Mileage Run To Phoenix

BWI-IAH-SFO-PHX-IAH-EWR-BWI

I came across this great mileage run (2.2 cpm) back in April while I was visiting friends in London.  One of my friends agreed to do it with me.  By the time September rolled around, our flights were really messed up.  Flight numbers had changed, times had changed, and hence our routing was all messed up.  I spent a good hour on the phone (not including wait time) with a Continental agent.  We were originally routing from Baltimore to Phoenix via Houston and San Francisco.  The agent insisted that I take the direct flight from Baltimore to Phoenix.  I just told her I was doing some independent research on airports and wanted to visit as many as possible.  She probably thought I was a terrorist scoping out airports.

After we'd gotten all of our routings in order, the day finally came and we headed to the airport.  When we arrived at BWI, my friend and I decided to have a contest to see who could get through security first (I won of course).  The guy in front of me in the security line appeared to have never flown before.  He was fairly old (40s probably) and he was traveling with young kids.  He saw me take out my laptop and place it in a bin and said, "We're supposed to take out our laptops?"  Where the hell has he been for the last decade?  A TSA agent yelled out reminding everyone to take off their shoes.  He seemed very perplexed by this.

BWI Auntie Anne's - Ammurrrica's finest

After grabbing something to eat, we headed over to board our plane.  Once we reached cruising altitude, the flight attendants began coming around with drinks and snacks.  The guy sitting next to me was a skinny little Asian kid who looked like he was about 14.  When asked what he wanted to drink, he replied, "Do you have anything alcoholic?"  The flight attendant replied, "Ya, we got alcoholic."  He ordered a screwdriver.

The flight went by fairly quickly, and we were soon at IAH.  I had recently done a MR to FLL to secure Star Alliance Gold status on Aegean.  The miles had credited and I was now Gold in Aegean's system, but I guess it hadn't reconciled throughout the entire Star Alliance system.  We tried to get into a President's Club lounge at IAH.  I gave the lounge dragon my Aegean number to look up, but it still showed that I hadn't achieved Star Gold yet.  We tried a few more lounges at IAH to see if anyone would just be nice and let us in, but no luck.  Most of them were really snooty about it too.  I would get my revenge soon enough though.

Disappointed after not being able to eat some expired lounge cheese and crackers, we boarded our flight to SFO.  The guy sitting in front of me got four bottles of wine.  He watched Karate Kid Part III throughout the flight.  Not a bad way to spend 3 hours I suppose.

Look how intently he is watching Karate Kid III

My friend taking notes in  his detective notebook

I was getting kind of hungry, so I decided to splurge on a snack box.  I got classic.

We soon landed at SFO where we had a few hours to kill.  We tried a bunch of lounges, but still no one was willing to let us in.  I mean sure, we did look homeless, but they could have at least let us grab a cup of trail mix.

Next, we headed over to a sushi restaurant to grab a bite to eat.

Swiss plane headed to Zurich

Soon it was time to board our last flight of the day to Phoenix.

Our plane to Phoenix

SFO mountains

After a quick flight, we arrived in Phoenix at around 10 pm.  We called up the Hilton Phoenix Airport to send over their shuttle.  We arrived at the hotel, which was quite nice.  The front desk agent checked us in, recognized my gold status, and put us in a room on the executive club level.

Hilton entrance

Hilton entrance

Front desk

Lobby

Our room was quite nice with very comfortable beds.

It was getting pretty late and we had to go back to the airport to catch our return flights soon, but we decided to explore Phoenix a bit.  We walked about 3 miles each way through the dumpiest part of Phoenix to visit the US Airways headquarters, and it was well worth it.

