Month: January 2015

… time to put the Christmas decorations away. Just realized that we had a Lego-life-sized nativity set!

… LegoGuy uses a pick axe to chip off some ice that formed after the snow melted – yes, it is cold in the Northeast!

…with a collection of Continental / United loyalty cards over the years, including one year after no travel, where I went from Silver to Gold to Platinum, and another with the switch from Skyteam alliance to Star alliance.

LegoGuy, still excited with the Million Miler status, notices the pre-merger United livery Parked alongside the updated branding while waiting to depart LAX.

Just before noon eastern time, the Captain announced that we had a great view of the Grand Canyon, but what was special about this one was that a passenger (naming me) was going to fly his millionth United mile over the Grand Canyon. The third flight attendant (from business first) walked down the aisle toward me carrying a bottle of wine compliments of the captain, as well as the map marked and signed by the captain and the first officer as well as a congratulatory note on my boarding pass, the captain’s business card (legacy United), and a card with the Airbus details on it. The captain went on to thank me for my loyalty to United and congratulated me. The passengers (who weren’t sleeping) joined in applause.

My neighbor asked me what I remembered most from the million miles, something I had not given any thought. The first thing that came to mind was flying Continental Airlines the first Sunday evening after service resumed after 9/11 from EWR to Boston (both impacted airports) for work. There were less than a dozen of us on board and we were all reverently silent as we saw the smoldering remains of the twin towers…

The third flight attendant stopped by later saying that the Captain asked if I would like a picture in the flight deck after we landed. Needless to say, I said YES!

When we were getting off the plane, the Captain welcomed me to the cockpit, had me sit in his seat and took a couple of pictures. I thanked him for making this trip memorable for me and I asked the flight attendant to take a picture of the captain and me.

I didn’t have any expectations about my millionth mile going in, but the Captain and the crew did a great job making this a memorable trip for me!

… where I crossed my millionth miles on United. The Captain and First officer signed the marked map…

My flight this morning was EWR-LAX on an airbus 319/320. When I boarded, I told the flight attendant I had a request for the captain. I had a note asking if he could mark the spot where I crossed my millionth mile, with the number of miles pending, a 4×6 photo of United’s flight map, and my boarding pass. It was probably the first time that flight attendant had received a request like that since he was excited and asked if the captain would know what to do (the captain was busy in the cockpit and I didn’t want to interrupt). I went to my exit row aisle seat and waited for takeoff. The captain’s ended his announcement by mentioning that there was a special guest onboard who would be crossing 1 million miles on the flight this morning and announced my name. Another flight attendant who was standing near me waiting for the security demonstration wondered aloud who it was and I sheepishly said it was me. She asked me if that meant I would get my name painted on a plane 🙂

During breakfast service, the flight attendant said that the captain had told them to give me anything I wanted off the cart. I selected the Bistro Scramble. I then slept a bit and then streamed a couple of episodes of House of Cards from the onboard entertainment. The first flight attendant saw me tracking the flight on united app and asked me if I was taking screenshots 🙂

Just before noon eastern time, the Captain announced that we had a great view of the Grand Canyon, but what was special about this one was that a passenger (naming me) was going to fly his millionth United mile over the Grand Canyon…

(to be continued tomorrow…)

Finally crossed the 1-million-butt-in-seat-mile mark on United Airlines as we flew over Grand Canyon this morning. Nowhere near George Clooney’s character’s 10 million milestone in “Up In The Air”, but good enough for me. These are not award miles, but actual miles flown…

As a flashback, the plane behind LegoGuy says “Continental Airlines” which is where most of the miles were flown before it merged with United. The NYC skyline also shows the twin towers as a memory of the first view of the NYC skyline I had on my first ever Continental flight  – which was into EWR…

Tomorrow, I will cross a small milestone in my journey and I wanted you to hear about it first. The hint is in the picture and title above…
(This may sound familiar to Blippers for obvious reasons 🙂

My neighborhood RadioShack is shutting down, and the staff were saying that the other stores may close down soon. I had RadioShack gift cards from their [url=https://www.polaroidblipfoto.com/entry/4044991]trade in program last year[/url], so I went in and used them to buy an Amazon gift card…
I remember buying my first color PDA from a RadioShack back in 2000 – a [url=http://www.amazon.com/Compaq-iPAQ-3650-Color-Pocket/dp/B00004T0RC]Compaq iPAQ[/url], which was a step up from my Palm and Handspring 🙂
I will miss having it nearby…

Back to work today, but the kids are still on break, which meant more activities for them. The rice krispies train was a hit and tastes yummy thanks to the marshmallow and butter !