Off to LA. Weekend Trade Show.

[canyonwalker]

SJC Airport - Thu, 28 Jul 2022. 1pm.

I'm flying to Los Angeles today to work at a trade show for the next three days. Yes, "the next three days" means Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I get to work straight through the weekend into next week. Yay.

It's a quick flight to LA, only about 50 minutes from takeoff to landing, though it's scheduled for 1 hour 20 minutes due to all the things that have to happen on the ground on either end. Plus allowance for small delays. ...But sometimes delays that are more than small arise. Speaking of which....



Southwest kindly texted me starting 3 hours before my flight today that it's delayed. At first the delay was half an hour. By the time I got to the airport it was reduced to 20 minutes. What will it be? I think the correct answer is "None of the above". I figure based on the current 20 min estimate the reality will be 30-40 minutes. Southwest always applies its delays optimistically by about 15 minutes.

Comments

[some_other_dave]

I flew from San Jose to Portland via Seattle yesterday on Delta.

The flight from SEA to PDX was delayed by three hours. A thirty minute flight, delayed by three hours...

[canyonwalker]

Savvy frequent flyers avoid small aircraft operated by regional carriers when there's mainline service to the destination. The reason is that when weather forces a slowdown of takeoffs and landings at either end, the mainline carriers have to choose which flights are delayed or canceled. And they will always first target the small aircraft flown by regional partners as they impact the fewest passengers and don't impact the mainline carrier's crews. If I were traveling SJC-PDX I would stretch to choose a nonstop, including looking at OAK-PDX and SFO-PDX as alternatives, before accepting a connection. I would also prefer to fly mainline service, like Southwest out of SJC/OAK or United out of SFO, instead of some big airline's regional partner.

[canyonwalker]

Also, yeah, it's really frustrating when such short flights are delayed. I remember catching a 2 or 3 hour delay on PDX-SEA once years ago and thinking, "Why didn't I just rent a car and drive this?" I would've gotten there faster.