Phoenix car wash - way better than Mike's Car Wash

If you look up at the top window you can see Doug Parker calling security to have us escorted off the premises

Inside

After snapping a few blurry pictures of the headquarters, we started walking back to the hotel to go to bed.  We woke up somewhat early the next morning to take full advantage of free hotel lounge breakfast.  They had a pretty good spread.  Now the funny thing is most people would come into the lounge, grab a quick bite to eat and head out the door.  We, on the other hand, take free breakfast very seriously (especially when it's in an all-you-can-eat buffet format).  We made sure to stuff ourselves, as we knew we likely wouldn't be able to afford any other food all day.

Lounge

Waffle maker

Work stations

We went back to the room for a bit and packed up.  I also made sure to take advantage of our balcony.

Balcony

Decent view from balcony

We checked out and took the shuttle back to Phoenix Airport.

Shuttle

False advertising

After a seemingly never ending security line, we boarded our flight to Houston.  I was sitting very close to the front so I had a nice view of first class.  Before taking off, one of the gate agents came up to a guy sitting in first class.  She handed him a laptop and said he'd left it at security.  The odd thing was the man didn't seem relieved or thankful at all to get his laptop back.  Later on in the flight the man asked an FA, "How did they know it was my laptop?"  This is a good question.  How did they know not only what he looked like, but also which flight he was on and where he was sitting.  Weird.

The flight landed in Houston, and we boarded our second to last leg of the journey to Newark.  I was happy to find that I had a whole row to myself.  Right before takeoff, an FA came over and asked the guy in front of me if he wanted to move back to my row so he could have more room.  Fair enough.  I didn't actually expect to get the whole row to myself.  The man brought a bag full of various food items.  He had a giant sandwich, a piece of chocolate cake, and a bunch of candy bars.  He proceeded to scarf down everything in a matter of minutes.  He smacked his lips and chewed with his mouth open and got crumbs all over the place.  He also had terrible restless leg syndrome and shook the entire row.  When the snack cart came by he ordered three snack boxes.  For the remainder of the flight he managed to shove all this food down his throat like a garbage disposal.  And this was in addition to the large meal he'd eaten at the beginning of the flight.  I wanted to tell him he should be on Man vs. Food.  

After landing in Newark, I had worked up quite an appetite and we headed over to Ruby's Diner.  It was decent.  

We boarded our final flight of the trip back to BWI.  When we landed, the journey was not quite over.  We had booked a limo service through Groupon.  It was $60 and we figured it would be roughly the same price as taking Super Shuttle for two people.

The town car that picked us up was pretty nice.  Our driver was very interesting to say the least.  He was from the Czech Republic and said he was helping out his brother who owned the limo company.  He was getting his master's degree in mathematics.  For the hour long drive, he proceeded to tell us about his crazy life.  He'd had quite a few odd jobs including interior designer and male stripper.

When we arrived back at our apartment, we found a pleasant surprise.  Our stove had been broken for the past few weeks.  Our Mexican repairman had come to fix it while we were on the mileage run, and left this note.

Is Work

Overall, it was a good mileage run.  We didn't get lounge access at any of the airports, however we did get it at the Hilton.  So it wasn't a total loss.  I also can get lounge access now, so stay tuned for some upcoming trip reports with blurry pictures of lounges. 

Mileage Run to FLL

DCA-FLL-PHL-DCA

Earlier this week I did a mileage run on US Airways to Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  The reason for this mileage run was to achieve Star Alliance Gold status on Aegean Airlines before a bunch of upcoming mileage runs I was talking, so I could utilize the free lounge access.  Unfortunately, this didn't exactly work out as I will specify in my next trip report.  


I arrived at DCA fairly early, and noticed the following sign:

I hadn't been to DCA for a few months, and was happy to find out that both DCA and IAD now have free WiFi.  It was pretty fast too.  

As I was boarding my first flight to FLL, the pilot walked by humming a tune.  He was a really friendly pilot.  He passed by a baggage handler and said in an enthusiastic voice, "HEY! How are you doing today, my friend!"  The baggage handler just kind of grunted with a look on his face of "don't freaking talk to me, it's too damn early".

