US Airways is having a 3 day sale on club membership.  It is $249 for all status levels for 3 days only.  The rate is normally $450 for a general member and decreases based on status.

US Airways has upped their game recently by including free beer and wine (although certain stations must charge $1/beverage due to the liquor license).  They also had changed from a tiered approach to membership (just US, or US + United’s Red Carpet Club) so they have added a lot of value to membership recently.

I am a current Sky Club member but I’ve been eyeing US Airways Clubs.  This offer is almost good enough to pay cash and have my company continue to pick up me (discounted due to elite status) Delta Sky Club membership.

HT Gary

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/airplane

Of course any good traveler knows how to avoid the baggage fees and the luggage carousel, but I’ll admit I do check bags about 3 times per year.  I never check bags when I’ll have to pay though.

I do get surprised when I see someone who doesn’t click about the liquids ban (“This isn’t a toiletry…it’s a bottle of water”) type people. It has been over 4 years now that the liquids regulations have existed.

Link

When people ask me why I chose to live in Charlotte I would often say “it’s a hub for a major airline and Southwest doesn’t fly there.”  It sounds like the second part of that might no longer be true now that Southwest is buying AirTran.  I like how AirTran has assigned seating.  It can only be reserved in advance for a fee or you have to wait til check-in, but I know if I book a rear seat that I will board earlier and have room for my bag.

Other than that AirTran is pretty much crap to and mainly just serves the niche of cheap last minute tickets to BWI and ATL.

Southwest has wanted gates in CLT for a while so this gives them 2 unless they do something to trade for others.

Yesterday I was flying home from Indy.  I usually book later flights “just in case” and I have fairly good success at getting on earlier ones.  I also like people watching at airports so this gives me good time to do that if I can’t.

I got to the airport and used the kiosk and got onto an earlier flight.  That flight was having mechanical issues and was delayed 30 minutes.  My new itinerary had a 90 minute layover so I wasn’t worried and there were now plenty of later flights for me anyway.  Suddenly I heard my name over the airport loud speaker to report to a gate across the way.  I headed over there and saw a Red Coat with no line.  She said I was being rebooked on the direct flight on US Airways.  Now instead of getting home at 9 pm like my original itinerary I would be getting home at 5 pm!  This meant I could make a meeting one of my social clubs was having.

All this and I’m only Gold with Delta.  My upgrade on my original flight out of Indy hadn’t cleared so I’m surprised this earlier flight was so devoid of elites.

Now for original routing credit and “double dip”…

New applications for the Schwab Bank Invest First Visa halted earlier this year.  The card was attractive to many frequent international travelers and those who value cash over miles and points since it offered no foreign exchange fees and gave 2% cash back on everything.

Schwab is now dropping their association according to this website.  This is effective October 1.  As of now there is no report about the benefits of the card changing, but who knows when it comes to FIA.

I was declined for this card so I did not receive this notice myself.

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100915005590/en

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) and MasterCard Worldwide today begin an exclusive brand partnership to offer customers and businesses co-branded Delta SkyMiles Debit MasterCard® cards. It will create the largest and most comprehensive debit card program offered to Delta customers.

[...]

Delta and MasterCard have executed the first phase of the agreement; the two companies will now work over the next several months to build a national network of financial institutions to offer the Delta SkyMiles Debit MasterCard cards to current and prospective Delta customers through local bank branches across the United States.

This is good news for people out there who have favorite merchants who do not accept American Express and live in an area that does not have a Sun Trust bank.  I am curious to see what banks will begin to offer this and what exactly the benefits will be.  The current card offers 1 mile per $2 and has a lower annual fee than the AMEXs.

According to the Charlotte Observer the retail operations at CLT is in discussion with The Paradies Shops to open new retail operations in CLT.  This is good news because HMS Host is just so boring and cliche.

The newsstands will be branded with the CNBC name. Other stores likely to come to the airport include Brooks Brothers, PGA Tour Shops and Lacoste.

Judging by the stores the article claims to bring it sounds like these are the people who also run the A Terminal at SMF.  That is pretty nice and I have to admit that I did my holiday shopping the past 2 years at the stores at SMF.

I wish OTG would  bid for the Food and Beverage contract at CLT, maybe they did and weren’t successful.  (Full disclosure, my normal employer has done business with OTG).  As far as sandwich kiosks go I prefer  CIBO Express over the crap HMS host calls a sandwich.  I thought HMS recently changed up their lineup when I recently bought a sandwich in ATL, but it might have been from a Paradies kiosk.  Isn’t it sad that I know airport sandwiches that well?

Last week on my flight home the man behind me smelled like feces.  I don’t know how much time he had at the airport (this was not a hub so it is unlikely he had a connection), but after putting his bags in the overhead and under the seat he headed back to the lav.  He came back not smelling nearly as bad and at that point it started to seem like he had a medical condition.  Since I was in front of him I wasn’t about to turn around and stare, but he had some paper towels he was using for wiping and he had some odor neutralizing spray he kept spraying.

Considering the fact that he could wipe while seated I assumed this may have been a colostomy.  I’ve never known if I have been around one, but I was always told they typically don’t smell.

I know I don’t always plan my eating well and end up smelling on an airplane, but to smell as bad as he did on an Embraer-145 was very inconvenient to the plane for 2 hours.  Since it sounded like it was a medical issue and not just “oops i crapped my pants” I didn’t complain to the FA.  The passengers across from me who made interesting faces as the man sat down didn’t say anything either.  I do appreciate the fact that he did clean up on the plane, but still it was not a fun flight.

I don’t talk a lot about clothing because I hate shopping, I rarely think things look good on me, and I’m just not a fashionable person.

I do, however, have to wear clothes so it becomes a necessary evil.  I blame years of Catholic school uniforms for eliminating any chance of fashion I may have had.  Instead I like classic  cuts.  Nothing frilly, no wild prints, just clean lines.  This makes shopping a chore because of course most brands like to cater to trends because that is what most people want.

I recently found a website called MyShape (this link should start you with a $25 credit).  It allows you to enter your measurements, clothing tastes, and favorite brands (to gauge your style).  It then spits back your shape.  You can filter their whole catalog based on your shape or your shape and style preferences.  There is also an option to purchase without picking a size.  I decided to try that on my first order just to give this the ultimate test.

I wanted a black dress to wear out to clubs on Friday nights.  I like sleeves and also want something that flatters my hips instead of emphasizing them.  I saw a dress I liked and didn’t understand the sizes listed so I opted for the sizeless option (they choose the correct size for me).  We shall see how this works out sometime next week.