mweiss
Oct 19, 99, 4:59 pm
Wednesday, October 13, 1999
AS664 SEA-LAS
I arrived at SeaTac at about 12:10 for this 13:45 flight, because I was changing from AS660 (19:30 departure). It was clear that parking was going to be a problem this time, so I proceded immediately to the 7th floor. Even there, I only got a space (way on the south end, near the Southwest counters) because I noticed someone leaving and got that space. I'll be most happy when the new parking areas open up.
I went to the electronic ticket counter...AS now has a new kiosk in what used to be a waiting area. Hopefully, that will help around Thanksgiving. The agent happily moved me to 664, but insisted upon charging the $35 change fee, despite my status as MVP. Go figure. After checkin, I went to gate D1 to wait for the flight.
Boarding of this 16-year-old MD-80 aircraft started at 13:20, and was almost immediately logjammed by a couple with a car seat, but no ticketed seat for it. The FA insisted upon checking for the FAA cert on the seat, and did so while blocking access to the coach cabin. I believe that they ended up being able to use the seat, nonetheless. The cabin was not spotless, but acceptably clean. Alaska's MD-80s are really starting to show their age.
I took my seat in 7C. The passenger originally assigned 7A was moved to 6A (bulkhead) because she had a cracked ankle. The passenger originally assigned 6A was offered a free drink to move. I thought that was a nice touch, but it was ironic that compensation was offered at all, because my row had an empty seat in the middle...row 6 did not.
Fortunately, despite the car seat backup, the cabin was secured at 13:43, and the door closed at 13:44. The aircraft pushed back precisely on time, but because of a minor backup on the taxiway, we ended up taking off about 10 minutes later than we should have.
Takeoff was smooth, as was the two-hour, ten-minute flight. There was a little bit of turbulence from the updrafts while we were on approach. No food was offered in coach; the FC passengers got the cheese/cracker plate.
Landing was smooth, and taxi to the gate was speedy. The jetway was connected promptly, and people deplaned in an orderly fashion.
This flight rates an 8. Nothing phenominal, but generally pleasant.
After deplaning, I went to the ticket counter to fix my return flight. For whatever reason, I had the wrong date on the return. Fortunately, the ticket agent was especially nice about the whole thing, and switched my ticket without charging me anything.
Mandalay Bay Hotel
I picked up a hotel shuttle to the Mandalay Bay (Circus-Circus' premier property...they put a coconut smell in the ventilation system), where I waited in the world-famous Vegas checkin line for about 20 minutes. When I got to the agent, he couldn't find my record. I provided a ton of documentation, including confirmation code, the name of the person who accepted the reservation, the room rate, and my electronically-printed itinerary from our travel agent. I was even pre-charged for a night, so I had them look up the credit card records. They found absolutely nothing.
There were rooms available, so that wasn't a problem. However, my reservation was for $89/night. They had no way to confirm that I really had that rate, rather than the standard $150. In the end, my story hung together too well for them to deny me the room at that rate. It took about a half hour, but I got them to do it. After all of that, it turned out that it was my agent that made the mistake, but everything turned out well in the end.
The room itself was quite nice. The bathroom had a separate stall for the toilet, and the main bathroom had both a full tub and a very nice stall shower. You could have played volleyball in this bathroom. The towels were folded in an interesting fashion. The hand-towel was folded in such a fashion that there was a little "pocket" formed in the front. Inside the "pocket" was a fan-folded washcloth. Very attractive.
No minibar in the room, no surprise for Vegas. The phones had two lines, and I was able to get close to 50kbps. They charged $1 per call, regardless of type. It's still better than the Hilton approach of charging by the minute.
Checkout was another long line. The Vegas hotels have figured out that it's better to make the infrequent gamblers wait in long lines, while the frequent gamblers get the short lines. Sounds an awful lot like the airline industry, doesn't it?
Overall, this place rated an 8. Except for the lines, I was very pleased.
Friday, October 15, 1999
UA5091 LAS-PSP
This early-evening flight is the only scheduled non-stop service between LAS and PSP. Fortunately, there's service at all; it made it much easier for me to spend the weekend with my parents and sister.
The equipment arrived about a half-hour late, due to weather conditions in Fresno earlier in the day. Boarding was quick and orderly in this Skywest operated Embraer Brasilia. I had the misfortune of sitting in 3A, which is a bulkhead seat. The galley was, therefore, right in front of my face, and I had very little legroom.
The door was closed as soon as the paperwork arrived, and we quickly taxied to the runway threshold. However, we were held there for about 10 minutes waiting for traffic. Oddly enough, they switched the runway direction for a single flight, and then switched it back. I say oddly because the wind didn't shift back when they switched the runway back, so we were taking off with a tailwind.
