But at least I got one last hit of Graeter’s before I headed out: (and look at that chocolate chunk!)

mmmmm….nummy!

I took AA3936 tonight to get back home…and because I was bored out of my skull, ended up taking a ton of pictures during it.

We started out at CVG, with this lonely tug sitting along side us:

Here’s the F/A doing her final flight check:

As we climbed out, we made a nice long left turn:

And we finally got to Lake Michigan (woo hoo!):

Even thought I’ve heard it literally hundreds of times, the sounds of the flaps going down always spooks me:

God the traffic looks horrible:

Buenvenidos a Chicago:

is that you can get singles of all sorts of good, local bourbon.

Here we’ve got Bulleit Bourbon…nice, smooth, and with a good kick:

(Cincinnati)

But all that means is that I’m in Kentucky…nooooooooo!

Ok, let’s take a look at the receipt:

The rental fee was $168 for 3 days…fair enough. And I get the taxes (granted, the airport and the state of Kentucky are bleeding renters, but it’s not like Avis has a choice on charging me this), but what I don’t get are the $5.48/day fee and the 9.89% fee.

The 9.89% fee seems to be a concession recovery fee…in other words, it’s a fee being charged  to help them pay for the cost of their location at the airport…uh, isn’t that what I’m paying for in the rental fee? Isn’t that why the rental fee is higher at say LAX than it is in Richmond, VA?

And the $5.48/day fee is even worse. According to the note there, it’s a property tax license recoupment fee…again, isn’t that, or shouldn’t that be included in the rental fee?

So, in total, the rental fee covers exactly what? Just the car? No way an intermediate class (Avis C-Class) costs them $58/day to have in inventory and staff costs…We’re paying for their taxes and infrastructure as seperate fees, so as to allow them to have a higher margin on their rental.

This strikes me that rental car companies have become like the airlines…fees for this, fees for that.

As M. Thénardier might say:

Charge ‘em for the lice
Extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice
There a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks he knows
How it all increases
All those bits and pieces
Jesus! It’s amazing how it grows!

is the place that sells the single servings of Graeter’s….mmmm….Black Raspberry Chip. Muy good!

Weather in ORD must suck ASS!

I wish I could blame AA, but the weather in ORD is crappy…*sigh* Guess I’m going to miss the Van Halen concert tonight.

With apologies to American Express, being a member of Avis First does have its privileges…I got to CVG today, and they informed me that since they were out of intermediate or full sized (the typical Avis First upgrade), would I terribly mind if they gave me a new Ford Mustang for the same price…come on, like I’d complain about that?

I opened her up on I-75, and man does she purr…and she’s a purty blue: