On a Pinnacle plane at least seat 3A has a VERY long seatbelt. i forgot so i have like 3 feet of extra seatbelt, but if you need that extra it’s a good seat to know.

Continental ends free food domestically

On my flight from MEL to SYD and SYD to LAX I started thinking about how United offers free alcohol on those routes due to competition.  US Airways stopped charging for beverages quickly after starting due to no other airline following suit.  The industry seems to stay competitive by following the leader in service cuts and new fees.  Continental seemed to be the lone holdout on US carriers though since they still offered free hot food on flights in the US.  While we can argue about the quality of the “Not dog” and the cheeseburger, it was still free and hot.

Who would have thought that by the time I landed this announcement was released.  I need to only think happy thoughts about airlines even though I never fly Continental.  I must admit there was a connection that went from 40 minutes to 20 minutes and my time to eat lunch disappeared so I appreciated the free cheeseburger since I didn’t have any cash on me which was the standard for other airlines’ buy-on-board at that time.

Now most airlines accept credit cards and I never leave home without them.

Delta still offers free snacks (peanuts, pretzels, biscoff cookies).  I honestly wouldn’t notice if that changed since I refuse that part of the service, but for all those biscoff addicts out there they may miss it.

This move by CO has little to no affect on my travel.  I hope it brings better paid choices or maybe lower ticket prices.

I am rounding out my week at this property and will give a full report in the next few days.  I haven’t been blogging much because it’s my honeymoon and all, but in the next few days I will be back in the swing of things.

I have enjoyed this property and the wonderful city of Melbourne.  I hate to return to the US and go to upstate NY after such beautiful weather.

This won’t work on many US Airways flights since they are always full.  I knew I was taking a risk with a long haul United flight as well, but decided there is nothing to lose and an empty middle to gain.

The trick is that since most people only want a window or an aisle they will tend to not choose a middle seat if they don’t have to.

My husband and I were flying in Economy Plus on a Boeing 747 from LAX to SYD.  The 747 has a 3-4-3 configuration which means if I take the window and he takes the aisle the odds are that unless the flight is full no one will choose the middle.  That worked out and we had an open middle for the whole 14 hour flight.

What happens if someone actually takes the middle seat?  Depends on how much you love your seat versus who you are traveling with.  Many suggest you should offer the person the window or the aisle.  Since your are being nice anyway you could just give them the one you prefer less.  If you don’t really care about your travel companion you could also just keep your seats and have a stranger between you.

I was reading fellow Boarding Area blogger View from the Wing and noticed a new Delta promotion Together We Fly.  This requires Delta flyers to form team of 4 to earn bonus miles based on team miles.

…but wait!

• To register you need a team captain with an address in Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, or Washington (so the old Northwest hub states)
• Tickets must be purchased with an American Express card (but not necessarily the Delta Skymiles American Express card)
• a few other rules to note

Since this promo is capped and not an all out competition like the United Elite Choice Team Competition from last year I decided to enlist my former NW elite turned Delta elite coworkers to be my teammates (well, because frankly they meet the residency requirement and I don’t and I know all our tickets will be purchased with an AMEX).

So the first thing I need to do before I can get a new driver’s license and thus change all my rental programs is to get a social security card issued in my name. That poses interesting logistical problems with my not being home. My client this week is an early worker so we started early, finished before the SSA closed, but I still had to get to the hotel to pick up my envelope from FedEx (love delivery e-mails!) and then head over to the social security office (which didn’t exist in my brand new GPS).

I was so stressed out that if I didn’t make it my whole time line to change everything wouldn’t work out. I read stories online about people waiting for 45 minutes and since I was making it at 3:30pm and the office closes at 4 pm I was getting scared. I was so stressed I brought my papers in, but not the SS-5 form I worked so hard to fill out.

I got in, read the computer screen to get a number, sat down, got called within 2 minutes, and was out no more than 3 minutes after that. I had read reviews of SSA staff being very polite. The man was professional…let’s put it that way. Professional and to the point. I prefer that over polite but incompetent any day! I presented him my NC marriage license, my FL social security number, and my passport and he didn’t give me a single “what the heck are you doing in Chicago if you live in NC” like some office personnel do. I did volunteer that I was in town on business, but he didn’t seem to care. He just wanted my info and printed out a statement of what I requested and off I went.

This was the office in Woodridge. Maybe I got lucky getting in and out at 3:30 pm in a couple minutes. I’d reckon when they first open and during lunch are probably really busy.

Maybe I’d be really happy and professional if I worked from 9 to 4. I know I wouldn’t want to put up with people as stressed out over nothing as I was today. He was a real professional, but since I was stressed I didn’t bother noticing any name. Thank you Mr. Social Security guy who put up with a crazy newly wed today.

Link to WSJ article

I love listening to Channel 9 as much as many travel aficionados, but I’ll admit I’m not the best multitasker and therefore I would not do well as an Air Traffic Controller.  Considering how many flights are in JFK airspace I have to agree that it is reckless to allow a child to assist with ATC no matter how well the child knows chatter.  Even though a lot of ATC instructions, especially on the groud, appear to be repetitive that doesn’t mean take the kid to work and let him do it.

