NotTheRock Musings

We're taking a flight up to Philly tonight to kick off our week of vacation at the world-famous family beach house. Yes, traveling North to go to the beach. Trust me, it's worth it. Sun, boat, beach, better water.... more pleasant climate. It's all great.

But on of the coolest things -- at least for a history-oriented dork like me -- is our flight number for tonight. We're traveling into Philadelphia, remember, home of the Liberty Bell and all that wonderful American history.... and it's July 3, landing almost late enough to be July 4.... and it's flight number 1776.

How neat-o is that?

Labels: 1776, air travel, American history, flight numbers, New Jersey, Philadelphia

It's amazing to me that a survey was needed to know that people don't want to listen to self-important a-holes yammer on their cell phones during plane rides. Frankly, I'm amazed that the number (74%) of people who don't want to hear phone-talking wasn't even higher. Anyone who has traveled on any form of transportation knows how damn annoying this is. And I know I've always feared the day when we would be able to talk on airplanes, too.

It's awful when you ride a bus or train with someone who does this. I always wonder, when I'm on a super-early train or bus, "Who is this self-important asshole talking to?" I mean, seriously, you're doing business at 6:30 AM? Or are you on a social call? Because if one of my friends called to chat at some ungodly hour of the morning, they would cease to A) be my friend, and B) live, if they were within driving distance to go and strangle.

I guess it's cool that several airlines are rolling out wireless features that limit talking. Texting, email and gaming will likely be allowed very soon. And that's fine. But I also think it will make us wistful once again for the simpler times when we couldn't check email on an airplane. Actually, airplanes are the one remaining sanctuary where we're not "connected." You have to turn off your cell phone and your blackberry and your computer can't (or shouldn't) pick up wireless signals so your only email obsession-feeding is via your archived mail.

You often hear people make comments like, "What did we do before cell phones?" It won't be long before it's, "What did we do before we had wireless access on airplanes? We had wait until we got where we were going! Imagine!"

And what irritates me to to no end is the phone calls that do happen once you're able to turn your phone back on, twelve seconds after your plane is on the ground. Listen to those around you who can barely wait to get their phone back on and stuck to their ear -- the conversations are all exactly the same.

"Hey, it's me. We landed."

"Still on the plane."

"I said, we're STILL ON THE PLANE!"

"Okay. Well, I gotta go to baggage claim. Okay. I'll see you then. Bye."

Was that necessary? Or could we all agree to just meet at baggage claim ahead of time? Like we used to.

Fine, so I'm becoming a grumpy old man.

Also? Get off my lawn.

Labels: a-holes, air travel, cell phones piss me off, obnoxious, things that just shouldn't be

Last year, my job required me to go to Paris for a couple of days, similar to in 2005. So I checked into my frequent flyer miles and, despite the fact that we were less than two months before our wedding, Watersyne tagged along and got to see Paris for a mere 100,000 frequent flyer miles. Not bad, when you consider my flight and the hotel are paid for by the company. We had a great time and saw all the touristy sights -- which is good, because that's fun to do in Paris, seeing the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Siene River, Louvre, Notre Dame Cathedral, etc. We loved it.

Well, turns out, this year I have to go back again. So this will be my third springtime visit to Paris since 2005. Which means I've seen enough of Paris. I'm beginning to know the subway system better than I know New York's. Don't get me wrong, I do like the city and it's a great city to walk in and to sit at sidewalk cafes and drink wine. But since I'm going back, we thought maybe we should look into a way to make this kind of an early anniversary trip.

So now, after three days in Paris, we're hopping a flight over to Venice and we're staying there for four nights.

I know, I know, how posh of us. Spending the weekend in Venice!

The best part of it is the way it's working out financially, so I just have to share.

Obviously, my round-trip flight to Paris is covered by work. As is our hotel in Paris. Watersyne's round-trip to Paris is going to only cost me 75,000 miles this time, despite being further away. Then we pay for our hour-long flight over to Venice from Paris. However, my lovely wife has several hundred thousand hotel points because of all her hotel stays as part of her old job in New York, so we're staying at a Crowne Plaza for... nothing! Just reward points! We felt like our luck was kind of incredible. Essentially, all we're on the hook for is our $370 round trip flights from Paris to Venice.

So what does this mean? Well, we're doing Paris and Venice for less than $800. Of course, we'll more than make up for it in restaurants in Venice, methinks.

Labels: air travel, Paris, Venice

Thanks to all my flying back and forth to the great state of Tejas (not to mention my trip to Gay Pair-ee in April) I was able to attain "Silver Elite" status on Continental. What does this get me? Well, I get to go to the priority lines for check-in, security and boarding. Of course, between Houston and New York almost everyone is Elite because it's apparently a very common jump to make... so it doesn't get me much.

It's also supposed to get me complimentary upgrades to first class. That hasn't happened yet and it can't happen for both me AND my lovely wife (she's not Elite and I'd need to be Gold Elite to upgrade my spouse, too) and we're still newlyweds so it's not like I can upgrade and leave her in coach. I've heard that's kind of poor form.

So anyway, this morning was our final flight of 2007. And we had to leave our home at 3:45 AM to get to the airport in time to make our 6:40 AM flight. Delightful. And now I get to work on a day when everyone just wants to goof off because it's the last day before the Christmas holiday.

Me sleepy.

Labels: air travel, sleepy