I am going to give writing a trip report a go. I believe that 12 segments in 4 days is not that remarkable given some of the other reports I have read, but it will let me practice my writing skills as one of my clients has asked me to write a few articles in the upcoming months. So, please feel free to post replies with anything constructive, destructive, praise, condemnation or whatever you feel like!

Here is the itinerary
Nov 13 LNK-DEN
Nov 14 DEN-PHX-DEN
Nov 15 DEN-ORD-BWI
Nov 16 BWI-DEN-MSP-CLT-PBI
Nov 17 PBI-ORD-FSD-DEN


I will make 2P after the Nov 16 BWI-DEN segment. I have been told it takes 72 hours for the flight to post and 48 for my status to reflect the change. I have no hopes of reaping any of the benefits of status during this run. I may attempt to call MP CS to get advanced the evening of the 16th. We'll see how it goes.

I plan to use the information found on "The Budget Traveler�s Guide to
Sleeping in Airports" and stay overnight at BWI (6 hours) and PBI (9 hours). While this is the plan, I am reserving the right to get a hotel in West Palm if the overnight at PBI goes bad.


I will attempt to update this thread enroute using each of the following methods.
1. Laptop using
a. Free Wireless (if available)
b. T-Mobile Hotspot
c. Laptop Tethered via Bluetooth to Ipaq 6315 using T-Mobile GPRS
2. Ipaq 6315 using
a. T-Mobile GPRS
b. T-Mobile Wireless Hotspot
c. Free Wireless (if available)

If I exhaust all of the above and get bored:
Other public wireless (fee based)
Public Internet Computers (fee based)
Wired access - i.e. laptop lane (fee based)

I am self-employed and will be working during this mileage run if I can keep from watching movies on the IPAQ. I have 3 new movies I haven't seen yet that I transferred to a SD card this weekend that I am itching to watch!

It's 4:30am on the eve of the first segment and I have an appointment at 8 am. Time for bed! (The time on the post says 3:30am but I think that it uses my registered time zone or my computers time which is still set to home)

Cheers!
M.

Well the 7am alarm came and went! Checked my watch and it was 10am when I awoke. Quick shower and met my appt late! He was ok with my tardiness, he had other things that needed attention come up this morning.
I had used Easy-Checkin earlier to check in and go standby (unconfirmed) for an earlier flight with an empty F cabin on a ERJ70. I missed getting to the airport for the standby because I overslept. Oh well, I'll take one regular ERJ please.

Cheers!
M.

UA6568 LNK-DEN -Skywest CRJ200
Scheduled 5:30pm
Wheels Up 6:55pm

We were told our aircraft was delayed at ORD due to weather. Everything that had anything to do with ORD was delayed on the boards at LNK. I was going home to DEN and had no worries but others were missing connections. I felt for them.

Before we took off, seems to be commonplace on RJ these days, serveral (5) volunteers were needed to move to the back to trim the aircraft before takeoff. I was wondering if the new UA ExPlus aircraft would alleviate some of this as there would be fewer pax in front of the wing due to F and E+ being forward?

I saw for the first time a E-170 (ERJ-170) on Saturday. This is an new RJ with underwing engines. I was impressed. It looked like an infant 757! I will try to book a run on one of those as soon as I figure out where they are being used.

The flight was calm and uneventful, everyone seemed distressed about their connections. Quite a few UNL students on board doing homework as well. Where could they be going on Monday night? Or, maybe they CSU students returning home or a mix of both?

While we were taxiing, the FA jumped up out of her seat and grabbed a printout. She came over the PA and said she was very sorry but her printout didn't have any connecting information on it, apologized again and said the pax would need to check with the gate agent or displays. I felt for them, the system let them down a little again.

I returned home to send the email I composed while in the air and was told that the friend I was to pick up at 1pm tomorrow was going to be picked up by another friend. The person who told me didn't know that the friend had already made arrangements with me to pick them up. They sent me their itinerary on Friday and we discussed plans for the trip back from the airport. Knowing I was going to be at the airport at 1pm on Tuesday, I booked a run to PHX to get 4 more DYMTWTU credits. I am getting to the point I don't need much of a reason to book a run and this was one of them.

