Travel: Flying the "revamped" United. Some good, some still (pretty) bad.

After a couple of solid years flying Southwest airlines exclusively, a business trip to Topeka gave me an occasion to fly United for the first time since I abandoned them during what is now referred to as the "Jeffing" (Smisek) of the airline.

The results?  Improved, but nothing special (not that I expected anything special).

Since moving most of my domestic travel to Southwest I've been happy with two things:  1. The timeliness of the flights (I've only had one flight moderately delayed in 2016 and that was due to a mechanical issue, for which the FA's gave us free liquor) and 2. The friendliness of the customer service.

I also enjoy being able to check up to two bags free and, in most cases, the cost for Southwest is competitive, or slightly cheaper, than United.

The downsides.

1. I hate.  HATE, Hate, hate. flying out of Houston-Hobby.  For my money it is 1/4 of the experience of IAH. It's a pain to get to, and they don't have adequate facilities to move people to/from their vehicles to the main airport.

2. Boarding. It's been called the Southwest Cattle Call and that's pretty accurate.  If you pay for early boarding, which I always do, then it's not as bad.  The only rough bit being sitting with the angry face waiting for someone to come and take the middle seat next to you. I've found the sweet-spot to be either right before, or right after, the coveted exit-row seats.  Southwest's economy (they don't have econ + or any product like that) doesn't feel as tight as regular economy on the so-called legacy carriers.  And their seats are infinitely more comfortable.

On to United.

My first flight was a non-stop, Embraer 170.  The company purchased my economy seat, but I bought up to Econ Plus on my own for around $30.  It was money well spent.  This was a flight equipped with United's "Personal Devices" complimentary TV/Movie service, and even though it was a 2 hour flight I watched some TV on my Samsung Tablet and it worked well. Contrast this to Southwest's "free" wi-fi (which isn't really) and I thought United had the upper hand here with their current product.

The leg-room in Econ Plus for United on these E-170's is more than adequate, and it's worth the upcharge to sit in them if they're available.

Here's the thing.  On Southwest, you buy up to board early and pretty much ensure you're going to be able to place your bad in the overhead bin. On United you buy up for legroom. If you want to board early there's an additional charge.  Since the leg-room on SW's normal economy is satisfactory, for all but the tallest of fliers, I give Southwest the advantage, still, on economy product.

There is no comparison for first class because Southwest does not offer it. Although I will say that First on United Express flights feels very not-worth-it due to the fact that you're only getting a slightly wider seat, some free alcohol and etc. No meal service, other perks on short flights such as this.

For once, the service on this United flight was friendly and warm. I didn't feel like I was an inconvenience to the FA's just by existing. I've flown enough that I rarely have requests. I bring my own snacks, and a bottle of water on board, and I only get up, when the seat-belt sign goes off, to use the restroom. If I'm hungry I bring my own meal that I've purchased from the airport (another reason why I prefer IAH to HOU, food choice).

All-in all the flight was uneventful. We were a little late taking off because a piece of ground equipment malfunctioned behind the plane, but we made it up in the air.  Projected turbulence, which never happened, prevented the FA's from unlocking the snack trolleys, but they compensated and served every one by tray as they do in Business/First.

Before we get to the return leg, a moment about United's new coach "snacks".

One area where Southwest knocks United into a cocked hat (still) is in the economy snack area. On Southwest flights I not only receive the customary peanuts, but they have also taken to offering customers packages of Wheat-Thins branded flavored crackers.  The crackers, in addition to the peanuts, are a small, but decent sized snack for a short-haul domestic flight.  Unlike United however, Southwest doesn't offer anything by the way of optional food purchases.  For me this is not a problem because, again, if I'm hungry I buy food in the airport before boarding.  It is something to be mindful of however.

On the return trip I had the mythical "Stroopwafel".  The flavor was good but I'm not a fan of the chewy texture.

About that return trip.  On it I had the worst of United as far as hard product goes.  The Bombardier CRJ-700 with (horrors!) Slimline seats.  A picture:

There exists no world where these are comfortable

The Recaro Slim-line seats are about the most uncomfortable airplane seat I have ever sat in. There is no seating position in which they don't leave you with a sore ass. They are rock hard, and the headrests on them make catching a quick, in-flight nap next to impossible.  I had the exit row ($34) which gave me ample leg-room but whose fixed arm-rests all but destroy seat-width.  To top it off, the CRJ-700 comes equipped with the smallest overhead bins known to man.  Despite multiple warnings, everyone flying HAD to try and jam their rollerboard into the bin.  This meant that I spent 1/2 the boarding process with my leg-room acting as a staging area for baggage to be returned to the front to be gate checked.

To be clear, I don't blame United for that, they did inform passengers SEVERAL times that their rollerboards would not fit in the overhead bins.  But a majority of passengers were too selfish to heed that.  Ultimately, I ended up with another person's rollerboard shoved under the seat in front of me, in the interest of getting the plane off the ground because he didn't want to gate-check.  Sitting at the exit row this was OK for me, primarily because I have plenty of leg-room there.  The FA gave me an extra snack by way of saying thanks.  The idiot with the bag didn't say a word. (Part of the reason your flight experience sucks in economy is your own fault I've found).

Despite the hiccup on the home-leg, I was very pleased in how United performed. For one, the out-leg arrived on-time and the home-leg arrived early, something the FA jokingly reminded us to "keep in mind the next time we run late".  The FA's were friendly, responsive, and genuinely seemed to enjoy their jobs.  They even showed some personality from time to time.

All-in-all it was a marked improvement from the "Jeffed-up" days when Smisek was in charge.

One final thought:  There are a lot of issues that get blamed on the airline but are really the fault of the passengers. It's your responsibility to not try and and fit luggage befitting the Grapes of Wrath into the overhead bin and then get angry when it doesn't. If you're on a CRJ-700, gate-check your damn rollerboard. And don't fit it in sideways because that takes away from the bin-space for others.

There is nothing the airlines can do to overcome the selfish attitude toward flying that many passengers have. Little things like boarding out of turn, refusing to clear the aisle while boarding, refusing to turn off your computer, or having too much luggage to carry on all slow the boarding process, lead to delaying the flight, and ruin the flying experience of those around you.

Boorish behavior is not limited to any one airline. It's a contagion that seems to be spreading and is doing none of us any good.


And there's very little the airlines can do to prevent it, despite what some of the more anti-business travel columnists like to say.

Travel Talk: A serious word about selfies.

Last week I travelled, with my wife and parents, to Las Vegas.  As those of you who know me are aware this is not unusual for me, as the wife and I head out to the desert around 2-3 times per year.

For my parents however it was a different story.  45 years ago they eloped, drove to Vegas, got married, and left. They haven't been back since.  In short, they were a little gobsmacked by the whole ordeal.

Las Vegas is not a mecca for cheap buffets, entertainment and gambling any more. Today it's a high-end, high dollar, food, booze and boob fest where you can get pretty much anything you want, provided you have enough money to pay for it. As a matter of fact, I believe that recent numbers have shown that gaming revenues make up around 35% of the casino/resorts total revenue now. What this means, on the Strip at least, is that gambling is just about the worst way you can pass your time.

In the interest of greed (and, to be honest, a little bit of corporate stupidity) the major strip casinos shot a middle-finger to serious gamblers by tightening their slot machines and making pretty much every blackjack table under $25/hand pay out at 6/5. Unless you're willing to bring a bank roll of around $4000 to the table (you need to be able to ride out the swings) that's not an option for most people.  And, if you're ever tempted to play 6/5 blackjack, just don't. Trust me on this the house edge will not work in your favor. (If you want to play blackjack hop on the bus and go down to Freemont street, where most $5 - $10 tables pay 3/2.)

Regardless of where you go the one thing you are not going to get away from is the selfie taking mob.

They are everywhere.

Watching the fountains at the Bellagio?  Good luck getting to see things with all of the selfie sticks in the way.

Want to get a picture of the Chinese New Year Display at the Wynn?  Please wait 10 minutes until all of the people taking selfies get out of the way.

The problem with selfies, as opposed to just standard pictures, is that in order to take a good one you have to be obstructing the view of pretty much everyone else. That means they can't take a picture unless you are in it.

This was bad enough when people used to hand their cameras to others to take group shots. Sure you had to wait from time to time and then, inevitably, the person given the camera would have no idea how to work it, but you waited nonetheless and, eventually, the group moved out of the way and everyone could take their picture.

Today however anything of which you might want to take a picture of is blocked by a perpetual train of vain people standing at odd angles trying to get the perfect shot of themselves, backed by something they'll only vaguely remember when they get home.

