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Worst Business Trip Ever!!!!
Oct. 31st, 2006 02:44 pmSo, let's start describing this lame excuse for a business trip from the beginning. I get up on Sunday in plenty of time to finish the last of my packing, and Elf and I pack the kids in the car. It's 8:20. I wanted to be at the airport by 8:30 because then it would give me 1 hour to get checked in and go through the security checks before they start loading the plan at 9:30; my flight leaves at 9:50. I figure this is more than enough time.
We head on out..only to find out that the normal route to the terminal after getting into the airport area itself has suddenly disappeared. And I do mean that literally. The ramp is half gone...they are doing construction in there. And the detour route is...well, let's say that it is less than explicit about how to get to the terminal. We ended up having to go all the way to Southcenter and back around to approach the terminal from the east. I was not pleased. So I lost about 15 minutes of time from that.
Fortunately, the lines in front of Northwest Airlines were tiny...I wouldn't have any problems getting through them. Also, I had one piece of checked luggage, and electronic check-in (though I couldn't check in the night before through web check-in, which annoyed me). Easy check-in.
Um, yeah.
Not so fast, says NW. This flight is actually being run by Horizon Air, and you'll have to walk all the way to the end of the terminal to get to them. Grr.
So I get there and get checked in with reasonable ease. Now to get through security. I have all of my audio equipment in my backpack because I need to haul it around with me at the conference for on the spot interviews. I was expecting to have problems with all of that equipment.
Nope. They had issues with my water. Yeah, water. IT'S WATER STUPID!!
If you look at the TSA website, it does seem to say that water is allowed on board, and in more than just 3 oz amounts. However, that is not what the TSA says. Now, to the credit of the SeaTac TSA there, they were incredibly polite about the whole thing. I mentioned to the guy that I had looked at the website and he said that he had heard this from other people, and would I like to talk to the supervisor and mention this to her as well. I said yes, and spoke to her, also a polite person. She said that she hadn't seen it on the website before, but she had heard other people who believed the same as me. I basically said that the way it was worded it could very well be that the TSA believed that they were saying only disabled people could bring on larger quantities of water for necessary medical purposes, but that the wording on the website can be taken in a very different way (and obviously is). She recommended that I call the 1(800) number on the site to complain.
So, I lost my water (on retrospect, I should have stated that I needed it to take my medication, which I did since my 10 am dose was taken on the plane, but they provided free water for that). I chose not to pay the exorbitant pricing that airports have for water (and other items) because they have a captive clientele.
So, flight boards...they start boarding while I'm in the bathroom, of course. I get inside and try to stuff my backpack into the overhead compartments...and it won't fit. This, after I already tested it inside those sample boxes they have in front of the airline check-in. In retrospect, maybe I should have tried the Horizon air one, because it obviously is a different size from the NW air one. I am forced to stuff it under the seat in front of me. Grrr!!
Flight takes off and makes it to Billings, MT with little incident. I find that there is one, I repeat one, choice for food in the whole airport (which comprises basically one lane of six gates). Exorbitant pricing. The food was okay, though. But they have WiFi, just like in SeaTac. And I was certain that, just like in SeaTac, the pricing for the WiFi was absurd. But I was willing to find out anyway.
So, I purchase my lunch, find my gate, and sit down next to the big "WiFi hotspot" sign. I configure my airport card for automatic network (meaning that there was no custom configuration in the network choices), clicked on the network choice available, and opened my browser. And got "could not locate...". No forward to a log-in page or instructions for paying for WiFi time. Nothing.
Great. I find out from someone else that he was able to log in, but chose not to. Upon further investigation, we realize that he had been able to do that back at the food court, (which was more like a food barn) but suddenly is not able to access it at the gate...next to the big "WiFi hotspot" sign. Sigh. So the idiots can't even get their hotspots correct.
Next stop: Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota. The flight over was mostly uneventful. I mean, I could handle the three kids behind me (all boys, of course) who continued to make annoying noises, annoy each other, and kick the back of my chair. I have two kids. I was able to get some writing done, work on a few email responses, etc. Oh, and the overhead compartment is indeed larger than on the Horizon air planes.
When I disembarked, I found a much more sophisticated airport than in Billings...with no mention of WiFi anywhere. Great, I thought. I looked around and finally found a couple of wall sockets to get some juice for my iPod and Powerbook and sat down. I opened up and was immediately introduced to the all around network that Minneapolis has...which, of course, I have to pay for at a rate of $8 per day. Sigh. So much for that. Think I'll get a roaming account or something in the future.
