Congrats Jon, superb performance, enjoy that cash and who needs some girlie braclet anyhow?

After working at heathrow for 2 years and getting to know the habits of the baggage handling staff, i can only say NEVER put anything valuable or fragile in your baggage. The bags are opened and searched routinely by staff who have had minimal checks done on them, are on a low wage and have minimum consideration for the contents and owners of the baggage they are handling.

Although we have not spotted anything missing yet, the cases have definately been tampered with and the contents were obviously just thrown back in.

 Once when I was training a particularly gullible young lad called Gary in a chemical plant, I couldn't resist throwing in a couple of 'curve balls'. I was showing him how to operate a piece of machinery and decided to make up some imaginative names for various parts.Pointing out 4 clamps on top of the equipment told him ' always make sure before you switch this on that the Dangleberry clamps are tightened down fully'
 'Dangleberry clamps?'
 'yes Dangleberry clamps, named after James Dangleberry an American engineer that designed them'
 'Hmmm ok'
 I then showed him the outlet on the side of the equipment.
 'And always check that the inside of the Hippos' nose is spotlessly clean'
 'Hippos nose?? are you taking the piss?'
 'No, thats what its called, the hippos' nose'.
 'why's it called that then?'
 unable to think on the spot of any remotely convincing explanation I had to admit that I didn't know, 'but thats what its called thats all'
 'Hmmmmmm ok'
 I could tell that he wasn't entirely convinced but he didn't question me further.Shortly after a colleague, Hughie was due to take over on the following shift.It was obvious Gary would question him to verify what I'd told him, so I sent the lad away on an errand just as Hughie approached.
 'Quick Hughie, no time to explain, but when Gary gets back hes going to ask you what these parts are called, so these are Dangleberry clamps and this is the Hippos' nose, OK?'
 'yeah got it, Dangleberry clamps and Hippos nose, no problem'
 Right on cue Gary returns and just as expected asks Hughie.
 'what are these parts called?'
 'Dangleberry clamps'
 'and what about this outlet?'
 'thats the Elephants trunk of course'
 
 sigh......busted.
 

 Hooray....cases finally arrived this afternoon, a mere 5 days later than we were first led to believe we could expect them.However I don't intend leaving the matter at that and definitely will not be fobbed off with some crappy mytravel vouchers in recompense for our inconvenience.

Hope you get it sorted.  I would have thought at the very least they could refund you the excess baggage charges that you paid.

Ah yes the excess baggage...this was due to my wifes compulsive collecting.It wouldn't be much of a problem if she'd stick to stamps or something similar, but once she'd ammassed the 2nd largest collection of house bricks in the world theres been no stopping her.

I had the same flight last year, but have to say all swimmingly smooth, didn't have a problem

 I'm not trying to say that my experience is in any way typical of the many passengers MyTravel carry.As I said in the e-mail mistakes will always happen,but my real complaint is the attitude of their staff once confronted with the problem.At each point I was made to feel that I was in some way responsible instead of them and have so far received absolutely no semblance of an apology, no sense of urgency, rather more complete apathy and many broken promises.

 I detest practical jokes in all their forms.In my opinion anyone that gets a kick from standing on a chair and videoing their toilet for several minutes with the express intention of playing it back at a later date on their TV, just when their mother-in law is returning from the bathroom, is seriously deranged.

Me

Quite Partial to a Sicilian, me

Me too, but I tend to go for a Brazilian.

Wish you'd said at the start that you were flying to Glasgow, then onto Manchester, as then the email would have made sense on the first read through.

When I booked the tickets I was under the impression that it was a direct flight to Manchester.Nowhere did it mention that on the return journey we would be unloading a bunch of Jocks in Glasgow.

 Heres a copy of an e-mail I sent yesterday, suffice to say that I'm far from impressed with their customer service.


 