Service consisted of the usual Skywest fare. Drinks (I had water), pretzels, peanuts, and Biscoff. The flight was smooth and uneventful, and the flight attendant was cheerful and pleasant.
The approach to runway 31L was rather odd, involving several sweeping turns. As I'm very familiar with PSP, this came as a surprise to me. I'm still not sure what happened, but we landed safely and smoothly, and taxied quickly to the gate. Once the gate-checked items were placed on the tarmac, they let us deplane, which we did in a quick and orderly fashion.
Overall, this flight rated a 6. I don't care much for puddle-jumpers, and it was late. But the crew were all very pleasant.
I quickly found my sister, and she brought me home.
Things were fine until about 3AM, when I was awakened by some pretty significant rocking and shaking, as a 7.0 earthquake hit the Landers area (this was close to the site of the 1992 summer earthquake). No damage, other than shaken nerves.
Monday, October 18, 1999
AS569 PSP-SEA
After a busy weekend, and several conference calls on my "vacation day," my sister took me to Palm Springs International Airport (it's still funny to me to think of it as an international). I had a new bag that I needed to check, so I went to the ticket counter, and waited in the MVP line. Ironically, I would have done better in the regular line, but such is life. The person in front of me, for whatever reason, was taking forever. But I had plenty of time. No problems whatsoever.
I went through security, and off to gate 12. The aircraft had already parked at 8, but the nearest phones are at 12, and I had one phone call to make before leaving PSP. Boarding this 737-400 started at 17:11, with a scheduled departure of 17:38. Everything progressed in an orderly, albeit leisurely, pace. The aircraft itself was maybe 2/3 full. I took my seat in 8C, and settled in. Fortunately, the seat next to me was vacant, so I had room to spread out a bit.
The door closed at 17:37, and pushback commenced at 17:39. The taxi was long, mostly because of having to go around the construction zone where they're putting in the new concourse with jetways! No wait for the runway, of course. That's one thing I do love about PSP. Takeoff and climb to cruise was butter-smooth.
At cruise, they started with the dinner service. Anyone who has flown AS knows that they have what is generally known as the best coach food in the US. This was close, but I've had better on previous AS flights. The dinner consisted of a black bean and turkey burrito with a small garbanzo and bell pepper salad (with a light touch of cilantro...this is how you use cilantro; you don't beat the poor diner over the head with it), and a pecan/caramel candy. My complaint involves the burrito. Any time I've had burritos before, they've been full of stuff. This one was about 85% tortilla, and a little filling inside. I fail to see why they had to skimp there.
The flight became a bit bumpy around Lake Tahoe, but otherwise was smooth. Landing was likewise smooth, and we quickly taxied to gate C1. The jetway was connected in record time, and deplaning was quick and orderly.
Overall, this flight rates an 8. I expect a better job from AS in the food department, but otherwise it was AS's typical exemplary inflight service.
After deplaning, I went to the brand new parking machines to pay for the parking. I love these machines, except that I haven't figured out how to get a receipt from them. And I need one in order to expense parking. *sigh* But it was nice to have parking paid for before the luggage arrived. And I certainly had plenty of time; SeaTac is notoriously bad about luggage retrieval times. But there was no line to get out of parking! These machines make quite a difference.
Tune in next week for my next installment. I'm going to New York, Hartford, DC, and Philly all in a four-day period! This oughta be interesting: plane, train, plane, train, plane...in that order. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
------------------
Michael
OnePass Platinum
AS664 SEA-LAS
I arrived at SeaTac at about 12:10 for this 13:45 flight, because I was changing from AS660 (19:30 departure). It was clear that parking was going to be a problem this time, so I proceded immediately to the 7th floor. Even there, I only got a space (way on the south end, near the Southwest counters) because I noticed someone leaving and got that space. I'll be most happy when the new parking areas open up.
I went to the electronic ticket counter...AS now has a new kiosk in what used to be a waiting area. Hopefully, that will help around Thanksgiving. The agent happily moved me to 664, but insisted upon charging the $35 change fee, despite my status as MVP. Go figure. After checkin, I went to gate D1 to wait for the flight.
Boarding of this 16-year-old MD-80 aircraft started at 13:20, and was almost immediately logjammed by a couple with a car seat, but no ticketed seat for it. The FA insisted upon checking for the FAA cert on the seat, and did so while blocking access to the coach cabin. I believe that they ended up being able to use the seat, nonetheless. The cabin was not spotless, but acceptably clean. Alaska's MD-80s are really starting to show their age.
I took my seat in 7C. The passenger originally assigned 7A was moved to 6A (bulkhead) because she had a cracked ankle. The passenger originally assigned 6A was offered a free drink to move. I thought that was a nice touch, but it was ironic that compensation was offered at all, because my row had an empty seat in the middle...row 6 did not.