We have all heard the old addage: "Fool me once, shame on you; Fool me twice, shame on me." (I confess I don't know the proper punctuation for addages ) This friend did this to me three weeks earlier. I was mad for about 5 minutes. Now I am over it. I will not pick them up again. And knowing this person, they will ask again. I will just have other plans.....

Perhaps it is my fault. About 6 years ago this person tried to cajole me into picking another person at the airport. I was unhappy about being asked because I was present for the conversation that he had agreeing to pick them up. So, I had a little fun. I told the friend that I would pick the person up at the airport. The friend then asked for a ride to his office as that is where his car was ( I knew this was coming as we had discussed it the night before ).

This friend likes to drive fast and likes to control people and be in control. They claim carsickness when they are a passenger and request to drive any car they are riding in. Heh, Heh, Heh....

So, on the way to the office I didn't get off the freeway at the correct exit to go to the office. A stange look came over my friend face as they realized my destination (they were very familiar with my devious behavior!). Yes, I would go to the airport to pick up our mutual friend, but they would also be going to make good on their promise to meet them at the airport!


I will stop the story for now, it gets much better, I promise! Check back tomorrow.....

UA1445 DEN-PHX Nov 14

I didn't sleep at all before this flight. I was working until 3:30am and then looked at my watch and determined that I had to leave in an hour! So, it was a long, long day.

The flight was full on the seat map during check-in. I selected the aisle seat. I have determined that I would rather have an aisle in E- than a window or middle in E+. I waited until I thought the jetway was clear to board. (I have never timed this right). I asked if I was the last to the GA and he said there were 17 more coming! (It was 10 minutes to pushback). By the time we pushed back there were quite a few rows empty on the A320.

We had a nice flight, I slept for some amount of time, I really don't know how long. I chatted with the window seat pax for the last half of the flight. We work in the same industry.

After deplaning in PHX I made tracks for the Cinnabon in the next terminal over. I missed a flight once at PHX attempting this! I had plenty of time this time and was able to eat my Cinnabon unhurried.

UA1584 PHX-DEN Nov 14

Another TED A320 and this one was full with one exception. The row I was in! I again took the aisle in E-. And not another soul was in my row. I felt the eyes of the other pax eying the seats. Had I been in the Window seat, I am sure that someone would have moved to the Aisle seat when the door closed. Several times during the boarding process the FAs looked at me and the empty seats pausing at my row and discussing them. I thought for sure they were going to move someone into them.

Since I hadn't slept the night before, I really wanted to stretch out across the three seats. But my I couldn't bring myself to do it with all of the cramped eyes around me!

Twice in a week, the flight from PHX (each a TED A320) has used two jetways to de-plane the pax. One in front and one in Back. I think that this will help increase the turn around time. They will have to rearrange the boarding groups to take full advantage of the boarding process though, or have a GA or FA standing in the jetway directing them to the front or back door.

After landing in DEN at around 12:15 I made my way to my vehicle and proceed to drive up to Wyoming to take care of some business. It was 7pm when I finally got home and immediately went to bed. I slept for 11 hours!

I promised more of the story I started in the previous post. So, here we go!

I had to listen to my friend make excuses as to why he couldn't go to the airport with me for about 15 minutes until he realized that I was agreeing with him the whole time and not turning around. I set the cruise control at 10mph under the speed limit. This really annoys him as his personality is such that he never wants to be passed on the freeway. So, I am driving slow and I am driving. These two things alone were driving him up the wall. So, to deal with it he crawls in the back seat. He really wants to be mad, but can't bring himself to it because he knows that this is my sense of humour.

We picked up the pax curbside in DEN. my friend never got out of the back seat and fell asleep shortly after getting on the freeway on the return trip. I told the pax what I had done and they thought it was just revenge for him attempting to dump his promise of making the airport pickup on me.

Here is where the fun began. My friend had taken his shoes off. The pax quietly retreived them from the backseat. I told him to tie the laces together at the ends. I then opened the sunroof halfway as the pax carefully placed them on top of the sunroof while holding onto the laces through the opening. I then closed the sunroof with the laces caught in the sunroof.

