THIS WEEK'S JOHNNY JET 1/15/2003
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This year's premier travel distribution event is taking place at the Green Valley Ranch, Las Vegas on March 6-7. This EyeforTravel USA West conference is focusing on Multi-Channel Travel Distribution and Integration. How do we rise to the multi-channel challenge? For more information about this event or Call David Ford on 1 800 814 3459 ext 213 to find out about event discounts, alternatively email David .
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WHERE'S
JOHNNY
JET ?
Didn't
have a chance to read last week's newsletter? Click
here!
KEY:
BOLD
= PICTURE,
HYPER LINK
= WEBSITE
Last week I wrote about my Dad renting a place in L.A. for six (6)
week's. Since he's on vacation we have been dining out a lot.
Everyone seemed to like the restaurants, and now we are getting suggestions
up the wazoo! One reader from Boston wrote that we should try his
favorite breakfast place in Santa Monica. It sounded good, so we did.
Blueberrys
(not Burberry: Amber, I know the girl can't get shopping off of
her mind) is a great place to start the day. On weekends you can
count on the line to be really long. With that in mind, we arrived
early, around 9:30 AM on Sunday. We beat the mad rush because
we only had to wait about twenty minutes. Everything inside had a
blueberry theme, which is kind of cool. For starters, every table
gets a basket of muffins, blueberry of course! The muffins weren't
to die for, but they were good. I stayed with the
Blueberry theme
and ordered a waffle (no need to tell you want kind). I
almost went with the Cold Blue Special (blueberry pancakes with 3 mini
scoops of blueberry ice cream), but I decided to save that for the next
time. But how good does that sound? Umm Ummm! The
only bummer about this place apart from the usual long wait is that it's
not that inexpensive. $9.00 for a waffle is kind of pricey,
but then again it's still a lot cheaper then the $18.00 waffle
I had in NYC
. I'll be back for the Cold Blue Special, you can count on
it! Blueberry: 510 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA. tel. 310.394.7766.
No need to tell you about the next place because I am sure you have
all been to one of their 59 locations;
The Cheesecake Factory
. I remember the first
time I took my Mom to one and she said "I don't want Cheesecake for dinner!"
I said "Mom, they don't just have cheesecake, in fact they have everything
you can possibly imagine from sandwiches, to steaks". (The menu
lists over 200 selections). My favorite is the Thai Lettuce Wraps.
The portions
are so huge that chances are you won't even have room for one of
their 50 cheesecakes, unless of course you're like
my Dad
.
Now let's get down to business (no pun intended, but we did fly Business
Class). Our
trip to NY
was my first flight of 2003, which meant my first experience with
the new baggage screening policy set by the TSA (Transportation Security
Administration) on December 31. I normally don't check luggage
but I had to see for myself how the process was for the typical traveler.
Well, the horror stories that the media painted did not come true at all.
Terminal 7 at LAX was like the rest of the country: smooth. Most terminals
only have one or two EDS machines (The EDS machines are those huge machines
that look like an MRI machine at a hospital). Since those machines
cost so much ($750,000.00) and take a while to scan bags, the TSA has set
up ETD machines (The ETD machines are much smaller and you have probably
seen them at the security check point. They are now the primary scanning
machines used in most airports). If you are checking bags then the
agent will put the normal 3 letter destination code tag on your bag.
Instead of putting it directly on the conveyor belt as they did in the
past, the agent will give it back to you and send you to either the EDS
and/or EDT machine. I was designated for one of the EDT's.
I walked just a few feet to the TSA agent working the one of the many ETD
machines. It seemed like they had one of these for each check-in
counter. (I would've taken pictures to help explain this, but with
all the new policies, I wasn't taken the chance of getting thrown in jail.
Believe me; the US government does not like people taking pictures in airports
anymore. They fear you might be a terrorist plotting, and I've already
had one close call). Back to the process: The screener will
take a swab (rub a cloth around the zippers) of your bag and then place
the swab into the ETD machine for analysis. They are looking
for bomb residue and they don't open your bag unless the results come back
positive. Note: The agents do not like you to hover over
them so they most likely will ask you to step back. Once I was clear,
I picked my bag back up and handed it back to a check-in agent who then placed
it on the conveyor belt to get loaded on to the plane. The next time
I saw my lovely bag was at JFK. It's always a deep sigh when you see
your bag made it! The TSA claims that about 90 percent of all checked
bags are being screened electronically and the other 10% are being screened
either by hand or by police dogs. I give the TSA an "A" because they have
been doing a fantastic job ever since they took over on November 19, 2002.
