noplasticshowers

Imagine there is no worse airline than United domestic?  Think again!  American Airlines pulled absolute garbage service on my last trip.  First some background.

A last minute talk opportunity popped up and the hosts promised to pay for a business class day trip.  So the plan was to fly into Dallas at 9am (departing the house at 5:15am) and get home before 10pm.  Ha!

The talk was great and the day was going smoothly, and then American Airlines operations just FUBARed things up.  I mean wow.  First there was the drip delay supposedly cause by weather (there was no weather), then there was a plane and no crew, then the crew landed at a gate 40 minutes away, and then, the coup de grace, the captain timed out and walked away.  Leaving 300 or so people stranded in Dallas all wanting to get to Washington DC.

American, after some real delay during which I purchased a seat on the only United flight to Dulles the next day, “rebooked” me on puddle hoppers through some tiny ass Ohio town and into DCA.  Nope.  I flew United the next day and burned 24 hours.

American Airlines had a hard time accepting my rejiggering as reality.  After a couple of hours of bullshit and waiting 10 days, they refunded my original business class leg. They had to be forced to do that. No more American Airlines for me!

Anyway, Hotel Zaza in Dallas came up during a cursory search for hip hotels.  And off I went, arriving around 10pm…ironically the same time I was due to be in my own bed at home.

I think I was assigned 418.  Of course no clothes and no bathroom amenities were with me.

At least the shower was top notch.

Here is the free bathroom stuff you get for your money.  Yuck.

Finding a cocktail nearby at 11 was a thing.  Even super barman Jacques was at a loss and sorry I was stuck in Dallas.  LOL.

The car service at Zaza was good and was more than willing to drive me 4 blocks in style.

The Kennedy room (above) was a dive serviced by kids who were utterly clueless.  Don’t even bother.  Beau Nash looked promising, but closed at 11pm on a Wednesday.  So it was off to the Tipsy Alchemist on a tip from the bartender at Beau Nash.

Though I was the wrong demographic being over 35, the cocktails were well made, and there was real bourbon in the house.  Needless to say, insanity reigned after too many shots, but I somehow woke up back at the hotel in the morning.  So that was good.

Actual real Weller in the house.

After a somewhat late breakfast at the hotel (pretty not bad, but also unremarkable), a visit to the Dallas Art Museum was in store.

I felt kind of like the picture above.  DFW airport was still a pit.  Overcrowded and old.  The United gates are way better than the American worn out 80s mall gates through.

Three showerheads for the Zaza.  Lets just skip Dallas from now on.