Steerage

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that I am having some struggles with USAir. Of course, the use of the word "struggles" implies that they are struggling back which they are certainly not. They are going about their business which apparently is giving people miles and taking them away, whether they earned them or not.

Today, the final blow.

I printed out my boarding pass for my flight tomorrow.

I was assigned Zone 5.

Zone 5.

I feel like Leonardo Dicaprio and his friends in Titanic.

Zone 5 = Steerage

Did You Really Just Say "Oops!"???

I have written several times about my dislike of USAir. Click HERE for my most recent posting.

On April 4th I received the above email from them. It was entitled "They're waiting in your account!".

Then on April 9th I received another email from them which they had the nerve to title "Oops!". It said:

Earlier this week, we inadvertently delivered an email message to many of our Dividend Miles members' email accounts. Unfortunately, one of those accounts was yours. Worse, this email incorrectly stated that we posted 1,000 Dividend Miles into your account. This was not accurate and the email message was sent in error.

We apologize for any inconvenience this might have caused you and appreciate your understanding.

This is almost bordering on some cruel game. And then to add salt to the open, oozing (sorry) wound, this Tuesday I will find myself back on one of their aircraft. Nobody died and this may seem trivial but if the miles didn't mean that much they would have let me keep them, no?

I used to think that my curse in life was that I love to travel but hate to pack. Now I think it's that I love to travel but Philadelphia International Airport is a USAir hub. And that sucks. No Oops! about it.

When Bad Technology Happens To Good Geeks

Sunny, dry day in Pennsylvania after a week of clouds and rain. No work today -- at least none that I have to drive to. Today is filled with wash and trying to put my house back together after a week of living in it. And fixing things that aren't working, including technology.

This week I have been unable to synch my Palm (hey at least it's not a Daytimer) and been unsuccessful in troubleshooting the problem. While trying to work this out, I discovered my Phillies Weather Channel desktop isn't working either. While trying to solve both these issues, the batteries in my wireless mouse died, after I just replaced them earlier this week.

I love me some technology. As a matter of fact, family and friends make fun of me for it. But really, when you think about it, like all things that you love, it can also hurt you the most. It can disappoint you and make you want no parts of it, at least for awhile.

But I can't live without it and I know that most days, it will be there for me.

If loving my technology is wrong, I don't want to be right.

The Good Old Days . . . They Just Weren't So Good At The Time

It took me 2 hours to get home tonight because of an accident on the turnpike. It usually takes me 45 minutes to an hour.

For three years my commute to "my job", which was searching for a new job, was about 10 seconds, from my bedroom to our office. Since getting back to work and having money and traveling again I haven't missed that old job at all.

Tonight I did.

Earn New Miles But Keep The Old -- I Wish

In the last five weeks, I have flown almost 12,000 miles with another 6,000+ coming my way next week. Fourteen months ago an airline who shall remain nameless, (OK I name it HERE), stripped over 46,000 miles from me because I had not flown with them in 18 months. No begging or pleading -- hey, it's miles here people; miles that I earned schlepping all over this great country of ours for work -- would cause the airline to reinstate my miles.

Adding insult to injury, every month since then I receive an "e-statement" via email showing my account and it always says, in bright red letters: "Miles Forfeited: 46,000" as if I willingly gave them up.

Now that I'm back to work I find myself traveling via this airline exclusively, due to where I live and what airport is closest to my home. Even though the email statements now account for my new miles, the Forfeit remains.

The next time the Flight Attendant asks me what I'd like to drink I'll tell her to keep her Diet Pepsi. And give me back my miles!

Feeling Dehydrated Already

I'm back in the office today, having BlackBerry and other technical problems. Such a culture shock to be on-site all week then come back to office politics and other nonsense.

Why can't we bottle that feeling of success and a job well done and drink it when we are back at our desks like the water cooler water I keep refilling my water bottle with? All too soon the meeting I ran last week will be a distant memory and the challenges and stress of planning the next meeting will be omnipresent.

In this business, you're only as good as your last meeting no matter how many bottles of success you drink.

Returning To Home Plate

Once again, I apologize for the lapse in posting. I was away all week managing a meeting and had no time to write or eat or use the bathroom . . . OK, I might be exaggerating a little bit.

When I left home, we had had snow and ice a few days before. When I arrived in Miami, it was almost 90 degrees! The entire week there was hot and humid and a real shock to my system. As the week went on, forecasts of snow at home began to be reported.

It is so hard to believe that we live in the same country, a mere 1,000 or so miles away, and the weather is completely different. It's hard for a non-winter person like me to figure out why I live where I live.

But on Friday, the Opening Day of Major League Baseball, when my plane began the descent into Philadelphia, no weather forecast could stop the warm and fuzzy feeling I had when I looked down at saw Citizens Bank Park.

Not only am I back in town, but so are my boys.