Hurricane in Miami...
Oct 17, 1999 | 12:59 pm
#1
Original Poster
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Detroit, MI
Posts: 2,682
Hurricane in Miami...
Had to go to MIA for a meeting this week of our co's affiliate cellular carriers in Latin America. Left Wed, was to return Friday.
Wed 0530: Alarm set--4 of us meeting at office to carpool to ATL. Make it there, meet everyone. All go in one car (I'd expected to use MARTA). Scheduled 0800 AA ATLMIA. 2 of us had gotten standby upgrade coupons, the other 2 hadn't, but those 2 are Plat Exec, I'm Gold, 4th person regular. 2 Plat Execs had already been upgraded, so Gloria and I got the s/b upgrades and we trooped onto the 727 and took over Row 5. Flt was 2/3 full (apparently the earlier 0715 to MIA only had about 15 people on it). Snack plate in 1c--left 15 mins late, arrived on time. Had much hilarity and mirth on the flt--this is a fun group to fly with. Take bus to Hertz to find a Contour reserved. We would barely fit, so asked for change--nothing available, ended up upgrading for $20/day to minivan. We stopped by one of the guy's parent's houses--Mrs. Bueno cooked a delicious mid-morning snack of a tuna Spanish omelet, with vienna sausages and olives. It was interesting--being a Gringo, I don't associate the smell of olive oil with morning food--much more used to butter/bacon. (I am fascinated by different breakfast habits around the world!)
Then stopped by his dad's office. His dad has been with Iberia Airlines for 30 years and is now the IT director for the Americas. Had an interesting tour of their call center and new installation of network throughout all of their stations in the Americas. Very interesting to see the "back end".
Checked into the Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove. Seemed like a typical non-chain small luxury hotel: sit-down check-in with a glass of Champagne, etc etc. Room not available, so we go off to help with the set-up for the conference.
Room finally done around 3--again, typical non-chain small luxury, with VCR, minibar, stereo with CD and TV in a large armoire. Only problem was the bed--it was king size (I get lost in them), but it was extremely soft and squashy (just like a marshmallow). I am not one for soft floppy beds--give me a brick and I sleep best!
We entertain about 50 clients Wed. evening in the old disco on the top of the building (15 years ago it was Regine's and was apparently quite the place).
Meeting goes well on Thursday, but the hurricane is impending. We all have 1 eye on the TV all day, but decide to go forward with dinner at Breakwater Cafe on South Beach. Rains come at about 7 pm--we are seated on the veranda and get kind of wet as we eat. Food nothing special--more the spectacle. One rain band almost forces us inside, but we stay outside.
Friday it becomes a bit scattered, with people leaving--one contingent to ATL left early to get back on a 10 am flight. We break up early (about 11:30) so a few people dash for FLL to get back to Tampa on Southwest (in expectation that they may have to close up our operation there).
Friday the outdoors looks like Edward Scissorhands has come through--green leaves and twigs blowing around, trees swaying and winds howling. It was truly amazing to see--water coming in to the lobby area of the hotel from the windblown rain, the doormen having to hold the doors shut, streets flooding.
We get done at about 3 pm from breaking down the meeting and are bored, so we decide to go out shopping. The main streets are much less of a problem than we expected, or than the side streets. We drive down to the Dadeland Mall area in heavy traffic (most companies closed at noon), and go into a multistory shopping area nearby where the janitors at Target were fighting a losing battle with mopping the water up at the entrances.
Dadeland Mall closed around 4 pm with bad flooding of the parking lots (though not inside--apparently it always floods, though). The East-West street on which Dadeland sits was full of about 12-18 inches of water, so we decide to head back to the hotel.
Meanwhile, the leader of our meeting had been talking to the Concierge to arrange dinner for the 40 people who couldn't get out. They blanched when she asked them to serve us (most places were closed--the hotel was on generator) but they did an admirable job. The elevator stopped a few times, but always restarted again.
