Hello and welcome to episode 202 of Travel Stories from the Back Again And Gone podcast.
This is being recorded in the beautiful home office of Chateau Relaxo, FL. If you are a new listener, welcome; if you are a returning listener, welcome back. Tonight, it’s six flights, a wedding, COVID-19, and some travel craziness.
Hurricane Helene landed in late September and spared Chateau Relaxo and Central Florida. That said, my sister lives in one of my favorite towns, Asheville, NC, and they didn’t do so well. They finally got the power restored on day six, but on day eight, there was still no water.
Tonight, I am partaking in an Elysian (Elison)Space Dust, coming in at 8.2 ABV. Thank you, Publix for the BOGO.
I added some new brews to my Untappd list in September.
Here are the highlights.
Incredible Pale Ale, HenHouse Brewing Company. 6.9 ABV
Liquid Blanket, Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar 6.5 ABV
Mind Haze Brain Melter, Firestone Walker Brewing Company 8.5 ABV
Stone IPA, Stone Brewing 6.9 ABV
Mind Haze, Firestone Walker Brewing Company 6.2 ABV
Two Hearted IPA, Bell's Brewery 7 ABV
Secret Llama, from World of Beer 9 ABV
Zombie Dust, 3 Floyds Brewing 6.5 ABV
Lunch, Maine Beer Company 7.0 ABV
The Substance, Bissell Brothers Brewing Company 6.6 ABV
King Sue, Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. 7.8 ABV
Heady Topper, The Alchemist 8 ABV
Hitachino Nest Japanese Classic Ale 7 ABV
Save the Robots, Radiant Pig Craft Beers 7 ABV
Laser Kitten, Medusa Brewing Company 6 ABV
As I always say, drink local because it exposes you to new flavors and styles and opens you up to local stories and traditions.
Every year, I try to mention 911 in my September episode.
While it happened over two decades ago, I still remember it vividly.
The September 11th, the timeline
8:46 AM – Flight 11 crashes into the World Trade Center’s North Tower. All passengers aboard are instantly killed, and employees of the WTC are trapped above the 91st floor.
9:03 AM – Flight 175 crashes into the WTC’s South Tower. All passengers aboard are killed instantly, and so are an unknown number of people in the tower.
9:37 AM – Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. All passengers aboard are instantly killed, and so are 125 civilian and military personnel in the building.
9:45 AM – US airspace is shut down under Operation Yellow Ribbon. All civilian aircraft are ordered to land at the nearest airport.
9:59 AM – The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
10:02 AM – Flight 93 plows into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Although its ultimate target is unknown, it was likely heading for either the White House or the US Capitol.
10:28 AM – The North Tower of the World Trade Center collapses.
The timeline included many more events, and I’ll include a link in the show notes so you can view it yourself.
On 911, I was leaving my office in Duluth, GA, headed to Knoxville, TN. I cut through our break room moments, and I mean the moments before the second plane hit the second tower. A few of my co-workers were in the breakroom for the last 15 minutes, saying it was some sort of prop plane that flew into the North Tower. It soon became clear that this was a full-on attack.
In 2001, our branch office was located right down the street from the Pentagon, and everyone there heard and felt the crash and saw the remnants of the crash of Flight 77.
Around 10:30 or 11:00 AM, corporate pulled everyone off the road, which was no easy feat since smartphones weren’t all that common. There were a lot of emails read on a laptop, followed up by phone calls to coworkers we knew were in the field and not sitting in front of their laptops.
My children were 11 and 7 so I headed out to pick up my daughter if I remember my wife was working at the PRE-K school my son was attending and we all met back at the house.
No one knew how long the airports would be shut down, so coworkers drove their rental cars back to Atlanta Hartsfield to pick up their personal cars.
There were so many heroes that day, but unfortunately, many perished.
On to something a bit more cheery.
I logged a bunch of hotel stays during September, and those stays made me think a bit. To start, hotels need to bring back single-use toiletry bottles. Yep, I said it, and I’m sure it’s not the best thing for our environment. However, one hotel’s wall-mounted shampoo was not correctly secured in its mount in September. This meant anyone could take the bottle and empty all the shampoo into their bottle or throw a bunch of gribbleys in the bottle, just lurking for the next person. In a different hotel, I got one pump of body gel before it stopped dispensing. I’m sure it cost millions of dollars to retrofit all these rooms with these canisters of gribbleys. Someone should have taken those dollars and found some sort of sustainable single-use toiletry bottles.
