Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Recovery Day & Monday trip review:
Today, I'm just recovering from my trip. I went to sleep at 2am today and woke up around 10am. I felt well rested at the time, but an hour later, I went back to sleep. I decided that I need to get as much sleep as I need and I need to avoid clubs for the next two days. I'm flying to SIN on Thursday and I want to do my best to avoid getting sick before the trip. I really can't miss that flight. First of all, I need to fly those miles so I can requalify for Premier before my current Premier membership expires at the end of February. Next, I'm flying on a special e-fare that doesn't have a 6 day minimum stay. I'm not even sure I could change the flight, and if I can, I definately would have to pay a few hundred more $'s. I would rather use the extra $'s on more flights so I can qualify for Premier Executive & 1K. Basically, if I'm sick, I'm going to fly anyway, which will make for a very miserable trip.
Monday Tour of airports:
I booked my return trip as a reverse of my outbound trip. GNV-CLT-PHL-IAD-ORD. The time passed pretty quickly and I had great seats on all but the GNV-CLT trip. For that leg, I flew on a Canadair Regional Jet, which is like the crappiest RJ you can fly on. I also flew that plane on the PHL-IAD leg but I had an open seat next to me. The GNV-CLT flight was only an hour so it really wasn't that uncomfortable. What follows is just some interesting highlights of the trip.
GNV: Gainesville Airport:
This is a small airport. The only other airport I've flown too that similar in size is ABE (Allentown, PA). Allentown has more flights and GNV is definately smaller. GNV is a great airport. I was aggravated Sunday night b/c my stepfather wanted to leave early to drop me off. Now, I wouldn't care as I found out GNV has free wireless access. I could spend 3 or 4 hours there and not care as I'd just surf the net.
CLT-PHL: Human Remains:
I snagged an exit row seat on the US Airbus and I had the middle seat empty. That made for a very pleasant flight. When we arrived in PHL, I happened to look out the window while waiting to deplane. I saw a casket sized white cardboard box that had the words "Extreme Care" on the side.. I knew that airlines transport remains often in the cargo hold, but I had never seen remains being loaded. I wrote a post on flyertalk about it (click here for link).
PHL-Found a jump drive:
I spent about three hours in PHL. I was supposed to spent 4 hours there, but the CLT-PHL flight had been delayed about a half hour. The gate agent had said that due to earlier weather in PHL, flights had been delayed there. The weather was now gone, but the backlog of flights that were affected had not yet cleared. We were held on the ground for a half hour until the backlog cleared. At PHL, I took down a Philly steak sandwhich at a place in terminal D. (I might be wrong on the exact terminal, but it's the one WN & UA fly out of. It currently has a paper weights exhibit at the far end.) I then sat down at this gate I saw on my way down to Florida. The gate obviously wasn't in service as no planes used it this trip nor the last trip. There's a good spot that has a power outlet. Someone had already been using one plug, but the other was free.
I watched "Four Brothers" on my laptop. In the middle of the movie, the guy that had been next to me left. A few minutes later, another guy plugged into the outlet. When the movie was finished, I went to unplug my power adapter, and stepped on something. It was a 256MB Lexar Jump Gate. I was in a rush b/c I wanted to mail my DVD and get to my gate so I didn't have time to look at the files. When I got home, I found out that the owner was affiliated with the Baptists for Life (BFL) group. I e-mailed them last night and got a reply today. I'll be mailing it tomorrow. I have to admit that I was tempted, at first, to keep the drive as I could use it, but I know that the right thing is to return it. I was only tempted for like 30 seconds. I know that I'd want my drive returned if I had been the one to lose it.
Not Sarging:
I'll admit that I did no sarging on Monday. I'm being a little hard on myself because there really is little point. The chances of successfully sarging someone at random airportsthat happens to live in Chicago is slim. Still, I feel that I should be sarging just for practice. I had several opportunities to do so. I saw an HB at GNV, and and HB in CLT that I should have sarged. In IAD, I saw two good looking flight attendants while waiting in the Wendy's line. On Flyertalk, there's an ongoing joke that there are hardly any attractive FA's on UA. There are more FA's that are near retirement age. I made eye contact with one of the FA's, but I didn't say anything. I realized after that I should have said, "Hi," and just BSed with them for a few minutes.
