8 Hours Home from Phoenix
Apr. 4th, 2023 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerPhoenix Getaway Travelog #11
Back home - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 10:15pm
Flying from point A to point B always takes way longer than the scheduled flight time. In the case of getting home from Phoenix on Monday, a nominally 1:55 flight was part of a door-to-door journey that took 8 hours.
No, the difference of 6 hours wasn't the dreaded flight delay. Yes, there was a flight delay. After all, we were flying Southwest!
...But the delay only added 45 minutes to the trip. Here's how the whole 8 hour thing worked out:
"Why not drive all the way instead of flying?" a number of folks we chatted with at the waterpark over the past few days asked. "Because it's 12 hours each way plus stops!" I told them. Actually, doing a quick map check now I see that it's really only about 11 hours plus stops... plus traffic. Even so, on a drive that long that's going to be closer to 14 hours. We're so much happier with "only" 8 hours even with the waiting and delays flying entailed.
Back home - Mon, 3 Apr 2023, 10:15pm
Flying from point A to point B always takes way longer than the scheduled flight time. In the case of getting home from Phoenix on Monday, a nominally 1:55 flight was part of a door-to-door journey that took 8 hours.
No, the difference of 6 hours wasn't the dreaded flight delay. Yes, there was a flight delay. After all, we were flying Southwest!
...But the delay only added 45 minutes to the trip. Here's how the whole 8 hour thing worked out:
- We left the hotel at 2pm after our last hurrah (previous blog)
- We drove to the airport, stopping for gas along the way and shopping at 2 bead stores
- We returned the car at 3:35pm and took the tram to the airport
- Security screening took only about 5 minutes, unlike at Oakland Saturday morning where it took almost 30 even in the TSA PreCheck lane
- At 4:50pm boarding for our flight was paused for sudden maintenance. The pilot later joked, "The 'Check Engine' light was on."
- Waiting through the delay was kind of weird because Hawk had already boarded and I was still in the queue in the terminal. I used the free time to unpack a protein bar from my suitcase and buy a soda from the newsstand.
- At 5:30pm we resumed boarding. It would be another half hour before the flight took off
- We landed at OAK commensurately late and walked to our car parked in the daily lot. Brrr, it was cold out! Only about 50° and windy, and we were dressed for sunny and 80°.
- Driving and parking at the airport was part of our plan for saving time getting home. Plus, with a discount on the parking, it was no more costly than taking Uber/Lyft both ways. And it did save time. But still it was well past 8pm when we were rolling.
- Another planned benefit of driving our own car was knowing we could stop for dinner en route home. We were famished! We hit a favorite chain sit-down restaurant for a quick, late dinner.
- At 10pm we walked through our own front door.
"Why not drive all the way instead of flying?" a number of folks we chatted with at the waterpark over the past few days asked. "Because it's 12 hours each way plus stops!" I told them. Actually, doing a quick map check now I see that it's really only about 11 hours plus stops... plus traffic. Even so, on a drive that long that's going to be closer to 14 hours. We're so much happier with "only" 8 hours even with the waiting and delays flying entailed.
