Johnny Jet

I don't know what it is about Cleveland, but it kind of depresses me. I'm sorry if I that offends you, but hey, when I look out the plane window and all I see are old brown, sterile buildings, what do you expect? I wish I felt differently. It really bothers me that Amber Airplane always cries tears of joy on touchdown. When she looks over at me she sees that I'm crying too - for the opposite reason.

Okay, it's not that bad. It's just the initial impact of arriving that bothers me. Once I get to her parents' house or her sister's, I'm fine. Speaking of Erica's house: When we got there we hung out and played with her 17-month-old daughter, Chloe. Then Amber's mom and little brother came over. The last thing I remember is sitting on huge, comfortable couches talking and watching a baby video (I think it was Zoe's dance moves). That video does it's job! It not only put Chloe to sleep but all of us were out out cold in a matter of minutes.

Why were we so tired? Let's just say that what should be an hour and 20 minute non-stop flight on Continental took us nine hours on United. We could have driven from Connecticut in that time! Listen to this crazy trip. Amber Airplane booked us on a 6:40 a.m. flight from White Plains (NY) to D.C., then to Cleveland. If all went well we would have arrived at Hopkins International Airport at 10 a.m. I wasn't happy about going through D.C. because both flights were on Jetstream 41s (small 29-seat prop planes). I'm not a big fan of those. So when the alarm went off at 5 a.m., I didn't push Amber out of bed like I normally have to.

To make a long story short, we missed that flight by 15 minutes. We re-booked on the next flight, which went through Chicago and would get us in two hours later. Even though we were backtracking and the flight time is longer, I prefer that route because the planes are much bigger. I feel safer and I can work. Well, I paid the price for not getting our original flight. We kept getting delayed until they finally canceled it. So after all that waiting in the small White Plains airport (which has no internet connection), we ended up boarding a small plane to. D.C.!

The good news is, our flight was smooth and so was our connection. The bad news is, after we were cleared for take off to Cleveland we roared down the runway a lot longer than usual. I asked Amber Airplane, "What's going on? Are we aborting take off?" She put down her catalog and replied nervously, "Yes." That had never happened to me before, but it wasn't as scary as I always pictured (thank God). Luckily our pilots were on the ball; otherwise who knows what would've happened?

One of the pilots got on the PA two days afterward - well, it was about three minutes, but it felt like 2 days -- and said to all us silent-and-thinking-twice-would-we-ever-get-on-a- small-plane-again passengers, "As many of you probably noticed we just aborted takeoff. What happened was, as we sped down the runway a little red light that you don't want to come on, came on. We needed to abort, and now we're headed back to the gate to have maintenance look at it." Look at it?! There was no way I was getting back on that plane. I would've flown to Cleveland through L.A. before stepping back on that baby.

I think United realized all the passengers felt the same way, so in less than 30 minutes they had us boarding a new plane (nice job) . The one hour and ten minute flight to Cleveland was smooth, but man those small planes are nerve-racking.

Speaking of nerve-racking, JohnnyJet.com has just changed servers for the first time in history (four years). So if any of you noticed the website down or emails being returned earlier this week, please accept our apologies. It appears the transfer went smoothly. Thanks to all of you, we had to upgrade to bigger servers to handle the traffic. Thanks again for telling all your friends to log on and book their trips through the website or 1-800-JohnnyJet.

By now you're probably wondering why there are so few pictures in this newsletter. My digital camera broke last week for the second time, and I'm waiting for some pictures to be put on disc from my backup disposable cameras. So even though we have a limited amount of pics this week, they're good. The pictures from my surprise b-day party have not come back but the ones from the MTV Movie Awards party did. The show was taped on my birthday (May 31) at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. The after-party was also held there, but unfortunately, the cheap camera did not pick up the cool sets or the backdrop of the bat cave theme. I'm sure if you were there you would've had a blast and recognized a ton of celebs, but since you weren't, just use your imagination.

A few days after the party we flew to New York to take my dad to the running of the 135th Belmont Stakes. Before heading out to Connecticut to pick him
up we had dinner with my sister Carol and my neice and nephew who were also in town. After dinner, we went back to their apartment and the kids had a surprise B-day cake b-day cake for me. They're as sweet as the cake!

As you know, my dad enjoys watching the horses once in a while. Last year we fulfilled his dream of going to the Kentucky Derby. He has been to the Belmont Stake many times, but only once with me ( last year). This year we hoped for a historic day with a Triple Crown winner. It was cold and rainy, but that didn't stop us or any of the other 101,000 people from going. The place was filled with excitement, in the hopes of Funny Cide adding this race to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness crowns.

Anyone can go. Belmont usually does not sell out, because it holds tons of people. But not everyone can go where we ended up. Don't ask how, but we found ourselves in the exclusive Visa-sponsored party with all the celebs and horse owners. We were on the 4th floor lookong for some of my Dad's friends when Amber Airplane kept seeing people with Funny Cide pins. She said, "I want one of those. Can we go next door and get one?" I told her I thought it was a private party, but she said it didn't look like one (which it didn't).

When we walked in security was asking for invitation badge's, but because my dad was in front of us and can't hear too well he walked right by the guard like he owned the place. Amber Airplane and I followed behind. Although we were starving and the food looked good, we didn't want to eat. That would be like stealing, so we decided to take our chances of getting back in and went down stairs to the food court and to find the pins. There were 30-minute lines for hot dogs, chicken and pizza. We ate and Amber Airplane found a few Funny Cide pins for $3 each. We then went back upstairs to the party the same way.

