If you've been reading these show reports on a regular basis, you'll know that I'm somewhat frugal (as in a dyed-in-the-wool cheapskate) when it comes to spending glass-collecting dollars on plane fares. If a show's located within three or four hours drive of Atlanta, then I'll try and attend, but flying, nah, way too expensive.
Unfortunately
there are only a couple of shows located within a few hours of Atlanta, so my
bottle-browsing activities have been seriously curtailed since moving south. Luckily, however, a recent trip to Florida to attend an 80th
birthday celebration had pushed my US Airways frequent-flyer account a few miles
above the magical 25,000 need to claim a free ticket and I was now eager to use
it before the miles expired. What better way of doing so than to head out
to the west coast for the FOHBC National, to be held this year in Los Angeles,
CA!!!
The west coast is, of course, a shot-collector's Mecca, and I was eager to snarf up some prime Golden-State glass and just as eager to catch up with Western collecting colleagues such as Ken Schwartz, Kevin Wade, Ed Sipos, Rich Lucchesi and with mail order-vendors Bruce Silva and Jim & Julie Dennis.
The show dates dates (July 31- August 2) for once did not conflict with other plans, so I booked a room at the show hotel, booked a car that I could pick up at LAX, and logged into my frequent-flyer account to book a flight. After selecting a convenient outbound flight, I was stunned to discover that 25,000 miles was good for only one leg of the trip - US Airways now required 50,000 miles for a round trip ticket. $@**#, @$**#, $@**# -ity $@**# !!! Have I mentioned how much I hate US Airways?!
New plan. I'll use the frequent flyer miles for the outbound flight and then come back on a one-way ticket for only $100. Except US Airways also charges 50,000 miles for a one-way ticket. $@**#, @$**#, $@**# -ity $@**# !!! Have I mentioned how much I hate US Airways?!
OK, how much does it cost to buy 25,000 US Airways frequent-flyer miles - lemme see ----- $625............... $@**#, @$**#, $@**# -ity $@**# !!!
By now I
was hooked on the idea of attending so, cheapskate or not, I forked over the
full price of an Atlanta/Los Angeles round-trip ticket (on Airtran not US
Airways) and started
planning my trip.
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