And why do you want a picture of yourself anyway?

Think about it.  I know what I look like.  I see myself every morning in the mirror.  And don't tell me that you want a picture of yourself because "I want people to know I was there".  That's just a load of crap.  Who cares what other people think.  You KNOW you were there because you were there. The pictures on your phone should be of stuff, not you and your hair halfway blocking out the stuff that caused you to want to take the picture in the first place.

Then we come to the elephant in the room.  Safety.

Let's face it, this wave and epidemic of selfie taking has gotten way, way too dangerous. It's to the point that some selfie takers can be classified as a public nuisance.  I've seen people stop in the middle of the road with traffic oncoming, in the middle of a busy sidewalk, intersection, suddenly in front of a massive crowd. You name it, people stop there.  And selfie sticks? Last week in Las Vegas I got hit no less than three times by someone not paying attention.  Twice in the arm and once in the head.  The time I got hit in the head the offender got mad at me for messing up their shot. I honestly believe the police would have let me off had I spiked him and his phone into the Canal at the Venetian.

When it comes down to it I understand that there is a certain demographic that is going to fight giving away their selfies with all the fervor of the NRA. Those people we might not be able to reach.  But that doesn't mean that the sane among us, the adults in the room, shouldn't be able to band together and start taking back our right to walk in a straight line without having to play dodge-camera or almost get impaled by a selfie-stick.  At a minimum, we can not join into those kiddie games and go back to taking pictures of stuff like respectable tourists.

But, most of all, we can all do society a solid by making a mockery of those who think selfies are the highest form of the photographic arts by repeatedly, and consistently, refusing to acquiesce to their narcissism.

In other words, don't make way for their obsession.

It's for the greater good y'all.

Travel: The mileage game is over.

The last big domino has fallen....

American Airlines changes how travelers can earn rewards points. Jonnelle Marte, Washington Post

On Tuesday, the airline announced a series of changes to its AAdvantage loyalty program, adjusting how travelers can earn rewards miles and what it takes to redeem them. Under the new rules, which will take effect in March, certain types of flights, such as first-class trips to Europe, will require more miles than they did before, while others, including business-class flights to the Caribbean or Central America, will require fewer rewards miles.

One of the biggest changes is that consumers will now earn rewards miles based on how much they pay for their flights and not how far they travel. 

The airlines are now finished rewarding passengers for finding the lowest cost flights with the highest number of miles. As you can imagine, this has it's frequent-traveler program members pretty upset.

Why American Airlines Passengers are pretty ticked off. Jonathan Chew, Fortune.

rather than actual miles you'll be losing those customers like me who were loyal only for the mileage program

The reality is, the airlines don't care.  To those passengers they are willing to risk losing filled seats in the open market to cater to first class and business travelers. Sure, they'll talk a good game (as United and Delta did when they made changes.) as they do here:

We don't want you to be upset with us, our goal is to continue to have the best frequent flyer program.

and here...

The focus is to evolve onto building a rewarding program for all members, benefiting our Elite members with great perks.

..but what this really boils down to are attempts by the airlines to cull their list of Elite (higher tier) members to reward only those passengers who are the most profitable. This doesn't mean that they won't still take your business, only that they're not going to reward you for it with free premium cabin trips and other perks as they did in the past if you're not spending a ton of money with them.

American was seen, by those who play the miles game, as the last adherent to the old ways. They were the last place where "mileage runs" made sense and where perks could be attained by finding 'mistake fares' which rewarded many miles for a low number of dollars.  The old metric (miles per amount spent) is no longer applicable. This has made many travelers angry as the airlines have transitioned to this new business model that is highly skewed toward travelers with deep-pockets.

Sure, there will be much anger and gnashing of teeth (as we've seen above) and the airlines will wring their hands and say "we don't want to lose you" but they really don't mean it.  When United made the change I ended my loyalty to them and, on Twitter, they acted aggrieved, but then their multi-Billion dollar life moved on and my multi-thousand dollar travel habit changed. United's bottom line didn't change on penny, but my travel life did.

Today, I no longer carry "elite" (or premium, whatever) status with any airline. I'm a member of 4 programs (United, Southwest and American and Spirit [which I've never flown and probably won't]) but I don't actively chase elite status with any of them. For the most part, the spending minimums are much higher than what I was spending to achieve status (or, in the case of American, there is no "official" spending minimum [yet]). When running the cost/benefit analysis, it just didn't matter.

For me, in the new environment, airline travel is a commodity. It's similar to buying a toaster or an appliance. I have no specific brand loyalty and price, while not the primary concern, is certainly a factor.  The reason I don't fly Spirit, despite giving them a look, is that they are the off-brand, bargain basement television, the one that looks good on the surface but has too many drawbacks in practice.

So I stick with the name brands, and price shop those hoping to find sales and deals. Prior to these changes I would compare flights, give preference to United (with which I held status) and keep an eye out for long-haul flights that came in at 3 cents per mile (or less).  Those deals were harder to find, but they were out there. Often in the form of 'mistake' fares or flights to places I didn't necessarily want to go.

The upside of this is that I visited a few places that would not have been on my radar otherwise. I got to see Dubai, Singapore and spend a birthday weekend in the Virgin Islands. These are cities and regions that would not have been high on my places to visit had I not found good deals. I would return to all of them, except Dubai. (I've seen it, have no desire to go back) And I'm glad that I got to visit them as they enhanced my cultural knowledge.

Travel today is much more focused on finding the best deal to places I want to visit. Instead of worrying about miles and status I worry about what the flight costs regardless of whether or not I have a membership in the airlines' frequent flyer program. I'm a travel free-agent if you will and life has actually been pretty good for me.

Of course, there are changes that need to be made. For one, travel is a lot more a la carte now. You find creative ways to pay for lounge access, branded credit cards get you one checked bag and so-called "priority boarding". On some airlines you pay for better seats in enhanced economy etc. You buy cheaper, usually, better food in the terminal and drinks, and bring them on the plane. In short, you're much more likely to have to ensure that your own travel experience is what you want it to be, and that's not entirely a bad thing.

For all of the wistfulness surrounding the "good old days" of air travel one important factor is frequently overlooked. Today, and this is something the political class is trying to do away with, air travel is much, much cheaper today than it has ever been, allowing many more people to fly to destinations they couldn't afford before. This means that an expanded group of people can visit Europe, Asia and other destinations which I view as a net positive.

Because travel is the best way to expand your horizons and make yourself a better citizen. You see different things that other countries do and you realize that they are not entirely wrong, and America is not totally right.  But you also see that America does a lot of things right as well, free speech for one, the free market for another. (depending on your point of view I guess). It also provides you with a level of freedom that's not available to most people in the world. This is a net positive in my opinion.

Of course, there are downsides to all of this. For one, airlines are increasingly treating economy class passengers like cargo. However, if you understand this, and are willing to take more control of your flight experience, and adjust your expectations, then you can survive this new travel environment without much stress at all. Gone are worries about amenities and perks (something I care little about any longer), replaced with the bones of travel, is the airline clean? Did they get me to my destination on-time? Did they get my luggage to the right place, undamaged? It's the bones of travel that I'm concerned about, and a decent level of customer service when things get squirrely.

If the airlines can keep prices low, charge me fees on things that I can easily avoid, and run a decent airline then I'm OK. Sure, I won't have any loyalty to any of them any longer, but they are going to be OK with that and, to be honest, so am I.

Travel Pro Tip: Selfie with Care

This is the funniest thing I've seen in a while....

I guess if they see what is behind him, and listen to most of the commentary 10 seconds later, it might make sense.

As my wife would say:  Oh well, now we have to go back!

Hobby Airport Expansion: The rather big fly in the ointment.

After a decade of loyalty to United Airlines, the wife and I decided it was time, given their seeming inability to take-off or land a plane on time, to give another airline a go. Because of this we found ourselves on a Southwest flight to Las Vegas last weekend.

Some thoughts:

1. I am still not a huge fan of Southwest's boarding procedure, but they've made some improvements over the years. IF you're willing to pay for early check-in, and an all-important A boarding group, then you will get your preferred seat.

This is a problem for the airline however, which is currently running a "Transfarency" ad campaign promoting their lack of fees.  In fact, if you want a good seat, and not something in the middle, you have to pay a fee (around $30 per person round trip) in order to secure a seat not in the middle and room for your carry on.

