THIS WEEK'S JOHNNY JET 12/11/2002
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VEGA$ CAMS Web Site Of The Week INSURE YOUR MILES Bonus Mile Offers Of The Week CONTINENTAL / AMERICAN ..... Special Offers Of The Week AMERICAN / ATA / HOTEL PALOMAR / NORTHWEST .... Where's Johnny Jet? ERIE, CT, NY, LA, VEGA$ BABY Tip Of The Week CHECK YOUR BAGS IN EARLY |
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HOTELS 70% OFF IN OVER 165 CITIES WORLDWIDE!
SAMPLE CITIES:
Paris ..............from $59 London ..........from $79 New York .................from $69 La$ Vega$ ......................from $39
WEB CAMS OF THE WEEK
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WHERE'S
JOHNNY JET
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First Up: Here's the deal. I have been getting loads of email from readers asking what is going to happen with United Airlines and your hard earned frequent flier miles. I fly United a lot and have a ton of miles in my Mileage Plus account and I'm not worried that I am going to lose them, nor am I going to stop flying them. Parent company UAL Corporation was indeed denied the loan by the ATSB and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday 9, December 2002. Don't panic. In my (passenger) opinion, it's not a big deal. Continental Airlines has done it 3 times since the 80's. USAirways filed last August and since then only cut 14% of it's flight schedule and eliminated service only 4 cities. If US Airways can continue to fly through its reorganization, so can United. United will probably cut additional flights, more than the already 25%, and they will replace some of the bigger jets with more cost efficient regional jets. Unfortunately, they will furlough more employees, but they will survive. In the worse case scenario: United doesn't make it and has to shut down...United Mileage Plus accounts would probably be honored and transferred to other airlines, simply because they would want your business. And miles are a big business. The company that does take it over could however, only honor 25-50% of them, so if you want to play it safe than you insure them at Privilegeflyer.com (See Website Of The Week).
Well we left you off last week from Erie, PA and were headed to CT/NY
then to LA and Las Vega$. What I didn't have time to write about was
the fact that my brother Frank and I picked up two more passengers (my Dad
and Amber Airplane) in our small car for the drive home. We packed
the car, tied some bags to the roof and were off to CT. I asked Amber
Airplane while still in the driveway "What would you rather being doing right
now: This 8 hour drive or the 10.5 hour flight we did last week in
coach?" She picked just what I would've picked...the latter.
The drive went surprisingly well.
No arguments
and no gum chewing. The highlight was stopping somewhere
off of I-80 for breakfast. We ate at a Perkins restaurant and my Dad
was a little out of it because he had been sleeping when we pulled up (he
takes a while to get warmed up). We were sitting at the booth and the
waitress came by and said "Coffee anyone?” My Dad is near deaf and
also not fully awake and said "There are four of us!” Okay, she thought.
Then Frank said to her, “don't listen to him, he's a crazy and we just picked
him up from the ward”. When she walked away, we told my Dad what Frank
had said and the good sport that he was just
laughed
. When the waitress returned to take our order my father
decided to play along while not letting us know and said "I want a bowl of
lollipops" and slams his fist on the table. I almost spit my OJ all over
the table and the poor waitress was speechless.
It was December 2nd, which was the first day for gun hunting in Pennsylvania.
To pass time we played car games. We didn't play the popular punch
buggy game; instead we played "who can spot the hunter first". We must've
seen around 40 of them in the woods all along I-80. These guys were
close to the highway, so you can't miss them because they wear the Hunter
Orange, which is required by law. We saw these guys and (ladies) up
in tree stands, hiding behind trees, and even
walking along the highway
. We even saw a couple hunters bag a deer in the middle
divider. I actually felt like I was in another country seeing
all of this and especially when I saw a dead deer hanging from a back of
a pick up going 65 mph. This is one day and place I definitely wouldn't
pick for a nature walk. FYI: The hunters are not allowed to shoot towards
the highway so you don't need to duck (no pun intended).
Of course, we made it to freezing cold Connecticut where it was 14 degrees
Fahrenheit and with the wind chill it was near zero. When it's this
cold, I quickly remember why I moved to California. Amber Airplane
was so cold that I thought her teeth were going to fall out because they
were chattering so hard. The highlight of our 2 days in CT was
going into NYC
to see the
NY Rangers
at the most famous sports arena in the world;
Madison Square Garden
. BTW: On the way out Frank bumped into one of his
clients
.
The next day we flew back to LA because we knew the snow was coming.
The flight sucked because it was extra long and Amber Airplane wasn't speaking
to me. Have you ever flown with someone coast to coast and not have
a conversation the whole flight? Well, we did. But the good news is
that we made up when we landed. Would you believe my good buddy Mike
from CT had a lot worse of a flight then we did just 24-hours later?
If you thought our not talking for 5 hours and 50 Minutes of actual airtime
was bad, listen to Mike's story. His flight was on Dec 3 at 6:00PM from
JFK-LAX on American Airlines
. He had called me from his cell phone in Norwalk, CT and said
CT Limo
said it was going to take 5 hours (normally, 1 hour) to get to JFK.
“5 hours”, I said? “No way!” He said "Should I attempt it? It's already
2:00PM?” I said, "Of course, don't listen to those turkeys".
Well, bad call JohnnyJet. It took him 3 hours just to get to Greenwich,
CT, which normally take 15 minutes. They had 10 inches of snow and
luckily (or unluckily) they delayed his flight to 7:30PM (so he was able
to check in when he arrived at 7:00 o’clock!). Unfortunately, they
kept delaying his flight and they didn't take off until eight minutes past
midnight! The pilot put the petal to the metal and made the same flight we
did, in one hour less time.
I picked Mike up at 2:50AM (PST) and we were back at LAX 3-1/2 hours later for our flight to Vega$ Baby! I really did think about bringing my sleeping bag and checking in for the flight early, but I didn't.
I hadn't flown Southwest since the TSA took over and I feared that the check-in line and security was going to be horrendous. Just as it used to be at LAX's Terminal 1. We arrived ninety minutes early and the place was very quiet. The TSA had passengers zipping through security. Southwest doesn't give assigned seats. Instead they board on a first come first serve basis. They got rid of those colorful plastic boarding cards and now give you a paper boarding pass (For security reasons). The 42-minute flight was smooth and cheap. Did I tell you that I was able to get it for $55.00 roundtrip, including taxes? How you ask? That's right, by using Johnny Jet.com to compare all the big travel web bookers to find the best deal. We arrived 30-minutes early and I look forward to telling you about one of the most exciting cities in the world: Las Vega$ for next week.
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Next Week:
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TIP OF THE WEEK:
I am an 18 plus year employee with a major east
coast airline. While I agree passengers do not need to arrive
2 hours early, I can tell you if they want their luggage put
on it better be on its way to us 30-45 minutes ahead of time. They
want us to give good customer service but the layoffs continue.
We just don't have the people to do the job. Therefore check in early. From
David M Rowell aka The Travel Insider
GOOD TO KNOW!
Help Keep Airlines from Losing Your Luggage
By Louise Weiss Special from Bottom
Line/Tomorrow
Bottom Line/Tomorrow interviewed Louise Weiss, an award-winning
travel writer and contributor to many travel books and publications.
Based in New York City, she is author of Access to the World: A Travel
Guide for the Handicapped (Henry Holt).
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