In my typical disorganized fashion, I began to pack and prepare for the trip at around 6PM on the eve of my departure. Since this is also a work-related trip (in part), I had to increase my load by a couple pairs of slacks and a few dress shirts, but simplicity has always been been my key to stress free travel.

New toys making their debut on this are my D70 w/ assortment of goodies and an IPOD nano stocked with a few hundred songs that I’m partial to.

I always hate arriving on LoS at midnight, so I opted for the Thai Air direct out of JFK, which arrives around 4PM. I’ve never flown TA going to SEA, only within SEA, so I’m hoping I am not too miserable with these economy seats. Price was apprx. lk RT, but the extra dollars are well spent IMHO.

After my brief shuttle to JFK, I encountered my first snafu—I went through ticketing and glanced at the restrictions on the ticket and notice “NO FFP MILES”…. I lit into the ticketing agent and then my travel agent to no avail… WTF#@#$. Imagine that—35 (RT) or so hours in the air with 0 miles… If I wasn’t going to be in LoS tomorrow afternoon, I suppose I would let this eat at me, but there is not much I can do about it now except accept the fact and file a complaint with my travel agent’s customer service dept for being negligent in informing me abuut the restriction. Mai bpen rai.

The little bitching that I did at the ticketing agent paid off slightly tho, he gave me a nice bulkhead seat to ease SOME of my pain.

The itin for this trip is a bit convoluted as I will be fitting in a couple weeks of work/play in Shenzhen, China basically looks something like so: bos-jfk-bkk-szn-bkk-hkg-bkk-jfk-bos. I've never been to Shenzhen, but I'm sure it will be a blast considering china has been basically my home away from home over the last l5 years.

The only question I’m pondering is if and where I will take my side trip to this trip. I was planning on cambo and booking Ben ANOTHER time and not stand him up, but several hombres, who I also immensely enjoy hanging with will be in AC during some of my free time… Decisions Decisions…. After all is said and done, I enjoy hanging with certain friends during my vacations ALMOST as much as any facet of a trip, so I may consider a little AC run even though the small town atmosphere and daily overdoses of drama has left me very fatiqued for the location.

---
Cast of characters:
MX-- haven't seen him in a while and I find my time spend with him mongering thoroughly enjoyable. He is an outgoing (extrovert), generous, fun loving, insatiable monger who brings out the best in those around him.
Blazers-- middle of the ground in terms of personality, much like myself. He's perhaps slighlty more subdued than I, but we're nearly an identical match in terms of schedules/likes/dislikes/etc-- will be great to tip a few with him again.
KM-- more of an intorvert, but a class act through and though and a fountain of knowledge. Not to mention, we have roughly the same taste when it comes to “good” food. One of the few people I actually keep tabs on with regards to travel dates to give an indication of the respect I have for him.
Bahtman-- Amazingly, our paths have never crossed and this will be our first meeting. Over the years, I've thoroughly enjoyed his photographic skills which he's shared on the board.
Various new guys-- there's plenty of new people to meet and greet if time allows. CH really has a great group of guys-- specially the core contributors. I highly recommend meeting other hombres for a drink.


---
For hotels, in bkk I'm staying at dynasty for 2 nights and then jw marriot for a couple weeks. In pattaya, I'll split time between dynasty and Bella Villa Prima. In Shenzhen-- the Sheraton.

Follow-up: Never made it out of LoS cept for the time I had to work. Regardless of how much time I spend here, it is never enough. I will book my next trip into SIN to force myself to force myself outa what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable LoS addiction. At the very least I need to head to jkt and pp before I settle down in LoS and China.

ahh here we go again.. not sure why but your preview is showing the formatting as fine, but it's coming out garbled... plz delete first post.

(Message edited by donmarco on December 08, 2005)

In my typical disorganized fashion, I began to pack and prepare for the trip at around 6PM on the eve of my departure. Since this is also a work-related trip (in part), I had to increase my load by a couple pairs of slacks and a few dress shirts, but simplicity has always been been my key to stress free travel.

