I was told that I use my blog to “vent” by a friend of mine (oh, except last week’s David Bouley review). I think travelers that move as much as I often encounter the most bizarre customer service and often find themselves shaking their heads in disbelief at the way they are treated. So today I won’t vent….or maybe just a little! 🙂 US Airways system for upgrades for their best customers (Silver, Gold, Platinum and Chairman) seems to be a great set up for the busy exec. The last thing we need is to talk to a representative on the phone and “get in line” to receive an upgrade. The US Airways system emails you periodically days before your flight to notify you of an upgrade status. Two days before my first flight to Ft. Lauderdale, I was notified that the upgrade was unavailable, but then the next day my upgrade to first class was approved. This was great, no need to negotiate at check-in or play games at the gate. So kudos to US Airways and any other program that has automated this procedure. Ok – my vent today – credit card customer service. I just canceled my AAdvantage MasterCard. I have had it for ten years and I simply have too many cards and don’t need it. At 30, I wanted all the credit cards I could get my hands on. Now that I am a little older (just a little) I want to simplify things. First of all, the new thing in credit card customer service is for the agent to ask “How is your day today?” or “How are you?” and I am forced to say fine, but what I really want to say  is “Can we just finish the transaction?” I am busy and chatting it up about my day with a stranger is not my idea of fun. I feel like saying, “Oh, actually my day has been &@)*, do you have 45 minutes so I can discuss it with you?” All we want is yes, thank you, and most importantly, I will take care of it for you. The Citi AAdvantage guy was relentless in trying to keep me as a customer. “Why do you want to cancel, can I offer you more miles, your fee is paid, you have cash available for over $30,000 and I can send you a check today…” and so on, and so on. The last sentence was “I am hitting the button and you have lost the 7,500 miles and your upgrade to first class.” I said, “You are a piece of work.” Well, I guess I vented today (again) and I guess I should just be a good little blogger and say everything all the time is just peachy, but then you would know I was not telling the truth. -Fran Gallagher, publisher and CEO