Hotels are booked (I think), as well!

Now, just to survive two midterms, one in organic chemistry, one in biology. Orgo goes tomorrow, which, sadly, is why I must truncate this post, head to bed, and wake up at 6.30am and keep studying. Until tomorrow, dear readers.

I’ll report back later. Still on hold.

Goodness gracious.

But . . . I will have that musings on award booking and award booking services up tomorrow.

I swear I’m trying to do better at this whole consistent blogging thang in the aftermath of the hiatus. I swear.

Yeah, suffice it to say, yesterday wasn’t such a good day for the advancement of my biology studies, especially with next Thursday’s midterm (oops!) but, well, finally, we  locked up our international first class award to Tokyo and Thailand for Spring Break, using Aeroplan miles.

As about which I spoke in a previous post, I had only ever previously booked an award ticket with United miles, and despite the ignominy of Starnet blocking, had managed to lock up some pretty swell award tickets (Uzbekistan, Iraq, Macedonia, Berlin, Tokyo, China) on some pretty froufrou carriers (Singapore Airlines, Swiss, Lufthansa, US Airways – no, there, I jest).  I was not quite sure what to expect when booking an award with Air Canada. I thought, somewhat erroneously, that booking an award ticket with Air Canada, perhaps,  would prove to be an entirely easy experience that I would complete in under 30 minutes, with any flight available, on any date, on any route. A bit (okay, entirely) idealistic and quixotic, sure, but when you’re used to dealing with Starnet blocking and United’s agents, some of whom (Detroit call center, cough, cough) would be better served tending bar at some hole by the docks, you somehow think that the alternatives will present a much more pleasant experience.

Overall, though flights were not trammeled by Starnet blocking, I found the experience of chatting with my new friends at Air Canada quite similar to my chums at United. As I often experience when calling United, with Air Canada, there still existed a mix of agents,  some willing to work diligently to find a route and award availability, some hoping I would simply give up and hang up the phone, and some defensive or even offended if I had some idea of flight availability with two first class award seats, based on prior research. Moreover, a la United, there still existed agents who made up, or simply of which they had no idea, of award rules, melding their own concoctions of stipulations concerning stopover rules, legal connection times, and mileage requirements.

Still, though, I couldn’t wait to try to use Aeroplan miles, based on their wonderfully generous Asia first class award tickets for only 120,000 miles, two stopovers, and the ability to route to Asia via the Atlantic, the Pacific, or one in either direction, without a mileage premium or penalty. Sadly, Air Canada does not permit award ticket holds (as does United), or permit changes without a fee (United allows unlimited award changes up until the moment of departure for 1K Mileage Plus members – one of my absolute favorite – and necessary – perks). Most striking, however, was the fact that though I am a non-elite member of Aeroplan, and a 1K Mileage Plus member whose phone calls are routed to a non-overseas helpdesk with, uh, specially “trained” 1K agents, I found the overall erratic mix of demeanor, assiduousness, and effort the same with both airlines.

Here’s the day’s progression:

Call #1: I call Aeroplan for the first time yesterday morning, naked (not literally, of course), but without any sort of actual award flight availability information gleaned from the ANA award booking tool. I simply state to the indifferent sounding French guy on the other end of the line that I’d like to travel to Tokyo and Bangkok from JFK, using either one as a stopover or destination, based on how the routing evolved, via the Pacific one way, and the Atlantic on the return. Oh, and I’d like to make a stopover in San Francisco for two days on the outbound segment so my dear girlfriend, Elizabeth, could see San Francisco, Berkeley, and all of the other areas about which I spend too much time waxing in whiny nostalgia, and the award had to be in first class, for two people, and here were my exact dates.

Yeah, if I were that agent, I’d hate me, too.

I’m experienced enough to know that one cannot simply call with exact dates and routes and expect to wrap up an award in minutes, though, as I stated before, I expected the experience with Air Canada to be logarithmically easier than booking any award in United. I really and truly thought I could lock up my ideal award: New York to San Francisco, stopover, then, onto Tokyo and Bangkok via the Pacific, then back to New York via Europe.

Ignorance stopped me early.

So did award availability.

The agent couldn’t even route us out of New York on the desired date, the 12th of March. He reported he had two first class seats on a United Premium Service flight on the 13th, but with a short enough spring break, I did not want to shed a day to an already truncated period of time. I implored him to search any options via Houston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles – anything. He only had a US Airways flight, with a six hour layover in Philadelphia, that would put us into San Francisco late evening on the 12th, essentially already losing a day of the trip. Realizing I was beat on this round, I thanked him for his time, and hung up.

