Thankstaking on Thanksgiving OR an unconventional Flying Report

As your folks in Bushland are sharpening your knives for the Evening
Turkey, it is now almost 5 AM (day AFTER Thanksgiving, November 28)
in Hong Kong, where my biological clock reads 4 PM. My ENTIRE HK
Thanksgiving Day was spent on the road and in the air, so this is sort
of an unconventional trip report of what I had to be thankful for on
THAT day, as you'll see. :-))


At 4:45 am (that's time we were at the ATL airport checking in the
6:45 am flight to EWR), our Pauper Class (aka coach) seats on CO had
still NOT been upgraded to First (whereas both the ATL/EWR and EWR/ATL
legs were upgraded FIVE DAYS before departure on our London trip just
a few days ago).

It was then that I realized that day-before Thanksgiving is one of
the busiest TRAVEL days in the USA, and the ticket agent said we
were first in the "wait list" to be upgraded. Meanwhile, I saw a
TV crew at the airport at 5 am interviewing travellers -- which I
quickly ducked away lest the FBI and CIA were watching, for a dangerous-
looking traveller like myself. The ATL newspaper was already
talking about EXPECTED traffic jams on the Interstate to Florida!

I had been bragging on rec.travel.air (actually telling those few
who knocked Continental (CO) in favor of losers like AA and United),
based on the FACT that I was Platinum of BOTH AA and CO last year
and quickly decided that AA was worthless since I have had 100%
AUTOMATIC and UNLIMITED upgrads from coach to First Class in 4 YEARS
of domestic flying on CO, whereas for Platinum on AA, I had a few
"coupons" which I had to REQUEST for an upgrade, enough for only ONE
short trip (of less than 1000 miles one-way)! So, I had already
traded all my AA miles for Hilton points. :-)))

I later lamented that because of the change of pecking-order rules
in Continental OnePass upgrading (based on the price of the coach
tickets paid, and other changes that worked to the detriment of a
Platinum Elite cheapskate like myself who ALWAYS buy the cheapest
tickets!) that my perfect FREE-upgrading-streak may be broken before
the end of this year since I already had a couple of close calls of
not getting upgraded until 10 minutes before departure.


Thankstaking 1:

So my FIRST thing to be thankful for was that we were both upgraded
to First even though the plane had only 12 (3 rows) First Class seats,
especially because we had already decided to take a REALLY LONG haul
in Pauper Class (15 1/2 hours nonstop) from EWR to HKG because I
refused to pay the "new extortion rule by CO" G for International
Business First Upgrades of having to pay several hundred dollars EXTRA
over the cheapest available coach tickets and STILL had to pay a bundle
of FF Miles. But I don't blame CO for doing it to keep from getting
BANKRUPT! :-) It was my application of the FREE MARKET PRINCIPLE,
rather than for reason of shortage of FF miles (we have over a MILLION
unused CO ones now. :-)))

MY domestic upgrade (100%) streak remained intact. My wife missed
it a couple of times but an Old ******* that I am, I wasn't about to
offer her MY upgraded seat to her -- amongst all CO Platinums, I am on
a slightly higher pecking order than her. :-)



Thankstaking 2:

Our AIRLINE portion to Hong Kong was FREE (I justed figured it out,
amidst all this high-flying finance in the wee hours in Hong Kong :-)

Actually is more than free! CO paid us to fly. The details of this
will be posted under something like the "High Finance of Flying Free".



Thankstaking 3:

This was the biggest pleasant surprise of my HK Thanksgiving Day.

CO overbooked its Coach section. After I had settled down in the
Peasant Class section, an agent came on the plane and gave me a FREE
upgrade to the BF section, without me asking for it!

That unexpected surprise was worth ... you get an idea:

Dec 12/12 e.g. EWR - HKG (one-way) Coach : $919 - $1,208
Dec 12/12 EWR - HKG (one-way) Business First : $3,297 - $3,923

When my wife told the agent she was Platinum too, another fella quickly
jumped up from his seat and said he was Platinum ... and all requested
or demanded an upgrade to the EMPTY seats in the BF section -- to NO AVAIL!