What we had was a pair of shoes on the roof of the car that would stay there at any speed. So, I again set the cruise at 10mph under the speed limit. We were on a secondary 4 lane highway and the speed limit was 65mph.

It didn't take long before a moving bottleneck was created for a few miles behind us! Since we were traveling slower than the speed limit, all the cars needed to pass us on the left. Every car that passed us felt the need to motion to us that something was on the roof. We at first feigned ignorance and that we couldn't understand what they were trying to say. Then we started gesturing in way that was then popular due to the song "Raise the Roof" and it got ridiculous from there.

The pax and I were having a great time and there was almost constant laughter from the front seat. The friend woke up and tried to figure out what was going on. He looks at the speedometer, looks out the back window and notices all off the cars as far as the eye could see. Then he notices that almost every car that passes is obviously trying to tell us that something is on the roof.

He is taking all of this well and keeps asking what is on the roof that everyone is noticing. He figures out that he can't find his shoes (A $200 plus pair of whatever was popular then sneakers). The light bulb goes off and so does he (he doesn't know that the shoes are safe because the laces are caught in the sunroof).

So, I am truly torturing him for these reasons:

1. He is going slow
2. He is being passed
3. He is not in control of the car
4. He believes his $200 pair of shoes are going to fly off the top of the car at any moment and be run over by the line of cars behind us. (Something we capitalize on by speeding up and slowing down depending on the intensity of his complaints).

Al of this excitement lasted about 1 hour. Until we got back to the office, the place were he thought I was taking him some 3 hours before. He gets out and tries to take his shoes off the roof only to find they are attached to the car..................


Thats my story, no moral to it, no punchline. He may now after 6 years be very averse to me picking him up at the airport. What do you think?

M.

