...we (CJane, Tomster and I) are back from our most excellent adventure to San Francisco. We left Christmas morning, flew there non-stop on a venerable silver MD80, no issues, and the hotel we had selected, the Hotel Rex, was a very pleasant place, small, well-appointed and with staff who were like family as soon as we arrived.
Great time touristing around, Monterey Bay Aquarium for Tommy on Tuesday (rented a car for one (1) day, returned same day, parking $34.00/night otherwise!).
Wednesday, all around wandering including the Pampanito, WWII-era submarine at Pier 41, absolutely fascinating and amazing that so many people served on such a small vessel. These were brave souls, and I was again proud that Tommy understands the substance of what he sees, the historical significance.
Thursday, an old-fashioned tour on a bus, with a great (funny) tourguide. I never have cared for bus tours, but this one was not bad. Closed out with supper at Scala, decent food and indifferent service at a very high price, but were able to host a young couple, husband is son of a friend and client, good fun.
Then came Friday.
We were scheduled to take 3:50 pm flight to DFW, and I had registered for text message flight updates from AA; at 1:50, phone beeps and message: "Cancelled. Call." Call I did, and the supremely disinterested young man on the other end said he could rebook me on the 5:50 flight, or the 2:45 flight if we thought we could make it. Since we had a town car scheduled for 2:00 and were minutes from the hotel, we took it and hustled- got to the airport just in time to be told by the counter agent that we were "too late" to check in and check bags (it was 2:16 pm), but she eventually decided to make a special dispensation and checked our bags.
Off to the gate, boarded and got seated, and were told we were going to depart "...about 30 minutes late..." because of weather; indeed, about ten minutes later, the Cap'n told us we were now expected to leave about four hours late, because of the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes and farm animals falling from the sky at Dallas-Ft. Worth, so we deplaned to wait.
Then they cancelled the flight, along with every other flight to DFW for the day. Ironically enough, a 4-hour delay would have been perfect, as that would have had us arriving in weather which, according to the TAF, would have been by then benign. I suspect, more than anything else, that the cxld it because they had way too many aircraft stuck at DFW already, and wanted to leave the outstation aircraft where it was for the next day.
Anyway, AA could not be bothered to actually (1) make useful announcements, or (2) make any special efforts to re-accommodate the passengers. Huge lines, a couple of overworked agents, and phone lines which automatically hung up on callers after about 15 seconds.
I finally managed to "drill-through" to a res agent on the phone, who cheerily told me that she could book us on the 9:30 am Sunday flight (!). We grabbed a cab back to the Rex, where they thoughtfully gave us the same discounted rate we had had before.
Later that night, after doing extensive web searching for flight possibilities, I found a UAL non-stop Saturday evening (was *not* going to chance a DEN connection!), about an hour on the phone w/ AA, and the very-helpful agent allowed as how they could certainly book us on that flight, and said she had done so.
Saturday dawned nice and pretty, and (making the best, as they say), we had another day of great sight-seeing, cable-car museum, Haight-Ashbury (old hippies never die, they move to SFO), that sort of thing. We grabbed the airport town car (again) at 4:00 pm, and about the time we got to the airport, Celia remembered that she'd missed one bag, the bag with ... ummm ... her ID in it. So Tommy and I stayed at the airport to check in and check bags, while Celia did the round-trip to the hotel and back in the town car (and extra $80.00, but who's counting?).
At check in, it seems that the AA rep had not quite finished her job, and the tickets were reserved but not purchased. Fortunately, the UAL counter rep, may his shadow never decrease, quickly rectified the sitch on the phone and we were checked in.
After sweating it a bit, we saw CJane walk in bearing the all-important bag, and went to security.
Y'ever get the boarding pass, and it has "SSSSS" printed on it? That's shorthand for "Full Rectal Exam." All three of us got scrutinized, got to stand in the air-puffer-phone-booth-sniffer-thingy, and our carry-ons were inspected by hand in exquisite detail.
Finally cleared, we got the gate, boarded the flight almost immediately, and found (to our delight) that we were in "Economy Plus," UA's extra room product, and the room was nice. The flight, also, left almost on-time and, despite being flown in a cheese-eating-surrender-monkey-jet, was quite comfortable. Got to DFW almost on time (they made up some time), and when the bags were spit out from the bowels of the terminal (the Braniff terminal, I reminded myself), we went out and found that the airport limo service sent a stretch limo, about which Tommy was jazzed.
Greg's airline did alright by me (Captain said "with you" on each call-up, and the controllers did not seem to mind).
Home at last, road-weary and ready for rest... took out my contacts, pulled my glasses from my computer bag, upon which I discovered that one lens was missing. D'oh! Gosh, it was there when I packed it and the bag was never opened except ... oh, yeah, the TSA folks.
