Delta

Vacation #1, Day #1

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Yesterday I was off to Baton Rouge, well I flew into Baton Rouge but am staying with Joe & Karen in Zachary. I hadn’t seen them since the wedding, and I haven’t visited in ages. So when I decided to burn off vacation days they were a logical choice to go hang out with for a few days.

My flights out were relatively uneventful. That is always good when dealing with the airlines. I am thankful for my Amex card and that it allows me access to the Delta lounges.

We hit the Chimes for dinner after I got picked up from the airport. I didn’t need anything fancy. I just wanted some fried sea food. I got it in the form of shrimp. We drank a bit and then headed back to Joe’s place.

We hung out and talked a lot longer than I thought. Joe and I (mainly Joe) had a few more rounds. It scares me how much a like Joe and I are in some ways.

Traveling Again

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This weekend I had a quick trip down to Atlanta. All in all the trip was not eventful. The biggest thing that happened was I forgot the suction device that holds my Dad’s GPS to the windshield in the rental car. i remember taking it off the wind shield, but must have forgotten to put it in my bag because I cannot find it.

As much as I am still pissed at Delta for my trip to nowhere (see previous posts), they were not bad this trip. We actually departed on time both directions. I also cannot complain when I get into the Crown Room Club free (gotta love Amex Platinum Card).

I need to remember this weekend since I will most likely not remember the last time I drove until I remember that I drove this weekend. Before this week, I cannot honestly remember the last time I drove a car. I think it was the week I stayed at my parents place in August but then again I might not have even used one then. That is one of the sad things about living right by public transit (in this case the subway) you don’t need to drive. That is good and bad I guess.

A Row to Myself

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For some lucky reason I got an entire row (3 seats) to myself on my return trip back to NYC. I am presently at 39,001 feet and have traveled 2,222 miles (make that 2228 miles between when I saw the display and actually wrote the number since the display updated). I am over Lake Erie near Detroit according to the map. I got another refitted 757 with the setback LCD’s. I realized again that I don’t watch regular tv, and only use my DVR. that is because almost nothing on is worth watching. I have a few hours of TV I watch a week and that is it. 24 channels with nothing on. Go figure.

I had to take a Butabitol again today (yes I spell it differently each time I write it since I can never remember the dam spelling) on the plane. I felt like a head ache was on its way. Normally I would have waited or taken an alive instead, but since I had 4+ hours plus waiting for my bags ahead of me I couldn’t chance getting sick in flight. it probably was a cop out to goto the meds’, but my worst fear in the world is being somewhere so far away from home and not able to get home in time for me to crash with a bad migraine. Being stuck on a plane 2,400 miles from home kind of sets the stage for that potentially happening, so I played it safe. So far, so good. I am a bit hot, but I am surviving for now. I have about an hour or so left on the flight.

I spent most of the day at the airport. I was done with the convention earlier than I thought and I couldn’t get a earlier flight, since the next earlier one would have been too early. since I got an entire row to my own it turned out ok (so far).

I was able to get some work done on my laptop at the Delta lounge on my Verizon Air Card. I had several calls with Jayson reviewing issues. He is stepping up and taking charge of the ops team. It really helps. I am nudging him along but you cannot complain about the results. On the other hand there are others than need to get a bit motivated, but I can’t talk about that right now.

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The Obligatory Airplane Blog

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As always (most of the time) when I fly, I like to write. I have time to think, and I really don’t have anything else to do. I am off to LA (California, not Louisiana) for a conference. It was all last minute. I didn’t have the approval to go until last week. I actually got a halfway decent deal with Delta. I have been hesitant to use them after my tour of nowhere 2 years ago with them. So far (and it is only halfway through the first flight) things are ok. The 757 I am on has been upgraded and they have TV’s in all the seats like Jetblue. The channel selection isn’t as good, but at least it is a start.

I got the last Aisle seat on the plane when I booked, so I am happy. There is a baby one row in front of me and thankfully he has been very good. I don’t want to jinx myself since as of this writing I have 2 more hours to go on the flight. I am tired and since it is warm on the plane I feel like I am borderline getting a headache.

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VMworld

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My boss never ceases to surprise me. At the last minute Jayson suggested someone be allowed to goto VMworld, since the number of servers we operate are more and more virtual. He thought it was a good idea, and we got last minute approval. I leave on Monday, and I just got my travel arrangements done. Sean suggested I fly directly into LAX since it could be a bitch of a drive from Long beach where Jetblue flies into. Turns out I got a Delta ticket for the same amount as Jetblue would have been.

The problem with this conference is that there are too many things I want to do, and not enough time. It doesn’t help that I registered late and some of the good seminars are already booked. I ended up picking a mix of high availability and enterprise management of VM’s classes, as well as some on VDI (Vitrual Desktop Stuff). They are the two basic things we are currently working on. Hopefully I will learn a bunch of cool stuff that we can apply at work. I am also hoping to see the VMware Workstation for the Mac in action. Updates next week.