As I mentioned last week we were in NYC to attend my cousin AJ's engagement party. The party was at the Suede Lounge located on West 23rd St. between 7th and 8th avenues. I knew the party was going to be blast because it was guaranteed to be a DiScala- Soprano family reunion. With that combo, how could it not be a good time? Many of the show’s cast members were there. Even better, a lot of my cousins who I haven't seen in a while were there. How many times do you have two John DiScala's at the same party? Not many. There were about 350 guests and the DJ had the music cranking. It was so loud you really couldn't carry on a conversation, so you just had to yell and give one of those nods and smile like you heard what a person said. One of the coolest things there was a photo booth just like you see in the arcades. It was a big hit and everyone took funny pictures!
Last week I wrote how I lost my cell phone twice within two hours
because I was still in a fog over the Giants heart breaking loss to San
Francisco. Well, the only thing funny about losing my cell phone was
how I got it back. Turns out some college kids found it on the back
seat of a taxi and started dialing numbers in my phone book. They
left messages on a couple friends’ machines asking them if they had any
"pot". Luckily, they called my quick thinking cousin AJ (good
thing he was one of the first numbers listed) and they said, “Hey, we have
this Johnny Jet character’s cell phone and we will only give it back to
you for $100.00! AJ was with Jamie grabbing a late night snack and
he thought to himself, "There is no way Johnny Jet is going to pay these
knuckle heads a $100.00 ransom for a lousy Sprint PCS phone that has bad
reception. (O.K., I added the last four words). He said,” how about
instead of $100.00, you come down here to this diner and I will introduce
you to Meadow Soprano. They said, “no way, we don't believe you".
He said if it's not her keep the phone. Well, it turns out they were
huge Soprano fans and meeting her made their year, which meant I got my
phone back for FREE! FYI: If you ever leave your phone in the back
of a NYC taxi, don't even bother wasting your time calling the taxi company.
I've had to do it twice now and they are complete morons. I guess I'm a
bigger one for leaving it in there in the first place.
We didn't just fly in and out for the party (we almost did). Instead,
we were able to play with my
niece and nephew
before they went home to Pennsylvania and enjoyed hanging out in
NYC, spending some quality time with the newly engaged couple. Also,
we were able to make it out to Connecticut for a day so we could take
my Mom's best friend's
to lunch in honor of her birthday.
My Mom
wasn't only there in spirit, but in
pictures as well.
Amber Airplane and I were walking through Times Square when she noticed the pretty new and very cool Toys-R-Us store. It has a Ferris wheel inside. That's right; a 4 story indoor Ferris wheel. What will they think of next? This thing was so phat even I had to go for a 10-15 minute spin. It cost only $2.50 per person and each compartment has different cartoon characters . They had a bunch I never even heard of, but I did recognize ET, the M&M’s, and of course Geoffrey the Toys-R-Us mascot. Amber Airplane talked me into sitting in the Barbie car with her. After a few minutes the thrill started to wear off and Amber and I were getting a bit dizzy. Besides, from the top, I spotted Candy Land and we were anxious to go check that out before we had to leave for dinner. I told the guy we had enough and we ran to Candy Land . “Oh, my-gosh”, I felt like a kid again. They had the best candies and chocolates. They had everything! All the normal goodies like Swedish fish and jelly beans, to scrumptious chocolate covered cookie dough and every color M&M you can imagine. I don't normally spend $8.36 per pound for candy, but this time I was happy to. I never thought I would say that Toys-R-Us is better than FAO Schwartz, but I am now.
We were in Times Square for a couple of reasons; Amber Airplane needed to go to some “Sephora” shop and the other was we needed to meet AJ and Jamie backstage of Beauty and the Beast. Jamie will playing Belle till February 9th so go see her ASAP. Jamie toured us around the set and showed us her phat dressing room and then took us to her favorite restaurant; Ruby Foo's (Dim Sum & Sushi Palace) . This place had some tasty Kung Pao Beef and really sweet sticky rice. The food was great, decor awesome, and the service was good. The only problem I think is that they put MSG in their food because both Amber Airplane and I had nightmares that night. No biggie, I’ll definitely be back. They have 2 locations: 2182 Broadway or 1626 Broadway.
BTW: I just got my phone bill in the mail, and I'm not too
happy. My sister was staying at the very posh
Ocean Club
in the Bahamas and I called her there twice. For a hotel
that is so exclusive they couldn't have had worse customer service.
