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Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip

Family travel through a slightly twisted lens. Sense of humor required. Shoes optional.

Blissdom was wonderful, but there’s no bliss in winter air travel

February 5, 2010 by Susan Getgood

So, maybe I was a little nuts to jam 5 speaking things in four days across 2 states requiring air travel to/from Providence, Rhode Island and Nashville, Tennessee. In the winter.

But I really wanted to speak at both conferences — Blissdom in Nashville and ETC in Providence. So I said yes, and crossed my fingers for good weather.

And the weather wasn’t too bad at either of my destinations. Unfortunately, the latest snowpocalypse was forecast to hit the Mid-Atlantic on the day I needed to travel back to Providence (that would be today!).

My original Southwest flights, through Baltimore, were canceled Thursday evening, so I rebooked on Continental through Newark. That flight got canceled this afternoon, so the airline moved me to a flight tomorrow night (Saturday). That wouldn’t do much for getting me back in time for a presentation tomorrow morning so I called to speak to an agent who assured me that, no the flight was today, just two hours before the original departure.

So I hauled it for the airport. Only to find when I checked in, that the Continental Airlines phone rep was an absolute idiot. I was booked tomorrow.

BUT the ticket agent at Continental in Nashville was smarter than the phone rep and  managed to get me a seat on a flight leaving in 15 minutes. If I ran, I could make it. I made it with about 5 minutes to spare, thanks to wonderful fellow travelers who let me cut in line.

And when I got to the gate, the gate agent fixed the back half of my reservation so I could get to Providence from Newark.

So here I sit with about another hour to wait (I’ve already been here for about 4) but I’m moving steadily northward.

Many thanks to the Continental Airlines ticket and gate agents in Nashville today for their help.

Bread and water to the reservations system and the dumb ass phone rep I spoke with.

And if you have to kill a chunk of time (and haven’t eaten all day) the Vino Volo in Terminal C at Newark is a lovely place to pass the time. I even found an outlet.

Filed Under: Airlines, Blogging

Viva Las Vegas – My trip to the Consumer Electronics Show

January 11, 2010 by Susan Getgood

Last Friday, on what would have been Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday, I was in Las Vegas, a town that is indelibly associated with him, to attend the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

More accurately, I was there to speak on a panel at the MommyTech at CES conference, although I did walk around the show a little bit. I also participated in a “View”-like live-streamed panel about Facebook in Kodak’s booth, along with Real Housewife of New York Jill Zarin, Suburban Outlaw Pam Sherman, entrepreneur Suzanne Kantra and Kodak VP Leslie Dance. It was pretty funny — you can watch the repeat here.  I’ll have more about some of  the products I saw over on my digital parenting post at BlogHer on Wednesday.

Since this is my travel blog, this post is about the trip. Even though I am not particularly fond of Las Vegas, I actually had some pretty nice experiences on this trip.

First, I flew Southwest Airlines, and I highly recommend spending the extra $10 each way to get Early Bird Check-in. This option automatically puts you in a queue to get your boarding spot 36 hours before the flight. No more having to log-in exactly 24 hours before the flight and hope to get a decent spot in line. On both flights, I had a great A spot, just after the Business Select passengers.

Of course, it is ironic that Southwest brags about your bags flying free and charges for better seat choice, but I don’t care. It’s worth it to me, to be able to benefit from Southwest’s often lower fares and NOT have to remember to check-in at the 24-hour mark, which is sometimes impossible when traveling on business.

Speaking of my bag, on the way home, it went (free) to Boise Idaho instead of Manchester New Hampshire. It did eventually turn up, but there were some hiccups in Southwest’s lost bag procedure.

Making the report at Manchester at 11pm on Saturday night was no problem; the clerk told me the bag was in Boise and would probably make it back to NH sometime late in the day Sunday and be delivered Monday at the latest. Great. No problem. Home I went.