2. That said the in-flight experience on Southwest was MUCH better than United. The flight crew actually made us feel welcome, instead of making us feel like we were an inconvenience to them, the planes were clean, in good working order, and service was efficient.

3. One advantage for Southwest over United?  Their wi-fi worked on every leg of the trip where available. (Our last leg was on a "Classic" plane (the FA's joking word for old) and the service was not available.

The bigger issue, on our trip, was trying to get in and out of Hobby Airport.  When I booked the ticket I did not realize that Thursday was opening day for International travel there. Fortunately, we didn't have a problem getting through security (thank you Pre Check) nor did there appear to be any operational delays. Where we did have problems was on the return trip Monday night getting from the plane to our car, an ordeal which took almost two hours.

1. Baggage claim:  The system at HOU is antiquated and not ready for prime time.  There are still only 5 claim areas, and the space around them was packed with travelers, making moving around the small area a chore.  Add to this an overflow of bags that arrived for people on prior flights, and you had the makings of a mess.

Southwest and HOU do a better job of getting your luggage to the turnstiles than does UA and IAH, but actually getting to your bag took us about 45 minutes.

2. Ground Transportation: There's not near enough of it, or an area that's sufficient to handle all of the waiting passengers.

We use the Parking Spot service, in part because it's convenient and because my company has a corporate account with them. It took us over an hour to get on board a bus, and get back to our car. By the time we grabbed our bags and made it out to the poorly marked pick-up area, there were over 100 people waiting to get on buses that can only hold 13 people each.  Add to that the fact that there only appeared to be 4 buses in active circulation, we were in for a long wait.

The lady who was administering the mess wasn't helping either, as she was screaming and hollering at people to "get on the curb" and spending more time threatening to "make the bus not stop and pass you by" than she was working to try and fix an already out of control situation.  Clearly having supposed power over people was more important to her than resolving an escalating problem.

At this point, people were getting angry. I saw an elderly woman get pushed out of the way by a younger man trying to get on the bus, a lady with a baby physically wedge her way in front of a middle-aged couple, all while the airport personnel (and one especially unhelpful driver from another Parking Spot, sat around and either mocked them or did nothing).

Now, granted, not all of the fault lies at the feet of the Houston Airport System here, as part of the problem lies at the feet of Parking Spot and their lack of buses and rude drivers from other locations. The rude driver was especially grating.  Instead of getting on the radio and calling for more buses, he stood by as people loaded continually saying "If you would have parked at Parking Spot 2 instead of Parking Spot 1 I would have had you to the car by now!" He also mocked people in line, constantly chiding people that "only 13 are going to fit on that bus so most of y'all ain't going to make it."

He got so bad that I finally told him that his time would be better served finding a solution to the problem rather than making fun of people. Once he was confronted he walked away, got in his bus and we didn't see him again.  So for that Parking Spot, you failed miserably. I'll be filing a letter of complaint but, as is usually the case with this, I'll receive a form letter in return and nothing much will happen.

3. Layout of ground transportation area:  In short, at HOU it's a mess. They have poorly marked lanes, areas where buses are loaded from active lanes of traffic, no set pick-up areas and very dodgy crowd control. This, and the shortage of buses, leads to a very hectic process of getting from the airport to your car. It was one of the more unpleasant airport experiences that I can remember.


At this point I'm not sure if there's a quick solution to the problem. The infrastructure outside of HOU is old, and there are geographical issues with expanding. Yes, the Houston Airport System could do a better job of communicating with 3rd party parking services regarding flight arrival times etc. but absent of that, the only thing that can be done is better training of personnel to handle large volumes of people. The staff that was working that Monday evening was about as poorly equipped to handle a logistical problem as any I've ever seen. The one lady with a hi-vi vest did little but scream at people and allow passengers to be berated by a driver.

That's hardly the take-away one wants from an otherwise fun vacation. Unfortunately many HOU customers had exactly that.

Travel: Jeff Smisek Resigns.

In case you didn't see the news today.....

United Airlines (UAL) CEO Smisek to step down, successor named. Street Insider

United Airlines (NYSE: UAL) announced that it has named Oscar Munoz as president and chief executive officer. Munoz will also continue to serve on United's board of directors. The board appointed Henry L. Meyer III, United's lead independent director, to serve as non-executive chairman of the board of directors. The company also announced that Jeff Smisek has stepped down from his roles as chairman, president and chief executive officer, and as a director. These changes are effective immediately.

Amazingly, United had another computer error today which is probably a fitting bookend to Mr. Smisek leaving the company.  Also amazingly, it doesn't appear that Mr. Smisek is leaving because he's all but ran the company into the ground but because of the on-going Federal investigation into the following (from the first linked article):

The company also announced that its executive vice president of communications and government affairs and its senior vice president of corporate and government affairs have stepped down. The departures announced today are in connection with the company's previously disclosed internal investigation related to the federal investigation associated with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The investigations are ongoing and the company continues to cooperate with the government. 

So, United has (really) cleaned house here, which leads me to believe that the Feds are going to drop the hammer on some folks when the investigation is complete.

Unfortunately, the new man in charge is from the old regime so I don't think this will mean that United is going to consider changing their "race to the bottom" strategy, no do I think they'll do much more than ape bad ideas from Delta and implement them 6-12 months down the line. This could then be nothing more than United rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

But, for now, Smisek is no longer in charge.  We're putting a six-month statute of limitations on saying the airline has been "Smiseked" or 'Jeffed Up' because of this.

Quick Trip Review: Rethinking Total Rewards

For several years now the wife and I have made Las Vegas a vacation mainstay.  Since 2008 we've visited there around 2-3 times per year, watching shows, seeing the sites, gambling (less and less as the years pass) and genuinely just having a good time.

For most of that time we've been MLife loyalists, staying at Excalibur, NY/NY, Luxor, Mandalay Bay etc. On a couple of occasions we also slept at Circus Circus (don't recommend UNLESS you have children) and Treasure Island.  On the two occasions that we stayed on Fremont Street we went local and stayed at the Golden Nugget.

One group of hotels we never seriously considered were the Caesar's Group also known as Total Rewards Casinos. The reason for this, mostly, was that for a while they were generally old and, to be honest, a little rough around the edges. The group's flagship, Caesar's, was looking a little threadbare, and the other casinos, Bally's, the Flamingo, Harrah's and Imperial Palace were in various stages of disrepair, Planet Hollywood and Paris were nice, but pricey considering the MLife alternatives.

Recently however, Caesar's has stepped up their game.  The Forum Shops at Caesar's have revitalized the property as has the opening of Gordon Ramsay Pub and Grill and (more importantly) NOBU Hotel and restaurant which, along with some high-profile entertainment residencies, has revitalized their flagship hotel.  Recently, the Flamingo has been spruced up, as has Bally's with the introduction of the Grand Bazaar Shops.

The most important update however was the conversion of the dilapidated and falling into ruin Imperial Palace to the Quad, and eventually the LINQ. This also coincided with the controversial building of the LINQ promenade and High Roller Observation Wheel.

Last weekend we took advantage of a Total Rewards semi-annual sale (which seems to occur once per quarter rather than semi-annually) and decided to spend our 17th wedding anniversary trying something new at the LINQ.

For starters, here are a few pictures of the room:

The rooms, while still new, are fairly small, but the beds are comfortable and the water is hot (which wasn't always the case at Imperial Palace near the end).  They do come with 47 in. flat-screen TV's which is nice, the room safe is easy to use and there is complimentary water (nice in Vegas August heat). While the art on the wall is odd at first, if you partake in one of the hotels many bars you can come back in the evening and argue what it says.

Where Total Rewards really impressed me was in the pre-checkin experience. Let me explain. When I stayed at MLife properties I always had to call two or three days in advance to confirm my reservations. I never got contacted or anything of the sort. In other words, the onus was on me to figure things out.

For Total Rewards, I received multiple e-mails both confirming my reservation (helpful) and offering shots at either discounted upgrades or amenities.  For example, the first e-mail that I received was about a week-out from my trip, informing me that the property had our reservation confirmed and that resort had the option of early check-in.  That I would receive an e-mail the morning of my arrival (I did) and that I could check in there (I did) arrive at the hotel, and that I would receive a text where to get my tickets when I arrived.  This meant skipping the check-in line, and also gave us flexibility arriving, since the bell desk would hold our bags should we decide to go play/have a cocktail, and then bring them to our room when we arrived.  Does MLife offer this?  I have no idea because they never contacted me to offer it.