 Dear Sir/Madam,

 My partner and I returned from Las Vegas last Thursday 19/07/07 with MyTravel airways.After checking in two suitcases at McCarran airport (and paying an excess weight charge of $128) my partner noticed shortly before we were due to get on the plane that our boarding passes had Glasgow on them.As our tickets were for Manchester I approached one of your staff to query this, I then realised that the baggage stubs were also made out to glasgow. I was told to return when we were due to board and repeat the query.I followed this instruction and when I got to the gate I recognised the actual person who had checked our luggage in (a young Hispanic looking man with glasses and a long pony tail).Asking him if there was going to be a problem for us getting to Manchester with the erroneous passes his reply was 'oh yes, I remember you, your tickets were for Glasgow'.I demanded that he look again at the tickets which were indeed clearly printed for Manchester.
 Muttering something that I did not catch he took the tickets from me and walked away.When he returned he gave me boarding pass stubs for Manchester.I then enquired what was to become of the cases he had checked in wrongly.He informed me that we had to disembark in Glasgow, go through immigration,claim the cases from the carousel and check them back in before reboarding the aircraft.I expressed my concern that it would not be possible to do all this in the time allowed, but was informed that all passengers had to clear immigration in Glasgow before proceeding to Manchester.Unhappy with his couldn't care less attitude and lack of apology for his mistake I then boarded the plane.
 Upon arrival in Glasgow, the pilot informed the passemgers that those of us travelling on to Manchester, must stay aboard the aircraft.Surprised by this I told one of the cabin attendants of our situation.Her reponse was 'I wish you had told us earlier, we could've radioed ahead and got it sorted out'.Once again I was made to feel as though the situation was somehow my fault.She did however take our details, along with the baggage stubs, and assured us that the cases would be flown down to Manchester and delivered to our house later that day.At the terminal I made out another report and was told that the cases would be delivered to us the following day.
 Having taken an extra day off work in order to receive the luggage, my partner rang the phone number we were given, once it seemed clear that they were not arriving.She was then told that we would receive them the following day (Saturday).When they failed to arrive yet again I made the same call only to be told that the carriers do not work weekends, but we would definately get them on Monday.Having taken another day off I called the number once more on Monday afternoon.The girl took my details, promising to find out from the carriers were the cases where and to call me back promptly.Of course no return call has yet been received.
 I appreciate that mistakes will always be made, but what I find disturbing is the complete lack of concern from every member staff that I have so far discussed this matter with and at no point have I received any kind of apology.For a company so heavily reliant on customer relations I think you too should be VERY concerned.May I also remind you that the contract between us was to deliver my partner, myself AND our luggage, in this respect you are clearly in breach.
 I await your reply with limited patience.

 Mark Forrester
 
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surely you must be in profit for the trip if this is the standard?!

yup well in profit for both cash tables and some lower buy in tournies - between $100 and $200.

another classic the other night tho that makes me proud 2 be a brit....
i was at the cash table late at night, when a couple of pissed up lads from brighton come in. One sits in for $60 the other gets ejected for swearing and trying to light up a ciggie.after a few minutes an Asian puts in a decent pre-flop raise, our remaining hero stands up, says 'i'm gonna puke so I'm all-in'.Puts his hand over his mouth and shoves his chips in.Before the Asian calls he runs for the bog and isnt seen again.Didnt much matter tho cos his 66 lost to the Asians' KK

 In the first 6 hrs of play leading up to the dinner break my highest pocket pair was 77. I did however win decent pots with a flopped set and a rivered nut flush with . So somehow at dinner I had about 25k in chips.
 My table was very loose with some horrible plays being made all day long.I was itching to get properly in on the action but wasn't going to commit unless I had the goods.Cheif amongst the loose action players was this oldish Texan guy, he'd arrived mid afternoon at our table with about 80k in chips and quickly set about donking them off.In one memorable hand he had limped in mid position and bet out 1k on the Ace 7 3 flop.He was quickly check raised all-in by the small blind (Ax8x)for an additional 11k and only thought for a few senconds before calling with his mighty .With no help from the turn and river another 12k chips had gone even further west for him. He also made bluff after bluff, on any board, in any situation until his stack had dwindled to 19k.
 At this point blinds 200/400 ante 50 he raises again in mid position to 1900 all fold to me in the BB and I find KK. From the way he'd been playing I knew he was willing to call with any 2 cards at this stage and sure enough I received an instant call to my all-in push.Unhappy at seeing him turn over it was compounded even further by the As high flop.No miracle K arrived and he crippled me down to just over 2k in chips.I received no apology for the beat but did get an explanation from him - 'I've been playing sooo bad all day long, I figured it was time it payed off for me' sigh.
 I recovered slightly to a high of 10k before late in the day pushing in for 7k with , unfortunately I ran into a big stacks As and although the flop brought not 1 but 2 queens it also gave him the flush draw, the dealer duly obliged delivering the knockout on the river.
 All in all it was a truly horrible experience witnessing some of the worst poker i have ever seen and true masochist that I am, can't wait for next year.

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 I think everyone has missed the point here, i don't hate him for his drug taking, his music or the behaviour reported by the paparazzi.
 however I do hate him for the twattish looking hat he wears.

 While looking at the official WSOP web site recently, I found a list of exhibitors at this years 'Poker Life Expo'.It is heartening to see that not one poker site was listed.Last year was quite the opposite with just about every site having a stand, usually populated by scantily clad young girls. One particular stand even had a queue of sad pathetic men standing in line, to jump in bed and roll around in a pillow fight with several semi-naked girls. I was so intrigued by how much time these sados were prepared to wait for a cheap thrill that I decided to find out for myself.

 Of the 25 times I queued, the average turned out to be 14 mins 37 seconds. This may be misleading however as the six times that I queued up after leaving my main event table were considerably shorter.

 Thankfully this years expo will apparently be free of these tacky stands and hopefully will be an Aladins Den for the true enthusiast.I cant wait to feast my eyes on thousands of different chip sets and card protectors... hurray for the true home of the free.

 that lad from Preston busted in level 9, raising to 2,700 with Carlos Mortensen re-poped him 10k with As and was met with the push for another 15k. After a short pause the affable Spaniard called, no drama as he hit his ace on the flop.