My concerns started Sunday afternoon when Southwest called to give me an update. A very unsatisfactory update that they were looking for my bag and hoped to have better information soon. Hullo? Saturday midnight, it was in Boise, Sunday mid-afternoon, they don’t know where it is? Not confidence inducing. We called customer service back for a better explanation. Turns out they give this very non-committal response until the bag actually turns up at the destination airport. Hhmm. If you aren’t going to give a real status report, methinks you’d be better off saying nothing.

I never heard from Southwest again on the bag, but when Dave went out to get the paper this morning, it was sitting in the driveway. The good news, of course, is that I got the bag back. The not so good news is that Southwest never called with a final update. Now, I understand that it may have arrived in Manchester very late last night, clearly it was delivered pretty early, and when I made the report, I did say that someone would be home Monday morning.  But, still, I think a call was in order. What if it had been raining or snowing?

Moving on, and back to the Las Vegas trip, I had used Marriott points to stay at the Courtyard directly across from the Convention Center. Getting around Las Vegas during a big conference can be a pain, especially at peak travel times. The monorail improves things somewhat from the bad old days (when the Sands was a hotel, not just a convention center), but being within walking distance is priceless.

When I got to the hotel Thursday night, they told me that they were oversold, but had arranged for me to stay at the Marriott Residence  next door that night, were paying for the room, and had bounced back my points for the one night to my Rewards account. Sure, it was a bit of a pain to have to switch hotels on Friday, but they are right next door to each other. Kudos to the staffs at both hotels for making things relatively painless. My only really negative comment about the hotel was that my breakfast omelet on Saturday had way too much cheese. And I love cheese.

There’s a fairly new Marriott Suites hotel right around the corner from the Courtyard and Residence hotels. I’m wracking my brain trying to remember what used to be there. I thought it might be the old Debbie Reynolds’ Hollywood Hotel, but I checked online, and it is the Greek Isles that is there now. Anyway, the Marriott’s casual restaurant Cafe 325 is a nice place to grab a quick bite to eat. My burger was great, and the bartender let me take my second glass of wine “to go” even though I wasn’t staying at that Marriott. Viva Las Vegas!

I also recommend French bistro Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris casino. The food and service are great, and the prices are reasonable… for Las Vegas. On this trip, I had a yummy steak au poivre with frites ($24.00), which was made even better by the great company – Beth Blecherman (@techmama), Ciaran Blumenfeld (@momfluential) and Amy Oztan (@selfishmom).

Finally, getting to and from the airport. On past trips, I’ve always taken a cab, and bemoaned the long cab lines at the airport. I was on a pretty tight budget this trip, so decided to check out the local transportation offered on the Southwest website. Gray Line Shuttles was the option, with a round-trip price of $12.00.

The price was right, so I figured I could live with a little inconvenience in exchange for the savings. Except it wasn’t inconvenient in the least. Inbound, the wait for the shuttle was shorter than any cab line wait I have ever had in Las Vegas, and leaving Vegas on Saturday, my hotel was the last stop before the airport. In other words, exactly the same elapsed time as a cab. It might be a bit more hectic at other times of the day — I was arriving and leaving at non-peak travel times — but I was generally impressed.

All in all, probably the best trip I’ve ever had to Las Vegas.

Filed Under: Airlines, Las Vegas, Nevada Tagged With: CES, Southwest

The road to Africa – Boston to JFK NY to Johannesburg

October 11, 2009 by Susan Getgood

Friday September 11 – Sunday September 13, 2009

Our long awaited trip to Africa started with a long wait for our flight from Boston to JFK airport in New York. We were supposed to leave Boston around 2pm, but didn’t leave until 6. For a 45 minute flight.

Luckily, our flight to South Africa didn’t leave until the following morning at 11:30am, so unlike many other travelers on our NY-bound flight, we weren’t panicked about a connection that evening. All we had to do was find the airport Holiday Inn and get a little supper.

For a scary moment at the bag claim at JFK, we thought my bag didn’t make it. The belt stopped, and so did my heart, just a little. About 5 minutes later, it started up again and voila, there was my bag.

