[A] 6PC Travel tips. Go ahead... I deserve it.

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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Let's just get this first part out of the way. FML

So student pilots, here is a flying tip for you:
Tip 1: when planning a round trip, You want to make sure your departure airport and arrival airport ARE THE SAME!

Yesterday I realized I had done this while I was in ATL checking on my flight home.

stupid.jpg

I go to the cust. svc guy in ATL and say "See all of these people here in this airport? Look at em. Its a lot right? Well I am the dumbest one of the bunch. Can I get on the plane that goes to DFW?"

It was going to be expensive so I just went to the airport bar and started pounding IPAs until I forgot how scatterbrained I can be.

So last night I got to spend some time with Ron from Uber driving Love to DFW to go get my car.
He agreed I am not the sharpest bulb in the deck.


Tip 2: Also probably a good idea to think about what seat you want versus just clicking "next"

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Tip 3: Pay attention to the clocks AT THE AIRPORT.
Your fitbit clock doesn't change timezones when you do. So you could just be minding your own business, pounding IPAs in the airport bar thinking you have an hour when you hear "Last Call for flight 2386 into Dallas Love"


I'll put the adventure about the plane I went to potentially buy in a different thread.


The FAA lets me fly planes.
 
You should have flown yourself in that fancy plastic airplane, then you can land wherever you want. Jus sayin
 
Returning home from a weekend cross country trip once, I may or may not have had the following radio conversation:

"NorCal, Skylane 12345...I need to amend my destination from Watsonville to Echo-1-6"
"Skylane 12345, NorCal, roger...say reason for diversion"
"I forgot that's where I left my car, 345"
"Ha...roger...I have to ask"
 
I've intentionally split the airports numerous times based on travel needs. When I can get somewhere faster an at lower total cast, it makes sense. Last trip to Chicago, we went DFW to ORD and came home MDW to DAL. It cut our travel time down by more than half a day and over 300$ at the time.
 
Sounds like you are preoccupied with not being able to post non aviation related stuff any more. At least it wasn't DWF.
 
Back in my high-travel consulting days, at least once, I drove to SFO only to discover that my flight left out of OAK. I spent way too much time at those airports. But as a pilot, I appreciated the little "finds" - like the Nut Tree model airplanes at the far end of the United terminal at SFO or the Jeppesen exhibit at Denver.
 
A 650NM mission via airlines (with connections!) when a 160 knot XC cruiser is available? WTF.
 
hindsight2020 said:
A 650NM mission via airlines (with connections!) when a 160 knot XC cruiser is available? WTF.
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Are you serious? My engine would probably quit. Do you even read the news?

I kind of thought that if I flew there in a Cirrus he might be a little less willing to budge on the price
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Are you serious? My engine would probably quit. Do you even read the news?

I kind of thought that if I flew there in a Cirrus he might be a little less willing to budge on the price
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Try showing up in your Hawker to buy a 182 (granted, it was a nice 182. And the buyer probably only spent another 100 thou on paint, interior, and avionics)...or flying an airplane to prepurchase inspection on a ferry permit (done that one twice, both times for the same salesman.)
 
Did you also notice they were different airlines?
 
I've done worse than that! While trying to book a ticket for my Mom to come visit and at the same time book tickets for us to visit her, way too many browser windows open at the same time, I manage to book round trip tickets for my family of three, in the wrong direction! At Christmas! Yeah, that was expensive.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Try showing up in your Hawker to buy a 182 (granted, it was a nice 182. And the buyer probably only spent another 100 thou on paint, interior, and avionics)...or flying an airplane to prepurchase inspection on a ferry permit (done that one twice, both times for the same salesman.)
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We had a guy fly in on a very nice King Air to look at an S35 Bo at my old field. He left his MX to fix any squawks and to fly it home for him........ Man, I needs some of his problems.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I kind of thought that if I flew there in a Cirrus he might be a little less willing to budge on the price
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Not if you had 'pulled' over the airport and then total out your plane...just saying, they might feel sorry for you. But you ran, like Forest, so good for you.

BTW you should have tried to board the DFW flight, then just say "oops my bad" if they caught you.
 
I have changed destinations midway through a five hour cross-country flight. Just kinda forgot where I was going.
 
Unit74 said:
We had a guy fly in on a very nice King Air to look at an S35 Bo at my old field. He left his MX to fix any squawks and to fly it home for him........ Man, I needs some of his problems.
Click to expand...
I've flown a lot of wealthy people over the years...the only thing of theirs I've seen that I truly covet was that some of their dogs were REALLY well-trained.
 
MauleSkinner said:
I've flown a lot of wealthy people over the years...the only thing of theirs I've seen that I truly covet was that some of their dogs were REALLY well-trained.
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Haa, yeah, but *they* didn't train em! That's also why their kids are less trained...
 
C'mon , how big could Texas be? Just walk to the other airport..
 
Bill Jennings said:
Anyone who's coined the phrase "turbine smooth" has never sat in the back of a Mad Dog. (or similar)
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I always thought it funny that the MD-80 had both the best and worst seats in the industry. First class on one is like riding a magic carpet. Silky. Then you have the poor fools in back. :)
 
kayoh190 said:
I always thought it funny that the MD-80 had both the best and worst seats in the industry. First class on one is like riding a magic carpet. Silky. Then you have the poor fools in back. :)
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I pick seats as far to the front as I can, for two reasons: 1.) Usually quieter, and 2.) Less chances of a nasty beef wafting your way as the air in the cabins seems to move front to back.