Post Call 1, and Biology Lecture:

I realized I had better prep myself better for the next call, which meant using the aforementioned ANA award availability tool to search all possible connections and prepare a list of available award routes, and then call Air Canada. In the dwindling minutes before Elizabeth and I needed to leave for class, I feverishly tapped out airport codes and various routes, hoping to find something with which I could work (Elizabeth, oddly, wasn’t interested in hearing about the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the various Star Alliance award booking tools – funny that) . It soon became apparent that, yeah, there were no first/biz class seats for two people to San Francisco on the 12th, on any Star Alliance carrier (and, believe me, I checked every possible route – Houston, Dulles, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Boston, Philly, Las Vegas, flights to Oakland, then, in a moment of desperation, using more creative routing attempts via Dallas, Kansas City, Portland, or Seattle), except an extremely questionable routing on US Airways via Phoenix that arrived quite late into SFO, already losing most of the day. Compounding the lack of JFK – SFO routes was the fact that nothing, and I mean nothing, existed in first class (or even in economy class, for that matter) across the Pacific in the next few days.

Sadly, I became resigned that I would have to abandon the San Francisco portion of the trip, and visit another time. I would have to route via Europe, it appeared, both ways. With a plethora of options across the Atlantic, I was sure I could find something via Europe. I head to class, armed with my laptop.

In class, I have half an ear available to the professor, with 90 percent of my attention on the ANA tool. I start to build a routing: JFK to Frankfurt (FRA) on Lufthansa. FRA – London (LHR) on Lufthansa. LHR – Bangkok (BKK) on Thai Airways, ultimately landing in Bangkok early morning on the 14th. Eventually, I run into the issue of, when hoping to depart BKK for Tokyo (NRT) three days later, despite, oh, 900 flights a day from BKK to NRT, none have any availability. Dismayed, I backtrack to the arrival on the 14th. I can find nothing from Europe to NRT directly, but somehow, find a redeye on Thai Airways from BKK – NRT on the night of the 14th, arriving NRT early morning on the 16th. Elizabeth and I can explore BKK for one day, then head onto Tokyo (taking full advantage of the famous Thai Airways ground festivities at BKK before the flight, of course). There existed availability a few days later, too, to return NRT – BKK, and spend a few days in BKK.

Class ended, and I returned to our apartment, surging with adrenaline (us airline nerds get really odd physiologically when booking award tickets, eh?), and ready to try again.

Call #2: I reach a nice women, who simply asks me to throw her the general details of my trip, and she’ll see what she can find. I try my hand, once more, at the San Francisco run, with heading onto BKK via the Pacific. After a 25 minute hold (an example of a diligent agent!), she tells me she can find nary a flight. She also informs me that stopovers on Aeroplan itineraries must fall within the same region (not true). Getting nowhere, I then try the classic tried-and-true angle, with all the flights I have previously researched. I say, with corn-syrup sweetness, that I had spoken with a previous agent, and that we had constructed a routing previous, but had gotten disconnected. Could, perchance, try to construct the same routing with her?

Of course, she says, but, instead of taking my previously-researched flight numbers and dates, she tries her schemata of taking the general details, and throwing a trip together. She comes back 25 minutes later, with some semblance of a trip, but, then, I somehow add my available flights. Unfortunately, she says, once I return to BKK after NRT, there is absolutely no way to get us home, via Europe or the Pacific (she, apparently, worked hard – I had been on the phone for an hour and sixteen minutes at this point). Using the ANA tool, I somehow find a flight on the 20th from BKK to Munich (MUC) with availability, that she had been unable to find (I made the mistake of telling her I had found said flight through the Lufthansa website, on which she brusquely told me that the flights had to display availability on the Air Canada website – oops!) Crestfallen, it seemed as if I was stymied, with no way to return. I frantically searched the ANA tool, trying to look at Thai Airways’ more obscure flights from BKK to Athens, even, at one point, finding an Egypt Air flight via Cairo, to Europe. We still, however, remain stuck in Munich. I find availability on a United Airlines 777 (I know, I know) to Chicago, and Dulles, but, she says no flights are available. Anything from Copenhagen? Nope. Vienna? Nope. Oslo? Nope. Stockholm? Nope. London? Nope. Warsaw? Nope. Madrid? Nope. I even look into US Airways flights to Boston, Philly, and Charlotte. She claims nothing is available, even in Economy, and laughs, dismissing the vagaries of award availability as the result of spring break. Then, and I have never had such an occurrence happen before, she says her shift has ended, and she will transfer me to a colleague who will help me complete the booking.

