While you’ve been reading about Florida I’ve been out in Anaheim, CA. Eventually we’ll get to to that but right now I plan to crawl back to bed.
I’m officially Jet Lagged!
Category Archives: air travel
Fly the Friendly Skies with Delta? NOT!
On Monday 10/19 I drove off to a little town in upstate New York to meet up with my sister and traveling companion. Bright and early on Tuesday morning we headed to the airport for our date with Delta airlines. I fly quite often and for a long time Delta was my airline of choice but that is starting to change. Delta is being edged out by Southwest and on this trip I had a chance to really compare the 2 airlines. We were flying Delta to San Antonio and Southwest on our return from New Orleans.
Our flight was a two parter with a layover and change of planes in Detroit. I say that only because I’ve had the misfortune to witness first hand extreme rudeness from Delta attendants. One time the flight attendant lost her temper with an elderly couple who just wanted to sit together. She screamed and yelled at them and threatened to have them “removed from the airplane”.
Another time the attendant was upset over something unknown and threw the hand set to the intercom across the cabin. Whew! I sat very quietly all through that flight!
But I digress. I don’t go into these flights expecting a bad experience. In fact it has always surprised me when there’s an outburst like that. So back to our situation.
I paid extra for us to have more legroom on the 1st half of the trip from Albany to Detroit and I had specifically selected aisle seating. As we were getting ready to board Sandy mentioned that our seats had been changed. She’d been moved from an aisle to a window and so had I. To make it even worse I was in row 1 so there is no seat in front of me for my carry on. My carry on had to go in the overhead bin or get checked.
Since I had a laptop and about $2400 worth of camera equipment in my carry on you can imagine I did not want to be separated from my luggage. It was at that point that I realized that our “friendly” attendant was not a morning person. Maybe she hadn’t had her coffee yet because she was not fooling around. Of course she wouldn’t help me try to make it fit in the overhead either. You’d think if you have a customer that will pay extra for a seat upgrade that you’d treat them a little nicer but noooo, she just stood at the front of the plane telling me to get a move on because I was holding everyone up. I finally gave in and let her check the bag. (Against my better judgement, I might add.)
I told her if there was any damage I would hold Delta responsible to which she said I was out of luck because she had given me a verbal warning about checking a fragile item.
The laptop did not make it unscathed but the damage was minor and can be worked around. Thankfully the camera and lens were fine. I suppose I shouldn’t feel too bad. The poor trainee flight attendant was being growled at the whole flight. She was just one of those “not nice” people.
The 2nd half of the trip was uneventful. My carry on went into the overhead with no problem but it seems every trip on Delta there’s at least one unhappy flight attendant.
It was good to arrive in San Antonio and leave the unfriendly skies behind.
San Diego
I’m Back! I didn’t expect to be gone quite so long.
Last week was our annual company meeting. I was in San Diego at the company’s expense from Wednesday 1/14- Saturday 1/17. Actually Wednesday was a travel day. I deliberately took an early morning flight because I wanted a chance to see a little of San Diego.
Last year we had the meeting in San Diego too but a winter storm on the east coast delayed my flight so much that it was quite late when I got there. Once the meetings start there’s no time for sight seeing. You are busy from 9 am to midnight.
This year the weather was cold but clear and I had a 5 am flight. I was arriving in San Diego at 11:30 am and would have the afternoon to do some sight-seeing…or so I hoped.
The best laid plans of mice and men can go astray and seems like that applies to my plans too. I guess I should be glad I’m not an army general.
My flights were pleasant and uneventful. I was flying Southwest Airlines and I used their early bird check in so I didn’t have to worry about checking in to get the best seating. It’s $12.95 but it was money well spent. I got great seating. I was also wearing a warm sweater because it was very cold , about 9 degrees, when I left to go to the airport. Sometimes the cabins are a bit cold when you hit 30,000 ft.
We made good time and landed in Chicago ahead of schedule. I had time to grab some breakfast before the 2nd leg of my journey. Chicago to San Diego was smooth too and once again we landed early. Unfortunately we landed without my luggage. 🙁
San Diego was sunny and warm with a sea breeze. A sweater was definitely out of place and by the time I caught the shuttle to the hotel I was in full melt down mode. I checked into my room and settled down to wait for news of my wayward bags. Southwest assured me they weren’t lost just delayed. The best I could do was hang out around the hotel and wait. I needed a change of clothes before I could go exploring.
The call finally came at 4 pm. My bags had made it to the airport and would be delivered to me no later than 8 pm. So much for any sight-seeing. I guess San Diego will have to wait for another year.
