Shano
Established Member
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
- Posts
- 1,232
AA4345 ORD-PIT (Operated by American Eagle)
ER4
Seat 12C
This Beagle flight is the final flight for the day and it can’t come quickly enough. By now I am feeling very tired and can’t wait to get to PIT to have a shower and go to bed.
It is only a relatively short flight to PIT, 1.5 hours, but I am on the least comfortable of the 5 different aircraft types I have flown on today. I have also only had a few hours sleep since I got out of bed 4:45 this morning, this now being some 30 hours later. It will also be another 2.5 hours until I reach my motel so am starting to feel a little impatient.
I use the luggage valet service for my roll-aboard as I am boarding the ER4, which means handing the ground crew my bag as I am boarding and then waiting in the jetbridge on arrival to collect it again. This is a great service as it means you do not have to check anything larger than a wallet when flying on an ER4…..
I doze on and off during this short flight. The times I am awake I look out of the window and am amazed at how densely populated this area of the US is. Every time I look there seems to be an endless array of lights from towns and cities as far as the eye can see. This is in stark contrast from flying say MEL-BNE at night, where for the majority of the flight it is completely dark.
We land on time at PIT at the very end of D concourse, so it is a reasonable walk to the central hub to catch the train back to the main terminal. Fortunately the wait for the train is only a couple of minutes. With no checked luggage I am soon heading out of the terminal towards the taxi rank. It is 10:40pm at this stage and I wasn’t sure how long I would need to wait, but fortunately there are a couple of taxi’s waiting and no-one else queuing for one.
There was a taxi attendant there who asked me where I was going. When I gave him the address of the Comfort Inn where I would be staying, which is only a 10 minute ride from the airport, he proceeded to say “Oh… there is an additional $12 charge for drops to Oakdale”. I was a bit peeved as the fare itself should have only been $15, but now I would have to fork out for another $10 (and a tip). It seems that this is a surcharge to ensure the drivers get a reasonable fare. It would be a bit like me getting a cab from SYD and asking to be dropped off at Brighton Le Sands – would not make for a very happy camper. To cap things off the meter stops just as we are leaving the airport, so the driver has to continually power it off and back on again to get it to reset.
As we pull into the motel the meter is quickly reset and I am told “That will be $29”. I hand him a $50 note and when he asks how much change I want back I say $20 (and was tempted to say keep the $1 for getting off your cough and putting my bag in the back….but didn’t). As you can see my mood has somewhat darkened from lack of sleep and minor annoyances such as this. So, driver does not get a tip other than $1 for handling my bag, but did get a decent mile fine (or should this be time fine) because I asked to be dropped off so close to the airport.
[I should add here before everyone thinks that I really am a tight cough that I do usually tip appropriately when in the LOTFAP, but sometimes the lack of a tip is the best way to say you were not impressed with the service….. YMMV]
I get my room key, wander upstairs (again thankful that I do not have a large suitcase as there is no lift) and find my room. I quickly grab everything out of my bag and hang it up on the clothes rails (no built-ins in this room) and decide that everything is sufficiently uncrushed so that I will not need to iron anything for tomorrow. Following a very welcome shower I am then in bed, feeling pretty exhausted from the events of the previous 34 hours since my alarm went off in MEL. Hopefully I will sleep like a baby…..
ER4
Seat 12C
This Beagle flight is the final flight for the day and it can’t come quickly enough. By now I am feeling very tired and can’t wait to get to PIT to have a shower and go to bed.
It is only a relatively short flight to PIT, 1.5 hours, but I am on the least comfortable of the 5 different aircraft types I have flown on today. I have also only had a few hours sleep since I got out of bed 4:45 this morning, this now being some 30 hours later. It will also be another 2.5 hours until I reach my motel so am starting to feel a little impatient.
I use the luggage valet service for my roll-aboard as I am boarding the ER4, which means handing the ground crew my bag as I am boarding and then waiting in the jetbridge on arrival to collect it again. This is a great service as it means you do not have to check anything larger than a wallet when flying on an ER4…..
I doze on and off during this short flight. The times I am awake I look out of the window and am amazed at how densely populated this area of the US is. Every time I look there seems to be an endless array of lights from towns and cities as far as the eye can see. This is in stark contrast from flying say MEL-BNE at night, where for the majority of the flight it is completely dark.
We land on time at PIT at the very end of D concourse, so it is a reasonable walk to the central hub to catch the train back to the main terminal. Fortunately the wait for the train is only a couple of minutes. With no checked luggage I am soon heading out of the terminal towards the taxi rank. It is 10:40pm at this stage and I wasn’t sure how long I would need to wait, but fortunately there are a couple of taxi’s waiting and no-one else queuing for one.
There was a taxi attendant there who asked me where I was going. When I gave him the address of the Comfort Inn where I would be staying, which is only a 10 minute ride from the airport, he proceeded to say “Oh… there is an additional $12 charge for drops to Oakdale”. I was a bit peeved as the fare itself should have only been $15, but now I would have to fork out for another $10 (and a tip). It seems that this is a surcharge to ensure the drivers get a reasonable fare. It would be a bit like me getting a cab from SYD and asking to be dropped off at Brighton Le Sands – would not make for a very happy camper. To cap things off the meter stops just as we are leaving the airport, so the driver has to continually power it off and back on again to get it to reset.
As we pull into the motel the meter is quickly reset and I am told “That will be $29”. I hand him a $50 note and when he asks how much change I want back I say $20 (and was tempted to say keep the $1 for getting off your cough and putting my bag in the back….but didn’t). As you can see my mood has somewhat darkened from lack of sleep and minor annoyances such as this. So, driver does not get a tip other than $1 for handling my bag, but did get a decent mile fine (or should this be time fine) because I asked to be dropped off so close to the airport.
[I should add here before everyone thinks that I really am a tight cough that I do usually tip appropriately when in the LOTFAP, but sometimes the lack of a tip is the best way to say you were not impressed with the service….. YMMV]
I get my room key, wander upstairs (again thankful that I do not have a large suitcase as there is no lift) and find my room. I quickly grab everything out of my bag and hang it up on the clothes rails (no built-ins in this room) and decide that everything is sufficiently uncrushed so that I will not need to iron anything for tomorrow. Following a very welcome shower I am then in bed, feeling pretty exhausted from the events of the previous 34 hours since my alarm went off in MEL. Hopefully I will sleep like a baby…..