The plane was an Airbus 319 and it was almost empty, which was really nice.  I got a whole row to myself.  The flight went by really quickly.  I really wanted to go visit Ft. Lauderdale, as I have family there, but unfortunately there was no time.    

View of FLL in the distance

When we landed at FLL, I headed over to grab some food.  I got a pre-packaged salad that was pretty decent even though it had probably been sitting there for 2 weeks.

Mmmm...expired airport food

While I was sitting there eating my salad, the flight attendant from my flight came over and sat down next to me so he could charge his phone.  He said, "Hey, you were on my flight?"  I replied with somewhat of startled grunt much like the baggage handler earlier that morning.  He continued to talk asking, "So why are you still in the airport?  Where would you be connecting to from FLL?  The Caribbean?"  I just kind of stared at him not knowing what to stay.  I didn't really want to say I was headed to Philadelphia because then he'd think I was a terrorist scoping out airports or something.  I just basically mumbled some stuff like a homeless person and eventually he left me alone.

I boarded my next flight to Philadelphia which was also practically empty.  The flight went by fairly slowly as I sat there mindlessly staring at my stat textbook.  Doing homework is challenging.

Descent into PHL

Philadelphia skyline 

When I landed at PHL, I had to walk really far and then take a bus to a new terminal they're doing construction on.  I boarded the 20 minute flight from PHL to DCA which was very crowded.  I arrived back in DC happy to be home.

Back in DC

Tucson Mileage Run Trip Report

I found a good fare out of Colorado Springs and decided to do a mileage run to Tucson. My trip was as follows: COS-IAH-LAX-TUS-LAX-IAH-COS and spanned the course of two days.

The trip started at Colorado Springs Airport. I wish I could fly out of smaller airports like this one more because they are so much easier than the giant airports. I made it through security in less than 2 minutes. The airport was pretty empty and had plenty of seating and free WiFi, so I was happy.

Poorly taken photo of COS

While I was waiting to board, I heard a baby crying...not just usual crying...this kid was screaming at the top of their lungs and the sound reverberated throughout the entire airport. I prayed to God, Allah, and Vishnu that this baby would not be on my flight, but of course the baby was on my flight. After I boarded, I realized there were actually two other babies on the flight (what the hell!!?? was there a baby convention in town). Once we were airborne, all three babies proceeded to have a crying contest. At this point, I considered cutting my ears off, but unfortunately I did not have anything sharp enough - thanks TSA.


Luckily, the flight wasn't too long. We landed in Houston on time and I headed over to the food court for some heart attack inducing airport food. The next flight to LA was pretty uneventful except for the Mexican woman sitting next to me who was blasting mariachi music from her headphones. 


 After a fairly long layover at LAX, I boarded my last flight of the day to Tucson.  When I arrived in Tucson, I took a hotel shuttle to the Palo Verde Inn. I only stayed here because it was close to the airport and the rate was $35 per night. For $35 my expectations were exceeded. I got a large room with a balcony and some good A/C (which is very necessary in Tucson). The only real problem was the WiFi was dreadfully slow. Why is it so challenging for hotels to provide decent WiFi?

Decent bathroom - no complaints

Shower

Herpes infused bedspread

Closeup of the bedspread (time to whip out my blacklight)

A Kleenex box holder/bottle opener - that's how you know you're staying at a classy hotel

When I first arrived at the hotel, I was extremely thirsty. The first thing I did when I got to my room was head to the sink for some water, but all that came out of the tap was boiling hot, undrinkable Tucson water. I looked all over the hotel for an ice machine, but couldn't find one. There was a soda vending machine, but I didn't have any cash on me. I ended up just making do with what I had. I filled every cup they gave me with the boiling tap water and stuck them in the fridge.