The phone seems to go dead, and then rings, and someone answers with “Aeroplan, this is so-and-so.” I explain the situation. She has absolutely no idea of my itinerary, or of the previous agent. Apparently, the previous agent preserved no semblance of my prior itinerary, and well, it has to be built again. Unfortunately, upon building the itinerary, this new agent begins to take issue with the fact that I transit BKK twice – once, in the less-than-24-hour connection (legal), and then again, for the actual stay in BKK, before the flight to MUC. She claims that because NRT is fewer miles, as measured from New York, than BKK, I must head to BKK first, and then onto NRT. I cannot make a stop, even for less than 24 hours, at a city I will transit later. I do not understand the logic at all, but frustrated now, at almost two hours on the phone, while trying to complete a biology problem set, where each problem is punctuated by hold music, then talking to the agent, I acquiesce to her request to try to route Elizabeth and me to NRT first, then to BKK. She can find barely anything – and, worse, cannot find any routing to return home via the Pacific, or Europe, claiming that the available BKK – MUC flight is invalid, because I cannot return to BKK after visiting NRT (Huh?) I tell her I have to run to a meeting, and hang up.

At this point, I am fully charged, frustrated, and anxious to have the award book. We’re very close at this point, but Elizabeth is going to kill me if I don’t settle down and finish our work on the damn bio problem set without interruptions.

Call #3: I try once more, and this time, receive a wonderful male agent with a lilting Irish brogue. An accent like that has to be good luck, I think. It rapidly becomes seamless – he raises no qualms with the legal connection in BKK, but runs into some issues routing us home from MUC. He asks if we can stay an extra day in MUC (why the hell not?), and then finds a flight to Dulles (IAD), and onto Newark (EWR), that will not violate the maximum-permitted-mileage. Would we like that? Hell, yes! After a wait to calculate taxes, some stories (I actually really enjoyed talking with this agent about life for awhile!), we had a reservation number, and an itinerary. Success. Whew.

I’m going to talk a bit tomorrow about how to actually book awards, and muse on whether one actually needs a paid award booking service, but for now, here is our award ticket. I am quite happy with the outcome, given the time and circumstances, but do not think it’s necessarily pristine. I’d like to try to change a few elements prior to departure (perhaps look for Swiss Air availability on the outbound, or return, shedding the United 777 MUC – IAD flight). If I find some sexy availability, I might pony of the 90 Canadian dollars (only 87 US Dollars!) to make the changes. I’m excited to try Lufthansa longhaul First class again (no one agrees, but I think their flat bed is one of the comfiest in the skies), and Thai longhaul first class, and their famous ground services (Thai Spa) in Bangkok. I think, overall, we did quite well, considering the constraints of two people traveling in first class, and the proximity of our departure dates. I’m very pleased.

Here’s the final routing:

JFK – FRA, Lufthansa first class, Boeing 747-400;

FRA – LHR, Lufthansa Euro biz class, Airbus A321;

LHR – BKK, Thai Airways first class, Boeing 747-400;

BKK – NRT, Thai Airways first class, Boeing 747-400;

NRT – BKK, All Nippon Airways biz class, Boeing 767-300;

BKK – MUC, Thai Airways first class, Boeing 747-400;

MUC – IAD, United Airlines first class (yecccch), Boeing 777-200

IAD – EWR, Continental Express steerage, Bombardier Q-200 (on the intriguing side, we have an hour and a half connection in Dulles, and our flight from Munich lands at 2pm, when only 400 other international arrivals pull into Dulles. I’d bet a lot of money we have absolutely no chance of making this connecting flight to Newark).

And, here’s the final visual representation. Just brilliant:

The final route, courtesy of the eminent Great Circle Mapper.

There will, of course, be a full trip report (yeah, yeah, I know).

Next step is to book hotels, and survive our organic chemistry and biology midterms next week. Then, we can possibly think about spring break.

Anyway, it’s a fun story – well, fun for those who enjoy reading about award booking travails (oh, I really do).