Plugged in my iPod, only to find that somewhere between my second flight and here my iPod Bit the Big One. Yup, it won't respond to anything, not to being plugged into a wall socket (it has juice, my Powerbook battery is juicing up right now), not to being plugged into my Powerbook, nothing. Sigh. Well, I needed to buy a video iPod anyway so I can start reviewing iPod games as they come out. I guess now is the time.
Oh, and did I mention that NW Airlines apparently sees fit to charge you for snacks? I don't know about the other "major" airlines, but Alaska and Southwest don't. There are a number of reasons I like those two airlines above the others...now I've added another reason to the pot.
The third leg of my journey turned out to be pretty impressive...and the worst part of my journey. I sat next to a guy in his late twenties who had just graduated from college with a degree in both art and biology...he wanted to take 3D technology to create a way of modeling the HIV virus or cancer for people to be educated about. I got to pimp iGame Radio and the DigiPen PodClass and give him my new business card. Really good conversation.
Got into Baltimore BWI airport by 10:20 pm (their time), grabbed my luggage, and was waiting for a shuttle out before 11:00. Then hell chose to make misery of my life.
I DIDN'T GET TO MY HOTEL IN ARILINGTON, VA, UNTIL 2 AM!!!!
Oh, my gods, was I tired, especially since I had to be up by 7 am. I decided that rather than take a cab and spend upwards of $70 or more to get to my hotel, I would take the Amtrak/Marc down there, and then take local transit to the hotel. Har, har. I didn't make it to the Amtrak station until 11:20. The next train was supposed to come by at 11:55. Yeah, right. It didn't come by until 12:45. Then I get to the Union Station at about 1:10 am. I decided that it would be faster to take a cab. Yeah, right. There was a huge line to get the cabs. When I got a cab, I was sitting with 3 other people. Should have been cheaper. Ended up being more expensive for most likely two reasons...one, I was from out of town. Two, I was in a town that only cares about ripping people off. So the cost for the cab was twice what it should be. I was too tired to care.
The only benefit from this part of the trip was that I got an opportunity to pimp the new podcast production side of my business, Sound Podcast. One guy waiting for the train and I had a long talk...he runs a non-profit in the hazard industry, and works with the military, etc. They have a lot of content and are wondering what to do with it, and wanted to see if podcasting would be a good idea. May end up being a client...I hope.
We head on out..only to find out that the normal route to the terminal after getting into the airport area itself has suddenly disappeared. And I do mean that literally. The ramp is half gone...they are doing construction in there. And the detour route is...well, let's say that it is less than explicit about how to get to the terminal. We ended up having to go all the way to Southcenter and back around to approach the terminal from the east. I was not pleased. So I lost about 15 minutes of time from that.
Fortunately, the lines in front of Northwest Airlines were tiny...I wouldn't have any problems getting through them. Also, I had one piece of checked luggage, and electronic check-in (though I couldn't check in the night before through web check-in, which annoyed me). Easy check-in.
Um, yeah.
Not so fast, says NW. This flight is actually being run by Horizon Air, and you'll have to walk all the way to the end of the terminal to get to them. Grr.
So I get there and get checked in with reasonable ease. Now to get through security. I have all of my audio equipment in my backpack because I need to haul it around with me at the conference for on the spot interviews. I was expecting to have problems with all of that equipment.
Nope. They had issues with my water. Yeah, water. IT'S WATER STUPID!!
If you look at the TSA website, it does seem to say that water is allowed on board, and in more than just 3 oz amounts. However, that is not what the TSA says. Now, to the credit of the SeaTac TSA there, they were incredibly polite about the whole thing. I mentioned to the guy that I had looked at the website and he said that he had heard this from other people, and would I like to talk to the supervisor and mention this to her as well. I said yes, and spoke to her, also a polite person. She said that she hadn't seen it on the website before, but she had heard other people who believed the same as me. I basically said that the way it was worded it could very well be that the TSA believed that they were saying only disabled people could bring on larger quantities of water for necessary medical purposes, but that the wording on the website can be taken in a very different way (and obviously is). She recommended that I call the 1(800) number on the site to complain.
So, I lost my water (on retrospect, I should have stated that I needed it to take my medication, which I did since my 10 am dose was taken on the plane, but they provided free water for that). I chose not to pay the exorbitant pricing that airports have for water (and other items) because they have a captive clientele.
