Any week where you get to go to London Heathrow 3 times is a good one!

I just spent a week over in Dublin and London for work and wanted to share my photos. For you airline geeks, I have split the two albums.

Also, I got to see Amsterdam Schiphol Airport for the first time....and it was awesome!

Album with Pictures (non-aviation)
Album with Airplane Pictures (London, Dublin, Amsterdam)

Get me an Oboe bloody fast!

Greetings from the United Kingdom - Concourse H is in the middle of a business trip across the Atlantic. After I worked today at Chiswick Park Starbucks (great wireless there) on various projects, I met up with my cousins for a night at Royal Festival Hall to see the London Philharmonia (not philharmonic, the philharmonia!).

We got to see Wagner, Bruch and Schumann. The Royal Festival Hall is perfectly situated on the Thames River for beautiful vistas of the London Eye, Big Ben, Charing Cross station and St. Paul's at intermission.

So the funniest thing happened tonight when we got back to our seats after intermission. Everyone was waiting for the Schumann Symphony to start and after 10 minutes the following annoucement was made:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, unfortunately one of our musicians has become ill and we have called a replacement to fill in. The replacement is currently en route. We hope to be able to start soon. Thank you for your patience."

So everyone was waited with baited breath to see who arrived and after about 8 minutes (my cousin and I remember seeing someone leave at the very beginning of the performance) the replacement Oboe player arrived. I guess Schumann would have sounded poor with only one oboe! Now here is my question, how quickly did this guy get dressed and I hope he didn't live in a far out suburb of London. What a hoot! I was waiting for the conductor to give a special thanks during the applause but he didn't.

Happy Friday everyone from Concourse H!

Membership has its privileges

I am sitting here at the BMI Diamond Lounge (see picture below) at Terminal ant London Heathrow Airport and am loving my gold status on United and the Star Alliance. Essentialy I continue to support United and its partner carriers when I fly since it is so easy to gain mileage. That is not to say I only suggest that people fly United - it means you should always look to gain loyalty to one airline or group, whichever is good for your area. Since United has a hub at Washington Dulles and US Airways, a fellow Star Alliance member, has a hub at Washington National - it's a win-win for me (and now karyn who is hooked as well). Although, I do prefer Southwest for flights to the mid-atlantic and northeast.

And the benefits are great as well:

• Credit card that gives me even more miles
• Priority Boarding in Zone 1 on every flight
• Complimentary upgrade coupons
• Higher status than common folk when wanting to stanby on earlier flights
• Lounge access on international flights
• And of course free flights! Who doesn't love that - Karyn and I have cashed in tickets in the last 3 years to Italy for our honeymoon, Chicago for weddings, Phoenix for a reunion trip with SAS, our new years 2007/2008 trip to Argentina, San Francisco, San Diego, etc.

Now I will say something about the lounnges, ironically in the Star Alliance family, United has the worst lounges. I have been in Lufthansa's, Swiss, Air Canada and now bmi. This BMI Lounge has breakfast food, newspapers, clean bathrooms, silence, computer workstations that are complimentary, etc. Still not as nice as the Maple Leaf Lounge at Toronto Pearson's new terminal but hey, it works.

And the best reason to go to the lounge is that it has the best view of the airplanes! And who doesn't love that.

Off to relax for another 30 minutes before my connecitng flight to Dublin

Side Note: a.) I love Ambien, got a nice 3.5 hours of sleep on a short 6.5 hr flight. and b.) I already finished my book Not Me by Michael Lavigne on the flight over here. Everyone should check this one out! Great Book.

Behold the power of the All-Inclusive bracelet

Well Concourse H is back from a wonderful relaxing 5 day trip to the Riu Palace Mexico Resort in Playa Del Carmen. Everything was super easy with this trip, the flights (except for a brief delay on the runway at National due to Atlanta ATC congestion), the transfer to the hotel, the rooms, etc. This was my first time at an "all-inclusive" resort which is essentially a cruise ship on land. Everything is included and you don't have to worry about any money or expenses after your initial payment. We did have a couple awkward moments where we weren't sure if we had to tip or not but no one else seemed to be doing it either.

The beach was gorgeous and the food was good for the most part. I had a little overdose on nachos and hot mexican cheese. The best part of the trip was the Blue Coral drinks that I had on the beach, at the swim-up bar, in the piazza at night and at meals. That's the beauty of all-inclusive - you can have as many frozen drinks as you want (BTW, those of you who know me know that I am not a huge drinker but I guess Mexico does that to you!).

The other interesting part of the trip was that it was myself and 5 women (my male-friends had conflicts - BOO!). For the most part, I have no complaints as the group of ladies were very flexible and willing to roll with the punches, which was very nice. I did get reminded a lot about how to take appropriate swim suit pictures and it turns out they definitely had comments on the various topless women who were roaming the beaches.

So the All-inclusive bracelet was pretty awesome - you can even see it in the picture above. I will say that it wasn't fun to have the bracelet on while showering and putting on sun-tan lotion but it was a necessary evil of the tropical trip.

To view my pictures from our trip to Mexico, click on this link.

I got to Kansas City on a Friday! - actually Sunday

By Saturday I learned a thing or two...

Hello out there in the blog world. It's 5:20am and I am sitting at the Kansas City International Airport waiting for my flight back to Washington National Airport. In my overtired haze, I realize that this city in the middle of the United States is quite nice. There are many beautiful historical buildings, modern buildings (pretty impressive Kansas City Star Building), memorials and a River confluence! You know I love the confluences now. The Kansas River joins the Missouri river in Kansas City.

On Monday night, I was able to go to a reception at Union Station (building in foreground in above picture) and participate in the two best things Kansas City has to offer - BBQ and Jazz music. Holy good BBQ! I also got to have a good Kansas City steak last night as well. Now of course, I am going on full red-meat detox...

Anyway, I am about to board my US Airways flight back to Washington National and get my four course breakfast. Just kidding!

And the best thing is that tomorrow morning a bunch of us are going on long weekend vacation to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico - some call it the Kansas City of the South....

Adios from Concourse H.