So the last few weeks of trip planning have been going well. It has been suprising some of the things that have come my way. On the weekend I managed to change my hotel in Osaka 3 times. I was a bit unhappy with the hotel I had really booked, the Comfort Hotel in Osaka. Even though it had free wifi and breakfast, there was no gym and the rooms were UBER small. But to be honest it was cheap, really cheap. But i knew I had a bit of luck finding industry rates and all at other hotels. I gave up Breakfast & Wifi and swapped over to the Swissotel Nankai Osaka for an extra $30 total. Big step up to a much bigger room, 5 star hotel and a nice looking gym. But i also out of just shits & giggles fired off an email to the Ritz Carlton Osaka. The #1 hotel in Osaka apparently. Rates were like $800 a night and I have no idea why i even sent the email. Till i got a reply offering a rate that was only $100 MORE than the Swissotel. In total. $330 for 2 nights at an amazing hotel Im sold!
But that is not the reason behind this post. I am really talking about the generosity of others. People who I have not really met but are just generous beyond words. A few people stand out that deserve to be mentioned. First off we start with a couple of twitter friends. Firstly theres @pacificairphoto (or Leighton as his real name is). He is a big spotter in Vancouver and takes some amazingly good and artistic photos. I had a day free in in Vancouver as Brad is heading off to Vancouver Island. Leighton ended up offering to take me spotting for the day. I was totally and utterly blown away by this. I would of been happy for some advice to go off and go spotting on my own but to offer to take me and show me the best spots. That is beyond fantastic.
Next off we have @fidget02 & @airlinesangel (or Jus & Yvette respectively). These two lovely ladies based in the UK often organise Tweetups (pretty much people from twitter go out for a meal or to catch up etc) but the thing that blew me away was they were willing to have a Tweetup when I was in london! And to top things off, Jus decided if i emailed her a list of things to see, she would show me around for a day!
The last one is what made my day yesterday. I have been reading a blog called “The Cranky Flier.” A fantastic Airline blog that is just written with a great amount of humour and sarcasm at times. Brett (who writes the blog) operates a company called Cranky Concierge and I decided I would give it a shot for the trip considering there are a few days with tight connections on the flights and figured it may be usefull, plus the concept just seems really smart to me. I had been chatting back and forth with Derek who is my “concierge” for the first part of my trip about getting details of the active runway on arrival into LAX so that if everything pans out and I had the time, I could make an “In’n’Out Run” to get some good spotting photos and also tick off a spot on my trip list (visit in n out). Yesterday morning I woke up to an offer from Derek and Brett. Rather than me having to walk or use the “free” parking shuttles to get to In’n’Out, they would pick me up and take me! An afternoon of chatting about Airlines, Planes and having a Burger hopefully in the LA Sun (god it will be good to get out in some sunlight in the summer). This offer just blew me away. I agreed immediately.
The generosity of some people just blows me away. This is just amazing the offers people are willing to make at times. I will definately be returning some of this generosity in kind that is for sure!