So, flight boards...they start boarding while I'm in the bathroom, of course. I get inside and try to stuff my backpack into the overhead compartments...and it won't fit. This, after I already tested it inside those sample boxes they have in front of the airline check-in. In retrospect, maybe I should have tried the Horizon air one, because it obviously is a different size from the NW air one. I am forced to stuff it under the seat in front of me. Grrr!!
Flight takes off and makes it to Billings, MT with little incident. I find that there is one, I repeat one, choice for food in the whole airport (which comprises basically one lane of six gates). Exorbitant pricing. The food was okay, though. But they have WiFi, just like in SeaTac. And I was certain that, just like in SeaTac, the pricing for the WiFi was absurd. But I was willing to find out anyway.
So, I purchase my lunch, find my gate, and sit down next to the big "WiFi hotspot" sign. I configure my airport card for automatic network (meaning that there was no custom configuration in the network choices), clicked on the network choice available, and opened my browser. And got "could not locate...". No forward to a log-in page or instructions for paying for WiFi time. Nothing.
Great. I find out from someone else that he was able to log in, but chose not to. Upon further investigation, we realize that he had been able to do that back at the food court, (which was more like a food barn) but suddenly is not able to access it at the gate...next to the big "WiFi hotspot" sign. Sigh. So the idiots can't even get their hotspots correct.
Next stop: Minneapolis/St. Paul in Minnesota. The flight over was mostly uneventful. I mean, I could handle the three kids behind me (all boys, of course) who continued to make annoying noises, annoy each other, and kick the back of my chair. I have two kids. I was able to get some writing done, work on a few email responses, etc. Oh, and the overhead compartment is indeed larger than on the Horizon air planes.
When I disembarked, I found a much more sophisticated airport than in Billings...with no mention of WiFi anywhere. Great, I thought. I looked around and finally found a couple of wall sockets to get some juice for my iPod and Powerbook and sat down. I opened up and was immediately introduced to the all around network that Minneapolis has...which, of course, I have to pay for at a rate of $8 per day. Sigh. So much for that. Think I'll get a roaming account or something in the future.
Plugged in my iPod, only to find that somewhere between my second flight and here my iPod Bit the Big One. Yup, it won't respond to anything, not to being plugged into a wall socket (it has juice, my Powerbook battery is juicing up right now), not to being plugged into my Powerbook, nothing. Sigh. Well, I needed to buy a video iPod anyway so I can start reviewing iPod games as they come out. I guess now is the time.
Oh, and did I mention that NW Airlines apparently sees fit to charge you for snacks? I don't know about the other "major" airlines, but Alaska and Southwest don't. There are a number of reasons I like those two airlines above the others...now I've added another reason to the pot.
The third leg of my journey turned out to be pretty impressive...and the worst part of my journey. I sat next to a guy in his late twenties who had just graduated from college with a degree in both art and biology...he wanted to take 3D technology to create a way of modeling the HIV virus or cancer for people to be educated about. I got to pimp iGame Radio and the DigiPen PodClass and give him my new business card. Really good conversation.
Got into Baltimore BWI airport by 10:20 pm (their time), grabbed my luggage, and was waiting for a shuttle out before 11:00. Then hell chose to make misery of my life.
I DIDN'T GET TO MY HOTEL IN ARILINGTON, VA, UNTIL 2 AM!!!!
Oh, my gods, was I tired, especially since I had to be up by 7 am. I decided that rather than take a cab and spend upwards of $70 or more to get to my hotel, I would take the Amtrak/Marc down there, and then take local transit to the hotel. Har, har. I didn't make it to the Amtrak station until 11:20. The next train was supposed to come by at 11:55. Yeah, right. It didn't come by until 12:45. Then I get to the Union Station at about 1:10 am. I decided that it would be faster to take a cab. Yeah, right. There was a huge line to get the cabs. When I got a cab, I was sitting with 3 other people. Should have been cheaper. Ended up being more expensive for most likely two reasons...one, I was from out of town. Two, I was in a town that only cares about ripping people off. So the cost for the cab was twice what it should be. I was too tired to care.
The only benefit from this part of the trip was that I got an opportunity to pimp the new podcast production side of my business, Sound Podcast. One guy waiting for the train and I had a long talk...he runs a non-profit in the hazard industry, and works with the military, etc. They have a lot of content and are wondering what to do with it, and wanted to see if podcasting would be a good idea. May end up being a client...I hope.