My pals from the program and I are about to cook dinner and crack out our organic chemistry problem set, then, I’ll report back about the day’s festivities.

Essentially, I am looking to booking an award for my ladyfriend and myself to Tokyo and Bangkok for spring break. It’ll be the first time I’ve A) ever booked an award ticket with a frequent flyer program other than United, which, ostensibly, means I should avoid United’s insidious Starnet Blocking, and B) ever booked an award for more than one person. I’ve heard varying reports of success for booking two first class seats on one airplane. First class seats, however, often display more award availability in the system than biz or economy seats, because, uh, not too many folks pay outright for first class seats. I’m guessing (well, more feeling optimistic) that I should be able to find a couple of seats on each leg o’ the journey.

I’ll give a report back later on my successes, or failures. I have a few ideal routes in mind – but, I’m sure, as award booking luck always seems to go, that I’ll end up with some other different routing. We’ll see!

Hey – some of the best awards are booked days before departure. It’ll be a helluva spring break.

But . . . I wanted to begin my return with an update to Part II of my 24 hours in Erbil, Iraq trip report. I decided I’d rather add a bit each day than leave the writing completely for long stretches. I’ve added as much as possible today, before leaving work, and heading to MCAT class. I’ll add a bit more tomorrow, and slowly, and actually surely, we’ll finish up this sucker (especially, because in just a few short weeks, there will be another trip report due!)

I’ve added full disclaimers/rationale/instructions for reading the new section within the original post. Click here to be magically transported to the report.

Ah, yes – there is much to discuss – my trip to Tokyo in January, some views on the industry, and a new spring break trip back to Tokyo, and onto Thailand, using Aeroplan miles! (At least, in theory).

Welcome back, and welcome new readers. Of course, you can reach me at waapblog@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter, for more updates.

Thanks for coming back, or just stopping by, dear readers.

I’ve been busy with my last semester of postbac premed, MCAT prep, and moving apartments. I’ve also been taking some time to step back from the travel/miles/points blogosphere, and reflect on my perceptions and how I’ve changed in my personal philosophy since this blog launched just about one year ago. It’s been nice to immerse myself in the travel/miles/points blogosphere as an observer and reader, and distance myself from the writer/bloviator outlet for a bit. I’ll have my thoughts later.

See you all on the first of March.

Usually, the rumors perpetrated by folks on FlyerTalk, again, often picked up in the haze of a few too many Crown Royal and Sprites in first class on the run down to San Diego in some ephemeral conversation with an employee, and shared on FlyerTalk with the excitement of a six-year-old at a birthday party, before he pukes his cake and ice cream in the moon bounce house, as if the passenger had received a piece of exclusive and privileged information, coalesce to the legitimacy of a Bigfoot sighting. But, today, our friend and United Airlines online Twitter/FlyerTalk presence, UnitedPR (who, to be fair, is getting much better at this Twitter thing, but that’s for another  time), posted a letter from Vice Prez of Mileage Plus, Robert Sahadevan, announcing that come Monday, February 1, as rumored (!), passengers will be able to book one-way award tickets online for one-half of the number of required roundtrip miles, on United and United Express. It also looks as if United is introducing some sort of cash-and-miles option, of which details are sparse. I steal an excerpt from the letter, from this FlyerTalk post, for reprinting here:

With Mileage Plus’ One-Way Awards, you can travel one-way for half the miles of a roundtrip award (starting at 12,500 miles for a domestic Saver award) on United or United Express. Miles & Money Awards enable you to book a roundtrip flight, hotel stay or car rental for fewer miles by making up the difference in cash. More information about these new awards will be available on Monday at www.mileageplus.com.

Our work continues. Initially, One-Way Awards and Miles & Money Awards will only be available online. You will be able to call Reservations to book these awards later this year. The ability to mix and match award levels – Saver or Standard Awards – for a roundtrip award ticket will be available in the summer. I realize that you can mix and match awards now (or shall I say starting on Monday) by creating multiple PNRs. That will change and you will be able to do this on one PNR in the near future. Other new products continue to be developed and will transform Mileage Plus into the most rewarding loyalty program for you.

