China & Hong Kong: Travel Agencies

I was suppose to go to China in 2014. I had the plane ticket and even the hotel room booked. You had to or else you could not get a China visa.

With booked plane and hotel for China, I decided to use a friend who was a travel agent to do the rest, namely book some tours.

Seems to be Pouring

Not the wet kind but things that you just want to stay away or not happen at all. I was going away for a week the next day and one thing after the other just keep happening.

First... My sister brings in the mail and there's a notice that I have to pick up a certified letter.

WOOT! Silver

Just checked my frequent flyer status for next year. I'm SILVER again :D Priority boarding! YIPPEE!

How? Last Friday, I became a mileage runner.

What are mileage runners? They are people whose only purpose in flying is to obtain flight miles to reach a specific airline frequent flyer status for the current or next year. As I plan on making trips next year, I want to maintain a level that gives me priority boarding -- gotta get my overhead luggage space as I don't check bags!

Until this year, I've always been able to obtain at least the lowest frequent flyer status as part of my work perks when it winged me from place to place, but I don't have that perk anymore. In October, I thought I had to get about 17,000 miles -- ok, 3 trips out to the West Coast and 1 down south. Thank goodness I rechecked the requirements as my carrier is in the midst of finalizing its merger stuff with the other carrier. I only need 7,000 miles -- easy peasy, a trip out west and one down south.

I was able to get a great deal out west before the carrier discovered it's mistake with pricing :D However, I could not find one south that I was willing to pay for. I kept looking for deals in November but nothing was acceptable. I just needed less than 2,000 miles to make the lowest level.

What's acceptable? It comes down to cost per mile. I try not to go over 6 cents a mile. My west trip came to 4.5 cents a mile.

I went to Flyertalk, a forum for all travel affinity programs, and hope it would give me a tip on where I could go to get my missing miles to get me to 25,000. It did!!!

I traveled 5,950 miles in less than 24 hours. I left my house at 4am and got back home the next day at 2am. It would have been a shorter day if I flew out of my home airport, but I had to drive an hour to another airport.

Yes, I'm crazy, but I know I'm not the only nut that does this. Yes, it's more miles than I need for next year's status, but it will not go to waste. I'm working towards my goal of 1,000,000 actual flight miles.

With a million miles, I will never need to do a mileage run. The 1,000,000 miles will give me LIFETIME Gold status -- priority boarding and 3 free checked bags ;)

I could obtain this level within four years. I might try to get it over with in the next year or two in case the carrier decides to change rule. With my kid-sitting funds, there will be more mileage runs next year *LOL*

Murphy Tried to Keep Me in Atlanta

I flew into Atlanta Tuesday night to attend meetings in Alpharetta the next several days. The last time I was here was for Dragon*Con last September.

After I landed, I went hunting for the car rental bus. No bus no more. I was surprised with ATL's new rail system to get to the car rental area. Very neat.

After three days of meetings and getting to know team members for a new project, we were all ready to finish up as early as possible on Friday. The Alpharetta office always talks about the bad downtown traffic that was between them and the airport.

Pics found in the Ladies Rest Room of Bucca diPeppo. I was told that the Gents had pics of little boys going.

Surprisingly, I got to the airport in an hour. I was wondering how long I was going to spent in Atlanta as the traffic signs were up about a slow down due to an event in downtown Atlanta. It was slow, but it kept moving.

I took advantage of the check-in kiosks at the car rental rail station while waiting for the next train that shows up every 90 seconds to 2 minutes. The kiosk gave me the option of taking the 4:15pm flight, but I decided to stick with my 5:30. When I got to the terminal, I was sad to see my 5:30 was delayed an hour. As I didn't want to spend more time at the airport, I decided to change to the 4:15.

When I got to the gate terminal, I checked the monitor again. Delta cancelled the 4:15 flight *argh* The line was long at customer service, but I got on it anyway. While waiting, I called my travel department to find out if I was still booked on my original flight. She said "Yes, and you're checked it". I got off the line, checked the monitors to find the gate for the 5:30 which is now taking off on time and headed to the gate.

As I was walking to the gate, I see these nifty machines around the terminal. If you miss your flight, scan your boarding pass and it will print a new boarding pass with your new flight. I decided to scan my cancelled boarding pass to see what it would give me. I hope it was the 5:30pm flight. Nope, it told me I was confirmed for a 8:15pm. I hunted for the boarding pass I printed at the car rental rail station and scanned that. Yep, Delta ensured I was only on one flight, and sadly, it was the 8:15pm. I even checked the website on my phone. When I changed to the 4:15, it cancelled my 5:30 seat. So much for the info from my travel department.