After a decent night's sleep, I woke up the next morning and checked out. I inquired to see if the airport shuttle was running and the front desk lady told me the hotel manager would drive me. The manager was very friendly and while driving to the airport in the shuttle, he asked, "So what brings you to Tucson?" I never know quite how to answer this question when I'm on mileage run. I don't really like telling people I'm on a mileage run because the response tends to be, "Wow what a waste of money...how can u stand being on planes for no reason?" I just told him I was visiting friends. But then he probed further. He started asking why I stayed at the hotel instead of at my friends place. I said their place wasn't big enough. The questions kept coming. What do your friends do out here in Tucson? How do you know them? I found myself having to craft an elaborate story about my imaginary Tucson friends.


When I arrived at Tucson Airport, I was pleasantly surprised. I had been there the night before, but hadn't really realized how nice it is. I made it through security in a flash and was quickly at my gate. The chairs in the terminal were all very new and there were plenty of places to plug in a laptop. Also, there was free WiFi which was blazing fast.

View of the mountains from Tucson Airport

Tucson Airport

Free WiFi and actual places to plug in a laptop!

My plane

I boarded my flight to LA which was one of the better flight experiences I've had in a while. I got seat 1C and no one was sitting next to me. Also, the flight attendant servicing this CRJ-200 was very good. He was extremely friendly and constantly checked to see if people needed refills. I felt like I was in first class even though this plane didn't have a first class.

My drink was constantly filled

View from the plane

Approaching LAX

After landing in LA, it was time for some lunch so I headed over to Wolfgang Puck for some pizza.

Wolfgang Puck pizza

Wolfgang, you corporate whore you

I then headed to the gate for my flight to Houston.

Plane to Houston

I boarded my full flight to Houston.  I was sitting next to a girl that seemed very excited to be on the plane. She told me it was her first time on a plane. As we started taxiing out, the TV monitors came out and the safety video started. The look on the girls face can only be described as pure amazement.  "The plane has TVs?" she exclaimed. I thought to myself, "Wow, she really doesn't get out much"


As we were about to take off, the girl said "this is going to be a long flight" to which the other woman in our row replied, "that's a good thing because I've got a ton of work to get done". The woman then proceeded to play Angry Birds on her iPad nonstop for the next three hours (getting lots of work done). The thing that annoyed me was she had her sound on full blast. For those of you that have played Angry Birds before, you know the sounds for this game are not pleasant. Here's a clip of what I was forced to endure for the duration of the flight. Note: Turn your sound up full blast before playing the video to get the full effect of what I felt.

I should have told the woman to turn the sound off or use headphones, but I was too busy groveling over how stupid she was. Did she not realize she was on a plane with other people? Did she think she was just sitting in her living room? What ever happened to common decency?


One last rant and then I'll shut up. What's the deal with people pulling on the chair of the person in front of them in order to get up out of their chair. Use your freaking arm rests to pull yourself out of the chair! There's no need to violently pull my seat back. I was peacefully napping when suddenly the guy behind me violently yanked my chair back. Come on now! I don't need none of that, especially when I've already been subject to squawking bird torture for the last two hours.


When I arrived in Houston there was big storm brewing and my final flight of the mileage run to Colorado Springs was delayed by about three and a half hours. Uggghhh! I finally made it back home by about 4 AM, and immediately passed out on my bed.


Besides the crying babies, Angry Birds, and the utter soul crushing dehumanization that comes with flying in coach, my flights were all really nice in that they allowed me to catch up on my reading. I had a ton of business strategy and management consulting case study books I wanted to read but hadn't had time until now. Reading up on best business practices, I couldn't help but think of some ways the airlines could vastly improve. For one, how about banning babies from flights or at least charging an extremely high fee to discourage people from bringing babies on board. Why the hell do you need to take your baby on vacation with you? They are a nuisance to take care of and if grandma in Florida really wants to see them, she can come visit you. Leave the baby at home with a babysitter and save your fellow plane passengers the pure torture of being trapped in a metal tube with your crying poop machine. You're probably starting to think I hate babies. I love babies, just not being stuck with them on a plane. But seriously, there should be a $500 fee to bring your baby on a plane. It would make the world a much better place.