10/15/2006 3:50pm
DEN-ORD-BWI

I was a little rushed getting out of the office and hopeful I hadn�t forgotten anything. It is about an hour to the airport. I stopped to get my caffeine fix on the way out of town and was plodding along in traffic when all of my phones went haywire all at once making so much noise I thought the world was coming to an end. I hadn�t paid attention to the easy update settings on UA.bomb and my DEN-ORD connecting flight was cancelled. So, both cell phones had incoming calls. When I didn�t answer the primary phone number the call was automatically forwarded to the secondary. So, the secondary had two calls from United coming in at once. Two text messages, one for each phone and a fax notification coming from my unified messaging service. Then, my office was calling me to tell me that they received a cancelled flight notification call from UAL. I will have to take a look at the settings and get them sorted out!
My DEN-ORD flight, UA938 on a 777, was cancelled due to a mechanical. My next step was to call reservations on my cell using my blue tooth headset. My Bluetooth headset has been a godsend for making and receiving calls while driving. I have not had one near miss in the 12 months I have been using one. I have been using a cell phone while driving since my first cell phone back in 1993. During that time I have had more near misses while talking on the phone than I can count. I am the first to say that using your cell phone while driving without a hands-free device should be illegal. The near misses have scared me so bad that advocate of such legislation and for the year prior to getting a Bluetooth, I have told answered the phone only long enough to say �please wait until I get out of traffic� after saying hello. I would then pull over. Several times local law enforcement officials would pull up behind me and ask of I needed assistance. Almost every time I would be told that the shoulder was intended for emergencies only but they respected my decision and asked that I get underway as soon as possible.
I called the United General Reservations number (I will be 2P after this trip) and twice after getting all the way through the voice prompts my call was interrupted with �the subscriber you are trying to reach is out of the service area and cannot be reached.� I do not know I can receive this message when calling a landline, but I got it twice. Any ideas on how this can be?
My next step was to contact the MP Customer Service line in SD. I have been using this number for the last month since it connects directly to SD and I NEVER get Samuel Adams in India. I told them what was happening and they offered to attempt a transfer to the domestic reservations line. It worked and I was connected immediately to a live person in India. Surprise, he had a thick Indian accent! I asked about the cancelled flight and was told that I was rebooked on a direct (UA168 � 757) leaving at 7:07pm. I asked if He could get me a confirmed seat assignment in the aisle ( I detest the window or middle) and he said the seat assignments were under gate control and I would have to take care of this at check-in. I then asked if he could find me and alternate routing that he could confirm my seat assignment. He offered a routing, DEN-LAX-BWI arriving at BWI at 6:48. My return from BWI left at 6:05 and he quickly caught this and offered to fix the return to allow the connection. I said not to bother since my original routing only gave me 1 hour in Denver to make my next itinerary to PBI. I did not want to try and reroute everything over the phone when I had to ask him to repeat everything twice because of the thick accent. I thanked him for his time and ended the call.
I would like to say that I am understanding of the accents of the Indian reservation agents. While I was born a US citizen, my mother is a naturalized citizen. I grew up seeing her frustration and understand the problems. This is not to say I don�t get frustrated. I just draw upon my patience and end the call politely when I reach my limit. I understand the business decision of United, but I think that it will cost them more than they realize.
Upon reaching the airport I got in line and was challenged immediately by the service rep at the head of the line. I told her that my flight was cancelled and she directed me to the special services counter. I headed off in the direction that she motioned and the next service agent scared me by saying �Hey Buddy! very loudly and opening the fabric post divider to let me access the services counter.
I walked up to the agent and explained that my flight had been cancelled and handed her my I.D. She gave me my flight info and I then asked if she could confirm aisle seats for me. She said that E- aisles were full and that she could give me an E+ aisle for $42. I asked if there were alternate routings available to BWI that had aisles open and she said everything was booked into Chicago because of the cancelled 777 flight I was originally on. I handed her my Credit Card and She said the sear would be 6D. I told her it was unfortunate because after this trip I would have Premier status ( I do not know if she would have understood 2P, is this a FT term or does United use it as well?). She books the ticket into 6D and then says �Sir, you need 9k to make Premier.� I told the that I was gaining Premier Status based on segments and she looked at the screen and said �OK, I see that now.� After a couple of minutes she handed me back my I.D., CC and BP. She said, �In light of your upcoming status, I did not charge you for the E+ upgrade. Have a nice flight.� I smiled as big as I could and said that I really appreciated her efforts and made an obvious glance at her name tag. I then asked for a Customer comment form and she had told me that they preferred Customer Comments to be submitted via the web but she thought that I may be able to obtain a paper form at the gate.
Wow! This post is getting to be a cumbersome length and I better get some work done before the flight!

This post was made from the Aviators club in the Main Terminal at DEN using a Sony Ericson GC79 Wireless Data Card connected to T-Mobile

Cheers!
M.