Now I need to spend time around the terminals until 8:15. I read the newspaper, did some sudoku, bought two pairs of earrings, had dinner and even finished watching The Book of Eli. There was Wifi but you need to pay for it. I miss Phoenix and Jacksonville airports. I could have used my phone as a modem, but I forgot to put the necessary software on my pc. Note to self, remember to put software on pcs.

With no status on Delta, I was awarded the furthest passenger seat from the cockpit. As I sometimes do when I board and I have the window seat, I start snoozing after I settled in and am bored with watching people board. I did hear this lady talking to her car service to inform them that we will arrive early and the flight attendant letting passengers know that one of the toilets was not flushing. I awoke a bit later to learn we're still on the ground. So much for arriving early. The mechanics are trying to fix the toilet. The captain comes on 15 minutes later to tell us to deplane -- take all belongings with you, we would like to fix the plane with no passengers on, hopefully the flight will not be cancelled. It is 9:15pm. To appease the passengers, Delta gave out $6.00 meal vouchers.

I'm hoping they fixed the plane or at least find us a different plane. I really want to get home tonight. I do know, if they can't fix the plane, they will need to provide accommodations as it's a mechanical difficulty and not Mother Nature. At 9:45pm, the Red Coat gave us good news that we got new equipment, and after cleaning and restocking, we will be boarding again. Yippee!!!

I don't know when we took off, but I did finally get home at 1:45am Saturday. 12 hours traveling. I bet all my teammates who lived further than me got home before I did.

Murphy tried, but failed. I'll see you, Atlanta, again in July, maybe. If not, definitely in September for Dragon*Con.

For anyone who travels with their dog, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport has a dog park.

Continental's New Video System

Two Sundays ago, I finally got on a Continental plane, 737, with the new video system. Notice that I said video system and not audio-video system.

My return flight had the old audio/video system. Of course, I sat in the row that had the monitor right on top of the seats in front of me and the other monitor was just too far away. It's a good thing I was not interested in it. I had an ebook I wanted to finish.

Last Sunday, I got my second chance to explore the new video system again.

A year ago, as Continental started getting new planes, they were not rigging them with the usual audio/video system. Continental was waiting for the delivery of new equipment -- individual systems for each passenger -- and did not want to expend the cost of refitting the plane.

There were many disappointed customers who discovered they had to entertain themselves for 4 plus hours. Season traveler that I am, of course, I was prepared.

The old system...video monitor every 4-5 rows and 12 stations. 2 stations devoted to audio for the video -- 1 English and other Spanish. The other 10 stations for different kinds of music. At some point, the cost of entertainment went from $4.00 to $1.00. The headphones even changed. Over the ear clip-ons changed to earbuds that you can use on your own portable player. It included a gadget to transform the plug from single to dual plug so you can use them on any Continental plane.

The new system is DirecTV. There are no music stations. The movies are stilled controlled by Continental. They offer 4 current ones each month. September movies are Night at the Museum: Battle of Smithsonian, The Proposal, Star Trek and Terminator: Salvation. Continental also has 4 additional stations for reruns of dramas, comedys and miscellaneous documentaries. You could consider this Continental Vision. If DirecTV goes out because of plane misalignment with the satellite, you can still watch these 8 stations. Then you have 75 DirecTV stations to surf through for more programming like TNT, FoodTV, CNN, MSNBC, ESPN.

The bad thing about this new system is that programming does not halt when the plane PA system is used, even Continental Vision continues on. It's very annoying as you will miss all dialogue when the crew speaks. If I want music, I guess I'll have to make sure my player has enough juice.

You do need a credit/debit card to activate the system. The cost is $6.00. Headsets (the earbuds with dual plug attachment) are complimentary. Hopefully, it does not go up anymore as I consider this high. (Yes, it's still cheaper than a movie ticket and, given enough time, you could watch two movies, like I did.) As always, it is free for First Class. Though another frequent flyer told me you can get Continental Vision, not the movie channels, for free. I'll have to explore that when I'm in coach with the new system.

Supposedly the planes with DirecTV also have power outlets so you can plug in. I tried this once in First Class but was never able to find a working one in Coach.

He's Just Not Into You

It's a crapshoot when you get on a Continental flight whether you get flight entertainment or not. I lucked out last night. This crew did a switch up. You generally get the movie first and then Continental TV. I liked the switch. As I'm generally snoozing before take-off, I generally miss the beginning of the movie and, plus, the meal service and captain interrupts it.

I saw He's Just Not Into You. I totally enjoyed this chick flick. I could even relate with bits 'n pieces of it.

As for becoming the "exception", I'm still waiting. Just as long as my blood is still pumping, there's time for being the "exception".

If I do not become the "exception", c'est la vie.