In the end, I was the LUCKY PIERRE. I noted later that there were
at least a dozen EMPTY seats in the Business First section, but mine was
upgraded only because of CO's overbooking of the coach section which was
COMPLETELY full.

Given the price of the BF seats, I can understand why there were lots of
empty seats even in the busiest of all travel days.

CO had cut cost though-- the BF menu was only FOUR pages long (the English
portion) when the last time (two years ago) it was NINE pages. :-)

"Security concerns" changed the knives back to plastic again, when I last
reported that on Nov 1, CO and AA had changed the knives back to metal.
The wording of the manu items was less extravagent too.

But the full-reclining seat was HEAVEN!



Thankstaking 4

Before getting here (the Conrad Hong Kong), I checked the web to see what
a room would cost for 6 nights we're staying here FREE (on HHonor points).
I learned that the Exec Level (where we stayed in 2001) were completely
soldout for those nights, and the available lesser-priced rooms ones were
about $200-$300 a night which was STILL a bargain for my FFMs converted
to HHonor points used for my "free stay" which had a "nominal equivalent"
cost of about $175 a night.

Being Diamond (Platinum's not worth much in HOTELS anymore :-) with Hilton,
I am entitled to be upgraded to the best AVAILABLE room on check-in, but
given the info on the web, I was resigned to not getting the best, as I
did in 2001, on the 61st floor (the highest and with the best view of
the HK habor (Hong Kong in Chinese means the Fragrant Habor -- which is
certainly a subject worthy of debate on the "fragrant" part at least.

BUT ... I got a room on the 61st floor again! :-) I think those cost
about $600-800 USD a night if paid by money :-)). Highspeed internet
connection in the room, complimentary breakfasts, complimentary afternoon
Tea and Coffee, complimentary Evening cocktails and canapes, comp local
phone calls, comp Health Clubs, comp cell phone rental :-)), comp fax and
safe in room, comp rubber duck for the bath, Conrad bears, comp bathroom
slippers to keep, etc., etc. No comp call-girl service though.

When day breaks, I'll be able to use some of those comps.


Thus starts my AFTER-Thanksgiving Day in Hong Kong, spending the wee hours
bull****ting on the internet (right now :-)) because its 5 PM on my
biological clock.

An item of Security Farce worth noting was that inexplicably I was beeped
for body search in EWR, after I carefully removed anything that I knew would
cause those walk-through machines to react.

So, when the TSA came to me with his wand, I smirked at him and said their
machine MALFUNCTIONED, but cooperated with his security farce routine,
remarking only that my Rolex watch wasn't supposed to trip off any alarm
(when I had taken off and put in my my carry-on bag in ATL, it alerted
the TSAs to search my bag because of some "dark object that looked like
a watch" or some dangerous weapon I am sure).

When the wand beeped when it got to my chest pocket which I KNEW had
nothing of metal content, not even a pen-clip, I told him in PLAIN
ENGLISH G that he wasn't going to find ANYTHING there -- and was a bit
take aback that I was actually wrong. :-))) I had forgotten that I
left a tiny little elastic hair band of about one-inch in circumference
in that pocket, that has a metal connecting part of about 1/16 of an inch
in length, of about infinitessimal thickness and weight!!

He proudly procliamed, "that's METAL isn't it?"

I had to agree, and could only say, "Yeah, a really dangerous weapon
isn't it?" to which he said, "Aren't you glad we detected it?"

I said "NO." That ended our conversation and his search. :-)


So, that was some of the Happenings and Thankstakings on my HK
Thanksgiving Day, in which I spent about 18 hours in the air!

It's almost time for my comp breakfast at the Conrad Hong Kong!

Ciao, Adios, etc.

-- Bob.