17 Hours Later, Back at the Airport Again
May. 21st, 2023 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerVegas in May Travelog #1
31,000' over the desert - Sun, 21 May 2023, 5:30pm
When we got home from our Cayman Islands trip last night I knew I'd be leaving again in 17 hours. Sunday afternoon I'm headed off to Las Vegas for 3 days at a business conference.
I made good use of my 17 hours at home. I got a fair night's sleep and still got up early. I made the morning productive but in a low key way. Hawk and I had some quiet time together. Afterwards we both caught up on various small odds-and-ends around the house that had been left for a week. Because we were up early we finished everything in time for an early lunch. We went out to a favorite casual restaurant and enjoyed lunch on the patio. It's sunny and pleasantly warm today in Sunnyvale. After lunch we made a few quick shopping stops on the way home.
Before we got home I got the dreaded news I at least half expected....
My Southwest flight was delayed. The delay was about an hour. I used that extra time to take things a bit more slowly in the afternoon. Back at the house I opened my work computer for a while to get caught up on anything I need to know for this trip. Then I packed my suitcase.
Packing was quick because I planned ahead at the start of my last trip a week ago so that I wouldn't need to do any laundry. I could just dump the suitcase and refill with clothes from the closet. I still washed a load of laundry this morning because why wait.
Finally I called a car for the airport. I left 30 minutes later than my original plan, as my flight was delayed 55 minutes. At the airport, though, I figured Why wait? There are multiple flights per day SJC-LAS on Southwest. Schedule flexibility is one of the reasons I travel with them.
It turns out all of the Southwest flights SJC-LAS are delayed this afternoon. But I found an earlier flight delayed until about the originally scheduled departure time of the flight I booked, and switched to it. One of the benefits of my elite status is doing same-day change like that.
Now, changing flights on Southwest does mean losing my boarding order. My A16 on my original flight became C27 on the new flight. Yikes! Of course, another benefit of my elite status is that if I don't get an "A" boarding pass I can board after all the other As. Effectively I never have worse than about A61. But A61 wasn't good enough. I paid $30 to upgrade to A13. Why? One, because it gives me a better shot at a plum exit row seat. Two, because my Southwest credit card credits me for up to 4 buy-ups per year. I rarely get worse than about A23 because of my elite status, so I'm willing to spend one of my four annual coupons in cases like this.
31,000' over the desert - Sun, 21 May 2023, 5:30pm
When we got home from our Cayman Islands trip last night I knew I'd be leaving again in 17 hours. Sunday afternoon I'm headed off to Las Vegas for 3 days at a business conference.
I made good use of my 17 hours at home. I got a fair night's sleep and still got up early. I made the morning productive but in a low key way. Hawk and I had some quiet time together. Afterwards we both caught up on various small odds-and-ends around the house that had been left for a week. Because we were up early we finished everything in time for an early lunch. We went out to a favorite casual restaurant and enjoyed lunch on the patio. It's sunny and pleasantly warm today in Sunnyvale. After lunch we made a few quick shopping stops on the way home.
Before we got home I got the dreaded news I at least half expected....
My Southwest flight was delayed. The delay was about an hour. I used that extra time to take things a bit more slowly in the afternoon. Back at the house I opened my work computer for a while to get caught up on anything I need to know for this trip. Then I packed my suitcase.
Packing was quick because I planned ahead at the start of my last trip a week ago so that I wouldn't need to do any laundry. I could just dump the suitcase and refill with clothes from the closet. I still washed a load of laundry this morning because why wait.
Finally I called a car for the airport. I left 30 minutes later than my original plan, as my flight was delayed 55 minutes. At the airport, though, I figured Why wait? There are multiple flights per day SJC-LAS on Southwest. Schedule flexibility is one of the reasons I travel with them.
It turns out all of the Southwest flights SJC-LAS are delayed this afternoon. But I found an earlier flight delayed until about the originally scheduled departure time of the flight I booked, and switched to it. One of the benefits of my elite status is doing same-day change like that.
Now, changing flights on Southwest does mean losing my boarding order. My A16 on my original flight became C27 on the new flight. Yikes! Of course, another benefit of my elite status is that if I don't get an "A" boarding pass I can board after all the other As. Effectively I never have worse than about A61. But A61 wasn't good enough. I paid $30 to upgrade to A13. Why? One, because it gives me a better shot at a plum exit row seat. Two, because my Southwest credit card credits me for up to 4 buy-ups per year. I rarely get worse than about A23 because of my elite status, so I'm willing to spend one of my four annual coupons in cases like this.
