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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. |
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