work a bit early.:D Now I can work on qualifying for OMNI.;):D

And they have decided to apply it retroactively how surprisingly decent of them.
http://www.ussc.gov/PRESS/rel121107.htm

Though the avg time for a crack offense goes from 10 years and 1 month to 8 years and 10 months. Still too long if you ask me, but that is up for congress to fix not the USSC.

There was some BS quote by the U.S. attorney in this morning's chronicle likening these crack inmates to violent offenders. My question is...don't we already have statutes on the books (with severe penalties, no less) for violent offenders? If they're crackheads, and violent, nail 'em on multiple counts. If they're just dumb crackheads, why do they deserve more prison time for 10g of rocks found in "my friend's pants," than some investment banker who got caught with a kilo of blow in the trunk of his Merc?

Because the mandatory minimums for Crack are racist as written.

Do people actually like sitting in middle seats?

I checked-in for my flight last night on a 753 and grabbed 8A (the exit row at the boarding door), and the aisle seat was snatched up in a hurry.

When I got to the airport this morning the middle seat was grayed out with plenty of empty seats all over the plane. So there are two scenarios, someone decided they want to sit in the middle or CO actually protected an elite.

Just spoke to the agent at the desk at the PC and she said there are ~40 open seats... And someone wanted to sit in the middle :rolleyes:

Yep I see it all the time. Plenty of aisle and window seats can be open, and you'll get someone just dying to sit in the front of the plane who willingly takes a middle seat. It happened twice to me last week on WN, when I was sitting in a row near the front of the plane, and there were plenty of window and aisle seats open, and someone wanted to sit in my middle seat. In both cases the flight wasn't full and we went out with open aisle and window seats.