The other thing that hotels, or at least the ones I stay at, lack is any sort of automation. In the year 2024, we are still having to flip a light switch or use the remote to turn on the TV. How about a Google Echo and some smart plugs? Echo turns on YouTube TV, Echo turns off the bathroom lights. How about wireless phone chargers? Equipping hotel rooms with that is far better than installing 24-oz shampoo bottles, conditioner, and body gel.
In September, six flights were divided: 4 with Southwest and 2 with Delta.
Currently, I am breaking my “The Person Who Chases Two Rabbits Catches Neither” strategy as I’m dividing my trips between two airlines. Let’s break this down: on the 4 Southwest flights, I had an empty seat next to me on two of them. Southwest does offer free texting and live and posted several TV series, but most of it hasn’t been updated in the last four months. Plus, I had to use my iPhone or iPad to watch any of it.
Eight years ago, when we relocated to Chateau’ Relaxo, I strayed from a 16-year relationship with Delta and went with the side chick Southwest Airlines.
So far in 2024, I’ve had four flights on Delta, which does little to advance my Delta Skymile status other than some extra points due to my Delta American Express card. However, it does subtract four flights from Southwest A+ status.
My two Delta flights were nice. Both planes were full, which is the norm, but they offered free WiFi, TV series, live TV, and movies delivered through the seat-back tablet. Each seatback also provided a USB charger for my devices.
One of my trips took me to Northern California. It had been years since I’d traveled there, and the traffic there is as bad as in Southern California, with an afternoon 32-mile trip taking 90 minutes. I’ve also discovered why there are so many wildfires, and it’s because everything is dry on both sides of I-680. There are possibly a few green trees but absolutely no green grass.
Another trip took me back to Boston. If you’ve followed this podcast for any amount of time, you’ve heard me talk about “The Entrepreneur.” Well, he went and got married. It was a three-day destination wedding.
On Friday, we had a section of seats at Fenway for a Red Sox game. It was great to see the Green Monster in person and eat a Fenway dog. The rehearsal dinner was at the Blue Ribbon Brasserie, followed by a meet-and-greet at Dillon's.
The wedding was held at the Commonwealth Hotel, and it went off without a hitch. It was probably one of the best receptions I’ve ever attended, with “The CEO” and “The Entrepreneur” gracing the dance floor for the mother-son dance.
As a tip-in to the event your boy here got COVID, I dodged it for 4 ½ years, and I finally got it. Being a manly man, I must admit I spent two days in bed. It’s been close to 30 years since I’ve had the flu, probably due to all the germs I’m exposed to when traveling, but all my joints ached just like I remember with the flu.
Let’s move on to vacation time, or, as it’s now been called, paid time off (PTO). My company is extremely generous, as I get 25 days of PTO per year and three float PTO for religious reasons, mental health, etc., well over a month of PTO.
In Reed Hasting's book No Rules, Rules, Reed explains how NetFlix has an “unlimited vacation policy” that gives employees the freedom to take time off. From a corporate view, this makes sense since everyone on my team is salaried. We don’t track our work on weekends or odd work hours or if someone needs to take a few hours off for a doctor's appointment, so why should we track vacation or PTO time?
One of the kids recently started a new job and used most of their PTO for a wedding and a bout with COVID-19. They are tied down for a few months, waiting for their PTO to build back up.
All the HR BS leads me to ask, would you like to turn 12 vacation PTO days into 45? If you do, you must plan your PTO days in concert with the federal holidays.
Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday, so if you take Friday off, it’s a four-day weekend. My company automatically gives it to us.
MLK Jr. Day, Washington’s birthday, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus/Indigenous People Day are all on Mondays. If you work on the day after those holidays, you now have five four-day work weeks.
The takeaway is to maximize your PTO time so consider lining up your PTO with the federal holidays.
Here’s another question. What happens to your hotel points, credit card points, and miles after you die?
Right off the bat, the CEO and I have a “Death Folder,” a unique term, right? If one of us punches out, that folder contains every website and its password. It also contains a list of names to investigate in case we meet an untimely demise. After my father's death two years ago, I spent a solid two days selecting “Forgot Password” on numerous websites, trying to find what he was paying and how much he was paying.