Nothing on an airliner disturbs me more than captively having to smell some chump **** his pants multiple times on a flight. Ugh. :vomit:
 
Yeah, but......you forgot to tell one essential detail: what IPA did they have on tap? :rolleyes:
 
Our Government travel system is programmed to think the closest airport to my house is BHM and not HSV witch is 10 miles away. However, HSV is the closets airport to work, about 15 miles (GIGO). So if I schedule travel and leave from or return to home it will schedule me through BHM so I have to remember to go to/from the office even when I'm travelling on the weekend.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Are you serious? My engine would probably quit. Do you even read the news?

I kind of thought that if I flew there in a Cirrus he might be a little less willing to budge on the price
Click to expand...

Serious truth to this. I took a rented brand new SR22 to Lone Mountain in Ohio to look at two SR22's they had and the first thing they said was "Oh you already got a new one". I saw the dollar signs in their eyes..
 
Bryan:

I'd seriously mock you if.. ahem... I had never done the same thing myself. Fortunately, I managed to catch it in time (dumb luck), and since the buying was done very close to trip-time, the butt-reaming associated with changing flights was not so serious. It's easy to do when you are using tools like Kayak or Expedia to book.

And, sorry the plane did not pan-out, but you could have found the issues AFTER you bought, so... s'OK.
 
Craig said:
I've intentionally split the airports numerous times based on travel needs.
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+1. I was attending a conference in Palm Springs, and had my car parked at LGA. The weather was going down hard on the east coast so I left the conference a day early, drove to LAX and took the redeye back to JFK then taxi to LGA to fetch my car.

Never take the redeye! Ugh.

-Skip
 
hindsight2020 said:
A 650NM mission via airlines (with connections!) when a 160 knot XC cruiser is available? WTF.
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Er.. 950 miles each way. ~ $700 in fuel and 11 hours of flying. + Me= VFR

They were out of Sweetwater IPA at the Juke Joint so I had the other. Can't remember the name, but it was good.
 
I know someone, not saying it was me but it was me, that booked a flight with the return on the same day. I was flying into Austin, landing at 2pm and coming back to Chicago on the 2:30 pm flight. Somehow the super computers at AAL didnt catch that I am an idiot.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
That's what she said
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She probably stops and asks for directions, too. :rolleyes:

Checkout_my_Six said:
so...what did your travel agent say? :lol:
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Some of my worst travel experiences have come at the hands of travel agents (especially corporate ones). One threatened to "report me to my supervisor" after I pointed out that they had "screwed up" the reservation (she took exception to the word "screwed") - they had "unchecked me in" and downgraded my reservation, and managed in the process to not only lose the upgraded seat but also my exit coach seat... in fact, they left me without a seat altogether on a full transcon. I told her to go ahead and report me, and he laughed when he heard about it. (Fortunately, the agent at AA fixed it for me fairly quickly - frequent flyer status has it's privileges).

I do my own travel whenever I can, and I only have myself to blame if something goes wrong.
 
charheep said:
I know someone, not saying it was me but it was me, that booked a flight with the return on the same day. I was flying into Austin, landing at 2pm and coming back to Chicago on the 2:30 pm flight. Somehow the super computers at AAL didnt catch that I am an idiot.
Click to expand...

LOL....When I worked for ABC network, I was in London on an indefinite assignment. We had a crew have total failures in both cameras while in Saudi Arabia. Local manager's solution was to put our secretary on a flight to Riyadh first class and back, along with a one way ticket for the camera. She hopped off the plane, ran to customs and met our import guy and handed over the camera. Got right back on the same plane. The original crew hadn't even finished packing up when she got back on. She definitely had a nice paycheck that week...6 hours at work then London to Riyadh and back to London, then home.
 
Company I used to work for before I went to law school insisted that all airline bookings had to be made through the in-house office of a travel agency, with airline tickets (this was before electronic ticketing) sent out by Federal Express. The tickets always arrived with stern warnings stapled to them that, if any changes were made, the employee will be responsible for all "additional charges."

It didn't take long to figure out that, almost every time, the tickets were on American Airlines, even though I was based in Houston and American Airlines was far from from the best option for most itineraries. In those days, of course, airline ticket coupons were pretty much like cash, so I would take the poorly-scheduled American Airlines tickets, which often included a change of plane in Dallas-Fort Worth or elsewhere, and exchange them for first-class tickets on Continental Airlines, usually a nonstop and, usually, with some money back to the company (although whether the company got it, or not, I don't know).

I don't know what the kickback was, but the travel agency seemed to have blinders when it came to choosing airlines, and they were terrible about even asking about, much less considering, the schedule of the traveling person. On a trip to Philadelphia and back, for an extremely modest savings, they had me connecting at Pittsburgh in both directions, rather than taking the easily-scheduled nonstop flights offered by Eastern Airlines. Honestly, it was kind of insulting.

Eventually, I learned to get very aggressive with travel desk, and while they didn't like it, I didn't much care what they liked.
 
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