Friday 12th February 2016

It was a very early start this morning after very little sleep as I worked last night. It is never a good thing waking up at 2:30am and having to head to the airport, even worse when you got home at 10pm the night before from the exact same place. This time though I was not returning to work but for fun!

The commute was filled with rain but I coped and the next thing I know I was at the lot waiting for a shuttle to the terminal area. There were a lot of people on the bus this morning and I was thankful for the free parking (even if it meant screwing around for extra time). I was glad I allowed myself extra time when I got to the terminal as even though it was before 4am, this place was packed! Hello Holiday Travel!

I jumped in the line for Southwest as this was my first flight with them in a while and it was painless. I didn’t have to wait long and I had myself checked in. I was filled in that it was a full flight and in fact oversold, so try not to miss your boarding group advice was given. Headed to security next and noticed that it was an absolute zoo with hundreds of people at each checkpoint and it was not going to be a good day. It was before 4am and it already looked bad! I used my old Premium Card trick and was through soon enough. Turns out they opened the checkpoint early because it was so busy.

By the time i got myself back together and ready to move on, it was almost 35 mins till my flight so decided to just head to the gate. With free wifi it meant i could do some work. The WiFi connection at the airport is spotty at best. For instance I could remote home to my computer without a problem, yet connecting to wordpress… no dice! Volunteers for a bump were called but only the offer of a 3 hour delay, via San Jose and a $300 voucher. Pass. I got what work I needed done and within about 10 minutes of finishing, people were called up to the queues.

Southwest Airlines – WN776
Seattle Tacoma to Orange County
0540-0840
Boeing 737-700 (N7746C)
Economy Class – Seat 2A – Boarding Position A53

Boarding: 0511 (Gate B14)
Push Back: 0536
Take off Roll: 0548 (Runway 16L)
Top of Descent: 0748
Touch Down: 0816 (Runway 20R)
Shut Down: 0819 (Gate 13)

We all lined up as instructed and a couple of first timers were struggling with kids not wanting to line up. Tough! I got through pretty quickly, but there was a long long line in the jetbridge. By the time I got onboard i saw a window open up front… in 2A. What the hell? The lady was camping the aisle and just staring people down. I asked if anyone was sitting there and she ignored me, so I did what I normally do. “Excuse me i’d like to get in there”. She moved but with a very sour look on her face. I took the window, got myself settled and waited as the mass of humanity boarded and took every single seat, including the middle. O lady on the aisle, she stashed her bags under the middle seat, even refused to move them. Poor middle seat lady 🙁

We pushed back and headed for the runway in the rain and dark. Nothing much to see apart from rain, rain and more rain. Boring! I turned on my tablet and some videos and just watched them pretty much the whole way to SNA. I occasionally watched the sun out the window as it rose into the sky, and when drinks were offered, I took a coffee and a can of water (and even got a coffee refil). It was not a fancy flight but at 5:40am in the morning, I couldn’t care less to be honest.

I managed to get through 3 videos and then as the last one finished, we hit top of descent. Perfect timing as we skirted down the Los Angeles Coast line, past Long beach and turned towards Orange County. The landing had us come around from the coast over a lot of the suburbs (including Disneyland). We turned back towards the coast for landing and came down steep. REALLY steep. This strip was tiny and as soon as we crossed the fence and hit the lines, brakes came on hard and out came the thrust reversers and every piece of control surface to make some stopping power.

We turned and headed back to the terminal area and pulled in next to a large range of other Southwest Aircraft. We waited a few minutes for the jetbridge and then i was out of there fast. A lot of people were trying to swim upstream for their bags. Not a good idea. I got out into the terminal pretty easily and then tried to fix the first situation that needed addressing… a pit stop. None in site and before I knew it I was at the next gate and hadn’t gotten a photo of the plane. I kept going figuring the bags would be out soon. MISTAKE! Down to the baggage claim (via the first Bathroom i could find) and turns out that Southwest may not charge for bags, but they are the slowest ever.

I waited about 20 minutes or more for my bag and when it did finally come out, I grabbed it and headed to the National desk. It was located in the parking structure but on the basement level. Wierd! When I finally got over to the National Aisle, there seemed to be an executie aisle and not much else. There was a few cars there, very slim pickings but it was cycling fast. The one thing that annoyed me was that Alamo was sending their people over to get cars from the Aisle and so were National for non emerald aisle customers. Hell if you had a standard EA membership, you got to pick from the Exec. So unfair. I asked for a Mustang, none on site that day. So i was heading for a Challenger (per Heidi’s requet) when I spied a 2016 Maxima, one that was only a few weeks old if that. it had 600 miles on the clock and working Sat Nav…. SCORE!

I hit the streets towards LAX and some shenanigans!

Miles Driven: 0
States Visited: 1