Sunday, July 19, 2009

Crisis

So while this move is exciting, it does involve travel. A bunch of travel to the Hampton Roads area in fact. For those that know me, I don't mind travel. And yes, I know that travel gets old. I know that airports and connections are not fun. But they are for me, at least in the beginning. I am a self-avowed aviation geek, loving flying and all the aspects that come with travel. I mean, I am the guy who flew to Hawaii for 18 hours, just to gain status on American.

Here is where the problem starts. American doesn't fly to Newport News, and only flies two flights to Norfolk a day which isn't going to work. There are other choices of course. There happens to be a direct flight from US Air and United, but they are stupid expensive due to the huge military population down in Hampton Roads. Southwest also flies direct from BWI, so that's an option.
However the one logical choice is the hardest one to make.

These guys are terrible. I know this. They came in dead last in survey after survey. There are YouTube videos about how bad they are. It kills me that I'm going to be using these guys. But I already have 10 segments booked on them in my first 7 days on the job. So I suppose I'll see how bad they are. But I don't like this. Not one bit. I find it funny, and not ha ha funny, that I'm close to platinum status with American and yet so far. So I'll let people know how this all turns out.

4 comments:

maikib said...

i remember when us air and american used to be mileage partners... so you could use miles to book award travel or upgrade between the two. that was before american realized us air sucks and had to distance themselves from them.

Hero to the Masses said...

Thanks Mikie. You're a big help.

Tom said...

they're pretty imcompetent. we literally missed an international flight we had arrived two hours early for because they were unable to undo Orbitz's mistake. I fault them both. (occasionally, Orbitz's database of which airlines can issue tickets on behalf of other airlines isn't always current/correct. And though you bought a ticket on Orbitz that has you flying US Air on part, and, say, Air Maroc on the 2nd part, such a ticket can only exist if there is a ticketing agreement between those two airlines. Turns out, none did)

To their credit, they did bump us up to 1st class going to London as an apology. Flying 1st class international is the stuff dreams are made of, even if it only was US Air 1st class.

Mico said...

I just got to read the comment, hope all is well. Stop by some time :)