Everyone loves the idea of one-way awards. It’s a common traveler lament to be unable to redeem miles on United for one half of a journey only, when it just seems like such a simple concept. After all, if one can buy a one-way ticket, and earn miles on said ticket, why not be able to redeem miles for the same type of travel, especially if United’s cool-kid bigger brother American, and slightly renegade/out there/probabaly in an indy rock band of some sort cousin Alaska Airlines already offer one-way awards. Besides the basic necessity some travelers have for one-way awards, one-way award tickets could prove invaluable for positioning flights for mileage runs (runs that originate in some other  city besides your home base), and for when you just have to take the flight on some route that is usually frighteningly expensive (San Diego – Los Angeles, for instance). Moreover, with United eliminating close-in mileage award booking fees last year, I could see passengers enjoying the extra flexibility of the option to book one-way award tickets for last minute travel, when fares usually run quite high.

I do like the idea, as well. But – part of me remains a bit trepid because, as one can discern, this letter is just a smidge vague on, uh, pretty much all of the details. I’m truly worried that a one-way award benefit change will cause United to follow their bro American Airlines, and remove straightforward stopovers on award tickets, as American implemented when they brought one-way awards to fruition. There do still exist, however, ways to work in a stopover on American, but their rules are so complex that it’s like trying to understand quantum mechanics from a book written in Sanskrit. Personally, I love the ability to book a stopover on an award ticket. The stopover allows for a visit to an additional city within a larger itinerary, at no extra mileage cost. On my three major international awards I’ve booked with United, to China, Uzbekistan, and Iraq, I’ve used the stopover option on each one. As someone who actually enjoys the destination, as opposed to someone who only pretends to find enjoyment in the destination, but really only enjoys the temporary nice treatment and respect from a first class award ticket, I would be incensed if United removed the straightforward stopover option. I already have a spring break award ticket idea brewing in my head, complete with stopover.

Even more worrisome, too, are the glaring technical issues. I can already foresee a cornucopia of problems and complications resulting from the new system. One can only book online, and can’t book one-way awards over the phone until next year. Okay, but, what if I run into a technical issue> As every good United flyer knows, the United website is rife with technical issues, error messages, and plagued by the inability to execute anything besides the simplest of itineraries. Is one going to be able to call Web Support, and have them book one-way awards for you? Why train Web Support to finish booking, and not your phone agents? As well, if one wants to book multiple one-way awards, for, say, hopping around multiple cities on one-way tickets, the letter informs us so kindly that each ticket will have to be booked on a new passenger record – leading to more hassle, more areas for technology to fail or become garbled, and more for which the traveler and the airline to keep in mind and monitor. Basically, it sounds as if they’re rolling out a really clunky and questionable prototype of this one-way award system, like sending an airplane out for a test flights with only a wing on the right side.

Of course, we will have to wait until Monday for more answers – such as, will one-way award tickets be available, eventually, for booking on Star Alliance partners, or solely on United, and the stopover rules. I’m still a bit worried that United will eliminate the free stopover. The dear airline tends to follow American’s cues.

We’ll check out the hooplah in just a couple of days.

I made it back from Tokyo, spent a few days at home in San Francisco, and now, am back to NYC, where, well, it’s been a hellish first week of the program, already, and has very, very expediently thrown me into that sinking feeling I usually do not experience until the middle of the semester, and reminded me of how to run without any sleep already. Man, if I feel this good starting the second week, I imagine I’ll be comatose by midterm season.

Anyway, we’re back in action, folks. Ah, there is much on which to write and provide updates. In the coming days, look for:

-Some trip reports/photographs from Tokyo, including my harrowing experience in the mighty throes of that famous cross-Pacific severe turbulence;

-A rundown of an evening out in Tokyo, which commenced with simply striding into an English-and-white-person-free restaurant found in the back alley of Shinjuku, and simply saying, “Bring us what’s good” (ironically, we communicated in English). Warning – for those that the hotel lounge constitutes a fine international dining experience where you can make dinner of old reliable Japanese favorites such as pizza-flavored puff pastries, you might want to steer clear of such a report, or inject yourself with Haldol to calm down, then read about someone being so adventurous as to go out to a restaurant to eat.

-A report on some restraunteuring (I’m making that a verb, dammit) in NYC this past weekend;

-A review of a Briggs & Reilly piece o’ luggage; and

-Some thoughts/philosophy/musings on the quest for elite status this year.

The ideas have been brewing, folks. Of course, I’m obviously a bit behind in the blog-o-rama, and saw quite a few pieces over the past week-and-a-half, or so, that have sparked some thought. Truthfully, I’ve been most intrigued by this piece of January 22, 2010, from our pal Gary Leff, czar of View From the Wing.