New toys making their debut on this are my D70 w/ assortment of goodies and an IPOD nano stocked with a few hundred songs that I'm partial to.

I always hate arriving on LoS at midnight, so I opted for the Thai Air direct out of JFK, which arrives around 4PM. I'vve never flown TA going to SEA, only within SEA, so I'm hoping I am not too miserable with these economy seats. Price was apprx. lk RT, but the extra dollars are well spent IMHO.

After my brief shuttle to JFK, I encountered my first snafu--I went through ticketing and glanced at the restrictions on the ticket and notice "NO FFP MILES!". I lit into the ticketing agent and then my travel agent to no avail thinking to myself WTF-- Imagine that, 35 (RT) or so hours in the air with 0 miles! If I wasn't going to be in LoS tomorrow afternoon, I suppose I would let this eat at me, but there is not much I can do about it now except accept the fact and file a complaint with my travel agent's customer service dept for being negligent in informing me abuut the restriction. Mai bpen rai.

The little bitching that I did at the ticketing agent paid off slightly tho, he gave me a nice bulkhead seat to ease SOME of my pain.

The itin for this trip is a bit convoluted as I will be fitting in a couple weeks of work/play in Shenzhen, China basically looks something like so: bos-jfk-bkk-szn-bkk-hkg-bkk-jfk-bos. I've never been to Shenzhen, but I'm sure it will be a blast considering china has been basically my home away from home over the last l5 years.

The only question I'm pondering is if and where I will take my side trip to this trip. I was planning on cambo and booking Ben ANOTHER time and not stand him up, but several hombres, who I also immensely enjoy hanging with will be in AC during some of my free time. Decisions Decisions! After all is said and done, I enjoy hanging with certain friends during my vacations ALMOST as much as any facet of a trip, so I may consider a little AC run even though the small town atmosphere and daily overdoses of drama has left me very fatiqued for the location.

---
Cast of characters:
MX-- haven't seen him in a while and I find my time spend with him mongering thoroughly enjoyable. He is a outgoing, generous, fun loving, insatiable monger who brings out the best in those around him.
Blazers-- middle of the ground in terms of personality, much like myself. He's perhaps slighlty more subdued than I, but we're nearly an identical match in terms of schedules/likes/dislikes/etc-- will be great to tip a few with him again.
KM-- the quiet guy w/ an in exhaustible fountain of knowledge and wisdom. A class act through and though and a fountain of knowledge. Not to mention, we have roughly the same taste when it comes to good food. One of the few people I actually keep tabs on with regards to travel dates to give an indication of the respect I have for him.
Bahtman-- Amazingly, our paths have never crossed and this will be our first meeting. Over the years, I've thoroughly enjoyed his photographic skills which he's shared on the board.
Various new guys-- there's plenty of new people to meet and greet if time allows. CH really has a great group of guys-- specially the core contributors. I highly recommend meeting other hombres for a drink.


---
For hotels, in bkk I'm staying at dynasty for 2 nights and then jw marriot for a couple weeks. In pattaya, I'll split time between dynasty and Bella Villa Prima. In Shenzhen-- the Sheraton.

Follow-up: Never made it out of LoS cept for the time I had to work. Regardless of how much time I spend here, it is never enough. I will book my next trip into SIN to force myself to force myself outa what is otherwise a thoroughly enjoyable LoS addiction. At the very least I need to head to jkt and pp before I settle down in LoS and China.

Hey DM, as a fellow FF miles junkie I can TOTALLY relate w/ your comment about your agent's negligence (GROSS NEGLIGENCE). I had a shady agent once who tried that on me, the dude wanted his measly commission at my expense. I shivered at the thought of foregoing all those miles, I would've went U.S. Postal on someone
:-)

Looking forward to your report.

Merl-- I called and lit into my travel agent while in JFK. They replied with a "we will note the complaint" and "we're sorry", but nothing else.

I didn't expect anything to come of it. I am delighted to say that 1 week after arrviing in LoS my UAL account posted the segment ;)