The second e-mail that I received offered us a shot at an upgraded room for a discounted rate, it also offered us discounted tickets to ride on the High Roller.  If you select the upgrade, and the upgrade is available, you get charged the extra dollars per night. If the room is not available, then no harm, no foul, you get your regular room.

The third e-mail I received invited us to eat at different restaurants with discounts for each.  Yes, I realize that each of these e-mails were trying to sell me something but they're things that you probably want to buy. Given that free upgrades in Vegas are non-existent (unless you are a fairly high-roller [we're not] and even then let's discuss the meaning of "free") and that meals in Las Vegas can run well into the hundreds of dollars, every discount is appreciated.  While we had different plans this trip it's something I might consider in the future.

One annoyance at the LINQ is their wake-up call. It's a recording of Guy Fieri hollering at you (as he does) to come down to his place.  Granted, it did wake me up but I've very little interest eating at an establishment with this menu. We did eat at Chayo Mexican and Tequila Bar which was very good, and I had a breakfast sandwich at The Nook which was...meh.

As far as the bars go we found 3535 to be nice while both Catalyst Bar and TAG Sports Bar were pretty normal casino bars where you play video poker to get comped drinks. At every bar however the bartenders were nice and the drinks came in a timely manner.  Of all the drinks the specialty cocktails at 3535 were my wife's favorite.

The LINQ has also brought back a revised, updated version of O'Shea's Casino which is a great place to grab a spicy bloody Mary the morning after.  If you're a fan of frozen drinks, you could do worse than the Purple Zebra which has a fairly large selection of drinking vessels available for selection.

One place I wanted to try, but something kept coming up was Squeeze Fresh Cocktails who had a drink menu that looked promising. Maybe next trip.  We also wanted to try Brooklyn Bowl which advertises Gluten Free fried chicken.  As a sufferer of Celiac the wife was very intrigued by this. There are several places to eat and drink, especially on the promenade that look interesting including Haute Doggery, The Yard House (which is a chain, and fun in Houston), the Tilted Kilt (which didn't make it in Houston), Off the Strip and the infamous chain Hash House a Go-Go, (Open 24/7)

Finally, the gaming.

We found the slot payouts to be fairly loose, much looser on this trip than any of the MLife properties. They have a small, but varied, array of slots ranging from pennies to $25 (the highest I found).  Curiously, the LINQ doesn't have a high limit room, choosing instead to have a high-limit slots "area" and the highest table limit I found was $25/hand on blackjack.

That's the good, now for the bad. All of the blackjack tables that I looked at had two rules that are very negative to the player. They all required the dealer to hit on soft 17, and they all paid 6/5 on BlackJack.  I found this all over the strip on the $5 & $10 tables but the LINQ was one of the few that I saw keeping the rule on $25 tables as well. Unfortunately, both of these rules are increasing in frequency on the Strip and, considering how full the tables were, there's little hope they're going away.  At this point, if you're a BlackJack player, I can only recommend that you move off the Strip for your gaming. And please, if you're just a casual player, do us all a favor and boycott these horrible tables. Only if people stop playing will this terrible trend go away.

My game is video poker, and while I did play at the LINQ their odds are fairly awful. To be fair, the odds are about the same at all Total Rewards casinos and are pretty much in sync with MLife.  Jacks or Better is typically 7/5 [or even, on a handful of machines 7/4] (I saw it as low as 6-5 at Caesar's), while Double Bonus is 7/5, DoubleDouble Bonus is typically 8/5.  I did find 9/6 Double/Double at NY/NY but the machine did not accept rewards cards.  If you're a serious player though go find those machines. (They're by the entrance by the reception desk. Three machines with red banners.) Again, for Video Poker, your best odds are to be found off the Strip.

In all, we enjoyed our stay at the LINQ and are planning to stay there again on our next trip to Vegas. The hotel trends younger than us demographically, but we didn't feel out of place and were never made to feel old or unwelcome by the staff. The big downside for us was the location of our room. Unfortunately, we were on the 2nd floor by the entrance to the pool, which means that we heard shouting every morning starting at the time it opened. We also had a horrible view. All we could see from our room was concrete pillars, other rooms, and a driveway.  We were also near the delivery zone so we heard the "beep, beep, beep" of trucks as well.

Still, with a little better room location it would have been fine, and since we're both fairly deep sleepers we made do.  Plus, I like to play in the mornings (when the tables are less crowded) and my wife likes to run so the early morning noise wasn't so bad.

For my next post I'll talk about some of the food we had, including some that was great, and some that was very disappointing. Thanks to my wife's ability to never forget to take a picture, I'll have more of them as well.

Travelog: Two tales of customer service. United vs. Avis

I had to chuckle just a little bit when I saw this story about how United Airlines (inadvertently I'm sure) treated a customer recently.

United Airlines refers to customer as "Mr. Human" in reply to complaint. Lee Moran, New York Daily News

When a Florida reporter registered a complaint with United Airlines, he may have expected a heartfelt note back addressing his gripe.

What he wouldn't have anticipated, however, is being sent this email where the airline called him the ever-so-friendly "Mr. Human" an astonishing three times.

I'm not surprised by this, not in the least.  Because, if you've spent anytime dealing with United customer service it's pretty clear that the company provides them scripts from which they are forced to follow, with no alternatives, in conflict resolution.  The solutions are in place whether they benefit the customer or not.

I'm going to provide two recent examples of (embarrassingly) identical situations and explain how both Avis and United handled them.  You be the judge.

First: A few key admissions.

1. In both of these cases the fault was ENTIRELY on me.  There was no blame to be placed on either companies.  I messed up, and I admitted as such.

2. At no point did I ever argue with either company over the eventual result of the process.

3. I do not believe that United was inherently wrong in their approach to the situation. Customer (flyer) Unfriendly?  Yes. But, can I fault them?  Not really.

Scenario One:  On a business trip in Denver I dropped off my rental car at the Avis Car Return in DEN.  I then hopped on the shuttle bus to the terminal.  About half-way to the terminal I realized that I had left my suit-jacket and tie in the back-seat of the car.

I stayed on the bus and rode back to the rental center, found a worker who pointed me in the direction of lost and found.  When I arrived at lost & found they could not find the car (it had been immediately driven to a city location for a rental). To further complicate matters, my rental agreement had the wrong license plate on it.  Sensing no hope I left my information with Denise, the very nice lost and found clerk, hopped on the bus and rode back to the terminal.

The next day I received a message from Denise.  They had found my jacket and tie and were shipping it via FedEx to my house.  I received it about three days later.


Scenario Two:  On a business trip to Midland I left my Samsung Galaxy 7 tablet in the seatback pocket of the airplane.  I had put it there to take a nap (this was the return flight) and was dead tired. I forgot the tablet and did not realize it was missing until I got home.

I immediately reached out to the best customer service outlet United has, the Twitter team.  They said they would forward my information to some people who gave me a link to fill out a claim form.  I filled out the claim form and waited.

That night, at around 10 AM, I received a call from Jerry in Florida.  It seems that my tablet flew from Houston to Corpus Christi, back to Houston and then to St. Petersburg Florida where the cleaning crew found it that evening.  I was also told at that time that the ONLY WAY United would return the item to me was for me to set up a FedEx account so they could bill me.  I was not given an option to use UPS or the USPS or any other solution that might work for me.  "This is company policy" it was explained.

Having no choice, and being the idiot who left his tablet in the seatback cushion, I set up a FedEx account (that I will probably never use again since I typically ship through UPS), which included providing credit card information, etc. and called David with United the next morning who took my information and shipped the item back to my house as I requested.  It arrived two days later and I should note that everyone I spoke to was very polite. I have no issues with how this was handled on a professional, personal interaction level.


Which leads us to the question:  What did United do wrong here?

In my opinion, nothing really.  As I stated earlier, I was the one who left my item behind (in both cases) and I really had no problem taking care of the payment to have it shipped.  I would have gladly paid had AVIS asked me to.  I don't believe that it's necessarily on the company to take a financial hit (albeit a tiny one) just because one of their customers (me) is inattentive.

That said, which policy is more customer friendly?  And which company is currently spending Millions of dollars advertising themselves as "Flyer Friendly"?

As with the 'Mr. Human' response there's a lot of evidence that United customer service is doing nothing more than reading from scripts.  This human has problem X, send them form letter X. This person has problem Y, send them instructions Y and tell them there's no other option but option Y.  Yes, this ensures a consistent response to many problems but not always the best response. 

True customer service takes work and a staff that really enjoys interacting with people and finding them solutions. They also have to be experts at informing the customer when there is no possible solution that is going to make them 100% happy.  It takes a special talent to tell a customer that, although they might not always be right, they are always the customer and there may be additional options available to help resolve their problem.