The entry is entitled,”Rich Enough Not to Waste Time . . . Customizing my Coffee.” At first, when I saw the title, I thought, ohhhhhhhhhhh, boy – here we go again – but, after delving into the piece a few times, I realized that our friend Gary might be onto something here. (BTW: Gary has actually commented, once, on this blog, which means he actually deigns to read it, at least occasionally! I guess he’s not to rich to waste his time reading our shoddy little operation).

Anyway, the piece references a Wall Street Journal fluff feature on some of the perks and exclusivities enowed upon the frequent luxury business traveler. Overall, the Journal piece has relatively little benefit for society except sensationalist value, and to allow frequent luxury biz travelers pontificate for a bit on some fun little customizations of benefits outside the normal realm of hotel munificence given to them by groveling and servile hotel managers and flight crews, such as a bowls of popcorn (Whoa! Don’t hurt yourself with going overboard now) and treadmills parked right in the room upon arrival (for when that naked workout is just imperative), ostensibly as a reward for loyalty. Yes, I fully concede why the Journal would run such an article – reading about the flying and hotel habits of the hotsy-totsy instead of the hoi-polloi is much more satisfying than reading about, say, when the traveling sawblade salesman that receives a free pack of Hostess Donuts from the vending machine from the staff at the Windsock, Iowa Dyas-Inn on Rural Route 9 for his loyalty for spending most of his nights on the road at Days Inn last year. I’ll dig the article to that extent.

Gary discusses how he likes this idea and actual practice of cusomization within certain hotels and companies, referencing how Avis knows not to ever send him to a Town Car, and certain hotels can remember how he takes his morning coffee. For Gary, it’s the definition of service:

“To me, and in this story, how I take my coffee matters. Not having to sacrifice, or repeat myself, or think about how to get what I want or what I’m used to. That’s service, it engenders loyalty, and it is what sets apart a good hotel from a great one, makes a stay memorable, and leads me to be an evangelist for the property.”

At first, I though. With all due respect, Gary (if I may call you that), does it really take that long to reiterate how you take your coffee? Like, can you spare a few seconds? Fair enough, it’s nice to have your perfectly-crafted coffee plunked in front of you, but I’m really not sure that should be criteria for what distinguishes a “good” hotel from a “great one.” How long does it really take to say, “with cream and sugar, please.” I wasn’t buying it – unless Gary has some really special instructions that might take a while to repeat – beans only ground with a forged-steel blade of a low tensile strength (really allows the beans to breathe), and milk foamed using steam of a certain PSI, I just don’t really think having someone know your coffee order is all that unique and would force me to crow the praises of a certain hotel property.

But, then, I realized, perhaps Gary is right. I know that when I worked in Downtown Oakland for a year after undergraduate at a law firm, I really enjoyed how the guy at the taqueria one block away knew my order each time – super chile verde, con todo – and even knew my prefered type of beans. I always liked how his wife, who worked the cash regsiter, knew I liked two little cups of hot sauce, and extra napkins, because I sometimes eat with the grace and class of a teething baby. I had to smile when I returned to the taqueria, rabid to taste of one of their sumptuous burritos once again) in the begining of January, almost one year since I left the Bay Area for a burrito-less life in New York, they rolled out the burrito with extra napkins and extra hot sauce. Absolutely charming, I thought. And, yeah, I’ll admit – it makes you feel a bit warmer, and welcome.

But – was that the sole source of my loyalty?  Did it encompass the entire experience? Did it cause me to become an evangelist on a public access TV station for Axtlan Taqueria ? (No, mostly, because I think there is only one taqueria in Downtown Oakland). Frankly, what kept me returning was that the burritos were damn good, and with a job that horrendous, sometimes, by golly, I need a bit of food therapy to keep sane. Essentially, I do not base an experience, nor do I really distinguish between “good” and “great,” based on whether someone knows how I like my coffee (whole milk, only, for those mildly interested), or have moved the whole hotel gym into my hotel room. I really feel capable of ordering my own coffee, regardless of hotel quality.

And, hey – unlike Gary, I didn’t even have to tell them of these customizations. They simply remembered, on their own. Not too shabby.

Perhaps Gary and I aren’t so far disparate. After all, our names vary solely by the transposition of one letter, we both seem to enjoy the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., we both enjoy higher-fat milk products in our coffee.

Mine, though, need not be customized.