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After a decade of traveling to Europe, my wife and I finally accrued enough frequent flyer miles to earn something. But thanks to expiring miles (what the hell is THAT?!) we suddenly realized we had to book a ticket fast or lose them all.
We travel enough to know that while the Internet has put a lot of (relatively) great fares at our fingertips, a smart shopper lets his fingers do some serious walking before clicking "BUY." Sometimes the best fares are on the airline sites, sometimes on broker sites like Expedia, sometimes elsewhere.
So, we plotted out a plan for a summer trip out west and did some good research. But nothing prepared us for the five phone calls totaling well over two hours required to finally get a single round-trip ticket out east.
Of the five people we talked to, a couple were helpful -- and one made a valiant, valiant effort on our behalf -- one basically blew us off completely, one was somewhere in between and another did her best to make it abundantly clear that she was really doing us a favor by doing her job.
Apparently the only thing more frustrating than flying these days is trying to book a frequent flyer ticket to fly. Of course, this may all depend on the airline you're loyal to. I know people who have used Midwest Airlines miles and have nary a complaint.
I'm still loyal (-ish) to my overseas carrier, but a little less so now that I know when it comes time for me to cash in the miles on our second account (there are two of us, after all), it's going to be a real douleur dans l'âne.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
