So here I am trying to buy two air tix to Portland, OR.  Since the regular air fares for a trip from SFO to PDX were running a bit high, I decided to use my air-miles from United Airlines (can you already feel it coming, right? United, air miles… ). Over my many trips to India, I have managed to save a respectable 64K miles on the account. I log in to the united account, choose the option of using my miles to purchase two tixs. The price of two tickets including taxes is $634, (so I a already knew that I could fall a few miles short), but what came next took me by surprise and disgust.

The site reported that I needed 100K  miles to purchase the $634 tickets and thus I was short by 36K miles. But I still had the option of buying these 36K miles. Now let’s do some maths:

100K miles == $634 –> 36K miles ==  $288. But I would be able to use my 64K miles to save $406. Right? Not so soon…

The purchase page shows me that the price of buying 36K mile is a whopping $1200!! Seriously?

So somehow my miles are worth $6.34/1K miles and their miles are worth $33/1K miles?

i.e. United Airlines’s miles are ~5.25X better, juicier, prettier, healthier, @#$%*&ier than my miles.

You would have never seen that coming.

Yours truly

On our most recent  trip to the City of San Francisco, we began the evening with the usual routine of circling city blocks to find a suitable parking spot. We even peeked into a parking garage, but the prospect of paying a  flat rate of $15, seemed preposterous and we pulled back.

Then, Jackpot: We see a car pulling out from a parking space and we immediately maneuver our car in the spot. There were four of us, we stepped out of the car and carefully surveyed the parking place to make sure it was legit.

The sign on the meter “327 05070” said, 7AM-6PM Mon-Fri. it was 6:45pm on a Friday,  four pair of eyes read this, nod, smile and praise the good Lord. Finally!

You would think the story ends here. No …

So the evening goes by. We finish our dinner, chat over dessert, sip good coffee, admire the bustling city life, curse the Bay Area suburbs that we live-in and yearn for a life in “the city”. Finally, we return to our car at about 11:15pm, on Broadway and Columbus. Guess what?

No CAR.

You say, “What do you mean no car? Did we come to the right street?”.

Yes, off-course, Broadway and Columbus. But the whole street was empty, all the cars were gone!

Panic stricken, we ask around, and are duly informed that a few car were towed away.

We debate,  “the sign said, we could park, that is what the meter said. Isn’t it?”.

We soon realize that 4 parking spaces behind our spot, was a sign that said no parking beyond 8:00pm on Friday, else cars would be towed away.

(they fooled 4 people, shame on them)

Now, I was under the impression that such sign are always posted at the end of the parking space row.

We got towed

A cab and $15 later we arrive at the tow station, to get the reality check of the city life.

The towing fee was a cool $373.00 and we had also got a $75 parking ticket, that sums to $447 for the night.

Yes, our 4 hour parking in “the City” has just cost us $447.00.

The best part was the we couldn’t even argue with the towing company, as the City by the Bay, had out sourced the job to a 3rd party, so the tow co were just  middle men, doing their job.

We swore, what a fraud the city of SFO was and drive home.

By the way, our car got towed again in San Jose downtown two week later, for $225. This time we had parked right below 4 Big signs that said don’t park for more than a hour. Parking is a Bitch.

Earth Day

Most of Africa and portions of Europe and Asia can be seen in this photograph taken from the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its translunar coast toward the moon. Apollo 11 was already 98,000 nautical miles from Earth when this picture was made on July 17th, 1969. (NASA)

http://usat.me?88398

I remember being in Houston, two years ago. No offense to the kind folk in Houston, but the airport car-rental is 4miles away from the airport, can you believe it? you probably need a rental car to get to the rental car place. Everything is unnecessarily spread out. Such a waste.

Yes, you read it right. As a promotion, I will ship you a brand new hard back edition of the latest Dan Brown  book anywhere in the US (All 50 states)

What do you have to do to win it?

Review our site on your blog, in at least 100 or more words and convince one other friend of yours to do the same.  That’s it.

