Stuck at SEATAC

[klenger]

On my way home from Redmond WA to Tucson today and stuck at SEATAC thanks to America West. Just sitting here with my laptop and Verizon network card keeping up on the TDR, checking the progress of my flight, and listening to my ipod. Ain't technology wonderfull? Had a nice trip on the ferry out to Brainbridge (sp) Island and had lunch at a nice pub there. Hurried back to catch the flight, and here I am. "Hi" to all my NW friends up here.



Ken Lenger

 

[Bob Wagner]

Hi Ken, sea-tac is a wonderful place :-laf dropped my wife off yesterday for a flight to spokane (southwest) That flight was almost 2 hrs. late.



oh well, its mom's weekend at wazzu



Welcome to Washington

 

[Rhondasway]

Hey, I just saw this. My sister lives on Bainbridge! Did you go there just to see it? Which pub? We have some great beers here in the NW. Hope your flight came, and you enjoyed our fine NW sunshine (raining now)...

 

[merryman]

Back when I was flying, around our little southern Oregon airport you often heard the expression; "if you have time to spare, go by air".



My brother once left Medford Oregon for short hop (I think about one hour) to Portland Oregon for a business meeting. Portland was fogged in so the aircraft was diverted to Tri-cities Wash. Before they got there, that airport was fogged in so they were diverted to Spokane Wash. By the time they got near there, it too was fogged in.

After a couple other tries, and some time on the ground somewhere in Washington, the plane was finally headed back to the now open Portland airport--------you guessed it, Portland was again fogged in and they were diverted to and did land at----------Medford. He was back home after about 10 hours flying and sure missed the Portland meeting. He was real cranky!!



Vaughn

 

[klenger]

Rhondasway:



The pub is called "Harbour Public House". We went to Bainbridge becuase we had the better part of a day to kill before our flight left, and it seemed like a fun thing to do. $5. 70 round trip for the ferry ride. $16 to park in Seatle Weather was nice, but a bit cool.



We ended up leaving Seatle 3 hours late, which got us into Phoenix too late to make any connecting flights to Tucson. America West said that they would put us up in a Hotel for the night and put us on a flight to Tucson Sunday morning. We caught a ride half-way back to Tucson with another passenger who rented a car, and my wife picked us up there. Finally got home at 1:45 am.



I had to pitch a fit with America West to refund the price of the ticket from Phoenix to Tucson as they said that I had a non-refundable ticket. I explained that I did not cancel or change my reservation, but that they had failed to honor my intentions of getting on the flight I had booked. They finally gave me the refund.



When we were still in Seatle, America West was asking for volenteers with "very flexable travel plans" because they had over-booked the fight. They stated that the volenteers may not be able to leave Seatle till Monday. Of course, they expect you to sit at the airport all day on Sunday in an attempt to get on a space-available flight.



Oh well, such is life. In the scope of bad thngs that can happen to a person, this isn't even in the noise.

 

[KBennett]

klenger, how much is the verizon service? I have a Verizon phone.

Will the wireless card work with the phone service?

 

[klenger]

KBennett:



I am currenlty using the wireless card with the Quick2Net service, which is 14. 4k and uses the minutes from the calling plan (free weekends and evenings). They also have "National Access" high speed plans (~150k) starting at $40 for 20MB / month and an unlimited plan for $80. My contract ends tomorrow, so I am looking at my options for data service. I can get T-mobile for $30 month unlimited, but the speed is only up to 56k. Verizon is also implementing broadband (~DSL speed) in selected cities for the same price I quoted above. If your wireless card is a Verizon card, it will support the Quick2Net and National Access. There are only two cards that I know of that support broadband. See their website for details.



I think I am going to try the National Access plan at $40 for 20MB. In checking my usage using Quick2net over the last several months, it appears that I am not even comming close to using that much, but I need to keep track as higher speed promotes more volume. Hope this helps.

 

[dhill]

I used to have a Verizon phone. With my old laptop I could use the phone as a wireless modem. I connected almost every time at 19. 2. Pretty good for just checking email. It didn't cost me anything except minutes. I gave the phone up because it didn't work at my house. I have nextel now and I like this one except they charge for everything extra ( like using the phone as a modem and their's is very slow, 9800 or less). I talked to them ( verizon ) not long ago and they said then they wern't going to change that. I hope they don't, when we move, our new home will work with verizon.



Dave