UA168 DEN-BWI

Another troublesome carry-on experience. The E+ aisle seat netted me a group 4 boarding group. Front of the aircraft (6D), nearest bin with room for my backpack, Aisle 16. I think that Premier Status will get me group 1 boarding privileges, I will be happy if this is true. There was one Rolling carry-on turned side-ways in the bin across the aisle from my seat. I thought it was the solution I needed. I turned it wheels first into the bin. To my surprise it extended beyond the edge of the bin. The bin wouldn�t close with it like this. I found the FA and told her my dilemma. I pointed to the only other person in my row, 6F, and then pointed to the bin, �I know he didn�t bring everything in this bin!� Both the PAX and the FA laughed with me. I pointed to the bag I tried to adjust and said �That isn�t supposed to happen.� The FA then tried to adjust the bag the same way I did. She then said �This bag shouldn�t be here, it should have been checked.� The owner of the bag was watching the FA and the FA noticed this. She asked the PAX �Is this your bag?� The PAX responded �Yes, it always fits.� The FA said, �Would you like to come and try to close the bin?� To this the PAX responded �No� and that was the end of it. The FA left and started a conversation with another FA at the front Galley in the A319 (I was told twice this was going to be a 757). The PAX in 6F pointed down at the floor in front of our seats and said �have you tried there?� The bulk head does not go all the way to the floor in the A319. I knew this but had forgotten. So, I slid my backpack under the bulkhead and under the seat in front of me. I walked to the front galley and told the FA that I had figured it out and showed her my solution. I asked if it would do and she said that it would.
The in-flight video system was broken, so there was not any video for the flight. The Captain apologized as the did the purser. As soon as the seatbelt light went out, I retrieved my backpack and dug out my headphones. I fired up my Ipaq and selected the longest movie I had on one of my SD cards. I have two 1 gig SD card with 5 full length movies on each. I use Pocket DVD wizard to compress the DVD video down to 192mb per DVD. The longest movie I had was �Forrest Gump.� I didn�t get to finish it, almost, but the ending was just a little farther away than BWI.
I seem to be having the worst luck with overhead bins and IFE. I have not been on an UA/TED aircraft yet this month that has the Classical channel that works. Last month I wrote an email to CS and was given a cert for my non-functioning IFE on both legs in and out of Denver. I don�t think I will press my luck again.
I am at Nature�s Caf� at BWI at 1:45am. It is open 24 hours. There is one person sleeping and another on a laptop. I cannot find any WiFi that is not secured and my T-mobile data card cannot find a signal even though my T-mobile phone can. Sigh�. another call to T-mobile CS. Maybe later�.. I am on the public side of security. Security opens back up at 3:30am. I think I will stay up until I can get through security. I think I will be a little safer on the other side if I am sleeping. It will be harder to cut the straps off of my backpack if you can�t get a knife through security. I have heard that sometimes people who sleep in airports get their laptop bags stolen while they are sleeping even though the wrap the shoulder strap around them. The thief just gently cuts the straps without waking the victim and makes off with the bag. I think I have a solution that I may just patent! I�ll let you know when I have it patented. That�s all for now�

I haven�t seen one reply yet. Over 300 views at last check�. How am I doing? Is this a suitable Trip Report for this forum? Is there any information that I have left out that is normal for a trip report?

I finally got connected using the T-mobile Data Card (3:05am). I had to go curbside. It seems to be faster than it has ever been!

Cheers!
M.

Why didn't the FA do something about the bag blocking the bin?

Because I walked up and told her that I solved my problem by putting my things under the last row of F and in front of the bulkhead.

Mstieb, I am enjoying reading your Trip Report. As I also earn status on segments I can relate to some of the issues you face.

Keep up the good work and good luck with the rest of your segments.

What a day! I have never flown 5 segments in a day before. It is taxing. I didn�t think I would sleep as much as I did. I didn�t think that there would be so much difference on a codeshare with US from UA. I have of course flown US before, many times in fact. In August I decided to make a go of using a single airline and making status. I�m here now, I have made status and gotten used to one airline. Now, the subtle and sometimes not so subtle differences stand out.

UA755 BWI-ORD 757-200

I honestly only remember getting on and waking up to an empty aircraft with sleep marks on my face. I collected my things and hurried off the plane. It took me a full 5 minutes to realize where I was (Chicago), what I was there for (Mileage Run) and where I needed to go (Denver). I wake up slowly sometimes and have been known to panic. Thankfully, I didn�t panic today!

UA243 ORD-DEN 777

Nice flight, nice seatmate at the back of the bus. I was in 42B. The back of the bus! (Should I say back of the �Boing?�) Ok, that was stupid�.. Sorry.
I sometimes forget just how big a 777 is and how long it takes to de-plane from one. The IFE was nice, but the conversation with my seatmate was great! She wanted to joke and laugh and have some conversation with this old guy! The seat was cramped however. The overhead was full, again. As we were waiting to de-plane, this pax comes from the other side of the aircraft through the galley and opens the bin over my head and removes his things. I don�t get it, maybe I never will�..

The first thing I had to do was to figure out a way to check-in and print boarding documents at DEN on the concourse to get my 500 miles. It is nice that no matter how short the round trip, I can count on 3k RDM. Always 1k for online booking at UA.bomb and 500 per check-in (2).