Most airports have a gate naming convention of LetterNumber and most seats have a naming convention of NumberLetter.  Concourses start at the beginning of the alphabet and so do seats so often there will be a gate B9 for a flight with a seat 9B.  You’d be amazed how many times I’ve seen people claim someone is in their seat to find out one juxtaposed the gate for their seat.  Not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but in these days of tight overhead bin space it can save some hassle.

I figured I would chronicle my process to change my name since I didn’t really take any time off for this process so this will all be done while still traveling 80%.  I finally received word that my marriage license is ready for pickup, but I got the call on the way to the airport to fly out this week.  DH will have to wake up early or get off early and fedex it to me for anything to get done now.

Step 1: change name with Social Security administration.   I have to do this before I can change my name at work.  I thought the DMV cared too, but their website just said marriage certificate so we’ll see since NC DMV will never let you in the door without a SS card.

Hurdle 1: The SSA website constantly says “local office” when saying where to go.  Now of course it makes sense to go to the closest office, but is there a real requirement to go to the office it tells me when I plop in my current zip code?  Well this week I’m in Baltimore for 2 days, Chicago for 2 days, then I leave for Australia on Saturday.  I get back into the country and go straight to my company’s office (which is not in Charlotte).  I hoped to have something to show them to help change my name while I’m up there.  My real SS card might not be done, but someone on the internet mentioned something about a paper from the SSA on the spot.  Hopefully that plus a marriage license will be sufficient to appease my HR department.  I ordered 2 full licenses and 2 wallet licenses to be ready for most situations.

Hurdle 1.5: the other option is to mail the application and supporting documents.  I’m trying to get clarification on what documents are needed for a name change, but it sounds like I need birth certificate, marriage license, and driver’s license or passport.   I can’t mail my passport until I get back in the US and I need my driver’s license for rental pickup on Wednesday of this week, then again as soon as  I land at my destination in the US.  I never bothered to get a passport card because I had been anticipating needing to change my name on it since they announced the start of the passport card program.  Now I wish I had a passport card.  I am requesting one with my change of name for my passport, but that does me no good now.

So either I can go to the SS office in Chicago or I have to wait 3 weeks to even start this process!

Am I reading into this too much?

Just announced on Flyertalk today:

IFast Ways to Free Stays

Earn double points for each stay or one free night certificate after 10 nights within the promotion dates of April 6 – June 30.

HHonors members must register for the promo.

Hotels are opted in by default.

There is also a pile of airline promos coming out which hotels have to opt -in to.

This will be a tough one.  It took me almost 2 months to get 10 nights for 1 free stay this quarter, but I mainly stay in hotels that cost less than $150/night so double points doesn’t mean much with that.  If the free night can be used for higher level properties then I know 1 free night is worth over 30,000 points and it is unlikely I can do better than that with many stays.

As a business traveler weather delays are annoying especially if they lead to lost revenue, but that is no reason to take frustration out on gate agents.  If my flight is delayed I stay in the gate area just in case something happens, but I try to check the website and pay attention instead of hounding the gate agents.

Last night I landed in CVG 30 minutes late which was the time my scheduled flight to CLT was supposed to leave.  On deplaning the person meeting the flight to assist with connections stated all of us going to Charlotte and Chicago had missed our connection.  I thought that was funny since the website had just said the flight was delayed, but situations change quickly so I decided to see the red coat as instructed.  That guy looked in his computer and confirmed my flight was delayed.  He should tell that to the guy shouting Charlotte passengers needed rebooking.

I got to the gate and began waiting.  My flight was delayed while waiting for a first officer.  The FO was coming in from Grand Rapids and that flight wasn’t leaving any time soon.  The flight next to us was waiting for that plane, but then got another plane, then needed a flight attendant.  A captain was supposed to be flying in the back of the plane back to his home in Charlotte.  He wanted to get home so he got the paperwork to crew our flight.  I made a comment that it was weird seeing two 4-stripers.  A guy next to me in the boarding area asked me how I knew what the stripes meant.  If you fly enough you just know that most domestic flights are crewed by 1 person with four stripes and 1 person with three stripes.  Mainly I like to pay attention to how many female pilots there are.

We finally made it to Charlotte.  I had checked my bag (due to not wanting to mess with waiting for a gate-checked bag with a tight connection) so I waited for it at baggage claim.  While at baggage claim another kid from my flight who had been very mad with the gate agents made a comment I just had to react to.  He said “If we were waiting for a stewardess why couldn’t the second pilot just do it”.  Now maybe he’d been paying attention to the cross training at British Airways, but I doubted that so I quickly said “First of all, our flight was waiting for a first officer, not a flight attendant, that was the flight next to us.  Second, a pilot can’t just be a flight attendant.  That’s a huge step down on the pay scale”  Now I know my last sentence was an exaggeration, but this kid didn’t look like he was in the working world yet so I didn’t think he’d really understand anyway.

So to sum it up: airlines can’t control the weather.  Weather messes with flights and that leads to crew and equipment shortages.  It sucks, but the gate agents can’t change anything about it.