Pre-printed scripts, form letters and one-size-fits-all "solutions" are a way to ensure that no one CSR goes off the reservation, but they don't always solve the root cause of the problem or make the customer feel valued.

United was right to assume that I would pay for shipping, and I had no problem doing so. In fact, I was surprised that AVIS decided to pay for what was basically my mistake. 

So, from that perspective I guess you could say it's not that United did poorly, only that others are doing it much better and, in today's travel world, that means they're falling behind.


The 2nd thing to learn from this story is that after two solid weeks of business travel I am not operating at peak performance.  I've never left anything behind while traveling before. yet twice in two weeks I left two items of some importance.  Of course, I'm done putting things in seat-back pockets and I'm not taking the rental car to the drop-off again without making sure everything is in it's appropriate place ready to go on the plane.

So there's a lesson in this for me as well.

Travel: How long is the Board of Directors going to continue to let United circle the drain?

Given a recent business flight to Tulsa I can empathize with this:

How United Airlines Lost my Family's Business. Mary Tyler Mom

We learned fairly early on that our flight was delayed due to mechanical issues.  No worries.  They would be fixing the plane on site with updates every 30 minutes.  The updates did come every 30 minutes, but grew less encouraging as the time passed.  We heard that the adjacent gate's flight had been cancelled, also for mechanical reasons, but not to worry, all flyers would be accommodated in a Honolulu hotel until they can catch the next flight to Maui.

Go read the entire article to see why the author is so angry.

I've gone through the same circles of United Hell, my problem was weather related and not due to a mechanical issue so we were even worse off, and the problem is not usually the real-problem. The real problem is United's response to whatever problem has caused people's travel problems.

The truth of the matter is this:  When things go pear shaped for United they don't seem to have a plan for responding in a customer friendly manner. 

In some cases, if you're a savvy traveler, this is OK. I've handled many a problems through either my phone's application or through a quick call to the Premier help-line.  That customer service is usually pretty good and can get you out of a lot of jams.

After this year however, I'm not going to have my United status in my pocket any longer* (I've been mostly clearing out my miles accounts this year), so I'm going to lose access to whatever tricks allowed me to react successfully to changes.  In a case of bad timing, I've decided to do this when United (who controls the IAH domestic market) is spiraling downward with no plans on returning to the top.

I think it's the last article that's the most depressing. Instead of having a plan to be the best domestic airline Jeff Smisek and company seem to be throwing in the warm-towel and settling for 2nd tier. These feels to me like an admission that they don't think they can fully solve the problems facing them so they're going to settle.  And settling is never a good business strategy.

There are a lot of times when airlines just can't win. United will always have a sub-set of Houstonians, for example, who will always say "I miss Continental" (ignoring that it's Continental's management team in charge) and will knee-jerk suggest that they will "never fly United again". (Wait until they get a full-on dose of the Southwest experience today, that might change their minds.) Houstonians are an odd lot who seem to enjoy waiting in lines and griping that Houston isn't just like that European city they may (or may not) have visited once upon a time a long time ago. You can't win with people who have decided they want to live in a dream world.

In the real world, when flying out of Houston, United still has a flight network that's hard to beat in terms of global access. They have more direct flights to more destinations than anyone else and they have better departure/arrival times than most (excepting Southwest for regional flights, in which the two are about the same in price and schedule). Because of this many of us are going to continue hopping on United metal whether we have status or not. I know that I will, especially for business trips.

The question now becomes just how long the United Board of Directors and share-holders are going to continue to allow Jeff Smisek to pilot a sinking ship?  Granted, they've had some bad luck, announcing the direct to Atlantic City flight right before the city went belly-up is an example, severe weather is another, but the preponderance of mechanical issues, their computer system working with all of the efficiency of a Commodore 64 and their lack of professional, courteous customer service on a consistent level is all on management.

What's worse, now, they don't seem to have any idea or impetus to try and make it better.





































*Yes, I do realize that this is a problem I have brought on myself.  However, given the changes to United's MileagePlus program I just don't see the value in paying more for flights in order to receive a service level that they're seemingly trying to roll into credit cards going forward.

MileagePlus: Dead horse, beaten.

For a while now United has been slowly chipping away at the value of their MileagePlus program for low price, budget fliers in an attempt to cull the ranks and (ostensibly) provide better service, and more perks, to what they consider high-value fliers (or, those who frequently travel in business/first often paying full fare on the company dime).

Yesterday the travel internets went all akimbo over United's announcement that they're changing the model to a purely revenue based one in imitation of Delta an it's SkyMiles program. As is usual, the jokes were ever present. As was the opining that United has lost it's way.  Both are valid points. It does appear that United has no current strategy other than "me too!" allowing Delta (and soon, American) to become a market leader while the blue and gold tailed planes fall further and further behind.

A summary of the changes can be found here.

A run-down of just how bad the changes are (for all levels of Premier status) look here.

So, in the past year United has made it more expensive to redeem miles and now it has cut in half the number of miles you can earn, taken away the benefits of purchasing Business/First, but kept the miles requirement for qualification regardless of how much you spend.

Considering where United (and MileagePlus) is currently, this is just another logical step.  United needs to do something to cull the ranks of their Premier members.  Since the merger it's been very clear that they have too many.  Getting an upgrade on several routes is almost impossible. On several occasions I've spoken with upper-tier (Platinum and 1K) Premier passengers who are experiencing upgrade success rates around 25%.  If you're spending a lot of money flying an airline, that type of rate is unacceptable.

I still stand by my theory that the lower tiers (Silver and Gold) are soon to be no more. United is working desperately to move many perks to reward their profitable credit card partners.  I predict that those changes will be announced in 2016 or 17 at the latest.

Does it matter?  In short. No.

Unless you are a traveler who hyper-leveraged low/mistake fares for Premier status then it won't affect you much at all.  In crap-class, air travel is a commodity and increasingly fliers are going to treat it that way.  There are plenty of good seats available in crap-class for cheap rates that will allow recreational travelers to move around the globe. Quite often, these are on carriers offering better service/amenities than United.

Ancillary to all of this is the fact that United is currently a ship without a rudder or, seemingly, anything involving a long-term strategy.  They make noises that they want to improve the in-flight experience and then move slowly on the roll-outs, equip planes with seats that are about as comfortable as traction and offer service not with a smile but, quite often, with a shrug of the shoulders.

United is leaking money, still having operational issues, struggling with the very technologies that will help them implement these changes and is linking itself to the 787, a plane that has spotty reliability at best. There are calls for President and CEO Jeff Smisek to resign and it's past time that he should.

As the largest airline in the world, before the AA/USAir merger that is, United failed in execution on the simplest of issues namely, getting planes into gates on-time. Now that they've lost their market advantage, there's little evidence that they can compete long-term. This is an airline that needs new leadership and a new strategy. It's going to take more to turn United around than continuing to try and beat additional value out of the dead horse that is MileagePlus.

Airline fees: We gripe, we moan, we ultimately pay.

The recent news that Frontier Airlines has joined Spirit and Allegiant in charging all kinds of fees was not as surprising as it was inevitable.  As these "discount" airlines continue to add on new fees their profitability surges and more and more fliers choose them because of their low base fares.

The Huffington Post article linked above notes that, so far, the majors have no plans to start charging for things like carry-on bags (placed in the overhead bin) sodas and bottled water, as more and more fliers choose to move their business to the fee-heavy carriers, and their bottom line reflects the increased revenue positively, the days of the bundled ticketing model will be coming to an end.

Bundled ticketing will end despite the hue and cry from the fliers that it shouldn't, that somehow a rock-bottom ticket price should also include premium level service of the type that people experienced in the "good old days".  Wishful thinking of this type ignores two key points: 1.) In the "good old days" airfare was cost prohibitive to all but the wealthy. 2.) Passengers today have revealed themselves to be very price sensitive.

For all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding Spirit Airlines (much deserved, it is a terrible airline) there are a surprisingly large number of people who fly with them religiously.  These committed customers do not choose Spirit because they receive good service, or because of the amenities they offer, they do so because a Spirit ticket is, quite often, listed at around $100 less than comparative tickets from other airlines. 

Don't believe me?  Do a simple ITA Matrix search from any two airports Spirit services.  As a sample fare I chose IAH to Orlando leaving July 9th (a Wednesday) returning July 14th (A Tuesday).  These are two of the lowest cost days of travel within the week.  The results?

