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| Petra, Jordan. On my list. Someday… |
Just a quick post to tell you that there will not be a Buzz post today keeping on my “take Sundays off” schedule. Therefore, the Monday Buzz post will have the weekend action AND past Friday! Yes I know, I am running a bit behind. You can send an email to the customer service department of TBB you know, someone will get back to you I am sure:-)
Just some quick observations from my trip to San Diego. Feel free to skip, they are no big deal at all:
- I flew Delta. DTW-SLC-SAN-ATL-DTW. 32,500 skypesos. Ticket pricing was consistently in the high $400’s! I had reserved a Southwest award two months earlier and kept checking Delta to burn Skypesos. I had been fairly stubborn not to pay more than the lowest number of
milespesos. When I finally saw it at 32,500 I jumped on it because I knew that was the best I could get! - Only one leg (DTW-SLC) upgrade cleared five days prior as a Delta Platinum. Two more legs the upgrade cleared at the gate. The only leg I was forced to an exit row seat was SAN-ATL. Which I found quite interesting on a Saturday flight and several flights in the same route. Oh well.
- I was resigned (along with the GA!) that I was flying in the back on ATL-DTW as all FC seats had checked in full. I kept checking the monitor. I then saw a FC seat opened up. I zipped to the GA who told me a passenger turned it down because he was flying with family and did not want to leave them alone. 1A, thank you!
- No bumps…again. Boo!
- Delta people were great along the way. You can tell they are being trained very well. I love how when they scan your boarding pass, they pause and thank you by name looking at you.
- All flights were great, perfect actually. Except SAN-ATL. No upgrade…no, not just that. I was planning to use the wifi and work on the next blog post but “Sorry no wifi in today’s flight” announcement! Then a super huge guy sat next to me in my exit row seat. Why me? Then near landing…I felt two drops of water land on me! Say what?? After fumbling around to see where they were coming from…success! They came from the emergency door pull cover. You can bet I will let DL know about these two major issues. Oh, this flight was 2 hours late for “late arrival”. Maybe I will get the award burn price to 25k (or less) after all:-)
- San Diego airport is really nice and major construction/expansion going on!
- Conference was at Manchester Hyatt. There was no way I was going to pay the “conference” room rate (I think it was $269). I booked the Four Points by Sheraton San Diego downtown. Three nights=11,000 Starwood points. Nice walk to the Hyatt. No rental cars to deal with. Hotel shuttle. Simplicity is beautiful.
- Four Points by Sheraton was just fine. When I travel alone for business I do not live it up. I just need a decent place to sleep. The staff is very nice here, always smiling and helpful. Rooms are very nice too, nothing spectacular. I like the Four Points chain, you know what you are going to get and the staff often do a decent to great job.
- Stay was not perfect. Here is a first for me: First morning in the shower the smoke alarm goes off. I am like “Crap, really, now, in the shower??? Out of all times that this can happen, why now in the shower dear Lord? So…what do you do? You know there is a good chance it is a false alarm but of course you do not want to risk it. So, you jump out and furiously try to dry yourself thinking all along what to take with you in case it is not a false alarm. Then you think how thankful you are in the 2nd floor…if this is for real, you can jump and likely survive it with many broken bones. Almost done drying and the alarm…stops. Heart stops racing and you think “Oh, that was fun, talk about bad timing!”.
- Next morning, same drill. Shower and alarm goes off AGAIN! WTF!! Then I realize…it is from the hot water steam because it stops when I wave my towel in front of it! Aha, mystery solved. Third morning…shower not so hot, everything was fine then. Lesson: Don’t take showers with hot water & smoke alarm right outside the bathroom door!
- Out of all TV channels, why was TNT and a few others showing no signal? I like to watch NBA when I travel and work on my laptop.
- Looks like the comments in my February 2 guest blog post are heating up, good to see an old friend follow me so closely and call my blog names, what an honor!
I have a complaint. I’ve been very busy at trade shows, and haven’t read TBB all week. I know. I know. So I finally have time Sunday morning, and all I get is #*^%@$.
The least you could have done is fill this space with cc links! 😉
dhammer53
I think you want me to do this:-) I could spend hours trying to figure it out and let the content go to the pits…I slip one day & u let me have it!
I just can not win…
This is better than yet another cc link fest…come on! Be really careful taking a hot shower so close to the darn smoke alarm, lol!
This post’s title should be “Never on Sunday”. Sorry, could not resist that, George!
Where are pics with arrows to guide us through the post?
This blog does one pic. No time to figure out arrows. But there is one guy who keeps emailing me to post pics of my wife holding…anything! 😉
It’s a good think FTG doesn’t actually have to pay you the $50 Marriott GC’s like he promised he would
He couldn’t pimp enough credit cards to keep pace with all the Marriott $$$ he owes you
Anon, I paid him and he raffled it off to his readers. And I also paid one of my readers for keeping me honest and out of an “angries exchange”
And BTW, I have already helped so many readers get into the churning game, I could pay George in gift cards for years to come.
” Let the “angry” continue”
If I recall correctly, it was $50 for each time, not just a 1 time thing
And being that you can pay it off in years to come….. I would expect a lot of TBB Marriott raffles over that time
Where is my GC by the way?
no gift card for you. u r not one of my readers. and I’ve paid off twice. George and one of my readers .
Don’t see anywhere in your pledge where it required you to be one of your readers –
“And here is a long term request and commitment I’ll make: If you catch me in an “angries” blog or thread from this day forward, send me an email or note ASAP reminding me of my pledge and I’ll send you a $50 Marriott card for getting me out of the mosquito-infested woods.”
If I can find someone who reads you, and ask them to send you the note, do they get the GC?
Rick sent me one gc which I gave away. I asked him not but he insisted.
Rick: Feel free to comment here, I do not censor. I find it undemocratic and just a horrible horrible practice. Of course you can do whatever you want in your blog, your rightful decision. BUT I still think it is so so wrong.
Full disclosure: I absolutely despise the Ravens and Jim Harbaugh so I am all for the commercials;-)
already got a winner from Clearwater florida
I can attest that Rick paid me a GC when I called him out on it a couple of weeks ago. Definitely honored his pledge when I spotted it. (From R, Oregon)
This lack of posting is ridiculous. I demand a full refund. 😉
TBB customer service department is busy handling refunds. Sadly, they are to be issued in the form of Skypesos.
Lol!
I’d love to win a Marriott Gift card….
You will always be a winner;-) Hey, I liked that One Millon Kindness post, very moving!