Today, I'm just recovering from my trip. I went to sleep at 2am today and woke up around 10am. I felt well rested at the time, but an hour later, I went back to sleep. I decided that I need to get as much sleep as I need and I need to avoid clubs for the next two days. I'm flying to SIN on Thursday and I want to do my best to avoid getting sick before the trip. I really can't miss that flight. First of all, I need to fly those miles so I can requalify for Premier before my current Premier membership expires at the end of February. Next, I'm flying on a special e-fare that doesn't have a 6 day minimum stay. I'm not even sure I could change the flight, and if I can, I definately would have to pay a few hundred more $'s. I would rather use the extra $'s on more flights so I can qualify for Premier Executive & 1K. Basically, if I'm sick, I'm going to fly anyway, which will make for a very miserable trip.
Monday Tour of airports:
I booked my return trip as a reverse of my outbound trip. GNV-CLT-PHL-IAD-ORD. The time passed pretty quickly and I had great seats on all but the GNV-CLT trip. For that leg, I flew on a Canadair Regional Jet, which is like the crappiest RJ you can fly on. I also flew that plane on the PHL-IAD leg but I had an open seat next to me. The GNV-CLT flight was only an hour so it really wasn't that uncomfortable. What follows is just some interesting highlights of the trip.
GNV: Gainesville Airport:
This is a small airport. The only other airport I've flown too that similar in size is ABE (Allentown, PA). Allentown has more flights and GNV is definately smaller. GNV is a great airport. I was aggravated Sunday night b/c my stepfather wanted to leave early to drop me off. Now, I wouldn't care as I found out GNV has free wireless access. I could spend 3 or 4 hours there and not care as I'd just surf the net.
CLT-PHL: Human Remains:
I snagged an exit row seat on the US Airbus and I had the middle seat empty. That made for a very pleasant flight. When we arrived in PHL, I happened to look out the window while waiting to deplane. I saw a casket sized white cardboard box that had the words "Extreme Care" on the side.. I knew that airlines transport remains often in the cargo hold, but I had never seen remains being loaded. I wrote a post on flyertalk about it (click here for link).
PHL-Found a jump drive:
I spent about three hours in PHL. I was supposed to spent 4 hours there, but the CLT-PHL flight had been delayed about a half hour. The gate agent had said that due to earlier weather in PHL, flights had been delayed there. The weather was now gone, but the backlog of flights that were affected had not yet cleared. We were held on the ground for a half hour until the backlog cleared. At PHL, I took down a Philly steak sandwhich at a place in terminal D. (I might be wrong on the exact terminal, but it's the one WN & UA fly out of. It currently has a paper weights exhibit at the far end.) I then sat down at this gate I saw on my way down to Florida. The gate obviously wasn't in service as no planes used it this trip nor the last trip. There's a good spot that has a power outlet. Someone had already been using one plug, but the other was free.
I watched "Four Brothers" on my laptop. In the middle of the movie, the guy that had been next to me left. A few minutes later, another guy plugged into the outlet. When the movie was finished, I went to unplug my power adapter, and stepped on something. It was a 256MB Lexar Jump Gate. I was in a rush b/c I wanted to mail my DVD and get to my gate so I didn't have time to look at the files. When I got home, I found out that the owner was affiliated with the Baptists for Life (BFL) group. I e-mailed them last night and got a reply today. I'll be mailing it tomorrow. I have to admit that I was tempted, at first, to keep the drive as I could use it, but I know that the right thing is to return it. I was only tempted for like 30 seconds. I know that I'd want my drive returned if I had been the one to lose it.
Not Sarging:
I'll admit that I did no sarging on Monday. I'm being a little hard on myself because there really is little point. The chances of successfully sarging someone at random airportsthat happens to live in Chicago is slim. Still, I feel that I should be sarging just for practice. I had several opportunities to do so. I saw an HB at GNV, and and HB in CLT that I should have sarged. In IAD, I saw two good looking flight attendants while waiting in the Wendy's line. On Flyertalk, there's an ongoing joke that there are hardly any attractive FA's on UA. There are more FA's that are near retirement age. I made eye contact with one of the FA's, but I didn't say anything. I realized after that I should have said, "Hi," and just BSed with them for a few minutes.