Spirit is the winner on fares, but what about when it comes to adding in fees?
(for this example it's assumed that all fares were purchased equally. i.e. without the benefit of a branded card)

Spirit:

Fare: $275
Carry on bag fee: $21
Checked bag fee: $26 (assumes one checked bag per person.)
Seat Fee: $25 (The listed rate is $1-$50, I'm cutting it down the middle)
Refreshments: $3.00 (a bottle of water)

Total Spirit charge (per ticket): $350.00 per ticket

American:

Fare: $323
Checked bag fee: $25

Total American Charge: $348/Ticket

United:

Fare: $415
Checked bag fee: $25

Total United Charge: $440

Now, clearly, you can avoid some charges with American and United by purchasing your itinerary with their co-branded credit cards.  How many casual travelers will do that however?  It's also easy to say that Spirit and American are about the same so you should fly American.  This discounts the fact that you have to make a connection with AA, while Spirit's flight is non-stop.  If anything the most direct comparison is with United, and Spirit is a full $90.00 LESS than the airline that calls IAH it's hub.

Given these choices which do you think a family of four is going to select?

If you guessed Spirit, you're probably going to be correct.

And that's the problem with customer surveys which say that "85% of customers dislike paying airline fees".  Of course they dislike it, but there's a very small additional cost that people are willing to pay to ignore those fees, select their own seat in steerage and sit in a seat that reclines ever so slightly.

In a previous post on United's financial worries I stated that SlimLine seats, as uncomfortable as they are, will be the future for all Coach seating. I also think, once the consumer votes with their pocket book, that unbundled fares will be the norm as well.  Whether or not people complain they will (almost) always choose the option that offers the lowest cost and the fewest connections, this is doubly true if they have children.

We can complain and gripe as consumers about airline fees all we want, but until the airlines find a fee that results in significantly reduced ridership (I'm not even sure what that would be at this point) then we're going to find them here to stay.

United Continental Holdings is losing money, here's part of the reason why.

While most of the other major domestic airlines are turning profits, United Airlines, and their parent company United Continental Holdings, continue to post huge losses. Over the past couple of days there have been many theories as to why and how United continues to struggle in the face of an industry uptick ranging from operational issues to bad technology to rather weak hub positions.

Each of these theories undoubtedly are partially to blame for United's continued fall and there are probably many other reasons (including inclement weather) that explain the rest. From my perspective however there is one major flaw that United continues to make for which management does not seem to have any desire to fix. To explain, allow me a moment to tell a story that is illustrative and also has the benefit of being 100% true.

Last week a co-worker and I flew on a RT itinerary to Phoenix from Houston for a business conference. Since I still have Gold Premier status with United I booked his ticket at the same time as mine. This allowed him to select Econ+ at the time of purchase as my travel companion.

On the first leg all was well, I was sitting in 8D and my co-worker in 8F as we selected. Amazingly, the flight left on-time, we had no issues, the In-flight entertainment worked and we arrived in PHX slightly ahead of schedule. So far so good.

The problems started on the return leg. First off let me say that on Tuesday morning before we flew out of IAH, I logged on to United.com and we verified both our flight status on Tuesday afternoon and our seat selection for both legs of the trip. As I stated earlier for the out-bound leg nothing was amiss, neither was there any indication that, on Tuesday AM, anything had been "adjusted" on our Friday return leg. When selecting seats for the return leg, I had placed myself in 12D and my co-worker in 12F, basically the same seating configuration as the first leg only a few rows back. Our check of this on Tuesday AM revealed this was still the case. The problems started when I got my automatic check-in e-mail on Thursday morning. (our return flight was scheduled for Friday AM)

I realized we were in trouble when my boarding pass had my seat listed as 11E. That's still econ+ but it's a middle seat which, as anyone will tell you, is very inferior to either an aisle or a window seat.  Fortunately, I was able to re-seat myself in 12C which allowed me to keep an aisle seat.

My co-worker was not so lucky. Upon check-in we included ourselves in the Complementary Premier Upgrade (CPU) list. Because of this our travel agendas were severed.  Now on his own, and no longer tethered to my agenda, my co-worker was kicked out of econ+ and placed in 15F which, in this plane's configuration, is a horrible seat in front of an exit row and will not recline.  Not only did he lose the extra leg room, but he was placed in one of the worst economy seats on the plane.

Before we go further, I understand that there are many different reasons that an airline might need to make a change to a seating arrangement. In this case, it appeared to be an equipment change from a 738 to a 739.  What I don't understand is this:  How can United make changes to an itinerary and provide no notification that they are doing so?  How can you have a computer system that can't keep track of booking details through a mess of changes? And how can you have such a disinterested customer service leadership team to not realize that items such as these are bigger issues than even flight delays?

At minimum we should have been notified earlier than check-in that there was a change. In fact, we should have been notified when the change was made so we could have a chance to react. I say that these snafus are worse than delays because the onus of fixing them lies entirely with the customer. If you're delayed and miss a connection, the airline will automatically re-seat you on the next available flight. Granted, you will still probably have to do some work because the "next available flight" will probably be on the next day.

The problem is, United doesn't even seem to care that they're creating an inconvenience for the customer. Both my co-worker and I took to Twitter where we were engaged by United Customer Service. Normally, this is one of the better CS outlets for the airline. In this case however, the Twitter CS agent belittled my co-worker by suggesting that he "shouldn't have been in Econ+ in the first place" because his "status changed" from when we booked the flights back in February until now.

This was, of course, false. What had changed was that United's computer system did not properly track his status as my travel companion when it split the itineraries and he was forcefully removed from Econ+. When he explained that to the Twitter rep the response was that "your ticket isn't marked with that so there's nothing I can do."  And that's it. No apology, no offer of compensation, nothing. Just a sit on the plane and be happy about it. At least the Twitter CS agent that I corresponded with offered up a "sorry".

To me, this is the crux of the problem for United, they don't care about their customers. They also don't care about their Premier customers or doing anything to make the program worthwhile. If you've flown United of late, you may or may not have noticed that over 50% of passengers are lining up in the queue for boarding group 2. Premier check-in if frequently more crowded, and slower, than regular economy check-in.  At PHX I and my co-worker went through the regular line b/c the Premier line was so congested. I've said this several times before and I'll say it again: If everyone is Premier then no-one is Premier.

United is a company whose customer service culture is rotting, and it's certainly coming from the top. I've seen it suggested that it's possibly time for CEO Jeff Smisek and his team to be shown the door. I'm glad to see it because I've thought this for a while now. If United can't do a better job taking care of ALL of it's customers (and not just the ones in the premium cabins) then they're going to continue to suffer at the hands of their competitors who are. I'm not suggesting a return to the "good old days" of stale peanuts in coach and luxury seats. I understand that SlimLine seats are the future despite them being butt-numbingly uncomfortable. I also don't mind not having a snack, I don't mind IFE going away and being replaced by WiFi.

What I do mind is being treated as an inconvenience by an airline who has failed to provide the service that I paid for, whose computer system cannot keep track of itinerary details when changes occur, and whose attitude is that they have no responsibility to notify me when major changes are made to my trip plan. I also mind lip-service around how I'm valued as a Premier when the actions don't back it up.

United is struggling because people are choosing to shop the competition and they are finding UA to be way behind in almost all areas.

Sometimes vacations don't go as planned. (Las Vegas edition)

It all started with a notification from United airlines that the Dreamliner portion of our recent trip to Vegas (IAH to SFO) was delayed by 1 hour and 26 minutes.  Given that our entire layover in San Francisco was only 1 hour and 20 minutes I knew we had a problem.

This was around 4:30 in the morning.  Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:00 AM on Thursday, the wife and I had booked a room on Wyndham points at a hotel next to the airport so we wouldn't have to drive in.  Even in my bleary-eyed state I knew we were looking at some booking gymnastics to eventually arrive at Las Vegas sometime that day.

I should have known there would be problems, after all, we were trying to get a flight on the Dreamliner, an airplane that's got a notoriously sketchy performance record as Boeing and it's partner airlines continue to work out the bugs.  Fortunately, that early in the morning, the call to United's MileagePlus service center only required about a 5 minute "hold time" before I was directly connected to an agent.  After explaining the situation the agent agreed that, yes, we were going to have to do some creative re-routing to make things work.

After about 20 minutes of searching and looking (including exploring the option of a US Airways first class indirect flight through Phoenix that departed at 5:55 AM) we decided that the best option was for us to throw away our BusinessFirst agenda heading to Las in Vegas and settle for a direct flight with United in Economy Plus.  The difference in miles was re-deposited into our account, and we eventually made it to LAS about 2 hours behind schedule.

