Text 15409, 133 rader
Skriven 2008-10-22 16:10:00 av bill swisher (1:124/311)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: Re: bad air 82
======================
-=> Michael Loo wrote to Bill Swisher <=-

 ML> Now that's an interesting, rather thin triangle. I guess this way
 ML> LH can serve both Canadian and Alaskan markets with one plane. Is
 ML> it an invariable route, or does it reverse periodically just for
 ML> giggles?

Aimed squarely at the Europeans.  They fly into Whitehorse, tour BC
and/or the Yukon/NWT.  Hop on the plane and fly to Anchorage, tour
Alaska and then on home. When we flew over I think we were the only
non-Europeans on the plane and in talking to other passengers realized,
mostly they were Germans, who had been touring for the last 2-3 months.
I guess they flew over in spring and returned in fall.  We'd met some
earlier in the summer because Connies father had come up and we'd spent
a couple of days in a cabin down on the Kenai doing a king fishing
charter.  They'd been at the cabins for 2 weeks.  Nice flight, smoking
(at the time we did), free German beer and only about 8 hours to
Frankfurt. Instead of 3.5 to Seattle, 4.5 to NY, and then 7.5 or so to
Frankfurt, guessing at the flight times but ignoring layovers which
could add another 3 to 6 hours easily. On a related note, it's part of
the reason there's a shortage of property down on the Kenai. 
Apparently the Europeans are flying over, after buying everything they
can down there, and spending their summers.  Once upon a time I had
heard that SAS (I think it was them) was going to do a flight from
Europe, somewhere, to Anchorage to Honolulu and return via the same
stops. I was really looking forward to that flight. We still find
people who don't know that you can fly from Anchorage to Honolulu to
Nadi to Aukland or Sydney and stop for a week, or more, at each place
at no additional charge.


 ML> If you have the miles (by the AS credit card route or otherwise)
 ML> upgrading is a good idea; either that or getting an altogether
 ML> award ticket. It's getting to the point where with all the
 ML> fees imposed on coach passengers, people might be better off
 ML> finding a discounted first-class fare.
 
We pay for everything almost exclusively with our AS CC, meaning we
have miles and miles and miles. While we're very good about it we're
not at strange as some folks. For example, we know a couple who take in
foster children.  All are handicapped and some need treatment in
Seattle.  So they burn miles like you wouldn't believe.  He went out, a
few years ago, and bought a brand new GMC Suburban using his AS CC. 
Then he arranged for financing and used it to pay off the CC.  Picked
up 35-40,000 miles that way.  Us...we will go to WallyWorld and buy a
gift card, using the AS CC, to use at Sams Club if we know we're going
to buy a multi-hundred dollar something.  Like when we got that 37" HD
LCD TV earlier this year.  We've had our bathrooms rebuilt and the
house painted. The both cases the contractor was paid for labor via CC,
he ordered the materials, his pricing, we payed using our CC and he did
the pickup.  The only time we use another card is when we leave the
country. Before we went to Europe Connie discovered that if we used the
VISA they would charge a fee, per transaction, for currency exchange. 
Whereas MasterCard rolled all the transactions together and charged an
exchange fee once.  This may not be how it's done currently and we're
going to have to recheck it since they seem to change the rules with
little or no notification as the next little exercise shows. The only
downside to this was last fall when we hit Canada. We crossed over on
Thursday driving from Tok, AK to Whitehorse, YT.  Stopped in either
Beaver Creek or Destruction Bay and gassed.  Had a tire on the 5th
wheel fail about 20 miles shy of Whitehorse, the steelbelt came apart
and centrifugal force pushed an end through the tread. I switched over
to the spare and we drove on in. Payed for the RV park and I took the
dead tire over to a place and got a new one. The next morning I tried
to use the MC to buy gas and it was refused, we'd switched over to it
when we crossed the border so I knew it worked the day before for
everything we'd paid for.  When we arrived in Watson Lake Connie got
ahold of someone at MC. She was told that because we'd left the country
without telling them they'd disabled the card.  Connie told them to
re-enable it and was told that the supervisor had left for the day, BTW
it was now Friday afternoon, and on Monday they'd take care of it. 
Between me speaking very loudly in the background about what I thought
they should do with their card, I learned more than electronics while
in the Navy, and Connie telling her to "Just call your supervisor at
home and have them come in and take care of it!" somehow they magically
discovered they could fix it while Connie was on the phone. I'm still
peeved at them about this.


 ML> Remember that restaurant, Zafferano, where we were about the
 ML> only diners? It's history. Too bad, as the food was always good.

Yeah, remember the place.  It was pretty good, sorry to hear it, and
sorry we didn't get to spend more time there in Boston.


MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05
 
      Title: Transylvanian Boiled Cabbage
 Categories: Side dish, Vegetables, Hungarian
      Yield: 6 Servings
 
MMMMM-------------------AMERICAN MEASUREMENTS------------------------
      4 lb Cabbage
      2 oz Lard
      2 oz Flour
      2 oz Onions
  2 1/2 lb Shoulder of pork
      2 c  Sour cream
      1 oz Salt
           Pepper
           Caraway seeds
      1    Garlic clove
      1 bn Savory

MMMMM-------------------EUROPEAN MEASUREMENTS------------------------
      2 kg Cabbage
     50 g  Lard
     55 g  Flour
     55 g  Onions
      1 kg Shoulder of pork
    200 ml Sour cream
     25 g  Salt
           Pepper
           Caraway seeds
      1    Garlic clove
      1 bn Savory
 
  Cut the cleaned cabbage into narrow strips, wash, and cook
  until tender in salted water with the savoury, pork and
  caraway seeds. When it is tender, thicken its stock with a
  combination of smoothly mixed sour cream, flour and a little
  vinegar and bring to a boil. Flavour with pepper. Remove the
  savory before serving, and serve the cabbage steaming hot
  with the sliced pork.
  
  Recipe Karoly Gundel "Hungarian Cookery Book"
  MMed IMH Le MarYol BBS Fido 2:324/151.4
 
MMMMM

--- MultiMail/Linux v0.46
 * Origin: FidoTel & QWK on the Web! www.fidotel.com (1:124/311)