The United/South African Airways codeshare flight from JFK to Johannesburg is non-stop to South Africa. Fifteen hours in the air. That’s a long time. A very long time. On the way back, it stops to refuel in Dakar, which amazingly enough is the half-way point. Makes you appreciate just how big the African continent is. That flight clocks in at more than 17 hours with the one-hour ground stop.

The food is okay. It was much better on the way over than on the way back, but if I were to do such a long haul again, I would bring some snacks. I would also purchase extra water at the airport. I always bring at least one bottle of water and sometimes a soda too. I’d bring more next time. The flight attendants do try to bring enough by, but it is nowhere near enough to keep you well hydrated.

We arrived at about 8am or so Sunday morning. Passport control and customs were smooth sailing and at the meeting area, we had no trouble spotting the representative from Journeys of Distinction. She gave us our itinerary and vouchers and guided us to the shuttle for the Southern Sun airport hotel.

A little tired, a little thirsty and more than a little excited, we were off on our African adventure.

Filed Under: Africa, Airlines, Tips

Question: Why do air travelers carry-on their luggage?

July 8, 2009 by Susan Getgood

Answer:

Apart from the added bag fees on so many airlines — some are even charging an extra fee if you check the bag at the airport instead of online, there’s the issue of just how careful is the airline with our property.

After all, it doesn’t seem likely that so many travelers check bags with a big rip in the side or popped open, does it? And even though it may be raining, it is hard to believe that the bag could get THAT wet.

There’s one West Coast airport to which I used to fly frequently that broke my hard plastic luggage tags EVERY TIME.  We’ve all heard the tales of petty pilfering; it’s one of the reasons you should never put jewelry and other valuables in checked luggage.

But I have to admit, I’ve never lost a bag permanently (knock wood) or experienced the kind of damage that this gentleman did.

Filed Under: Airlines Tagged With: United

Destination Orlando (April 2009)

April 21, 2009 by Susan Getgood

gatorlandpython 300x206 Destination Orlando (April 2009)

Susan and the Gatorland Python

This year, we decided to spend April school vacation at our timeshare in Orlando, Florida, and invited Dave’s sister and her family to join us. We figured we could handle the confusion of the adults basically sharing two names among us — his sister is Suzanne, I’m Susan and both men are Davids — in exchange for the kids, our son and their two daughters, being able to spend a week together.

I’ll have all sorts of stories to share, including how I ended up at the tail end of the python at Gatorland, but for now I want to share two tips.

First, if you are flying Southwest, and plan to check-in online, be sure you do it EXACTLY at the 24-hour mark when the window opens. We forgot, didn’t try until  10 pm, about 22 hours before the flight. and couldn’t check-in because the airline had already used up its quota of online check-ins. As friends on Twitter last Thursday night already know, I was pretty irritated, mostly because I was worried that Douglas might have to sit by himself.

The happy ending to our story is that the Southwest employees on the ground at Manchester Airport were very accommodating and let us board at family boarding. Lesson learned though. Southwest has online check-in for a brief window 24 hours prior to the flight time. After that, you have to check-in at the airport; we got there four hours before the flight and were in the top of the C group. I’m almost certain we would have been split up.

I’m a Southwest shareholder, and it kills me to say  this, but:  if you are flying with kids between four and 10 years old, who really should not sit alone, and you can’t make that 24-hour check-in window, you might be better off paying more to one of the other airlines with assigned seating and baggage fees.

Tip number two is Orlando specific. If your flight arrives late in the evening, consider staying at the Hyatt in the airport your first night. It is literally right in the airport between the two terminals. Our flight arrived at 10pm, we got our luggage and rolled it over to the hotel and by 11pm we were having a snack in the hotel restaurant. The next morning we had a quick swim in the pool and watched the planes before rolling our bags over to the car rental counter.

—

Travel Tips in this post:

  • Don’t miss the brief window for online check-in for Southwest. Twenty-four hours before the flight EXACTLY or plan on a middle seat.
  • Arriving in Orlando on a late flight? Consider the Hyatt for your first night.

Filed Under: Airlines, Florida, Vacation Tagged With: Gatorland, Hyatt, Orlando, Southwest

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