While we weren't able to get a flight leg on the Dream(Nightmare)Liner, we did get to finally experience United's A320 economy experience with the new SlimLine seats. My overall impression of those is not good.  Not only are the seats very hard, but the armrests are not near long enough and it's almost impossible to get in a comfortable sitting position for a 3 hour flight.  Rumor is those seats will get better with time as they 'break in'.  We'll see. Right now I'd advise avoiding them if possible in favor of 739 or -8 service if available.

The A320 we were on had Wi-Fi available, but I didn't purchase it because I've heard the signal is dodgy.  This rumor was confirmed on both legs as people who did buy the system constantly had it dropped on them, forcing the purser to have to reset the signal, causing long delays in availability.

When we arrived in Las Vegas we had a quick cab ride to Treasure Island, where we were immediately placed in our room despite arriving before check-in time.  TI is a nice hotel, but very busy and they do charge a $28/day "resort fee" if you want to use any amenities whatsoever so be sure to include that in the price of your room.

Even worse, on this trip, I got hit with either a stomach bug or food poisoning on Saturday, which meant that I spent most of the weekend in my room either lying in bed or visiting our bathroom.  On a positive note: this kept me out of the sports books which is a good thing considering the state of my NCAA bracket.  That stomach ailment probably saved me a few hundred dollars in bets I would have made on losing teams.

Back among the living on Monday evening, we did get to see Mystere, which is an older Cirque du Solei show that has a couple of weak acts but some incredibly strong ones as well.  The strength and balance men in the show are amazing as is the trapeze act. It's a show I highly recommend. Obviously our food during this trip was a wash-out. On Monday I was eating bland so I don't think it's fair to say much about where we decided to dine.

On our return flight everything went as planned.  We were on another A320 flying out of Las Vegas, seated in BusinessFirst.  This was the first United flight where the purser identified us and called us by name when taking our lunch order.  Service in the 16-seat cabin was efficient.  The food was a choice between a cheeseburger and grilled chicken salad. neither are real solid menu options but both are edible. I will say this however, for some reason United has difficulty serving bread that is not stale.  Overall though it was a fine flight with good service and a staff that genuinely seemed engaged. That is not always the case with United these days.

Sickness aside, it was an OK trip and I was very impressed with United's customer service throughout in what was a difficult out-bound trip. I will go so-far as to say one of the best arguments for retaining status with United, considering all of the recent changes to MileagePlus, is continued access to the Premier customer service line.

I'd still like to fly on the new Dreamliner, but I've a feeling I will not for a while due to how unreliable of a plane it is right now. 


And next time: no cream in my morning coffee.

Ah yes the good old days, too bad you couldn't afford it (and neither could the airlines)

The "History in Pics" Twitter account posted the following1960's era, economy class promotional picture from Pan American Airlines....

Tweet here: https://twitter.com/HistoryInPics/status/446275400101273600/photo/1

It's a beautiful picture of people lounging with much legroom, a food cart coming by offering service to beautiful, happy group in a plane that appears to be about 3/4 full.

Before you go on to remark how big the seats are now and how much "better" things were back then keep in mind a few key facts:

1. There was no In-Fight Entertainment.
2. There was no Wi-Fi.

And finally....

3. Pan American filed for bankruptcy and is no longer a going concern.


For as much grief as the media (and people who rarely fly) give the airlines you'd think modern day economy is the worst thing in the world.  In fact, I would argue that it's much, much better these days. Fares are historically cheaper, there are more seats which means better availability and the airlines are turning a profit.

Are there things the airlines could do better?  Of course. I'd like to see improvements in timeliness and customer service, but the arguments against modern day economy class border on the ridiculous.

Also, keep in mind this: Unless you were upper, upper middle-class during that time you could not afford to fly. Now (almost) everyone can at least to some extent.

Are we witnessing "Last Vegas"? No.

Discouraging news for Caesars Entertainment.

Caesar's Entertainment reports $1.756 Billion quarterly loss on Atlantic City weakness. Howard Stutz, Las Vegas Review-Journal

Caesars Entertainment Corp. said Tuesday it lost $1.756 billion in the fourth quarter because of a deteriorating market in Atlantic City, which resulted in nearly $2 billion of noncash impairment charges to the casino company’s balance sheet.

Las Vegas-based Caesars said in a statement the company’s net revenue for the period ended Dec. 31 rose 3.2 percent to $2.078 billion,.

A year ago, Caesars’ said its net loss was $435.8 million. 

Ouch.

This continues a long string of losses for the big casino operators.  To that I can only say "good".

It's no secret that the wife and I love our visits to Las Vegas. I like the atmosphere, the people watching, playing poker and sports betting. I will even dabble a little in penny slots for pure entertainment, fully expecting to have fun losing $10 or so.  All that said you have to possess a pretty poor understanding of economics to not see that casinos and other gambling are a net drain on the economy. They add nothing of significant value and are more insidious than other forms of entertainment because they survive on a lie.

If you believe that you have a significant chance of wining a jackpot at a slot machine, consistently beating the casinos at poker or striking it rich at the craps or roulette table stop gambling now. In many ways those forms of gambling are worse than the lottery (which I consider to be a tax on those with poor math skills)  because the casinos pay out slightly better and advertise winners heavily. This is not to suggest that gambling should be illegal. Quite the contrary, I believe it should be very legal, and not just in Las Vegas.

It all comes down to personal responsibility, a concept that Americans (and the rest of the world really) seem to have given up on.  I like gambling because it's a form of entertainment. I also do not have an addictive personality and have no problem setting a budget and sticking to it. I also understand there are those who do get addicted to gambling and I think the casinos are being forced to do a better job at identifying them and locking them out. The thing is, if you are easily addicted then closing the casinos is not going to stop your gambling, it's just going to move it underground.

I don't think we'll see the end of Las Vegas as a tourist/convention destination just because some casinos are struggling. I do think we might be witnessing the beginning of the end of the big corporations who own multiple casinos with huge expansion and debt loads. If Caesars ever is in danger of going under there will be plenty of suitors for some of its larger properties. The future owners will probably be from Asia and will own fewer properties.  This could be a good thing in that it will bring real competition back to the city, which will improve room rates and possibly result in some of the sagging properties being forced to upgrade their amenities and rooms.

Until then, I'll continue to be their worst kind of customer. I buy cheap rooms, don't gamble much and spend a lot of my time nursing a drink and people watching. However, I do like to spend money on food and shows so they're still getting at my wallet to some degree.

The house always wins. No matter whether or not you gamble there.

Kayaking Houston's Bayous: Good idea, shoddy reasoning.

Today the New Mrs. White waxed poetic about the increasing trend of kayaking Houston's bayou system.

Our Bayous. Mrs. White, ChronBlog

 The time is right to start making full recreational use of our bayou system on a regular basis, not just once a year. The Bayou Greens Initiative connecting 150 miles of trails and new Buffalo Bayou Park along Allen Parkway are great steps in that direction. In addition, the long-awaited site referred to as the Sunset Coffee Shop Building at 1019 Commerce at Main will offer kayak and canoe rentals by the end of the year. Another rental facility for boats will be located on the banks of the soon to be constructed "Lost Lake," which is at Dunlavy and Allen Parkway east of the Beth Yeshurun Cemetery. The put-in point for canoes and kayaks at Woodway near the 610 loop is set to be finished in early summer.

I think it's a great thing that Houston (along with the county and several other private and quasi-governmental entities) has taken strides to improve the water quality and recreational potential for Buffalo Bayou.  Truly this is a positive sign for the residents of Houston who might enjoy paddling down a lazy bayou on a sunny Summer's day.

As is usual, Mrs. White's problem is trying to make this something it's not.  This gem was buried at the bottom of the editorial:

Lake Austin/Buffalo Bayou. Not exactly apples to apples, but we predict that the sight of canoes and kayaks on the bayou will become inceasingly [sic] more common. People enjoybing[sic] themselves on our waterways will be an economic boost for the area and good for tourism. Skeptics may believe there is a field-of-dreams quality about the bayou as a recreation center. But 180 years ago, a dream about the bayou became the city of Houston.

Ignoring the copy errors for a minute (which runs into another theme of how bad the copy editing is at ChronBlog) the idea that kayaking on Houston's bayou system provides a meaningful economic and tourism boost is wrong-headed.  As is the idea Houston is an "indoor city".

Let me explain.