I found the Qwest Business Center on the second level of Concourse B. After a brief discussion, I was told that she could print the 3 pages for free if I had them on a flash drive. (She was the owner of the franchise) She then told me that because of a server change, the Internet was free today. Score! This meant I didn�t have to fire up the T-Mobile GPRS or walk down to the RCC and sit outside to check-in. I checked-in, printed the documents to PDF and copied them to the flash drive and gave the drive to the nice lady. Bang, I�m done, 5 minutes.

As soon as I get the boarding documents I notice that I am on codeshares for two segments on US metal. No seat assignment, No E+. I tried to work on that but couldn�t seem to find a US gate and my cell phone was doing that thing again where it would tell me �the subscriber you are trying to reach is outside of the coverage area.� Still doesn�t make sense. This must be a problem with T-Mobile in Denver. How can UA and US both be �out of the coverage area?�

I walk up to the bank of payphones and call US reservations. After all of the prompts I finally get a person. Take note UA, he speaks and understands English perfectly! I tell him that I would really like to have an aisle seat on each segment. He says that they are available but that the seats are now under gate control. 4 and 6 hours out and they are under gate control? Take note US, UA doesn�t lock-up seats like this normally.

UA418 DEN-MSP 737-500

Fell asleep again, don�t remember much. I think I signed the Voices page before I passed out. Can�t be sure!

US806 MSP-CLT 737-300

Wow, this is an old dingy bird. Seat pitch is worse than E- it seems. I board in my group and follow a gentleman down the aisle. He stops at row 8 and places his carryon above 8C and then proceeds down the aisle. He sits down in 18B. I am 18A. The bin above us is empty. I don�t get it. As the plane fills to capacity people are scrambling up and down the aisle trying to find places for their carry-ons. Am I being stupid or does multiple people behaving like 18B cause all of these problems?

I fall asleep again, I think I am tired�.

US1850 CLT-PBI 737-400

Another dingy cramped US 737. My seatmate appears to be of middle eastern descent. He speaks the Queens English. I ask him where he is from and he says London. We engage in a little idle chatter and he brings up the fact that he was detained by customs in CLT for over 2 hours causing him to miss his connection. We get into a discussion on profiling. We both agree it doesn�t work but what can you do?

We chat about this and that, London; transfers between Gatwick and Stanstead; food in London ( I almost starved on my first visit because the food I was trying to eat was horrible!); and finally aircraft. He said that he was on this really old plane when he went on holiday to Dubai�. I said �where?� He says �Dubai� I say UAE? He says yes and looks at me funny. I said �and you have a passport stamp from UAE?� He says yes. I say �that�s why you were detained!� He says �but my brother doesn�t have a stamp!� and points to the person in the row in front of us. I asked �did you say you were traveling together?� He said yes. I felt a little less sympathy for him at that point for being detained at that point. I think that it was closer to SOE. While it wasn�t a visit to Pakistan, it was the middle east. CLT is probably not a high traffic entry point for a middle eastern looking person from GB who has stamps from the Middle East to get through without a thorough investigation. I told him that if he was intending on going to PBI he should have tried to book into FLL or MIA and go to PBI in the car. Using a low volume entry point to the US like CLT looks suspicious. I should point out that both of them were in their 20�s with spiked hair and multiple earrings in each ear.

So, here I am at PBI. It is 1:14am and I am at a desk in the main lobby (Free Public WiFi provided by the Airport Authority). There is nothing to eat but there are couches everywhere for when I decide to go to sleep. I may try and get to the Denny�s just outside the airport. Before I go to sleep, I�m hungry!

Cheers!
M.

UA 1463 (TED) PBI-ORD
I awoke around 7am on the comfortable but short couch. I had put my backpack on backwards and attached the waist strap and slept in the fetal position. The only thing that had moved during the night was my glasses, they were on the floor next to the couch.

