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F*O*A*D

On 3/19/14, 12:32 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 19 Mar 2014 12:08:14 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

On 3/19/14, 11:32 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:44:42 -0400, F*O*A*D wrote:

Even a long, slow boat ride down the ICW is better than a long, slow
drive down I-95. The beauty of the view from 35,000 feet is that within
the United States, it doesn't last very long. It's a six hour flight to
Jackson Hole. How long is the drive? 40-60 hours? Of course, if one
is "retired," time has little meaning.

I am retired and I still like to fly.
The difference I we like to fly up front.

If I'm paying and I can't get the exit row seats, I'll upgrade from
steerage to first class on a long flight, as in...to the left coast or
Europe or beyond. Being in a seat with no legroom only bothers me after
about three hours.

It's only the seat that I see as an advantage to first class. The
first-class food is just a bit pokey to me. I'd rather buy a decent
sandwich and snacks in the airport and carry it aboard.

There are other advantages
Baggage is a big one. When we are planning to live on the road for 2
or 3 weeks, we pack pretty heavy. It is usually 4-5 pieces. That gets
pretty expensive in coach but in 1st class you get 3 each for free.
Food and drinks is marginal to good depending on airline and flight.
Northwest used to have pretty good food but it went down hill fast
when Delta bought them.
I do like the fact that they take better care of you. You get
expedited boarding, you get off the plane first, an express line at
TSA and a separate line at check in/baggage check and better service
on the plane. When things go wrong, they treat you better. When we
were "sleepless in Seattle" (broken plane on the way to Alaska), we
got a suite at a nice hotel, the coach people did not do as well. I
think they are also looser with compensation miles. I got 35,000 for
all of the delays on our trip to Oregon last year and it was just
weather, that they usually chalk up to out of their control.
I doubt the coach people got anything.

Those definitely are tangible benefits. I can pretty much handle any
client assignments I get from just about anywhere, but my wife cannot,
so two weeks is pretty much the upper limit on a trip for us, and I like
to keep the luggage to one big wheeled suitcase for me, and one big
wheeled suitcase for her, plus another suitcase that gets stowed, and
carry on bags.

The only positive change I have seen in airport security is that we
didn't have to remove our shoes or belts, and I was able to leave my
laptop in its bag. We try to start and end vacations on the weekends,
when there is less business travel and the airport traffic seems a
little lighter.

National Airport up here seems well organized. I was not that impressed
with "Ft. Lauderdale International," though it is more convenient to
where we stayed than Miami International.

I love the cultural mix of SE Florida. I was able to speak Spanish for
parts of every day, and overheard a lot of other languages, including
Portuguese, which I hadn't heard since leaving the northeast. Almost all
the service personnel we encountered were Spanish-speaking, and they
appreciated my wife's good skills in Spanish and my stumbling through it
skills. It's always amazing to me how quickly Spanish is spoken by those
for whom it is a first language.

--
Rand Paul & Ted Cruz…your 2016 GOP nominees, because ‘Mericans deserve
crazy!