Sigh.
"Time to spare, go by air; more time yet, go by jet."
Great time touristing around, Monterey Bay Aquarium for Tommy on Tuesday (rented a car for one (1) day, returned same day, parking $34.00/night otherwise!).
Wednesday, all around wandering including the Pampanito, WWII-era submarine at Pier 41, absolutely fascinating and amazing that so many people served on such a small vessel. These were brave souls, and I was again proud that Tommy understands the substance of what he sees, the historical significance.
Thursday, an old-fashioned tour on a bus, with a great (funny) tourguide. I never have cared for bus tours, but this one was not bad. Closed out with supper at Scala, decent food and indifferent service at a very high price, but were able to host a young couple, husband is son of a friend and client, good fun.
Then came Friday.
We were scheduled to take 3:50 pm flight to DFW, and I had registered for text message flight updates from AA; at 1:50, phone beeps and message: "Cancelled. Call." Call I did, and the supremely disinterested young man on the other end said he could rebook me on the 5:50 flight, or the 2:45 flight if we thought we could make it. Since we had a town car scheduled for 2:00 and were minutes from the hotel, we took it and hustled- got to the airport just in time to be told by the counter agent that we were "too late" to check in and check bags (it was 2:16 pm), but she eventually decided to make a special dispensation and checked our bags.
Off to the gate, boarded and got seated, and were told we were going to depart "...about 30 minutes late..." because of weather; indeed, about ten minutes later, the Cap'n told us we were now expected to leave about four hours late, because of the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes and farm animals falling from the sky at Dallas-Ft. Worth, so we deplaned to wait.
Then they cancelled the flight, along with every other flight to DFW for the day. Ironically enough, a 4-hour delay would have been perfect, as that would have had us arriving in weather which, according to the TAF, would have been by then benign. I suspect, more than anything else, that the cxld it because they had way too many aircraft stuck at DFW already, and wanted to leave the outstation aircraft where it was for the next day.
Anyway, AA could not be bothered to actually (1) make useful announcements, or (2) make any special efforts to re-accommodate the passengers. Huge lines, a couple of overworked agents, and phone lines which automatically hung up on callers after about 15 seconds.
I finally managed to "drill-through" to a res agent on the phone, who cheerily told me that she could book us on the 9:30 am Sunday flight (!). We grabbed a cab back to the Rex, where they thoughtfully gave us the same discounted rate we had had before.
Later that night, after doing extensive web searching for flight possibilities, I found a UAL non-stop Saturday evening (was *not* going to chance a DEN connection!), about an hour on the phone w/ AA, and the very-helpful agent allowed as how they could certainly book us on that flight, and said she had done so.
Saturday dawned nice and pretty, and (making the best, as they say), we had another day of great sight-seeing, cable-car museum, Haight-Ashbury (old hippies never die, they move to SFO), that sort of thing. We grabbed the airport town car (again) at 4:00 pm, and about the time we got to the airport, Celia remembered that she'd missed one bag, the bag with ... ummm ... her ID in it. So Tommy and I stayed at the airport to check in and check bags, while Celia did the round-trip to the hotel and back in the town car (and extra $80.00, but who's counting?).
At check in, it seems that the AA rep had not quite finished her job, and the tickets were reserved but not purchased. Fortunately, the UAL counter rep, may his shadow never decrease, quickly rectified the sitch on the phone and we were checked in.
After sweating it a bit, we saw CJane walk in bearing the all-important bag, and went to security.
Y'ever get the boarding pass, and it has "SSSSS" printed on it? That's shorthand for "Full Rectal Exam." All three of us got scrutinized, got to stand in the air-puffer-phone-booth-sniffer-thingy, and our carry-ons were inspected by hand in exquisite detail.
Finally cleared, we got the gate, boarded the flight almost immediately, and found (to our delight) that we were in "Economy Plus," UA's extra room product, and the room was nice. The flight, also, left almost on-time and, despite being flown in a cheese-eating-surrender-monkey-jet, was quite comfortable. Got to DFW almost on time (they made up some time), and when the bags were spit out from the bowels of the terminal (the Braniff terminal, I reminded myself), we went out and found that the airport limo service sent a stretch limo, about which Tommy was jazzed.
Greg's airline did alright by me (Captain said "with you" on each call-up, and the controllers did not seem to mind).
Home at last, road-weary and ready for rest... took out my contacts, pulled my glasses from my computer bag, upon which I discovered that one lens was missing. D'oh! Gosh, it was there when I packed it and the bag was never opened except ... oh, yeah, the TSA folks.
Sigh.
"Time to spare, go by air; more time yet, go by jet."
