This season from Sky Mall

I love flipping through the pages of Sky Mall because it is a good time killer and I don't shop much otherwise. Sky Mall is published seasonally and the Holiday editions came out last month. Here are some of my favorite "What were they thinking" items:

• The Telekinetic Obstacle Course. First off, this thing requires C sized batteries. I try to stick to things requiring AA and AAA. No C or D for me. I buy AA and AAA in bulk and always have some around. If this thing died on me I'd never replace the C batteries. I also don't get why it can't run off an outlet instead of batteries. They say it's telekinetic, but your brain isn't really moving the object, rather your brain activity controls the speed of fans. I felt duped after reading that. $99.95
• Instant Feng Shui benefits at home or away. Really? Something that looks like one of the Tiger Electronics toys I had back in the 80s will tell me how to arrange my furniture based on energies? I would constantly make fun of this rip-off to friends at the $399.99 price point. Apparently they heard and dropped it to $199.99. You can buy a shielded carrying case for another $39.99. I think I'll just head to my local library and check out an Feng Shui book for free. Then if my energies don't improve at least I didn't waste over a day of income on this.
• Bilz Pinball Game. This allows you to give someone money in a pinball game and they have to play the game just right for it to dispense the money. Let's just put it like this: you give me a present like this and you are no longer my friend. $12.99
  
• You can now buy a Taser in Sky Mall. Nevermind the fact that they are heavily regulated and require it to be activated after arrival. Really, I'm sure no one will crack that. $349.99
  
• Day Clock. I travel a lot and sometimes do get into a day warp, but a clock is mounted to a wall and not travel-friendly so it is of no help to me. If you are in a situation where you can mount this thing and actually see it and don't know what day it is without it, you need to move out of your mother's basement and get a job! $38.98 (!?!?!)
  
• SodaStream. There is so much soda already out there I have never thought I could do it better. $129.99
  
• Yukata Cover-up. It's in the Delta version on page 180 but I can't find it on the Sky Mall site. Pretty much if you thought $20.00 cover-ups from WalMart didn't cost enough for you, you can spend $139.00 + $3 additional shipping for one from Sky Mall!
• Zona Plus . Take a squeeze grip thing from the gym, add some military endorsements, Viola! you can charge $379.
• Last but not least: The Personal Travel Bidet. Wow. It's only $44.95 which doesn't seem like a bad price, but I think I'll stick with TP, thank you!
  

US Airways announces new redemption tiers

I am technically a US hub captive, but since I have been loyal to United since college they have always been my star alliance choice. I have put up with United and starnet blocking. I actually have fairly good redemption success including 2 coach tickets to SYD, 2 F tickets to SFO on US, and a few random bookings for friends.

I'm also a Delta lover because my family is from ATL and it's blasphemy to not like Coke or Delta (but I pass on Home Depot and UPS). Delta implemented a tiered system last year right before I booked 2 tickets to DUB. I got 2 coach tickets for 90,000 miles each when a low ticket would have been 50,000 and a low BE ticket would have been 100,000. the only F tickets were more than I had in my bank and the 2 coach tickets at 90k wiped me out.

Now US Airways is following Delta. Usually in the race to the bottom it's the other way around. US implemented charging for all beverages in flight and no one followed. Now that Delta and US have tiered programs I wonder if any other airlines will follow suit. The image posted above does remind me of the DL calendar that never shows the same tier for the same day 2 refreshes in a row. It seems like DL and US have the same development team judging by other things they seem to do at the same time (e.g. adding partner mileage numbers) so it wouldn't surprise me if US's calendar is a joke also. Oh well. I'll keep all my *A miles on United especially since they are adding elite upgrades.

I've been flying Airtran more than I'd like recently, but they actually have a fairly interesting program. I now have enough credits for a 1 way trip on FL, but I'm in no hurry to book anything on them if I don't have to.

Wow google, thanks!