People were having trouble even booking flights out, and were getting inconsistent answers. Two people scheduled to return to Sao Paulo on UA biz class were told that the first avail seats on any carrier were on Monday in coach, but they called Varig directly and got Sun. evening seats in b/c. Several of us were sked out Fri eve on the AA 1930 flight, but that was xld on Thursday evening. They rebooked me on an 1115 on Sat, which was xld on Friday evening. I finally got home on the 1930 on Sat (24 hrs later than sked).
Sat. rented a car and took the Brazilian contingent to Hialeah to shop--few traffic lights working in Hialeah, but all stores open and quite crowded.
Returned rental car to deserted Budget lot, got to airport to a mobscene for AA. Quickly decided to go straight to gate (there must have been 500 people in line in both the int'l and the domestic lines). Had called for an upgrade-got it for buying 2 stickers).
Flight left 1/2 hour late (think it was held to catch a couple of straggler passengers from another flight). f/c completely full, a few seats left in coach. 2 pilots in f/c, one sat next to me. He was just leaving to work. He was to take that aircraft at 10 pm, fly it to Columbus, GA, wait 2 1/2 hours for the Univ of Fla football team, then fly to Gainesville, FL, to drop them off, then fly back to MIA. He'd get back home (he was MIA based) at about 5 AM. Said this was a 1st for him. We talked quite a bit--very interesting. He spent about 15 mins preparing for the flights that night--particularly important b/c AA has no presence in either city, so he was looking at Jeppesen maps of approaches. He also was concerned b/c he didn't know what to expect at 2 am in Columbus, GA at a private-type hangar. He did say they'd fill the plane up in ATL so wouldn't have to worry about gassing up in either CSG or GSV.
We then talked about the year for American, which he said had been really a bad one. Strikes, labor strife, delays, etc. Had an interesting take on OneWorld et al (disliked them work-wise--said they took flying from AA and gave it to the cheapest 1W provider---used for example a new route (ORD-Helsinki) which AA was going to fly, but now with 1W would just let Finnair do it. He was moving to BOS for a promotion to captain of MD80 (he was 2d officer on 727).
All in all an excellent way to finish a trip.
Got home about 15 mins late--MARTA to office, then 7 minutes to the apt--walked in 11pm. Glad to be home!
Wed 0530: Alarm set--4 of us meeting at office to carpool to ATL. Make it there, meet everyone. All go in one car (I'd expected to use MARTA). Scheduled 0800 AA ATLMIA. 2 of us had gotten standby upgrade coupons, the other 2 hadn't, but those 2 are Plat Exec, I'm Gold, 4th person regular. 2 Plat Execs had already been upgraded, so Gloria and I got the s/b upgrades and we trooped onto the 727 and took over Row 5. Flt was 2/3 full (apparently the earlier 0715 to MIA only had about 15 people on it). Snack plate in 1c--left 15 mins late, arrived on time. Had much hilarity and mirth on the flt--this is a fun group to fly with. Take bus to Hertz to find a Contour reserved. We would barely fit, so asked for change--nothing available, ended up upgrading for $20/day to minivan. We stopped by one of the guy's parent's houses--Mrs. Bueno cooked a delicious mid-morning snack of a tuna Spanish omelet, with vienna sausages and olives. It was interesting--being a Gringo, I don't associate the smell of olive oil with morning food--much more used to butter/bacon. (I am fascinated by different breakfast habits around the world!)
Then stopped by his dad's office. His dad has been with Iberia Airlines for 30 years and is now the IT director for the Americas. Had an interesting tour of their call center and new installation of network throughout all of their stations in the Americas. Very interesting to see the "back end".
Checked into the Grand Bay Hotel in Coconut Grove. Seemed like a typical non-chain small luxury hotel: sit-down check-in with a glass of Champagne, etc etc. Room not available, so we go off to help with the set-up for the conference.
Room finally done around 3--again, typical non-chain small luxury, with VCR, minibar, stereo with CD and TV in a large armoire. Only problem was the bed--it was king size (I get lost in them), but it was extremely soft and squashy (just like a marshmallow). I am not one for soft floppy beds--give me a brick and I sleep best!
