Recorded in the beautiful home office of Chateau/ Relaxo.
Before we get to this evening’s episode a quick blurb about routines. We all have them, - you might brush your teeth before your shower or you might do it after but more than likely you do it exactly the same way each day. When you shower you typically wash the same part of your body first each and every time. How many times have you driven to the office only to arrive and never really recalled the drive? All these are a sequence of actions that are regularly followed aka a routine.
Ever put your wallet in the wrong pocket of your pants or the wrong compartment or your purse? Suddenly panic sets in when you reach for it in its typical place and it’s not there? That’s a broken routine.
So here’s my broken routine travel story -
The other night I landed back in O-Town around 10:45 PM got out of seat 9C, my seat routine, headed for the terminal bathroom, my arrival routine, and then to the parking garage, level 2 row “J”, my airport parking routine. Opened the trunk, loaded my luggage and backpack, and that’s where my routine was broken, but I wouldn’t know it for another 10 seconds, because that’s when I would open, or try to open my car’s door only to find that it was still locked. The reason? My car keys were safely clipped inside my backpack that was now in the trunk of my car.
My routine for years has been while in the parking garages elevator on my way to the second-floor row “J” is to unclip my keyring from my backpack and clip them to my belt loop.
Well not that night, that night, my routine varied, and I paid for it… paid for it with a $160.00 pop-a-lock bill in conjunction with not hitting the driveway of Chateau’ Relaxo until almost 1:00 AM.
So routines are important, but broken routines can be more important or at least in my case more expensive.
Onto tonight’s episode.
As the news sources endlessly report, we are smack dab between the two biggest travel days of the year, but as we all know the travel craziness knows no difference between the busiest and slowest of travel days.
In case you haven’t heard, the federal mask mandate has been extended until March of 2022, so there will be plenty of fuel for the Vaxxers vs. the anti-maskers over the next three months.
Out of the gate, we have an update for you. Over the past year, we’ve had several segments dedicated to this mysterious Jetpack man or Jetpack woman jetpacking through the skies of Los Angeles as well as jetpacking around the LAX airspace. So much jetpacking that several pilots reported these sightings to the LAX tower. And over the months no one claimed to be the Jetpack person and there was never any real explanation until now…… maybe.
One working theory is that pilots might have seen balloons," that is according to the FBI and FAA in a statement reported by NBC Los Angeles.
NBC Los Angeles went on to add, "jetpack man" was likely just a balloon styled after the main character of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington.
So what you’re telling me, and wanting me to believe is that both the FAA & the FBI believe that pilots with thousands of flight hours are gonna mistake a children's balloon for a man in a jetpack, that’s what you’re telling me? All this balloon talk has me feeling light-headed.
If I say Spirit Airlines and Florida what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Maybe it should be the first things, plural, that come to mind. Is it things like alcohol, disturbances, possibly an arrest, and how about zip ties? Well, this next story has all of those things.
Woman Detained By Fellow Passenger And Zip Tied During Flight, Yells At Police To Shoot Her
A passenger onboard a Spirit Airlines flight departing South Florida may have been over-served, after which she attacked two members of the cabin crew. She punched one attendant and pulled the other’s hair.” Side note - The flight attendants opted not to press charges for the assault.
The 42-year-old passenger was restrained by a passenger with zip ties applied to her feet”. When she was turned over to authorities, she told the arresting officers that “she drank ‘a lot’.” She also reportedly told officers, “shoot me, mother $%@%#$.”
Another side note, Spirit Airlines will be expanding service to Miami, that’s right, Miami the land of bath salts and bad plastic surgery, so stay tuned.
Let’s stay with Spirit Airline as Business Insider posted this - A Spirit Airlines passenger alleges in a lawsuit against the carrier that a flight attendant sexually assaulted him.
A bit of role reversal…. The flight attendant assaulted a passenger.
A Spirit Airlines passenger said a flight attendant offered him free alcohol, requested that he move to a private area of a plane, (Am I to think that airplanes have a VIP area similar to a strip club?) and then sexually assaulted him (Which never happens in the VIP area of a strip club), according to a complaint.
The passenger, named only as M.B., filed a lawsuit last week against the Spirit, saying the carrier had been negligent. He seeking damages of more than $150,000.
This is the first time that we’ve ever had a story where a flight attendant allegedly “Roofies” a passenger, but what better airline than Spirit to host the event
I’ve been on an S-ton of planes and I never knew there was a private VIP area, but safe to say that M.B. wasn’t there to celebrate his VIPensis.
Not necessarily travel-related but due to the COVID-pivot, it is work from home relevant and is something that George Clooney could’ve easily handled in his 2009 movie Up In The Air.
First, listen to any of the past episodes and it becomes clear that I’m not any sort of a financial advisor. When it comes to mortgages mine just might be in the double digits, like I said, I’m not a financial advisor.
Are you familiar with Better.com?
They’re an online mortgage company that’s mission statement is along these lines - We’re using technology to make it faster and more efficient, and humans to help make it friendly and enjoyable.
Better.com’s CEO Vishal Garg organized a 900 person Zoom call for his employees. 900 attendees, think about that 900. The Brady Bunch intro times 100, imagine the issues people on mute, people over-talking each other, the bandwidth required etc. Actually, it was a one-way video call.