You don’t have to necessarily praise our site, just mention the features, what you liked, (even what you didn’t). and how it can help carpooling. If you used  DivvyMyRide.com to find a carpool and describe your experience, that would be awesome.

To win the book, you will have to send me screen shots and links to both the blogs ( your friend’ and yours)  blog and the blog must have that entry for at least a month. And off course your home address.

So hurry, what are you waiting for?

Thanks a lot,

DivvyMyRide Team

Marc Jaffe: As the owner of a 2010 Prius, I’m concerned about the recent problems associated with the car, but I have to say that I am thrilled with my Prius and Toyota. This fiasco has given me a whole new persona. I used to be Mr. Responsible — a guy who cared about the environment, but always lost the chicks to the dashingly dangerous sports car driver. Now, I’m the one who is dangerous and turning heads as I cruise around, a bottle of lemon-flavored water in my cup holder.

Back when a Prius was a sign of staid prudence, my wife complained that I had begun driving like an old man, as I would ease up on the gas pedal for better mileage, driving below the speed limit. Now she swoons when I walk in the door safely after a grocery run, perhaps a little surprised that I’ve come back alive from facing such peril. Who’s potentially going too fast now, baby?

read more on the marketplace site …

Marc Jaffe is a comedy writer. He lives near Cleveland, Ohio.

listen to the show here

If you invite 5 of your friends to www.divvymyride.com, send me an email and I can send you a highly in demand Google Voice invites as a Prize!! Use this link to invite

http://www.divvymyride.com/invitefriend.php

Also the Most creative post will also get a Google voice invite.

Wish you and your Friends & Families a Wonderful Holiday Season and Prosperous New Year.

Thank you for your support for our carpooling site, DivvyMyRide.com. We will continue to work tirelessly to improve our site and listen to your feedback. We hope you liked the recent updates to the site.

Looking forward to your active participation and hope you enjoy Carpooling and make new friends on the way

Best regards and Happy Carpooling,

DivvyMyRide

]]> http://www.divvymyride.com/blog/2009/12/24/season%e2%80%99s-greetings/feed/ 0 http://www.divvymyride.com/blog/2009/12/16/it%e2%80%99s-the-season-to-be-thankful/ http://www.divvymyride.com/blog/2009/12/16/it%e2%80%99s-the-season-to-be-thankful/#comments Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:06:22 +0000 rideshare http://www.divvymyride.com/blog/?p=321

An year is drawing to a close and what an year it has been! Very bumpy for some, but the good news is that there are signs of recovery here and there. No matter what each of us has been thru, there is certainly room to be thankful for whatever we have: Job, house, family and health. Just to share something that happened yesterday.

I had just finished my afternoon workout at the Gold’s Gym at Santa Clara. Usually, what happens is that I put on my mp3 player, go about my business and an hour later I am done, without exchanging a single word with anyone. (I am not anti-social, and most people do the same things). Just this time I did something different. After the workout I was changing in the men’s room, and I noticed that the guy next to me had crutches with him. He was wearing a full track suit with shoes and gloves, so my obvious assumption was that he must be recuperating from a injury or an operation. Even I have had a nagging ankle injury since the last 4 years, so I could immediately empathize with this guy. I commented, “Are you rehabilitating from an injury?”. He hesitated for a moment, then said, “No, I am just fine, I have this thing you know” and then pulled up the track suit on his right leg.

There was no right leg, or a right ankle, or a right knee. It was all prosthetic, right from his thigh and below. “Don’t worry, they have done wonders with technology these days”, he added.

I was dumbstruck. I really didn’t know what to say to him. I am still not sure what I could have said. I know it is impossible to convey everything thru words, but one thing I clearly remembered: that for a moment I was overwhelmed by a feeling of gratitude for whatever I have: Job, house, family and health.

I hope I was not overly melodramatic about the whole thing, still “It’s the Season to be Thankful”. What is your excuse?

Email asap on this address carpool@divvymyride.com