We entertain about 50 clients Wed. evening in the old disco on the top of the building (15 years ago it was Regine's and was apparently quite the place).
Meeting goes well on Thursday, but the hurricane is impending. We all have 1 eye on the TV all day, but decide to go forward with dinner at Breakwater Cafe on South Beach. Rains come at about 7 pm--we are seated on the veranda and get kind of wet as we eat. Food nothing special--more the spectacle. One rain band almost forces us inside, but we stay outside.
Friday it becomes a bit scattered, with people leaving--one contingent to ATL left early to get back on a 10 am flight. We break up early (about 11:30) so a few people dash for FLL to get back to Tampa on Southwest (in expectation that they may have to close up our operation there).
Friday the outdoors looks like Edward Scissorhands has come through--green leaves and twigs blowing around, trees swaying and winds howling. It was truly amazing to see--water coming in to the lobby area of the hotel from the windblown rain, the doormen having to hold the doors shut, streets flooding.
We get done at about 3 pm from breaking down the meeting and are bored, so we decide to go out shopping. The main streets are much less of a problem than we expected, or than the side streets. We drive down to the Dadeland Mall area in heavy traffic (most companies closed at noon), and go into a multistory shopping area nearby where the janitors at Target were fighting a losing battle with mopping the water up at the entrances.
Dadeland Mall closed around 4 pm with bad flooding of the parking lots (though not inside--apparently it always floods, though). The East-West street on which Dadeland sits was full of about 12-18 inches of water, so we decide to head back to the hotel.
Meanwhile, the leader of our meeting had been talking to the Concierge to arrange dinner for the 40 people who couldn't get out. They blanched when she asked them to serve us (most places were closed--the hotel was on generator) but they did an admirable job. The elevator stopped a few times, but always restarted again.
People were having trouble even booking flights out, and were getting inconsistent answers. Two people scheduled to return to Sao Paulo on UA biz class were told that the first avail seats on any carrier were on Monday in coach, but they called Varig directly and got Sun. evening seats in b/c. Several of us were sked out Fri eve on the AA 1930 flight, but that was xld on Thursday evening. They rebooked me on an 1115 on Sat, which was xld on Friday evening. I finally got home on the 1930 on Sat (24 hrs later than sked).
Sat. rented a car and took the Brazilian contingent to Hialeah to shop--few traffic lights working in Hialeah, but all stores open and quite crowded.
Returned rental car to deserted Budget lot, got to airport to a mobscene for AA. Quickly decided to go straight to gate (there must have been 500 people in line in both the int'l and the domestic lines). Had called for an upgrade-got it for buying 2 stickers).
Flight left 1/2 hour late (think it was held to catch a couple of straggler passengers from another flight). f/c completely full, a few seats left in coach. 2 pilots in f/c, one sat next to me. He was just leaving to work. He was to take that aircraft at 10 pm, fly it to Columbus, GA, wait 2 1/2 hours for the Univ of Fla football team, then fly to Gainesville, FL, to drop them off, then fly back to MIA. He'd get back home (he was MIA based) at about 5 AM. Said this was a 1st for him. We talked quite a bit--very interesting. He spent about 15 mins preparing for the flights that night--particularly important b/c AA has no presence in either city, so he was looking at Jeppesen maps of approaches. He also was concerned b/c he didn't know what to expect at 2 am in Columbus, GA at a private-type hangar. He did say they'd fill the plane up in ATL so wouldn't have to worry about gassing up in either CSG or GSV.
We then talked about the year for American, which he said had been really a bad one. Strikes, labor strife, delays, etc. Had an interesting take on OneWorld et al (disliked them work-wise--said they took flying from AA and gave it to the cheapest 1W provider---used for example a new route (ORD-Helsinki) which AA was going to fly, but now with 1W would just let Finnair do it. He was moving to BOS for a promotion to captain of MD80 (he was 2d officer on 727).
All in all an excellent way to finish a trip.
Got home about 15 mins late--MARTA to office, then 7 minutes to the apt--walked in 11pm. Glad to be home!