For example, Delta Air Lines' SkyMiles program states, "Miles are not the property of any Member. Except as specifically authorized in the Membership Guide and Program Rules or otherwise in writing by an officer of Delta, miles may not be sold, attached, seized, levied upon, pledged, or transferred under any circumstances, including, without limitation, by operation of law, upon death, or in connection with any domestic relations dispute and/or legal proceeding." Feel free to figure that out.
However, In almost all cases (especially regarding flights), you can book travel for someone else using your points and miles. So, if a loved one has login access to your account, they can book travel for themselves and others using your points or miles in case you pass away. Since I had my dad’s Southwest login information, I could book several trips for relatives until the points ran dry. However, be mindful of mileage expiration dates.
Hotel points are generally the most flexible for transfers. Regardless of the reason, they can often be transferred to another member. So, if your loved one has remaining hotel points, you might be able to transfer them to your account if you have their account information.
Finally, the unused points could be forfeited when you close a credit card. So, ensure you understand your bank and card policy before closing any credit cards. I or we fell victim to this. My dad passed away on July 4th, 2022. At the time, he had a Chase card with an S-ton of points. My sister decided it was best to cancel the card, and we lost all those points.
After several years of rumors, Southwest will change its open seating policy and assign seats like most other airlines.
After being a Southwest steady for the past eight years, I like their current policy. I typically end up in boarding group A, and I know which window seats have the window perfectly positioned, so I get maybe an extra inch of shoulder room.
Another way to get early boarding, even before A-List Preferred, is if you fake the need for a wheelchair. Southwest Airlines has more wheelchair passengers than any other airline. It drives up the airline’s costs as they pay for the wheelchair service and cheat other customers out of better seats. Southwest calls that the “Jetbridge Jesus” flight as passengers come on with a wheelchair to get the best seats and miraculously walk without any assistance when the flight is over.
This will also reduce the frustration of passengers trying to save seats for their family or friends with backpacks and folded jackets.
I don’t think this is a big deal, at least not to me. Hopefully, they will keep the two-free luggage policy.
Just in case you need another reason to check your receipt when leaving your hotel or dropping off your rental.
Avis claims Giovanna Boniface drove their rented 4WD Yukon Denali 36,482 miles in three days, charging her $8,079.76.
The receipt shows .25 per mile for 36482 miles; they gave her a discount of $883.00 and then added $1215.00 in taxes.
Giovanna didn’t notice the overcharge until she checked her credit card statement before boarding a flight to Europe.
If she had driven the car non-stop for 72 hours, she would have to maintain an average speed of 402 miles per hour. I’m not a car guy, but I can assure you that a 4WD Yukon Denali has a hard time breaking 130 MPH. The receipt Avis gave Giovanna reads, "Odometer Out: 48170 Odometer In: 77224". G” Giovanna says she'd only driven 185 miles.
After some arguing, Giovanna received a credit for her trip.
There seems to be a decrease in airplane shenanigans or chaos. Early and mid-COVID, it seemed that every episode had some sort of Flight Club, Miami Flight Club, Florida Flight Club, or Spirit Flight Club. Passengers were regularly squaring up and looking to throw down, and we all know the first rule of Flight Club.
Recently, the FAA posted, “Airlines have reported more than 1,240 cases to the FAA this year, compared with nearly 6,000 in 2021. Relatively few of them are deemed serious enough to be passed along to the FBI for investigation and potential filing of criminal charges.”
Looking around the travel blogosphere everyone has an idea why, but according to View From The Wing, these are the top 3 reasons.
They’re different passengers.
True, before COVID, you knew what to expect on a discount or second-tier airline. Suddenly, American Airlines dropped its prices in search of revenue, and honestly, would you rather fly Spirit or American Airlines?
Mask rules ended
I’m sure the day the mask mandate was lifted, shenanigans or chaos decreased since there were no arguments about whether you should wear a mask.
Alcohol returned to planes
This is a no-brainer because, during COVID, airlines weren’t serving alcohol, so what did travelers do…. They pre-gamed at the terminal and boarded the plane fully lit. I’ll let you piece together the pieces from there.
Well, there you have it, Episode 202, the September roundup
For long-time listeners, thank you for your comments and emails. For new listeners, I hope you return.
If you want detailed show notes, links, and pictures, head over to substack at travelstories.substack.com/
You can also leave me a message on Anchor or email me at TravelFrick@gmail.com.
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
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