BTW: I was dying to take a bite of this cake they had at the party! There we were: We didn't know anyone, we had no badges, and we were hanging out by
this window because it had a great view of the finish line and my dad thought it was bringing him good luck. He had good reason to.. He and Amber Airplane won every race.

Like everyone else in the world we were waiting for the big race. It was pretty cool because everyone in the whole place wanted the New York-bred horse Funny Cide to win. If he won it would have been only the 12th horse ever to win the Triple Crown, the first in 28 years and the first bred in New York. It's amazing so many people could get so excited over this, but they did (and so did we). There are 40 minutes between each race (which gives people plenty of time to place bets). After the 10th race everyone in the party stood up and gave the Funny Cide owners a standing ovation as they made their way down to see their horse off. It was quite moving.

To my surprise and dismay the security guard came around for the first time asking for badges. He yelled, "All of you near the window who don't have badges need to leave the party now." The race was starting in two minutes. I knew if we left their would be no way to see the race, because all the seats were full and the windows were jammed with spectators. Amber Airplane and I just ignored the guy. He was about to move to the next group of people when my dad turned and said, "Excuse me? I can't hear too well. What did you say?"

My heart dropped, my blood pressure rose and I thought we were not only going to be humiliated but would miss the race we had stood around six hours for. I didn't know what to do, so I turned around and said, "He's with me" The guard looked at me, glanced at my pin and said, "Oh, he's okay, since you are with Funny Cide." With Funny Cide?! Because Amber Airplane made us buy these $3 pins he thought we were with the owners, who were all near us and wearing pins too. Now how funny is that?

We have a winner! We asked for your BEST TRAVEL TIP! hanks to everyone who sent one in, but our winner is Burt Spiegel from New Jersey. He sent in
five great tips! For the next five week's Burt will have the tip of the week. He will also receive THE GREAT ALASKAN TOURSAVER -- a $99.95 value packed with $25,000 in travel savings! Congratulations, Burt, and thanks to everyone who participated.

LIVE WEB CAMS OF THE WEEK
This week jet off to Europe to hang in posh "hot spots" such as Positano (Amalfi Coast) in Italy and Café de Paris in St Tropez.

WEBSITE(S) OF THE WEEK
This week we have two websites of the week. One is useful; the other is fun. Always know what time it is around the world with Worldtimeserver.com , and when you're bored in your hotel room check out this online game of travel Hangman.

BONUS MILE OFFERS
Earn up to 11,000 bonus miles on trips to Mexico U.S. and Canadian AAdvantage members can earn up to 35,000 bonus miles for roundtrip travel between the United States and Japan through December 31. Members must pre-register or by calling 800-882-8880 prior to departure, using promo code JPN03. June 30, earn triple Dividend Miles and triple United Mileage Plus miles when flying the US Airways Shuttle between Boston, New York LaGuardia and Washington National. To register . Through July 31, earn double Dividend Miles when you fly between Philadelphia and Shannon, Ireland, Philadelphia and Dublin, or to South America or Asia on any United-operated flight. Register . Earn triple Dividend Miles when you fly roundtrip on Qantas from the United States to Australia, New Zealand or Fiji. (Fly US Airways to connect with Qantas flights in Los Angeles or take Qantas direct to Australia from New York JFK). Register . Through July 31, earn 2,500 bonus Dividend Miles when you sign up for Student Advantage and purchase your first ticket online. Enroll . T Fly Northwest Airlines roundtrip between Memphis and Mexico, Minneapolis and Manchester (NH) or Detroit and Tulsa, Bangor or Bristol/Johnson City/Kingsport (TN) and earn 2,000 miles. Register before flying . American Airlines & United Airlines' fly-three-get-one-free deal. AAdvantage members who fly three eligible round trips on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection through Sept. 30 earn one free ticket for domestic travel Sept. 2 through Dec. 31, 2004. Limit is two free tickets. Registration required.

LOS ANGELES TIMES
Sweden's treasured isle Tiburon's Beckoning Views You'll pay the price if you're still living in the paper-ticket age Strikes snarl tourist trips to France Tours with gay clients in mind TOURS & CRUISES A scent, a whiff and we're transported once again BOOKS TO GO Two sides of Orange County Alive and well in the Arkansas Valley At home with history in London On a family vacation, it pays to know child safety laws Avoid frills to offset the drooping dollar Readers recommend LETTERS Go it alone, skip the single supplement For the record Cuenca keeps calling them back Some poetic armchair journeys

USA TODAY
JetBlue expands fleet, may add routes Would-be airline grounded TSA: Giving test answers within rules U.S. airlines face slow recovery ATA debt threats loom Air traffic controllers strike in Canada? Delta eyes $500 million in cost cuts Hundreds of LAX screeners fired Tourism operators learn to make do EU seeks 'open skies' pact with USA Congress wants faster screener checks Airlines slowly begin to bounce back Court allows class-action airline suit Pilots sue Mesaba over contract talks Oakland thrives with low-fare airlines Indigo Airlines drops Teterboro flights Debate rages over National flights U.S. firms take SARS precautions TSA: Stun guns may be OK for planes Feds may ease reservations controls Judge orders new airline to halt sales JetBlue orders 100 jets in $3B deal French strikes pick up steam Hotels see downturn driving deals Continental encouraged by bookings SARS risk low on planes SARS hurts Asia-Pacific traffic Air traffic controllers strike in Canada? Delta eyes $500 million in cost cuts United cost-cutting effort hits affiliates Plane makes emergency landing Airline to testify about TWA seniority Judge sentences former screener Europe, U.S. to reshape air agreement Pilots: TSA disrupting gun training 10 great places to enjoy great music outdoors Passengers' abandoned booty Vacationing canines lap up luxury Tranquility grows well Desert resort reflects oasis appeal