Frequent flyers love United

Well, United has been awarded year over year the most favored mileage program. I think I finally understand why.

If you fly enough to get premier status, you get access to the economy plus seating, which is not an expensive upgrade but worth while. Most people who fly will not pay the $20 to upgrade and the area is usually filled with frequent flyers.

Recently I have been cheating on United and flying other carriers, the same thing keeps bugging the heck out of me. Everyone is treated the same, so you are stuck sitting next to someone who A. Has never flown anywhere in their entire life. B. Is afraid of flying. C. Never heard of seen deodorant. D. Takes their child who screams like its about to die.

This segregation of customers is so relaxing and can really help any airline. Southwest is well known for the obese passengers and they pre-board all children. So the screaming kids are all up front in what is normally the best part of the plain!

US Air - Same thing!

American - Same thing!

Jet Blue - Younger crowd tends to be a nice a quiet flight!!

Virgin America - Very young crowd, best of all worlds. Except - New flyers on board, seat etiquette is a struggle for many! Elbows belong in your seat buddy! Same with Knees!

United also wins on leg room, 6'2" here! Economy Plus is barley livable, all other airlines suck in comparison for leg room.

Upgrades, no one gives out as many upgrades as United. Also no one makes it harder to use than United! So its a dog eat dog world.

United Customer Service

So on my way back to SFO from LAS tonight, there was a mechanical failure of my flight that was heading in from Denver. The delay started to get out of control, first 20 minutes, then 40, then an hour, then 2 hours, then 3 hours and so on. As a 1k, United will get me a ticket on most other carriers when an issue like this pops up. Tonight Virgin America was the only carrier that had a flight even close, except they do not honor tickets from other carriers. Even though their employees can fly free on United. Odd???

The gate rep told me that there was a mechanical problem keeping the flight from leaving Denver. Without any doubt, I believed this and it made total sense. I called the 1K desk and asked for help, the agent told me she might be able to get me on a US Air flight, but could not be sure. At this point I was loosing it, my birthday is this weekend and I wanted to get home and see friends. The supervisor comes on the line and told me that the reason the flight was delayed was due to weather in SF. This just set me off, as I had been told that it was a mechanical issue. Instead of helping me, this supervisor just lied to me without any research.

How can a company like United operate like this? They finally pulled out a "spare" plane and got us off the ground 3 hours late. We did have a 20 minute delay on the tarmac due to weather in SFO. Not a big deal, but it added to the problem and just enraged me a bit more.

Before we took off, there where 2 passengers with dupe seats, so they had nowhere to sit. The computer kept the seat next to me open as it should, since the flight was not full. The flight attendant just put both next to me without checking to see if I was 1k or not. I mentioned it to him as he was placing a non economy plus passenger next to me. He just blew me off and then walked away, when he came back with the manifest he offered to move me to a row further back. He should have just put these passengers there.

United seems to be blowing off status left and right, I know their flights are more packed but these benefits keep me flying them. What is the point?

iPhone 3.0

So I put the iPhone 3.0 software on my phone yesterday, was freaked that it was going to start crashing like it did earlier. The install was very simple and no real problems other than it put an extra page between apps, I thought most of my apps where wiped out.

The new texting is awesome, instead of waiting for a text message to go out, you can hit back and start on a new one right away. For someone like me who sends and receives over 2-3k texts a day, it is very helpful.

I am looking forward to the new iPhone 3GS, will be nice to have a camera that works and be able to take drunk videos. Err I mean videos of my friends.

I am sure that AT&T will find a way to gouge the hell out of us for the tethering capability.

United Pilot

So on my way to Vegas last night a actually got a Thank You card from the pilot, they have not give those out in years. Either this is a fluke or United is getting desperate.

Was a great gesture!

Elements Summerlin

Yes, I know sorry haven't written for a while. Been really busy, but I finally have a Starwood property worth talking about. Well it's a franchise, which must be why it is so nice. I just switched from Planet Hollywood, where I have been staying the past 6 months or so and moved over the Elements in Summerlin.

The hotel is about 15 minutes west of the strip. I was skeptical with it's very low prices and figured it was just another build and dump property. Well I was very wrong, first of all when you get to the hotel the lobby is well put together, clean and very charming. I tend to always check in late, so finding the lobby staff can be a challenge at times, but not that big of a deal.

They have rooms with small kitchens that I highly recommend, they are furnished with all of the cooking stuff anyone may need or want. The snack room just behind the lobby is full of frozen organic dinners and other healthy choices, so you don't have to go out and eat garbage every night. This is a huge plus on my review scale.

When you get up and hit the lobby there is complimentary breakfast, actually some decent stuff egg whites in a bagel or, breakfast burrito, or English muffin. Changes all the time, plus a large selection of juices, pastries and breads etc.

After you get back say, after 5 there is usually a hot treat of some sort, again complimentary and not bad. A nice little pool out back, with NO SCREAMING CHILDREN!!!! A 24 hour gym, not open from 10 til 6 with a $25 fee, cough Planet Hollywood.

What else can I say, leave your kids at home, otherwise I will hunt you down and make you pay for ruining a decent place to stay.

This place is listed as Elements by Westin, no Westin I have ever stayed at is this nice! PERIOD! The Westin in Las Vegas barley comes up to a Motel 6, well that might be a high point for them, Super 8 sounds like a better fit. That place is disgusting!

United customer service

So I am confused, with the current economic decline, airline travel has slowed dramatically. However, United has ordered that all changes in non-changeable tickets must carry a change fee no matter what. For the past 4 years I have paid these fee's without question. However a few weeks back I booked a ticket along with hotel and car. The night before travel I attempted to check in online and found that my itenerary was one week off.

I called the 1K desk at the time, which switched me to Hawaii. The agent understood and was sure the change fee would be taken care of since it was a very odd situation and I never ask for such a credit. I was told that the supervisor denied the credit so I asked to speak with him. He got on the phone and right off the bat accused me of lying. Note, I am a 1k flyer which is nearly the most rediculas level of any airline to earn. He said that there is no way an agent can make a mistake, thus I must be wrong and he won't help me!!!

I took down his information and called the main desk and the supervisor explained to me that they are unable to give credits of any form. They are supposed to try not tell this to any customer. But she was able to apply special upgrades that allowed her to help me without violating her instructions as a supervisor.

I am so shocked that with such competition and lack of customers available, United is so willing to throw away a top end Customer as AA wants me to move so badly!

Starwood Platinum Upgrades

I am not sure if anyone else has noticed this, but almost every property that I stay at within starwood is making excuses that all their suites are under construction. Except Planet Hollywood. I have been at the W Chicago City center and got the same useless excuse as the Westin Dublin. I never get upgrades at the Sheraton Towers in Times Square, but heading there tomorrow, we'll see what happens.

The funny thing is that I know employee's who get upgraded without any question and never an excuse. I will play along for a little longer, but at some point I will give up on this sham. I am naming this the Platinum blow off, they think we have all tasted the cool aid and we will continue to fall for it.

SES Chicago

Well another round of SES is over in the warm 15 degree city of Chicago. There is a definite change in focus from the retail segment, they seemed to have slowed way down in experimenting around and really focusing on their businesses with this new economic climate. I am not really seeing a slow down in spending online, but then my clients have a decent SEO strategy and are doing quite well with it.

I think we will not be able to see how 2009 is going to look until the end of Q1. But this should be a very interesting year to come.