Rhonda Bracey: At Random

• PER to SYD Thursday, overnight at SYD airport
• SYD-DFW Friday – flight delayed nearly 2 hours, but only 30 mins late into DFW. First Class upgrade on points, didn’t sleep; First Class only half full (only 6 people of a possible 14)
• DFW- DCA (Ronald Reagan Airport, Washington DC) – delayed leaving for 40 mins as bad weather in DC area meant air traffic issues. Had a 2-hour window to next flight, reduced to 1 hour after the delay leaving DFW. Asked on arrival about next gate, only to be told flight to Burlington VT was cancelled! So after 35 hours of little to no sleep, my final 90-minute flight (due to depart at 10:20pm) was cancelled because of air traffic issues resulting from earlier bad weather in Washington DC area. No flight until 3pm following day, so had to find a hotel nearby and wait it out. Suitcase tagged from SYD to BTV, so it remained in the bowels of Ronald Reagan Airport — I was assured (by Sheena, AA Customer Service counter in Terminal C, 14 July 2017 ~10:30pm – yes it took an hour and a half to get to the front of the Customer Service line) that my bag will be retagged and will join me on my new flight on the 15th. Here’s hoping!!!
• 3pm flight to Burlington the next day was 40 mins late leaving. The Admirals Club lounge AA agent told me my suitcase had been sent on the 10:20am flight and was already in Burlington, and the AA app confirmed this. The agent told me to go straight to the baggage claim people to get the bag as it would be behind the counter/out the back. On arrival at Burlington, that’s what I did, but the agent there said she didn’t have the bag and she ‘knew all the bags out the back’. She checked her system and said it was on the baggage carousel for my flight. But after waiting for all bags to come through, it obviously wasn’t there. So back to baggage claim where another agent said, ‘Oh yes, it’s out the back — I remember the name’. And I was reunited with my suitcase after wasting nearly an extra hour at the airport trying to get it. The incompetence of American Airlines has really been on show this trip!

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From my Facebook post about this trip and the delays:

Well, it’s midnight on the east coast of the US and I should be landing at Burlington airport in Vermont about now. Instead, I’m in a hotel room in Crystal City, Virginia (no, I have no idea where that is either, but it’s close to Reagan Airport in Washington DC). It’s a long story, but after 35 hours awake (cat napping only on the long flight, as usual), I’m about done and ready for bed. Short version — weather at DC delayed my flight to DC from Dallas by 40 mins. All good, as I had a 2-hour window. Got in with an hour to spare to find that AA had cancelled the 10:20pm Burlington flight! The next flight is 10:20am tomorrow, but it’s fully booked, so I’m on the next one after that — 3pm tomorrow getting in to Burlington at 4:30pm. My 8 days in Vermont is suddenly 7.

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While this was all going on, I received several emails from AA, but they ALL had incorrect information! I checked with both Qantas (in Sydney Airport) and AA agents and got them to confirm that I was still listed on the correct flights etc. The emails had:

• incorrect dates (checked at SYD – all OK; assumed clerical error in the emails)
• incorrect info (leave DCA 2:59pm, arrive 11:51 pm!! when actual time of arrival was scheduled to be 4:30pm; another clerical error)
• rebooking details when my flights were was still showing as OK at Admirals Club in DFW (likely incorrect info on the system that the agent’s could see even though the auto emails may have been correct)

I was NEVER travelling on AA on 13 July — my booking was always for the 14th. I got this email while at SYD airport on 14 July and the Qantas agent called AA to confirm I was still booked on the 14th. We assume it was a ‘clerical error’

My next email from AA also had 13 July not 14th! TWO ‘clerical errors’? or just gross incompetence?

When I’m at Dallas, I get this cryptic message. I went to the Admirals Club AA agent and she checked — everything was fine, and I was told to ignore it. More AA incompetence? or just the systems not talking to each other?

Finally I get alerted to my rebooked 90-minute flight, but instead of it arriving at 4:30pm, it’s listed as arriving at 11:51pm (the arrival time for the 10:20pm flight). Back to the AA people again to check, and they got it wrong on the alert. Message to AA customers: ‘Don’t trust the alerts!’