Most of the 900 employees were anticipating one of Garg's town hall-style meetings, what they got instead was a pink slip, a virtual pink slip Yes, a mass firing, no 1 on 1 meeting with HR, none of that just - Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.
This was the ultimate example of a Zoom meeting that could’ve been an email.
I hope that Garg had the insight to quote Clooney’s character Ryan Bingham as the zoom call concluded with this quote - Anybody who ever built an empire, or changed the world, sat where you are now. And it's *because* they sat there that they were able to do it.
Side note Garg, who founded Better.com in 2014, is a billionaire who got a bonus of $25 million from Better.com in 2020. 2020 damn near the worst financial year ever since the plaque…. $25 million.
This next incident happened in April 2021 but the end result was just posted and it also builds credibility to one of my theories.
My theory has to do with people that smoke marijuana or as I like to say, marijuana enthusiasts.
The theory is as follows - a marijuana enthusiast’s main goal in life is to contemplate - They contemplate how to get more marijuana, contemplate the next time they’ll get to smoke marijuana, contemplate how to hide their marijuana, and contemplate new places to smoke marijuana….. And on and on and on.
That brings us to April 2021 when an unnamed Southwest Airlines passenger flew from San Jose, Calif., to San Diego, Calif. The FAA alleges the passenger drank their own alcohol during the flight and continued to do so after a flight attendant told the passenger that was prohibited. The passenger then sexually assaulted the flight attendant. As the flight was descending into San Diego, the passenger entered the lavatory and smoked marijuana.
Police arrested the passenger for resisting arrest and public intoxication. The cost for this inflight entertainment, $40,823.
A flight from San Jose, Calif. to San Diego is at most an hour and a half flight and this guy couldn’t abstain for an hour and a half. Gotta love those marijuana enthusiasts.
I have a question.
What’s in a name? No, it’s not time for our monthly Shakespeare installment, it's time for one of my life tips. These are similar to my theories.
Soon to be parents, even existing parents naming your newborn is a big deal. Besides being given life a child’s name is one of the first things bestowed upon them so yes, it’s important. My life tip is as follows, once you decide on your little darlings’ new name go to your local Cracker Barrel or theme park gift shop head over to the key chain or mini-license plate display, and look for the name you have decided on. If you can’t find a key chain or license plate with that name on it be prepared for you and your child to spend the better part of their life correcting people on the pronunciation and spelling of their name.
So I told you all that to tell you this.
Dateline John Wayne International Airport Southwest gate counter where Traci Redford and her 5-year old daughter were checking in for their flight. That’s when Traci heard the gate agents laughing and pointing at her daughter. Their motivation…. the daughter’s name, "Ab-city," pronounced "Ab-city," but spelled Abcde. While I’m sure this was uncomfortable for Traci and "Ab-city," I have a newsflash for both of them……. "Ab-city," while only 5 has years and years of similar encounters ahead of her.
But wait there’s more.
The agent take a photo of her daughter's boarding pass and later l posted it on social media. Traci filed a formal complaint with Southwest and after a few weeks, Southwest responded with a typical corporate response which included -
We have followed up with the Employee involved, and while we do not disclose personnel actions publicly, we are using this as an opportunity to reinforce our policies and emphasize our expectations for all Employees.
"Traci made this a teachable moment for little Abcde, letting her know that "not everyone is nice and not everyone is going to be nice and it's unfortunate." Abcde it’s more unfortunate that you will be experiencing similar situations for the rest of your life. And Traci here’s a life tip for you, start packing away some money for Abcde’s therapy.
That last story was brought to you by the letters A-B-C-D & E.
One last question - How Many Points Should You Get When There’s An Active Shooter At Your Hotel?
Well if you're Mike Sington and you stayed at the Hyatt Ziva Riviera Cancun when several active shooters landed on the resort’s beach. It’s worth 75,000 points
This did make the news as, two of the shooters were killed, and hundreds scrambled to hide, terrified for their lives. And as recently as last week five gunmen landed on the Cancun beach via jet skis and opened fire. If you’re considering Cancun for a winter get-away you might wish to rethink that destination.
Sington was asked, “Has Hyatt done anything?”. So he did as most of us do and took to Twitter to let his 33,000 followers know that Hyatt had added 75,000 points to his account.
Now I don’t know if Sington had the money for his stay refunded but I’m thinking that 75,000 is a bit on the light side. And here’s why - A premium suite at a Hyatt Category 1 property is 10,000 points enough for a week’s stay. And a premium suite at a Hyatt Category 7 property is 60,000 enough points for a single night with enough points left over for a beverage.
A bit of research showed that a Hyatt category 1 is what you find along the turnpike or I-95 while a category 7 property is more of a destination, and usually involves a beach, with or without gunmen.
Now, this whole event wasn’t Hyatts fault but I think a fair offering would’ve been enough points to cover another stay for the same duration at the same level category property.
There you have it the November crazy travel roundup. The next episode will be the travel year in review, and how my 2021 travel resolutions panned out.
If you want detailed show notes, links and pictures head over to podpage.com/travel-stories/
Leave a message on Anchor, or shoot me an email at TravelFrick@gmail.com.
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