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Civilized Travel

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I don’t want to jinx my trip (i am currently in the air) but so far Jet Blue knows how to make air travel civilized. They had automated check in Kiosks. That isn’t new. Plenty of airlines have them. What was nice is that they have a ton of people around while you use them. Twice while I was at the machine I saw someone who could help me if I needed it. As I waited to hand in my checked luggage I saw 2 others who answered some quick questions for me. Total time at check in (including the line for handing my luggage) maybe 10 minutes. And I d mean maybe that long. Security was quick, but since I was there at 9AM on a sunday even the worst airline would be quick.

I found some breakfast, bought a book, a few magazines and some snacks and then went to the gate. As I read before I got there, they do have FREE WIFI. A big center area with power adapters and everything. I got a quick sync of my email done before I boarded. I also got the latest news feeds onto Netnewswire. It was nice. Like I said civilized. Well thought out. I am sitting here now writing on the powerbook, but I could be watching Superman on A&E, something interesting on SCIFI, MSNBC, or any other of a dozen channels. They did have some issues with the system at take off. A few resets seemed to fix it.

And no, I don’t work for the airline. I am just (finally) happy with an airline that thinks about its customers. This is a far cry from my last Delta experience.

Hotspots

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Yesterday Jayson, Danny, & I took off to Starbucks to study (tech books), talk about work, etc. We have wanted to try that for a while but have been busy. We finally made it out. James joined us for a bit, but was busy and had to go. First, the starbucks in Union Square was noisy. Yes there are actually 2 Starbucks in Union Square but I assume the other one was as noisy as this one. Jayson says the one by his house is not as bad and he has gone to read and drink coffee for hours without problems. I felt like I was back in High School with two tables of extremly loud high school girls sitting rite by us. The place was packed. 4 of us sat at a table made for 2. Totally not the laid back experience we were looking for. not sure if I will suggest that again.

We did make productive use of our time while we were there. I tried out the T-Mobile Hotspots. I used it in Delta crown rooms before but I wanted to give it a shot at Starbucks. There were 3 free networks in range (or so the laptop said), but I couldn’t connect to any of them. So I paid. it is not cheap, but it works great. We ended up shopping for an LCD TV online. as I said in my post yesterday the specs I want are just too pricey right now.

The Long Travel Day

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I woke up at 6AM today.  Almost a good 2 hours earlier than normal.  Am I stupid you may be asking?  Well, yes in a way.  I went up to our Kingston office today.  I had 4 things to take care of.  As with any Kingston trip I am lucky to get anything I plan on doing done, since other stuff always comes up.  This trip I wanted to get 2 interviews done.  I wanted to sit with Kai and Brian about DNS modifications.  Then I wanted to work out some on call paging issues.  Lastly I wanted to meet with Craig and Kai about some email issues.  Actually when I look at all the stuff I needed to do I got 3 out of 4 of them done.  I cannot really count meeting with Craig since when I was in Kingston he was in NYC.  The other tasks were actually completed.  So I feel good that I had a productive day, even though I don‚Äôt feel productive.

The trip up was longer than expected.  Track work slowed the train trip down.  Then I got to the station and there was no taxi‚Äôs.  Kai had to come get me.  At least I rate enough to have someone come get me

I am offline now writing this entry on my way back home.  This trip is going slow also.  I assume track work.  To guarantee a seat I paid the extra $9 for a business class seat.  I got lucky.  This train has newly renovated seats.  These seats rock.  They have leg and foot rests.  Almost as nice as the automatic seats on Delta Biz elite.   If my treo could take low light photos I would have gotten a shot of them.

The interviews went well.  I was (still am) looking for a good support candidate in Kingston.  Both guys I spoke with seemed smart, but had very limited experience.  Now I find out that someone I know very well is looking to relocate and is very interested in the position.  I think this person would be perfect for the job.  The only problem is he would not be able to start till January.  I need to have Kai tech him out and see how smart he thinks he is.  This is another case of someone I would never believe would be willing to move, stand up and say I would do that.  Hey I want to move.  If jayson can surprise me, why can‚Äôt other people?  I want to be impartial so I will send Kai the resume and see if things work out.

Delta Airlines Sucks

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I hope they go bankrupt. I dare any Delta Airlines executive to email me and want to know why I dislike them. They hide behind their dumb-ass rules and even if there are extenuating circumstances they continue to screw the passengers. When did the customer become cattle, and no one care?

I got a response to my generally angry, but civilized email to them. They told me in the nicest way possible to go F myself. My account of the ordeal is here. If my company treated customers like I was treated (by supervisors and everything) we would be out of business. I am going to upload the letter I wrote (minus the date and flight number) and you tell me if situation I endured was not out of the ordinary enough to warrant some compensation.

I even had one moron of a rep tell me that it was my fault for not looking at the weather report before I went to the airport. This is after I told him that I asked the delta ticket agent at the airport if everything was fine. I even volunteered to not fly if the weather was questionable. I was assured things looked fine. Their response was weather shifts and things change minute by minute. How the hell do you go from no real delays to massive hurricane closing airport in 2 hours with out anyone realizing that it will happen?

My goal of getting back the points and / or getting a free ticket to compensate me for my messed up ticket is looking bleak right now. My last resort is to write to the corporate office, and plead my case. They will most likely be assholes like the rest of their company and say nothing, but it is worth a try.