The Muse: New York City
October 6, 2015
The Muse is a new one on NPS. Our jaunts to NY often have us at 70Park or the Eventi. All three hotels are Kimpton properties. The Muse turns out to be very close to the Marriott Marquis where the conference I am keynoting is being held.
So here we are smack dab in the heart of Times Square tourist-land in NY. Hmm.
I arrived at the Muse just in time for the end of wine hour. After the prop-plane flight up on united, a glass of wine was just what the doctor ordered. Prop-plane? In 2015? Really?
The @united equipment. Global reach! pic.twitter.com/PVEZWKfnp6
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) October 5, 2015
The Muse is currently under massive renovation. From what we can tell from our room (915) the result will be fabulous.
Room 915 console
A few minutes after arrival, a nice amenity (cupcakes! and sparkling water) arrived with a note. Thanks to Sean Flanigan who heard tell of our arrival from the Boston spy ring and arranged for a nice welcome.
Kimpton Karma welcome amenity
915 comfortable bed
915
The bathroom is a bit crowded but very nicely appointed. The shower is great.
Not plastic! Two showerheads.
Another classic Kimpton touch worth pointing out. Kimpton knows that we all have devices to charge by the bed. So they make sure power is available. Together with the free wifi, we have all we need to get work done into the wee hours of the morning.
Power by the bed
Just after arrival is was off for a cocktail at Lantern’s Keep. Their mixology remains top notch even though Barman Bob is long gone (John has filled in very well indeed). I had a tweaked Manhattan made with Fernet.
Then we headed down to Bryant Park for dinner at Koi. Koi is very nice and impressed my starving college aged son.
There was a little time for some art at the Whitney museum.
All told, five showerheads for the Muse. It’s only drawback may well be its reason for existing in the first place (proximity to tourist-land).
Jeff Smisek Resigns from United
September 8, 2015
Under the black cloud of a corruption allegation (federal case), Jeff Smisek resigns from United.
Good. United has nowhere to go but up.
United Airlines Still Sucks: June 2015
June 15, 2015
Here at NPS we have done what we can to avoid flying United airlines since they have such terrible operations. After loyally flying 1.6 million miles and over a decade as a 100K, we’re done.
Today, both flights we were forced to take to get some business done had bugs.
On the flight out, the highly advertised wifi did not work. Ever.
The venerable, um, I mean nonexistent wifi.
It’s 2015. Wifi works everywhere else.
On the flight back, we started with the classic drip delay, supposedly caused by weather. A drip delay is what happens when United (and only United as far as we can tell) delays the flight by just a few minutes…multiple times. The first three drips were: 14, 11, and 9 minutes each. We would really just rather learn this all at once.
But the best was yet to come. The inbound aircraft landed, so they called us to the gate to line up. But there was no pilot. The last drip was a hefty one hour! (That is, assuming this was actually the last delay…we’re not on the plane yet.)
United airlines sucks at operations
United airlines sucks. Fly any other airline.
It is unbelievable that Jeff Smisek is still the CEO.
USAirways to Raleigh
March 14, 2015
Surprise surprise! Commuter jets operated by Republic for USAirways have wifi, and you can upgrade for super cheap. Too bad they only fly out of DCA.
.@usairways @american embrear 170 operated by republic. Seat 2a. wifi. Not pretend @united wishful thinking wifi. pic.twitter.com/qETbdZMi8n
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 11, 2015
I am not sure what United has planned, or when its plan will be implemented, but they seem to think a plan is reality. Ridiculous.
Oh @united, you and your silly counterfactual URLs. The days of having wifi in the future should be in the past like with other airlines.
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 10, 2015
I flew in and out for dinner and did not spend the night. But I did camp in the Marriott RTP lobby for a short while. Yuck.
WTF? @Marriott power "solution" pic.twitter.com/FfNhTxL2dh
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 10, 2015
At least Marriott listened (and brought out a cocktail to boot).
It’s Not Just Us: United Sucks
January 14, 2015
United Airlines is terrible. We are attempting not to fly them in 2015. But don’t just take our word for it. Read the Wall Street Journal airline report.
Jeff Smisek should be fired.
2015: Capitalism in Action on the Travel Front
January 11, 2015
Regular readers will know that in the studied opinion of NPS, United airlines has gone to the dogs. Too many years of too many operational problems finally have come to a head this year. We’re going to attempt to avoid United whenever possible even though our home airport is a United hub. This after over a decade of 100K privilege flying. That’s how bad United is.
Long ago the Board of United should have figured out that Jeff Smisek is a terrible operational leader. An M&A specialist and a marketing person is not the right kind of person to run operations at a huge airline. And United is just too big not to suck.
So bye bye United. Until you get a new CEO and start performing better, we will do our utmost to avoid you. We are voting with our actual cash money.
We’ll see how it goes this year and keep you updated here. First up, trans-continental flights on Virgin America.
Happy new year! Make sure to apply capitalistic tendencies with YOUR cash too.
No Fly Noël 2014: Six Days Late and a Dollar Short
December 6, 2014
Travel was thankfully almost reasonable this year, down to thirty trips off last year’s forty-two. (FWIW, we’ll shoot for 25 in 2015.) But we did do an out of character trip in December, delaying the start of no fly noël by a few days. We’ll make up for it somehow.
tripometer for 2014
In 2014 we finally gave up completely on United airlines which topped its awful 2013 behavior with an even worse 2014. Bye bye United. You are too broken to pay money.
time for no fly noël https://t.co/bCbAsUKshE
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 6, 2014
So lets sit by the fire and regain our sanity. Maybe with a Liberal or two. Then we’ll do it all again.
United versus Virgin: Grizzly Veteran Flies New Airline
December 3, 2014
As a 100k flyer for over a decade with 1,589,963 United miles under my belt, I know a bit about United airlines. Since the merger with Continental, things have frankly gone to the dogs. We have documented the downfall of United here. Jeff Smisek may be good at mergers and marketing, but he sucks at operations.
Every time we think things may be getting better, they don’t.
So it has come to this. No more United. I will now show as much loyalty to United as they show to me. Towards that end, we flew Delta earlier this year, we flew American, and we just flew Virgin to SFO.
Just to make this all clear, two weeks ago I did a trip through SFO on United. Yesterday I did the same trip on Virgin. The experience was not the same.
One United flight had a wifi logo on the side, but the wifi did not work. The return flight did not have wifi at all. Having no wifi is like having no oxygen. On a hub to hub trip (IADSFO) there is no excuse any more for no wifi.
The United flight was crammed full and the crew was surly. But there was room to work in Economy Plus. Well, I could have worked if there had been some wifi. Instead I watched a movie on my nexus.
United: pringles that cost $, busted seats, and no wifi
This is the advanced technology display on an actual United aircraft
Nice upholstery on United
So the United experience was pretty bad all told, especially for a business flyer.
How about Virgin? It all started out fine, but then:
Uh oh, there is bad weather in San Francisco.
Everyone was delayed, but United chose the drip delay method as opposed to the doom and despair drop.
Virgin was staffed by very friendly and nice people. And their wifi worked as advertised (much to the chagrin of my staff). But the seats in economy do not allow laptop use in a comfortable fashion. That extra four inches in United economy plus makes all of the difference. I still have a headache from using Virgin wifi for 5 hours.
Virgin is too crammed for a mac air
Ultimately, this may all boil down to money. Pay more for a better seat? I guess so as long as there is a real productivity impact.
We’ll try that on Virgin in 2015.
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