Thought I'd give this a shot on a rather boring iterinary. I figure it'll help to vent out my minor frustrations (major frustrations I always take straight to the service provider..) on this iterinary.

Late afternoon flight from Pittsburgh to Albany non-stop. I am Preferred Plus and tried to upgrade 3 days in advance as I can, but I forgot till about 11pm that day. Phone agent tells me it's full and puts me on wait list.

Get to airport early (compared to when I normally get to airport for flights -- 45 minutes from departure), about 1hr 15 mins. Stand on Preferred line which moves reasonablly fast despite for idiots who don't pay attention and hold up the line even though there is an open agent trying to get their attention.

Agent is very friendly and is able to upgrade me on the spot and we chat about how much paper USAirways wastes with the certificates, etc. We both agree USAirways should use stickers like some other airlines.

Anycase, afterwards walk to the gate and flight starts boarding 35 minutes early and I am one of the first ones on. The flight is completely done boarding (110 passengers) almost 20 minutes before the flight is ready to leave. It turns out there is no one in first class next to me, across from me, or in front of me. I guess a lot of people cancelled their reservations there. Or maybe there's something wrong with me

While I still flew in Coach I reasonably often sat next to an empty seat but this was the first time that happened to me in First Class. I stretched out .... It was a great flight -- we left 10 minutes early and arrived 10 minutes early. Munched on honey mustard pretzels from the SnakKing, which I love but can't get outside the airline or in Los Angeles (lucky I plan to go to LA in 3 weeks -- gonna fill up a suitcase).

Then things start to slow down -- there is still a plane at our gate so we wait about 6-8 minutes. Then when we get to the gate, the person operating the airway seems to have a lot of trouble getting close enough to the plane. Takes a few minutes but I get off the plane, pick up something quick from the McDonalds and go to Hertz.

It goes further downhill with Hertz -- I sit on the Gold Club line with only 3 people in front of me and it takes *15* minutes, while the regular line is going faster -- with the same number of people and only one agent! (Gold had two agents) . Apparently those two agents shared a brain since whenever a person had a problem they both had to work on it.

First a lady who struck me as snobby took five minutes, then another guy who's reservation they couldn't find, then another lady who complained about her complimentary upgrade to a premium class car. 15 minutes later I get up there, show my license, get the keys to my Taurus (an upgrade; I'm happy -- I hate the Contours I'm normally forced to drive) and out of there in under *15 seconds* (timed it to be sure).

Afterwards had to deal with 90 minutes of moderately heavy Sunday traffic to get to my destination, and then found out left my belt at home and had to go to Walmart to get one -- but that's another story completely.


[This message has been edited by dg1 (edited 08-22-1999).]