Other observations:

• DFW — AA gate in Terminal A had CNN on the TV (no captions that I could tell) and were piping the talking head commentary through the ceiling speakers. Why??? It wasn’t a crisis, just political heads over-analysing every little thing. It was super distracting and annoying.
• Movies watched on the Qantas flights: Going in Style (Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Alan Arkin), Hidden Figures (LOVED it!!)
• Admirals Club International First Class Dining Room at DFW — special invitation etc. What a joke! Get more food and a greater variety at the Qantas domestic lounges in Australia.
• Admirals Club at DCA was one of the nicest and well-equipped I’ve ever been in — highly recommend.
• Also AA’s ‘First’ class is a joke (see post on Qantas food and https://rhondabracey.com/2016/10/14/comparing-qantas-and-american-airlines/ for comparison)

Today I checked out of the AirBNB where I’d stayed for the past 4 nights. What a lovely experience I had with the hosts and other guests, and what a lovely house! If you’re intending to visit the Tampa/St Pete area, let me know and I’ll give you their AirBNB details. You’ll need a car if you stay there, but everything in the area is within easy driving distance; some restaurants are within walking distance (2 blocks away).

I’m currently at the airport waiting for my BFF to arrive from Boston, then we’ll head to the conference hotel in St Petersburg for the next 4 nights.

Later…

After checking into the hotel, we caught the Downtown Looper trolley (50c per ride) to the Holocaust Museum stop just two blocks from the Chihuly Collection — a building housing some of Dale Chihuly’s amazing glass art (pics to come!). Wow, what a collection!!!! If you’re ever in St Pete, you have to put this on your list. Here are a couple of the photos of these magnificent glass pieces.

Quilters looking at this picture might think it’s familiar — that’s because Melissa Sobotka has won many awards with an art quilt of this Chihuly work

These were in the ceiling — it was like walking underwater through a fantastic coral garden

HUGE ‘garden’ of glass. See the people at the back left for perspective

HUGE ‘garden’ of glass. See the people at the back right for perspective

Across the street in the Morean Arts Center Glass Studio and Hot Shop, where we sat in on the hourly demonstration of glass blowing and making. An even bigger ‘Wow!’ This was fascinating and is free with your attendance at the Chihuly Collection (it might be free anyway — no-one asked to see our tickets). Again, pics to come once I process them. We saw a glass maker (Tim) create an amazing fluted bowl, and watched him through all the steps. The female glass maker (Danielle) helped him at various stages and explained every step of what Tim was doing — she’s a natural teacher and was super good at explaining it all. This is a ‘must see’ as well.

Once we got back to the hotel, we registered for the conference, caught up a few of our ‘tribe’, then I went to the freelancer’s happy hour at a local tavern right near the university. Met some interesting people there.

Tomorrow the conference starts!

I drove down to Anna Maria Island today, to visit with family. My second cousin, his wife, his dad (my 1st cousin once removed) and his dad’s partner, and his aunt (also a 1st cousin once removed) were all there, and we had a lovely time catching up on family news and family history. I last saw the aunt when I was is in Michigan last October, but hadn’t seen the rest of that branch of the family since 2002 when we all in Nashville.

I hear the beaches on Anna Maria Island are beautiful, but we spent the day in the rental house just talking — the beach will always be there, but my family may not (the older members of the family are well into their 80s now).

Today was a full ‘day off’. I had planned a lot to see and do in the Tampa/St Petersburg area, with contingencies if the timing wasn’t right, but I got everything on my list done.

First up was a visit to Blick’s Art Supplies near the Tampa International Airport. Think Office Depot (US) or Office Works (Australia), but for art supplies! Heaven on a stick 😉 I didn’t buy much (I have to cart it home) but I looked at EVERYTHING in the store.

Next I headed across the bay to St Petersburg and the Dali Museum, where there was also a Frida Kahlo exhibit on at the same time. The admission price ($24 for adults) gave access to both. The docent-led tour of the Dali works was meant to be 45 mins, but she had a really big group at 11:30 on a Monday (I think the tours are every hour on the half hour). This meant she was very slow getting through her spiel and answering questions, and waiting for all of us to get up close and personal to see some of the imagery she was explaining. I left the group after about 30 mins after realising I might have been better off getting the free audio handset/headset and being guided by that instead. That’s what most people were doing. What the docent said up to that point was interesting and useful, but I found it was too drawn out because of the group’s size. The paintings are pretty awesome.

I’m not sure what I was expecting with the Frida Kahlo exhibit, but those expectations weren’t met for me. There was almost none of her brightly coloured work on display; instead, plenty of large black and white photos, lots of text about her life, and quite a few of her smaller and more intimate pieces. It was hard to see, but if you looked up after the first two ‘rooms’ of the exhibit, there was a sign that said that the family-friendly part finished and the full tour kept going. The more graphic works were in the ‘full tour’ section.

This painting was HUGE and amazing. If you squint you can see a pixellated Lincoln portrait!

Next stop was Mazzaro’s Italian Market for lunch. This place had great reviews on TripAdvisor, and a personal recommendation from a friend, so I made the effort to get there. It’s not in either town and you’ll need a car/cab to get there. I had the HUGE Hot Italian sandwich (for an amazingly cheap $5.50) and it was all kinds of awesome.

