Kinglobjaw's Blog

Archive for the ‘Personal Thoughts’ Category

Two hours ago, I mentioned that I renewed my US Airways Club membership and took advantage of a lucrative offer of 1,500 preferred qualifying miles. Just wanted to let you know I got my receipt and shortly after that my 1,500 preferred miles posted to my Dividend Miles account.

Very fast! It seems to me that every day something is improved in US Airways’ systems. Shopping Mall purchases post quicker than last year, car rentals post in days rather than weeks. A big thumbs up to US Airways!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Just got off the phone with an US Airways Club agent to renew my annual membership. Since I wasn’t flying in March or early April of this year, I waited until today to renew. My membership is now valid through April 16, 2010. Same price as last year, $315 + no tax for basic Club membership. Was a pretty long hold until I got an agent (usually they pick up right away- very convenient 1-800-828-8522 with no menu tree, an agent picks up), so maybe a flurry of new members with the two added renewal promotions (either 2 months extra for free or 1,500 preferred qualifying miles, I chose the latter). Both promotions expire July 1, 2009. RNW15 is the code you use for 1,500 preferred qualifying miles which I blogged about a few weeks ago.

As usual, I asked them to email me a receipt and a printout of my membership just incase they want to card me (by card I mean, Club card, not driver’s license/ID). That actually happened to me once in a US Airways Club in PHX. Luckily I had the printout. Was promised card would arrive within 3-4 weeks.

While I connect in PHX next week, I will try out the re-opened lower ‘A’ gates Club (above A7/A9) which was severly damaged during a thunderstorm back in August 2008. Apparently they have brand new furniture in the Club. Anyway, here’s evidence of the damage. When I spoke to the Club agent a few days after the incident, I was told someone could have been seriously injured. Apparently, just seconds before the impact, a snob had to be repeatedly told to move to a different seating area away from the windows. After multiple pleadings, the agent yelled “Move away from the windows, NOW!” to which the passenger finally obliged. Literally seconds later, a big blow came in from outside and the result was this:

Something's Coming! US Airways A7/A9 Club in PHX damaged after August 2008 thunderstorm

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

Only those who followed the Kinglobjaw “brand” from its inception will remember the Geocities website. Shout out to Devesh K! That guy really wanted me to convert to Northwest! Sheesh- I’d be stuck with Delta now! Good thing I don’t listen to everything. Just kidding, Devesh, you really support my site. Thanks for that.

Anyway, all that’s left of http://www.geocities.com/kinglobjaw is:

Good times, it’s true, but looking back I have to say having my own URL and host is even better! By the way, the above message was written in 2007, so I might have to update it again sometimes soon…

Last post for the night, will be back with more goodies later this week. Counting down to my Hawaii trip- just over 7 days!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I’ve just updated my Twitter account with a new, slightly more appropriate logo (by appropriate I mean, logo instead of my passport photo). You can visit my Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/kinglobjaw. So, what do you think?

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

By the time you finish reading this blog post, you’ll notice a new widget on the right side menu of the blog featuring Twitter updates from LOT Polish Airlines. I’ve decided to create a Twitter account for LOT and broadcast unofficial tweets on behalf of LOT Polish Airlines. LOT and US Airways have more in common that we think. Both airlines are viewed as the shadow of their regional neighbors and close partners, notably Lufthansa and United respectively. Both airlines have struggled to create their own niche withing the alliance. To a further extent, they have done so successfully.

I’ve decided to start promoting LOT Polish Airlines on my blog and this should soon extend to the Kinglobjaw.com website. Like US Airways, LOT has a very rich history spanning decades. While I haven’t flown LOT for quite a while, I disagree with people claiming Poland doesn’t really need a flag carrier. Low cost airlines and regionals come and go, but a flag carrier is forever!

I’m sure my efforts will not turn people into ticketing madness or proclaim loyalty; I’m simply trying to make everyone aware of where LOT flies and “what’s up” with LOT. I hope you find the information interesting and useful.

Visit http://www.twitter.com/LOTpolish to get updates on LOT Polish Airlines, the airlines’ routes, specials and developing information.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

If you’ve ever red any of my posts on aviation related forums like Airliners.net, USAviation.com or FlyerTalk.com, you’ll recall that I’ve been touting Warsaw as a necessary route for US Airways out of Philadelphia.

Sure, it is related to the fact that I’m Polish and I want to see my country suceed with new international air routes, but I also see it as a sound business decision for the Star Alliance member carrier.

I know for a fact that US Airways is interested in starting nonstop service to Moscow, Russia (DME specifically), and I’m sure the route will do well, but WAW is an established Eastern European Star Alliance hub. LOT offers daily service to major Eastern European cities- an area which is a “gap” within the alliance. Since the B757 doesn’t have the range to fly this route at full capacity, a 767 would be sufficient.

