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Let me start with a warning that you are entering into “TexasYankee-Zone” for the rest of the day. Those of you who have had the the distinct privilege to meet this man, enjoy his voice in your head as you read this. The rest of you, think Rodney Dangerfield version 2.0. You can see my version of Day 1 of our run here but just maybe his viewpoint is better. I can promise you, I came out the winner for having had the chance to spend a few days, and 10,000 miles in the air, with Mr. TexasYankee! See what you think.
So initially the idea of this multi-segment MR seemed awesome as I have been trying to schedule as many flights as possible to take advantage of the bonus miles before the Delta destruction Dec 31. I should have thought better when I scheduled 3 AUS transcon MRs prior to this event … What day is this? Where am I? What time is it?
But to back up. As y’all may see from Flyertalk I have been Mileage Running since the LatinPass run in 2000. After a 4 year layoff due to the demands of a “day job” I returned with aggression in my efforts to maintain status on Delta. The obsession had overcome me to a significant degree.
Now I am by no means an expert on Mileage running even though I attended all of the early Seminars (can you say VJ?) The many distractions of the various ways to attain points and normal LIFE has kept me from maximum earning. I also had less that 1% work paid or tax deductible travel and paid for all personally. I was always envious of Business flyers with mega miles balances – but amazed that they hated to fly!
So many of the “younger” addicts know so much about the airlines, plane types, seating layouts, partner and code share airlines/alliances and schedules all by memory. Frankly I cannot tell you what plane type it is when I see it – except for a 747! Or if the number is on the side … (Please no flaming me) What I did concentrate on was max miles for various trips out of AUS for the lowest cost of money and time.
The trip seemed to go as usual – even as a new Million Miler and DM I still do not seem to get the upgrades anymore … even though the perpetually positive René from our Deltapoints assured me we would be sure to get upgrades … But what really concerned me was the fact that he chose seats for the ATL-LAX flight in the BACK of the plane … I mean I was questioning his knowledge as a Mileage Runner. The seat was 26b on what I now know was a Boeing 767-300. Holding my comments to only a few grumblings I boarded and walked all the way to the back of the plane. It took forever to get to the seat … But what I discovered was a Penthouse like situation with TONS of room AND the seats in front would not be able to come back on me! SCORE! Also I had a tray table in the armrest and a tray table that came down from the seat in front of me.
Even though the seat was nice I was still anxious that it would take 30 mins to deplane behind all of those other slow passengers. (When one is in a hurry everyone else is slow!) The desire was to zoom to the next gate and volunteer for the bump since it looked to be oversold. Of course René was correct in that it only took about 10 mins. Naturally as I leave the plane I start zooming up the ramp only to hear René yelling my name … did my computer or headphones fall out of my bag? Why did I have to stop and go back? DOH! See the Porsche ride above.
The gate agent for the LAX-JFK flight was kind enough to put us first on the list for a bump with assurances we would be lucky! After going to the Skyclub for a beverage and power charge we returned to the gate and were told that the voucher would be for $400, SAY WHAT? 4 weeks prior it was $800. $400 for a transcon? Gate agent was proud that she offered less. Not sure that a couple of the LAX Redcoats I have met would agree.
More to follow as I still have jet lag or is it too much BBQ leftovers from Saturday? – TexasYankee
Oh my, what have I got myself into folks? Check back after BBQ, err, lunch, to see part two from this northern transplant to Texas to see how this all ends! – – René
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Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
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You were right to question $400 for a transcon. Last week, I was offered $600 for MSP-MDW with the next flight just 2 hours later!