Happy New Year / Back in Business!

Hello everyone! A happy Monday to you all. I trust that you had an enjoyable and safe holiday season, no matter what holiday(s) you choose to celebrate. Personally, I’m glad the holiday season is over so we can all get back into normal life again. I did have an enjoyable holiday season, however, I’m just glad it’s over.

A few notes on my holiday travels:

1. Portland, Oregon is a beautiful and enjoyable city. If you ever find yourself in Portland, check out the Bridgeport Brewery. Great beer, great food, great building, friendly service. Highly recommended.

2. US Airways recently bought out America West (arguably the worst airline in history, based upon my multiple experiences with them). US Airways apparently also bought out America West’s horrible customer service. I would not recommend flying US Airways any time in the near future, but it’s of course up to you. I’ll just say that our return trip reservations were cancelled for no reasonable reason, and neither US Airways or Travelocity called us to let us know. It’s a nice surprise when you get to the airport and learn that you don’t have a reservation. Awesome. Which brings me to…

3. Travelocity. It turns out that Travelocity’s whole “Travelocity Guarantee” thing doesn’t mean a whole hell of a lot. Upon learning arriving in Phoenix and learning that we would have to wait until eight minutes until our flight to find out if we would have seats or not, I called Travelocity in hopes that they would take care of us like they advertise. The best that their outsourced Indian customer service person could offer was “Well, I can call the airline for you.” “Travelocity Customer Bill of Rights” my ass.

Anyway, that’s about the extent of my public service announcements for the year. Despite the frustration over my travel arrangements, my holidays were quite enjoyable. And now we return to our regularly scheduled political commentary and snide comments.

Happy 2008, loyal readers!