If you want to see evidence of the outdoor nature of Houstonians one needs only to visit one of Harris County's many parks on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.  As I've mentioned before, I live on the NorthWest side of Harris County in the general vicinity of Bear Creek Park.  On the weekends, the park is packed with families either cooking out of playing games of soccer (organized or not), flying kites, using the jogging trails or a host of many other activities.  The same can be said for Memorial Park, Hermann Park, Disco Green, any of the multiple dog parks and other recreational areas with activities ranging from fitness circuits to disc golf.

Speaking of golf, have you ever tried to get a tee-time at Memorial Park on a Saturday?

The fact is many of Houston's residents take advantage of the great outdoors, even in the Summer when you don't need a grill to cook meat.  The problem, as Mrs. White and others see it, is that Harris County residents are not spending their time outside inside the Loop.  Outside of Disco Green, which I thought was a mistake at the time it was built but admit to being wrong about, downtown is better known for a good tunnel system, a train with a propensity of running down cars, bicyclists and pedestrians, but not outdoor recreation. Again, this doesn't mean that bayou kayaking is a bad idea, only that the image cast by the ruling class and their courtiers of Houston being a collection of sun-averse, mall shopping mole-persons is inaccurate at best, an outright lie at worst.

Yes, people in Houston shop at malls. So do people in Austin, Portland, Seattle and other cities that are considered outdoor meccas.  But people in Houston also shop in Rice Village, Town Centre and a host of other outdoor areas where you can find them walking around outside.  Have you been up to The Woodlands recently?  What the Bayou Initiative is, at it's heart, is a good amenity for people who live inside the Loop, especially in the Heights and in the burgeoning Near Northeast side. It's a great thing for residents of those areas that people who live here might drive down to (since Metro seems incapable of transporting them) during a weekend.

Where Mrs. White falls short is trying to tie this to the great white whale of tourism and the enigma that is economic development.  Houston has always been, and continues to be, a city where business gets done. It is not a tourist mecca, it is never going to be a top convention destination, although it does host conventions.  Houston is a place where people want to live because there are jobs and a relatively low cost of living.  Adding things like kayaking bayous will help increase the quality of living, but not tourism. I also highly doubt that the ability to paddle down a slow-moving estuary will be the kicker that determines whether or not people relocate here.  Economic development is driven by jobs and industry.

What worries me most when I read such ramblings is the history of Houston's leadership to listen to the unproductive class and take their eye off the ball. This proclivity has led to a crumbling infrastructure and a focus on trinkets designed to generate names on plaques which some feel build legacies.  Bayous and downtown parks are nice, as are bike trails. Modernizing and repairing the infrastructure, sequencing traffic lights, pollution control at a street level (Have you seen all of the litter strewn around Houston?) will do far more to improve Houston's reputation than a series of travel ads promoting our bayous to tourists.

That said, Mrs. White has always preferred the shiny over the practical, it's too bad there's little chance of this changing because a region that's as nice as Houston deserves better.

 

United expanding IAH Regional Jet Service

A story, behind the pay wall, at HoustonChronicle.com provides details....

United adds roomier regional jets, expands service to Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin. Erin Mulvaney, HoustonChronicle.com

The article goes on to say that United is adding the new ERJ-175 to cover the routes which is a big improvement over the 145 and 170's that they've been flying.

The question, in my mind, is: Why expand now?

Could it be that competition for Atlanta, New Orleans and Austin is heating up?

Possibly, but I have serious doubts that one New Orleans flight to Seattle and a British Airways direct shot from Austin to London is going to hurt business too much.  I might wonder if British Airways partnered with Southwest on some kind of feeder agreement into AUS, but I've seen no evidence of that happening.

What I see happening is an United retrenchment at IAH in an effort to stop the bleeding they've experienced of late.  A lot of my friends/acquaintances of a traveling persuasion have good things to say about the ERJ-175.  I've only flown in them a couple of times via Air Canada and found them to be rather hot to fly in.  That said, I like the way UA is choosing to configure them with 12 Business/First seats, 16 Econ+ and 48 Economy seats.  That will make sitting in them comfortable at least.  And they do have good luggage capacity.

This announcement does make me feel that IAH fits snugly into their long-term routing plans, if they would only make some sense as to what they are.  Right now UA has the feeling of an airline that's scrambling for a direction.  The rumblings of ineffective management have been getting louder and UA hasn't done much to counter them.  It's very clear that Jeff Smisek's second-tier strategy isn't working out as planned.  In addition to that, all of the incoming energy executives to the Houston area made UA's decision to "de-emphasize" IAH after the SouthWest/Hobby decision seem short-sighted. This is doubly true if the never-dying promise of PEMEX opening ever comes into being. I would think a strong UA presence at IAH would be uniquely positioned to gobble up most of that traffic.

I don't claim to be an expert in all of the minutia of running an airline (I leave that up to others) but the previous just seems like common sense. And no, I don't think that UA would ever entertain the idea of "de-hubbing" IAH as they did with CLE. IAH is too strategic regionally and they've got huge investments there. It's rare to give up a dominant position when you've worked to hard to attain it. That said, these flights do follow my theory that IAH will downsize from a strong, primary hub to a more regional hub (and gateway to Latin America) going forward.  It's very clear that ORD is now United's primary hub, this announcement does nothing to change that. That doesn't mean that it's not a positive for IAH and Houston air-travel as a whole.

Single Visit Reviews: Delta Downs Casino and Stuckey's on I-10

Last weekend the wife and I traveled, spur of the moment, to Delta Downs Race Track and Casino for a quick weekend away.  Below are some thoughts regarding the trip as well as a new format I'm going to try for reviews. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the food.  This is why I fail as a food-blogger.

Without further ado:

Delta Downs

1. The customer service is awful.  Truly horrendous.
2. The Horse betting is fairly solid.
3. The Casino is smoky.  Very smoky. Given the prevalence of modern HVAC systems in some of the bigger casinos in Las Vegas and Oklahoma Louisiana is really falling behind.
4. Tight Slots. Too tight. The secret to good slot play is to entertain you while you're losing your money. Delta Downs fails at this.

Summary:  If you're going to bet the horses, Delta Downs is a nice place.  Although the hotel rooms are over priced and the customer service is, for the most part, pretty poor you can do alright for yourself by talking to most of the bartenders.  The rooms are clean, but dated and lacking the amenities one would expect for the prices they are charging.  The food at the Vista is good. I suggest the venison sausage and chicken Gumbo.  I hear the prime rib is good but I didn't order it.  My wife said the chicken tortilla soup was good, as were the salads.  The bartender was overworked spending most of this time filling orders for people bringing in free meal vouchers.

I've always found Delta Downs to be an odd place to gamble.  Just 30 (or so) minutes down the road there are full service casinos with nicer (and, at times, cheaper) rooms and better customer service which offer table games and a wider variety of slots.  If horse racing is your draw, go to Sam Houston Race Park and save yourself the drive and very high hotel expense. If you're just wanting to get out of town, then drive to San Antonio and visit Retama or Dallas and visit Lone Star Park.


Stuckey's of Winnie

1. Cheap breakfast. (Too salty for me, but we don't cook with a lot of salt so I'm used to that.)
2. Hilariously slow service (It took thirty minutes for them to cook two eggs w/bacon and a ham & cheese omelet.)
3. Paper-thin bacon.
4. Possibly the silliest gift shop in TX.

5. Also....this:

I'm not sure who the artist is but there were about 50 of these, of differing size, hung around the store. I'm guessing the lady is his girlfriend or spouse?  I'm thinking about giving one to my brother as a gag gift for Christmas.

Despite this, it was a fun weekend.  I've found that when traveling your happiness is what you make of it, not how the places make it.  Very seldom have I had an experience so poor that it's ruined my trip.  A much better place to stop for breakfast on the way back is MOZ Grill inside the Crawdad's which you will find at the Bridge City exit off of I-10, right before you get to Vidor.  There's also a Crawdad's in Mont Belvieu that is a good place to stop for a restroom break.

For the most part, excepting a stretch just past Beaumont, the construction on I-10 is completed so the drive shouldn't take you more than 2 1/2 hours. Add 30 additional minutes if you're heading to Lake Charles.

Given that Tilman Fertitta is nearing completion of the Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, I would suggest that as the place to go in Louisiana for a quick weekend away. Despite his detractors, I'm a fan of Fertitta, especially his Nugget Casinos.










NOTE: Review based on a single-visit of each business over the weekend of March 8-9 and is not meant to be a comprehensive "food review" merely a snap-shot of our experience at each establishment. In other words: Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV)