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canyonwalkerThis afternoon it was Planes, Trains, and Automobiles to Seattle. We're in town to testify at a criminal trial tomorrow morning.
Today's journey started when we hopped in an Uber just 19 hours after arriving home last night. Repacking between trips wasn't hard. a) Very little is reused between the previous trip and this one. They're for different purposes and to very different climates. It was 103° and sunny in Phoenix yesterday. It's 55° and drizzling in Seattle. b) This trip is brief, just one night, so there wasn't much to pack. Oh, and c) experienced traveler. It's not my first less-than-24-hours-at-home rodeo.
Lines at SJC were surprisingly short when we arrived sometime around 3:30pm. That was surprising because it seems like nowadays everything is running at capacity in the airline business. Sure enough our flight was 100% full. I guess we simply beat the crowd to the security lines.
This trek had a slightly different experience than all the rest. We flew Alaska Airlines. I haven't flown Alaska other than once 10 years and several hundred thousand miles ago. More to the point, it's only the second or third time in that long I've flown in economy on any airline as a no-status passenger. What would it be like?
Flying Alaska was surprisingly better than flying no-status would've been on some other airlines. I had a good seat assigned... though that may have been a perk of the county's volume purchase relationship with the airline whose hub is in the county. Then I was able to select an exit row seat while checking in this morning. That, especially, was surprising. On airlines like United, exit rows are only offered to elites, and they're generally filled up days, even weeks, before departure. On the minus side, checking a bag would've cost me. Fortunately I don't do checked bags on short trips.
Also, the Alaska flight to Seattle left on time and arrived early. THAT is way different from flying Southwest! 🤣 To be fair to Southwest, though, their flight SJC-SEA this afternoon also left on time & arrived early. It figures the one time I don't fly them they manage to run on time.
Once on the ground at SEA we Ubered to our hotel downtown. I'm glad the county gave us an Uber voucher instead of asking us to take public transit. That means this chapter of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" doesn't actually include any trains, but it's worth it because the train from the airport to downtown is ridiculous slow. Like, seriously, if you value your time at effectively zero, go ahead and spend 90 minutes on a train with crazy people leering at you instead of 20 minutes in a private car.
Today's journey started when we hopped in an Uber just 19 hours after arriving home last night. Repacking between trips wasn't hard. a) Very little is reused between the previous trip and this one. They're for different purposes and to very different climates. It was 103° and sunny in Phoenix yesterday. It's 55° and drizzling in Seattle. b) This trip is brief, just one night, so there wasn't much to pack. Oh, and c) experienced traveler. It's not my first less-than-24-hours-at-home rodeo.
Lines at SJC were surprisingly short when we arrived sometime around 3:30pm. That was surprising because it seems like nowadays everything is running at capacity in the airline business. Sure enough our flight was 100% full. I guess we simply beat the crowd to the security lines.
This trek had a slightly different experience than all the rest. We flew Alaska Airlines. I haven't flown Alaska other than once 10 years and several hundred thousand miles ago. More to the point, it's only the second or third time in that long I've flown in economy on any airline as a no-status passenger. What would it be like?
Flying Alaska was surprisingly better than flying no-status would've been on some other airlines. I had a good seat assigned... though that may have been a perk of the county's volume purchase relationship with the airline whose hub is in the county. Then I was able to select an exit row seat while checking in this morning. That, especially, was surprising. On airlines like United, exit rows are only offered to elites, and they're generally filled up days, even weeks, before departure. On the minus side, checking a bag would've cost me. Fortunately I don't do checked bags on short trips.
Also, the Alaska flight to Seattle left on time and arrived early. THAT is way different from flying Southwest! 🤣 To be fair to Southwest, though, their flight SJC-SEA this afternoon also left on time & arrived early. It figures the one time I don't fly them they manage to run on time.
Once on the ground at SEA we Ubered to our hotel downtown. I'm glad the county gave us an Uber voucher instead of asking us to take public transit. That means this chapter of "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" doesn't actually include any trains, but it's worth it because the train from the airport to downtown is ridiculous slow. Like, seriously, if you value your time at effectively zero, go ahead and spend 90 minutes on a train with crazy people leering at you instead of 20 minutes in a private car.