From Mazzaro’s I headed south on I-275 over the super high Skyway Bridge across the bay to Ellenton where there’s an outlet mall. Did a small amount of shopping (I knew what I wanted) before heading north again (this time on I-75) to Apollo Beach and the Manatee Viewing Center (free admission) immediately next to the main power station for Tampa.

There were lots of manatees! They don’t do much, but they did move around a bit, surface for air every few minutes, occasionally give a glimpse of their tails. Mostly, they just looked like submerged logs in the water.

I didn’t get back to the AirBNB place until 6pm, so it was a long day of circling the entire Tampa Bay!

This year my conference is in St Petersburg, Florida, so I headed over a few days beforehand to allow enough time to deal with the jet lag and to see the Tampa/St Pete area, where I’ve never been before.

The flights

It’s along haul to the other side of the world, so where I can, I go Business Class — being cramped up in Economy for 30-odd hours is not my idea of fun! The first leg was the 4-or-so hours from Perth to Sydney (Qantas A330, with the lay-flat seats).

Domestic Business Class menu

Pre-flight drink — sparkling cabernet, showing controls for seat behind

Chicken and vege soup

Pork cutlet

I overnighted in Sydney at the airport, then caught the BIG flight the next day — Sydney non-stop to Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), some 15-16 hours in the air. We were late leaving Sydney (strong winds and driving rain), so were late getting into DFW, which meant my original just do-able 2-hour connection time was now fewer than 90 minutes. Immigration was super quick and fully automated, and Customs was quick too, but waiting for my luggage took ages. Then I had to get it through Customs and to the drop-off point for the transfer to the American Airlines flight to Tampa. Next was the TSA security line (there’s no TSA Pre-check for boarding passes issued by Qantas), then through to check the board for the terminal and gate my flight was leaving from — of course, it was the farthest terminal from where we had landed! It was all a big rush and I made the boarding gate with 5 minutes to spare before the first boarding call. At that point I was fine, but I was hoping my luggage would make the flight too.

The flight from DFW to Tampa left about 10 minutes late and arrived in Tampa a little late too. Coming in over the Gulf of Mexico was great — even though I wasn’t in a window seat, the person who was let me look at the stunning scenery.

After arriving, I eventually found the guy meeting me at the airport and taking me to my destination — an AirBNB house I liked the look of from the pics and reviews on the internet. Charles the driver was great — a good driver, and a keen wit and intelligence. I’ve requested him again for the return trip to the airport on Sunday.

The initial accommodation

This time I decided to take a punt and give AirBNB a try. I’d researched several places in St Pete and Tampa and one kept standing out and I kept coming back to it. After emailing the owner several times with my newbie questions, I booked 4 nights there. This was back in May, and I just hoped it would be as the internet pictures and reviews indicated it would. It was! What a wonderful house — there are 6 bedrooms, all with en suite bathrooms. The house overlooks the Hillsborough River, and all the guests have full run of everything except the owners section – kitchen, living rooms (one upstairs JUST for the guests), pool, dining area, balconies, fire pits, and even the grand piano!

My bed is like a dream — super comfy mattress and pillows. And the entire house is air-conditioned. Breakfast is ‘make your own’ from all the food put out each morning, including bacon and eggs. The hosts are delightful too. All in all, this has been a very positive experience. I’ve also met and chatted at length with some of the other guests, all of whom are nice. And all this for less than the price of an impersonal hotel room.

Oh, and did I mention the three full-size poodles, and the African grey parrot who talks and whistles at you, and the cockatoo?

Out and about Day 1 (19 March)

I picked up my rental car from the airport at noon, then headed out to Clearwater Beach on the recommendation of a friend. Problem was, it was a beautiful spring Sunday and everyone else had the same idea!!! Traffic was a bit of a nightmare, so I didn’t bother trying to actually SEE Clearwater Beach up close and personal — instead I saw how white it was from the road, and kept driving south down to St Pete Beach. The traffic was much lighter and many of the public carparks for these beaches weren’t full — to me the beaches looked the same, so I’m not sure what the attraction was with Clearwater.

After St Pete Beach, I looped back to St Petersburg itself, driving by the hotel where the conference will be to get my bearings (it’s close to the Dali Museum, where there’s a Frida Kahlo exhibition on at the moment). Then  headed back to the AirBNB, after stopping for a late lunch (3pm) at a southern-style restaurant on North Florida Ave (Fodder and Shine).

This evening was quiet early on as everyone was out, so I started writing this blog post. Then people started coming home and we started chatting. Two hours later… and I’m finished for today.