Knoxville
I think I may have jumped ahead in my trip narrative so I’m going to back up just a tad. I have to mention the Knoxville Airport.
It is beautiful. As you leave the secured area and enter the main concourse there is a water feature with rocks and flowers. The glass windows allow the sunlight to create a natural looking oasis.
I did something I rarely do in airports. I stopped to take a picture.
I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence or if they are really that efficient but by the time I made it to the baggage claim my luggage was already circling on the carousel. I heard other passengers making surprised comments as well. I was off to the car rentals in record time.
I’m using Enterprise this trip. And it was at the Enterprise counter that I realized the first thing I had forgotten to pack… my GPS. Yes I can get one from Enterprise but at the cost of $11.00/ day. Normally I’d say skip it but the directions to the resort seem kind of involved and I don’t have a partner in adventure this trip so I would have to keep stopping to read them myself. I bit the bullet and added the GPS. (It was a good choice if a tad expensive)
The other unusual decision I made was to add the extra insurance. This essentially doubled the cost of my rental and again deviates from what I usually do. I had coverage on my own insurance and also coverage on my credit card but one thing neither of these insurances cover is the “loss of value” that the rental companies are now pursuing. It’s no longer good enough to cover the cost of the repairs if you have an accident. Now you have to worry that the accident will lower the resale value of the vehicle. (Show me the car fax)
Usually I take my chances that I won’t have any accident so won’t have to be concerned about resale value but for some reason I can’t explain I just wasn’t comfortable with that risk today so I took their insurance. Go ahead, call me stupid but at least I have peace of mind.
GPS set, luggage stowed, seat adjusted and it was time to hit the road. Gatlinburg here I come!
Where’s the Fun?
Traveling is so much fun.
You know I love to travel but maybe it’s time to clarify something. I love visiting new places, I don’t love getting there. I can’t wait for the day we can just “beam” ourselves to our destination.
I roused myself at 6 am to feed the cats, shower and head to T.F. Green Airport for my flight to Knoxville.
I am not now and never have been a morning person. At my age I doubt that I am going to change that so any morning that starts at 6 am is a challenge to begin with. The only reason I can do it is for the reward at the end of the tunnel.
When I arrived at T.F. Green I was pleased to find out that I was Prechecked by TSA or something like that. Apparently it’s something new to make the TSA appear to be kinder and gentler. Passengers are selected at random (or so they say) and get to skip some of the more intrusive pre-screening at the security check point.
I didn’t have to take the laptop out, or my shoes off or even my sweatshirt (jacket). I just put everything on the belt to be screened and trotted through the scanner, not the new full body scanner but one of the old ones where you just walk through. Easy Peasy! I like this.
I flew US Air because Southwest doesn’t fly into Knoxville. I got to pick my own seats when I booked my flight. I like that so much better than Southwest’s first come first serve policy. Anyway boarding went off without a hitch. We boarded like normal down the jet way. We were on one of the little skinny planes.
Sandy (my sister) calls them pencil planes, just 2 seats on each side of a single aisle and 1 flight attendant. I had to change planes in Washington at Ronald Reagan International. The flight was just 1 ½ hours. Pretty short by my standards.
I was in for a surprise at Ronald Reagan. We landed and taxied not to a gate but to some spot in the middle of the tarmac. The stairs were lowered and we climbed down that way where we were ushered onto a waiting shuttle. It was sort of like a bus with the interior of a trolley or subway car. There were hand loops and poles but no seats. This shuttle delivered us to the terminal.
Hmmmm. I felt like all that was missing was the paparazzi with flash bulbs popping and cameras clicking. Isn’t that where the president steps out onto the stairs of Airforce One and waves for his photo op?
I killed the time between flights by having lunch. The special of the day was Maryland Lump Crab Cakes so I gave them a try. Good but not worth $15.00 and the waitress wasn’t rude but was severely lacking in the personality department.
When it came time to board for the 2nd leg of the journey we were once again loaded into a shuttle and ferried out to a row of “pencil planes” sitting in the middle of the tarmac. We were in a line of shuttles. Smaller utility vehicles buzzed around making me think of scenes from Star Wars where all the little robots and droids are zipping around.
Eventually we were unloaded and escorted to one of the pencil planes that had the stairs down. 1 ½ hours later we landed in Knoxville. The flight was uneventful which is always a plus.
Oh and we exited off a jet way this time. No steep stairs in the middle of the airport.