A Tribute to USeless Airways

So, here I am with my silver preferred US Airways status thinking I am all slick and cool skipping to the front of the check-in line. As I am walking up, I am thinking I am going to be at my gate in less than 15 minutes, maybe relax, grab a bite, and send some e-mails. My dreams were crushed the moment I bumped into Betty Lou from Gastonia...shift manager for US Airways counter. Needless to say, it all went downhill from there.


Betty Lou walks up and starts processing my docs and after she scans my passport, she realizes it has expired. So, as a good citizen, I point her to page 46 for the extension, but for some reason, she cannot understand why the extension is not on the front page of the passport. Once we finally crossed that bridge, she proceeds to tell me that what has been renewed is my visa and not my passport. (Editor's note: Nicaraguan passports have the word "visa" printed on every page...just something that they printed on the booklet). At this point, I am about to lose it, and just ask her..."Can you please explain to me why I would need to obtain a renewal for a Nicaraguan visa?" (Oh wait, last time I checked I was actually born in Nicaragua and carry a Nicaraguan passport...so why would I need a visa for my own country? never quite figured out how she made that conclusion). So Betty proceeds to call another 2 USeless Airways employees for verification. Turns out none of them could decipher that it was a passport extension. Eventually they came around after I showed them some visas (which were granted in the previous 2 weeks, with an apparently expired passport).

Once I survived the passport episode and finally make it to my seat...me and 199 of my closest friends sat on the runway for 1.5 hrs thanks to a broken falange. We finally depart around 8 pm, get fed some gourmet chicken, and, as everyone starts falling asleep, all 200 of us decided to hop on the Tower of Terror (aka Flight 762 to London's Gatwick airport). This thing came up and down, left and right, did some back flips, made babies cry...it was a ride!

We finally landed around 7:45 in the morning, was picked up at the airport and landed in my apartment at around 10:00. The apartment is nice and a bit secluded. I am within walking distance to Canary Wharf where JP Morgan, KPMG, Credit Suisse, HSBC and other institutions are located. I may actually end up moving within the next couple of week since I don't particularly care for the commute.

I walked around for a couple of hours and decided to walk into the Reebok Sports Club for "an induction" (sales pitch). The club is very nice, new equipment, pool, basically the YMCA but with new carpet. Nice place overall, except for the $103 GPB monthly fee (USD $165).

So that's it for now. jet lag is starting to kick-in, so I am going to go ahead and do something to try to stay awake. Keep in touch and check in next week for another update.