Other routes I’d like to see:

• Salt Lake City (SLC) served from an East Coast hub
• Washington Reagan (DCA) perimeter exemptions for US to fly DCA-LAX/SFO/SAN
• Tokyo, Japan (NRT)
• Viennia, Austria (VIE)
• Naples, Florida
• POS, Port Of Spain, Trinind & Tobago from CLT
• PHX- San Juan, Puerto Rico
• CLT-PVR (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Some are wishful thinking, I know. I’m actually riding a train as I type this, so I am sort of bored, bur I wanted to sharing some raw and just put it out there. Comments appreciated. If you have a route you deem interesting, yet still realistic, share that as well!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

I’ve been pretty upset lately. Hilton/AMEX closed down their Advance Your World Challenge due to an overwhelming number of cheaters and probably an underwhelming performance from their IT department. Both companies ought to be ashamed with they way they are handling this fiasco. Before I get comments bashing me and reminding me of Terms & Conditions, kindly recall my positive attitude when this promotion commenced. Nothing but praise. Worst promotion award should be a new Freddies Awards category.

Check out the message Hitlon/AMEX posted on the game’s site. They didn’t even have the decency to email people. I had to find out about this on a forum!

Thank you for playing the Advance Your World Challenge brought to you by the Hilton HHonors^® Card from American Express. Unfortunately, we have found some technical issues with the game that resulted in erroneous scores. As a result, we have made the decision to end the promotion in accordance with the official rules as of March 27, 2009.

 

We will still award the 1,000 prizes, but will do so through a random drawing of everyone who registered as of March 27, 2009 and meets the eligibility requirements. We will notify potential winners on or around May 18, 2009.

 

We know many of you devoted significant time and effort to playing the game. We thank you for your participation and apologize for any inconvenience. If you have further questions, please email questions@eprizefulfillment.com.

So they are now going to radomly give out prizes? Wasn’t the purpose of this “event” for people to win prizes based on their skill and practice? But, I do wonder, since there are were so many cheaters registered, how will the organizers of this game know if the players they chose for the prizes were cheaters or duplicates to begin with? They could contact every single person that registered and request an ID to be scanned and faxed to them. That’s what I’d do!

One more thing. If anyone is paying close attention to the FlyerTalk thread that discusses this promotion, notice that around page 44 of the thread, members are receiving emails with 3,000 and 5,000 HHonors points as an apology. Of course, you have to craft a nasty complaint email to HHONORS@HILTON.COM. I did so yesterday, and as of 8PM on Tuesday, March 31, 2009 I haven’t gotten a reply yet. We shall see.

Have a nice clicK life, (really AMEX, have a nice life as those form/generic replies are really starting to tick me off!)

-Mark

As I am typing this I am in quite a pain. I started working out to get into better shape last Monday and every foot (maybe not that much) of my body is aching. My solution? Go work out some more! I think my arms and shoulders hurt the most!

After Friday, March 13, 2009 I stopped playing AMEX’s Advance Your World Challenge that I have been praising so much since it started. Too many cheaters, and the company isn’t doing too much about it. What more? So many of these cheaters have suddenly become new members on FlyerTalk explaining how righteous they want to be and fix the problem. Since I started blogging about this challenge, I have to say, traffic on my blog has doubled. I’m sure being in the Top 7 added to this…

Here’s how I see it. New guy/gal learns about the promo and the prospect of getting $10,000 cash for virtually nothing, then Googles the Top 7. Kinglobjaw is quite a weird user name, so I guess people have stumbled upon my blog and it discovered my posts where I mention the direct FlyerTalk link. I read the FlyerTalk thread about this promotion daily and I see 5 or 6 new users that have joined FlyerTalk in March 2009 and have fewer than 10 posts at this point. These schemers want to be liked by others and mask their real intentions with a glitch that probably never occurred. I mean, the other FlyerTalk members who have been around for a longer time- not one has reported the “endless speed boost” glitch these newbies are reporting. I could be wrong, but these newbies are the cheaters! Food for thought.

Onto my next topic- Friday the 13th. I remember the day started out well because I made first place on the Advance Your World Challenge. Hours later, “lightning” had come to my place. You see, it was around 5PM when I decided it was time to vacuum again with the brand new DC-25 Animal Dyson vacuum. It’s a very powerful machine. A suggestion, the vacuum is absolutely amazing and a must have. To make the unpleasant story short, my hard drive got zapped. As unlucky as can be, my surge protector and fairly new battery backup failed during the less than one second it took for me to turn on the vacuum. Needless to say, my hard drive died, I got the “blue screen of death” and part of my stuff was not backed up! Lesson learned! As a replacement HD I bought a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Black from Best Buy and so far it’s fine. It’s slightly quieter than the one that died. I will try to contact Seagate about the cost of data recovery and decide if it’s worth it.

My HAJ trip has been axed and what a shame!

Last but not least, I’m counting the days to my Hawaii trip which occurs at the end of April. We’re all set in First Class on US as we were upgraded at the time of ticketing. No need to check loads every day to see F buckets disappear and worry; however my PHX-PHL return could go into oversell mode so I’m ready to volunteer should the need arise. I know a lot about US Airways, but I’ve never been bumped before so I don’t know what kind of compensation to expect. Honestly, I’ve never heard the announcement before either so I am going to ask around on my next flight.

Different kind of post today, but I thought it would be nice to offer an update.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark