Day 8
Wednesday October 29, 2008
Well I was up early today to get ready for the trip home. I started my day at Mr. Lucky’s for breakfast. I had a $50 coupon for food and I figured I’d have breakfast and get some stuff to go for the trip home. For breakfast I had the bacon and 3 eggs that came with toast and hash browns. This meal was robbery at $14.95. I added a glass of $5 orange juice to that as well. I’m sorry but comped or not, $20 for 1 person to have breakfast is asinine. For an order to go I went with the Chicken Sandwich. It’s a grilled chicken breast on a seasoned roll with pesto mayo. I told the server to hold the fries since they’d get nasty by the time I ate it. I also ordered some cookies to take as well. By the time I was all done the bill was over $40 so I didn’t get full use of the comp but I did pretty good for being solo.
After breakfast I went to VIP to check out. I had one meal charged to the room from last night and asked the girl about getting it comped. She informed me I had $11 in slot comps she could use. I asked her what about the rest of my comp balance and she told me I had none. I was puzzled by this and asked how that could be. Her response was they took them to cover the room and there was nothing left. My reaction was to tell her I was there on a marketing offer and they don’t take my comps. She said they just changed it a few months ago. I was NOT happy with this and told her the whole idea of booking this offer through marketing and not my host was to save my comp balance and if I had known that they were going to ding my comp account for the marketing offer I would have just booked through Randie and he would have gotten me a suite. She apologized but couldn’t do anything for me. One thing I can say though is it appears that they no longer charge the stupid resort fee on comped rooms because I left with a zero balance.
I left the Hard Rock and hit the Chevron Station at the corner of Warm Springs and the strip to top off the gas tank. I still have gift cards from last year and earlier this year from a few promotions I played. I wasn’t able to use them though because the stations credit system was down and they were cash only today. This was a little annoying but not a big deal. The car only took about $12 in gas and I was off to the rental car facility to return my car to Dollar. Returning was quick and easy and I was on the shuttle bus back to the airport in no time.
When I got to the airport there were no lines at the USAir counter. I was checked in quickly after paying yet another $15 for my baggage. So now at this point my “free” ticket for using frequent flier miles has cost me $65. Still a better deal then paying full fare but not as good as it used to be. I’m still not happy about the airlines clipping their customers like this. This is just a wake up call to anyone buying a ticket these days though, be prepared to add about $50 extra to the fare they give you by the time you get there and back between the taxes and luggage fees. This is actually more annoying than resort fees at hotels.
Security was pretty quick except for the ass munch in front of me that wouldn’t listen to the TSA agent in the area. First she says don’t put anything in your shoes when they go through the x-ray. Then she said take all electronic items out of the bags they are in. What’s he do? Loads his shoes with everything he took out of his pocket and then sends a projector through the x-ray in a bag. WTF is wrong with people?
My flight was scheduled to leave on time and I had about an hour before they boarded so I read in the terminal for a while. When we were getting ready to board as always people that have no business get up and block the entire area so those of us that are supposed to be boarding. I still to this day don’t understand why people do this. We all have boarding passes and are all going to get on and all these people do is slow down the boarding process. People, sit the eff down until your rows are called and stay out of the aisles.
This is flight 535. We were scheduled to leave at 1:12pm and arrive in Phoenix at 2:26pm. We left pretty much right on time and arrived in Phoenix early. I had about 90 minutes before my connection so I was able to take my time getting to the next gate (unlike on the way out). While I was waiting for the next flight to board I had lunch (the chicken sandwich from the Hard Rock) and read a little bit.
The next flight was scheduled to leave on time and we boarded without any delays. This was flight 683 leaving at 4:55pm and arriving in Newark at 11:35pm. Once again there are no meals or beverages served on these flights anymore. I even heard one of the flight attendants say that even the movies were going away by the end of the year. So not only will USAir become a complete no frills carrier, they’ll still nickel and dime their customers for food and baggage on top of that. The flight was uneventful and the middle seat in my row was empty so it gave me a little extra breathing room. The only issue I has was the guy in the aisle seat that sucked his teeth the whole way home. Luckily I was able to sleep for a good portion of the flight and wore earplugs while I was up. When we got into the Newark area the captain came on and said there was air traffic starting to pile up so we had to circle. When we finally landed it was close to an hour late.
The wait at baggage claim wasn’t too bad and in short order I had my suit case and was on my way to the monorail and to Avis. When I got to Avis my name was up on the scoreboard with the spot number my car was in. One thing I don’t get about Newark is they have lots of spaces for preferred member’s cars. Yet every time I am here the spots close to the door are always empty and my car is clear on the other side of the lot. They had assigned me a Ford Explorer with 7700 miles on it in great shape. Hell, even the gas tank was full. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve rented here in Newark and everything went well!
The ride home was uneventful as it usually is at 1am. I pulled into my driveway at about 2:30am. It was 39 degrees and I already missed the 80 & 90 degree temperatures I had earlier in the day in Vegas and Phoenix as this trip came to an end.
Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $40
Final Thoughts
Eff Yous