They don't have a live person picking up calls; instead they have a recording
giving you options. When I pressed the button for the operator I was
put on hold for 5 minutes. Knowing that I am making an international
call, I started to fume. I would've much rather had the phone ring
until the slow Bahamian operator picked up. The second time I called,
the same thing happened, except this time to make the situation worse, the
operator who went to transfer me put me on hold and then came back and said
"Who are you holding for again?" Seriously, I wish there was
a button I could've pressed that would've sent a smack through the phone.
The calls to my sister were for a total of 13 minutes which was about 10
minutes of “hold” time. Guess how much my bill was? Nope, no, no-no!
Guess higher! $ 44.00. Just because their guests blow through cash doesn't
mean the people trying to get in touch with them do!
BTW2: Johnny Jet.com Is In The Tour Business! Johnny Jet and Richard Roe have teamed up to personally escort small groups to locations around the world. The first tour will be to Italy this May. A second tour to Italy will occur in September/October of this year. Each tour will be for 14 days and will escort approximately 14 people. The advantage of these tours, over all other is the personal attention given to every detail by Johnny and Richard, and the emphasis will be FUN! We chose Italy because of the INCREDIBLE wonders and diversity this ancient country offers. We will not race from place to place, rather take time to truly absorb all of this country's riches. For more info reply to this message or wait till next week's Johnny Jet!
Safe travels- Johnny Jet.
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WHAT'S
NEW IN
JOHNNY JET
JET CAPTAINS
QUESTION
OF THE WEEK:
Have
you ever had food poisoning from the crew meal, Are you worried about that?
SKYGIRLS
QUESTION
OF THE WEEK:
Does the
crew know the identity of the U.S. Marshall on board? How do you treat
them?
SKYGUY
QUESTION
OF THE WEEK:
Are you
in favor of arming Captains with Guns?
TIP
OF THE WEEK:
Good
Eating In DC, Vancouver, New York, San Francisco and
Philadelphia (From Bestfares.com)
Take advantage of four promotions
that greatly reduce the cost of fine dining or a Philadelphia
event that combines good food with good deeds.
GOOD
TO KNOW!
Rudy
Maxa
helps you kick off the year right
with a great elite travel deal:
The country’s two largest
airlines -- United and American -- are making it easier
than ever to achieve the elite level in their frequent flyer
programs through the end of March. Normally, if you fly 25,000
or 50,000 miles a year, you can step up a level or two in status
in a frequent flyer program. That may allow you to check in at a
business- or first-class ticket counter even if you’re flying
on a cheap, advance-purchase coach ticket. Plus, you’ll earn miles
at an accelerated rate, and you can upgrade more easily.
And, if you’ve got
elite status on one airline, you can send a copy of
your mileage statement to a competing airline, and they’ll
often grant you elite status as well.
But right now, you
have a couple of other options if you’re not yet elite
on any airline. American has a fast-track program called
the “Gold and Platinum Challenge.” Here’s how it works:
Earn a certain number of points within 90 days, beginning
on the first or 16th of any month, and you can reach elite status
immediately. You get half a point for every mile you fly on
a discounted ticket, a full point for every mile on a full-fare
ticket, 1.25 points for business-class tickets, and 1.5 for a first-class
ticket. So, if you can fly two coast-to-coast round trips within
90 days, you’ll be close to gold status because you will have
earned 5,000 points by flying 10,000 miles on a cheap ticket --
or collect 10,000 points and you’ll be awarded platinum level.
Some airlines are allowing
travelers to buy their way to elite status. If you
were within 10,000 miles or 10 segments away from qualifying
for one of United’s elite levels in 2002, send the airline
$25 by February 16th and United will give you until the end of
March to collect those miles. American’s offer is a bit different:
If you’re already gold or platinum, you can buy that same status
for another year. Renew your gold status by paying $395, or $595
for platinum status. The offer is good ‘til the end of March.
Is it really worth
it to pay that kind of money?
Well, it depends how
much you fly. If you think you’ll take only a couple
flights on American this year, then you might want to take
a pass; if you think you’ll fly the airline quite a bit, paying
a flat fee sure beats taking a bunch of unnecessary flights to meet
the mileage qualification.
Resources:
For more info. on extending
the time you may qualify for
elite status on United Airlines
this year.
For info. on paying
a fee to
American Airlines
to renew your gold or platinum
status for another year. For info. on the “Gold and Platinum
Challenge,” call 800-421-0600.
Information to Rudy's monthly newsletter
can be found at
www.rudymaxa.com
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