I went to the bathroom to clean up a bit and change clothes. I then proceed over to the small business center that I had seen the night before. They had a computer for rent and would print pages for $1.00 each. I had 3 boarding passes from online check-in that I needed to print. They were not open yet. I found Starbucks, got my caffeine fix and returned at 8:05am and they still weren�t open. I had to get to the gate so I went up to Ticketing and told them that I had checked-in online but didn�t have my boarding documents. They were only able to print the PBI-ORD segment for some reason. The agent called over a supervisor and they discussed it and tried a few things. I told them it would be ok and that I could get the boarding passes at ORD.
I made it through security and found the gate. As I sat in the gate area, I noticed a 20�s something woman wrapping something up in fabric and for some reason I thought it strange. I boarded and took my seat next to the woman I had noticed in the gate area. After a little bit of chatter she told me of her encounter with TSA. She apparently was not aware of the Ziploc 1 Qt bag regulation. She made sure that nothing she had was over 3oz, but had placed nothing in the baggie. The TSA agent dumped out her purse and �crammed� everything into the baggie. She was upset because there were two bottles of $125+ perfume and he was clanking them around she said. She told me that she had started crying in the gate area due to her treatment. I guess I wasn�t paying enough attention to understand what was emotionally traumatic about the process or she didn�t go into detail. We chatted for about a half the flight, the middle half was silent as we both listened to the IFE and looked at magazines. It was another fun flight for conversation, I like these the best and I can normally tell within 5 minutes if my seatmate is going to be chatty. I normally don�t mind chatting and I don�t mind silence either. My Ipaq 6315 is always there at the ready to provide me with news, movies, music, Podcasts, Avantgo, MobilePlay or whatever else I have loaded or updated before getting on the plane.

UA6926 (Skywest) ORD-FSD

I scooted along inside ORD to the service center and had my boarding passed for the last two segments printed. Then, it was off to F1. I asked the gate agent if there were any upgrades available for the FSD to DEN segment on the ExpressPlus flight. She said that it was full and everyone had already checked in. I had an aisle for that flight so I was happy where I was.
This short 1 hour flight was a first for me. This would be my first flight in which the entire crew was female: Captain, First Officer and Flight Attendant. The FA said it was her first as well. I asked and they all agreed to let me take their photo outside the aircraft.

(SkyWest) FSD-DEN

This next segment was my last for this MR. It would prove to be exciting prior to departure. This flight was overbooked. And there were 8 people standing in line at gate desk trying to go standby. DEN was my final destination, I didn�t have any checked bags so I thought I was a VDB for sure! The GA started her announcement. I was next to the desk leaning up against the seats with my BP in hand. She barley got out �we are asking for vol�. � I threw my BP on the desk in front of her and she smiled and then continued with her announcement. As soon as she was through, I told her DEN was my final and I had no checked bags and if it were possible, I would prefer a credit voucher. She said �you�re easy!�
An elderly couple had also volunteered. I thought I had it. About 30 minutes passes as the GA tries to figure out who�s going and who�s not. It finally comes down to 4 people for 2 seats. I�m dead. The other single traveler has a connection in DEN. I and the two others don�t. She has to send the connecting pax and that leaves one seat. The couple trump me�� She hands me my BP and says to take what is left on the plane. I lost my aisle seat. Oh well. I�m ready to be home.

It has been hard for me to determine what the actual RDM for this trip is because I don�t know if the trip to PHX on Tuesday will get me double mileage for the one segment that qualified for double or 1k bonus. I don�t know which I signed up for first or if both segments had to qualify. I also don�t know if I will pursue the difference in mileage for the cancelled DEN-ORD segment that caused me to fly direct to BWI. Anyway, it looks something like this:

9,066 EQM
4,000 Online Booking Bonus
4,000 Online Check-In Bonus
5,000 5,15,25 Bonus (1st trip of the promotion for me was PHX)
45,000 DYMTWTU Miles
(I had 14 credits prior to this run-this run netted 10 for me-The difference is 45k)
67,066 miles gross fare/mile = .013 CPM (RDM)

The trip also gave me enough segments to make premier after the outbound DEN-BWI so I will be getting the 25% RDM bonus on everything after that and I have not included it in the miles or calculations above.

This was my first multi-day, multi-ticket MR. How did I do?

One consequences of this MR - My legs and ankles are swollen! What do I do! LOL!

Good report, I was with you every step of the way.

I bet your bed felt good after all that. ^

Ohhh, how absolutely right you are!

you can call and request credit for your DEN-ORD-BWI flight since the reroute was UA's fault!