Well apparently people are easy to buy into Google's goodwill and don't realize that it's not raining, someone is just peeing on their leg.

Google announced they would provide free WIFI this holiday season (Nov 10, 09-Jan 15, 10) in many airports. Too bad that list includes many airports that already have free wifi like LAS, MCO, CLT, FLL, SMF, SAN, IND, CVG to name a few. The fact that any already free, let alone that many, airports are on the list seems to make it more about publicity than free wifi. LAS and MCO are some of the most touristy airports so of course they are there.

The busiest airports in the world (ATL and ORD) both charge for WiFiand both are omitted from the list. ORD is a Boingo airport. ATL offers service from Boingo as well as TMobile and Sprint. All of them include various roaming partners as well.

What does google get out of this? Even more access to your soul

The network operators collect the information they need to run the network, and Google will have access to some aggregate, non-personally identifiable information.

I know I shouldn't complain. This site is hosted for free by Google.

Hilton Garden Inn Toronto City Centre

The HGI Toronto City Centre is located on Dundas just a few blocks from Yonge and Dundas. The area is not the best looking area, but the hotel itself was nice and I felt safe enough walking to the square by myself.

The only problem I has was room service. I picked up the phone and pressed the room service speed dial. I don't think it had been set b/c I believe I just got the front desk. I stated my order only to receive a confused response and I got forwarded. Someone picked up claiming to be from Caseys which is the restaurant in front of the hotel. I asked to place a room service order but was placed on hold and someone came to my room to service my room so I had to hang up. I'm not sure if that was a turn down service or if the front desk sent someone. My room had already been cleaned that day.

Continental, thanks but no thanks

I've had a love-hate relationship with Continental. They have some of the least convenient connecting flights out of CLT and are usually more expensive than other options so I rarely fly them.

Last week I thought I'd give them another look now that they are part of star alliance. They did let me enter my United number on the day it was official they were in the alliance. US Airways has been part of *A for a while and only recently allowed that.

Then it's back to CO as usual. The GTAA kiosks at YYZ apparently denote elites differently than the CO tickets would and this new *A notation was not known to the gate agents. Agent announced elites could board so I handed my BP which said EA (for elite access) and *G (for star gold) but the GA did not know what this looked like and questioned me if I was elite. I had my *G card in hand just in case b/c the text size on the BP from the GTAA kiosk was rather small.

Then we get to CO really being CO. For some reason CO has really short minimum connections and most of my flights are exactly the minimum (but most DL flights from CLT to ATL will get at least an hour connection in ATL). There has only been 1 connection on CO at IAH where I didn't have to run. This time I had to wait so long to get to a gate and have the gate agent match up the jetbridge for deplaning and get my valet bag that by the time I was finally in the terminal they were paging me to board immediately (plane was to depart at 9:00 pm and it was only 8:40 when this announcement was made). I had to run from 1 spoke of the C terminal of EWR to another. By the time I got there my bag was open and I dropped my papers. Some lady was in my seat and was quite mad that I'd want my seat.

...then we waited for 15 minutes with the door still open. I ran for nothing.

West Virginia

I haven't really been in this state before. First off, I LOVE the 70 MPH speed limits through dangerous mountain passes. I just hate the fact that I have a fricken ford focus and can barely make it up hill.

West Virginia has more KMarts than I've seen in the past 3 years. Apparently in 20 years the chain will let WV know it sucks and Target is better.

Other than that, everyone here I've seen has been very nice and has a full set of teeth.

Back on legacies

After a couple trips on Airtran I'm back on legacy carriers this week. Airtran is good for people watching and does have a nice $49 upgrade, but for those of us in normal economy it is very uncomfortable. My knee was digging into the guy in front of me the whole flight and I'm not that tall. I also made the mistake of booking a seat next to the engine so I had no view either.

Airtran is copying US Airways and now has an Atlanta Falcons plane. I saw the Pittsburgh Steelers plan today, but I did not get a picture.