2010 off to a good start

I still haven't decided if this is two thousand ten or twenty ten, but 2010 started off well. I started my year with a trip across the country involving 2 airlines and 3 flights. The three flights went off without a hitch and I got op-upped on the 2 United flights.

I'll take basic toiletries for 100...

Today was my first day traveling since the Christmas attack. Some on flyertalk had reported issues with generic bottles at checkpoints so in addition to that I made sure stop using my 4 oz (shh!) generic bottles and clean out various old boarding passes and other junk from my bag to prevent too many reasons for a bag check. I also considered checking my bag, but I was on a 2 airline 3 leg trip so I didn't want to risk checking it and carried on. It helped that the lines were fairly short due to this being the post-holiday travel lull and many other business travelers didn't seem to be traveling today.

I got to the checkpoint, prepared my stuff in the bins (first bin: coat, shoes, liquids baggie second bin laptop, then backpack, then rollerbag). The x-ray operator had called a bag check on the person in front of me because he didn't take his laptop out. That one was resolved fairly quickly. Then the x-ray operator got to my rollerbag and called a bag check on me. I watched that person and the 2 striper who came over about 3 minutes later for the bag check while they were looking at the x-ray. They seemed fairly fixated on my hair straightener. I thought that was ironic because I had just told someone on Yahoo Answers that hair straighteners are just fine in carry on bags. Even though the spot they kept pointing to was obviously my straightener, it turns out it was my toothbrush they were suspicious of.

This is the second time my toothbrush has resulted in a bag check. It kinda makes you wonder about the people TSA hires if they don't know what a toothbrush looks like. It was just the cheap Oral-B sonic toothbrush with charger. the stupid thing stopped working anyway so maybe I just need to toss it at my destination after I get a manual one.

Time to start again

January 1 marks the day that my frequent flyer accounts reset to 0 for elite qualification and the race to status begins again. This year is looking good for United right now. I have a 6 segment transcon this week and I'll be flying from the east coast to MEL this year. That trip alone pretty much guarantees at least Premier so that plus my normal travel may just push me over to 1K. I know I better take advantage of any DEQM promotions. My only concern is that my regular west coast project is coming to an end and I'm getting more east coast business so we'll see how this all goes.

Delta is always an unknow. Last year a trip to GIG supplemented my Delta miles. The Hilton promotions for MQMs always help too, but who knows if that will happen this year. I should get at least Silver, but hopefully I can maintain my Gold status. Delta DMQM promotions have never worked for me because they require the highest fair classes and that is a little too much for me to spend on a mileage run.

Hilton is in the bag for diamond.