Fortunately, despite the car seat backup, the cabin was secured at 13:43, and the door closed at 13:44. The aircraft pushed back precisely on time, but because of a minor backup on the taxiway, we ended up taking off about 10 minutes later than we should have.
Takeoff was smooth, as was the two-hour, ten-minute flight. There was a little bit of turbulence from the updrafts while we were on approach. No food was offered in coach; the FC passengers got the cheese/cracker plate.
Landing was smooth, and taxi to the gate was speedy. The jetway was connected promptly, and people deplaned in an orderly fashion.
This flight rates an 8. Nothing phenominal, but generally pleasant.
After deplaning, I went to the ticket counter to fix my return flight. For whatever reason, I had the wrong date on the return. Fortunately, the ticket agent was especially nice about the whole thing, and switched my ticket without charging me anything.
Mandalay Bay Hotel
I picked up a hotel shuttle to the Mandalay Bay (Circus-Circus' premier property...they put a coconut smell in the ventilation system), where I waited in the world-famous Vegas checkin line for about 20 minutes. When I got to the agent, he couldn't find my record. I provided a ton of documentation, including confirmation code, the name of the person who accepted the reservation, the room rate, and my electronically-printed itinerary from our travel agent. I was even pre-charged for a night, so I had them look up the credit card records. They found absolutely nothing.
There were rooms available, so that wasn't a problem. However, my reservation was for $89/night. They had no way to confirm that I really had that rate, rather than the standard $150. In the end, my story hung together too well for them to deny me the room at that rate. It took about a half hour, but I got them to do it. After all of that, it turned out that it was my agent that made the mistake, but everything turned out well in the end.
The room itself was quite nice. The bathroom had a separate stall for the toilet, and the main bathroom had both a full tub and a very nice stall shower. You could have played volleyball in this bathroom. The towels were folded in an interesting fashion. The hand-towel was folded in such a fashion that there was a little "pocket" formed in the front. Inside the "pocket" was a fan-folded washcloth. Very attractive.
No minibar in the room, no surprise for Vegas. The phones had two lines, and I was able to get close to 50kbps. They charged $1 per call, regardless of type. It's still better than the Hilton approach of charging by the minute.
Checkout was another long line. The Vegas hotels have figured out that it's better to make the infrequent gamblers wait in long lines, while the frequent gamblers get the short lines. Sounds an awful lot like the airline industry, doesn't it?
Overall, this place rated an 8. Except for the lines, I was very pleased.
Friday, October 15, 1999
UA5091 LAS-PSP
This early-evening flight is the only scheduled non-stop service between LAS and PSP. Fortunately, there's service at all; it made it much easier for me to spend the weekend with my parents and sister.
The equipment arrived about a half-hour late, due to weather conditions in Fresno earlier in the day. Boarding was quick and orderly in this Skywest operated Embraer Brasilia. I had the misfortune of sitting in 3A, which is a bulkhead seat. The galley was, therefore, right in front of my face, and I had very little legroom.
The door was closed as soon as the paperwork arrived, and we quickly taxied to the runway threshold. However, we were held there for about 10 minutes waiting for traffic. Oddly enough, they switched the runway direction for a single flight, and then switched it back. I say oddly because the wind didn't shift back when they switched the runway back, so we were taking off with a tailwind.
Service consisted of the usual Skywest fare. Drinks (I had water), pretzels, peanuts, and Biscoff. The flight was smooth and uneventful, and the flight attendant was cheerful and pleasant.
The approach to runway 31L was rather odd, involving several sweeping turns. As I'm very familiar with PSP, this came as a surprise to me. I'm still not sure what happened, but we landed safely and smoothly, and taxied quickly to the gate. Once the gate-checked items were placed on the tarmac, they let us deplane, which we did in a quick and orderly fashion.
Overall, this flight rated a 6. I don't care much for puddle-jumpers, and it was late. But the crew were all very pleasant.
I quickly found my sister, and she brought me home.
Things were fine until about 3AM, when I was awakened by some pretty significant rocking and shaking, as a 7.0 earthquake hit the Landers area (this was close to the site of the 1992 summer earthquake). No damage, other than shaken nerves.
Monday, October 18, 1999
AS569 PSP-SEA
After a busy weekend, and several conference calls on my "vacation day," my sister took me to Palm Springs International Airport (it's still funny to me to think of it as an international). I had a new bag that I needed to check, so I went to the ticket counter, and waited in the MVP line. Ironically, I would have done better in the regular line, but such is life. The person in front of me, for whatever reason, was taking forever. But I had plenty of time. No problems whatsoever.
I went through security, and off to gate 12. The aircraft had already parked at 8, but the nearest phones are at 12, and I had one phone call to make before leaving PSP. Boarding this 737-400 started at 17:11, with a scheduled departure of 17:38. Everything progressed in an orderly, albeit leisurely, pace. The aircraft itself was maybe 2/3 full. I took my seat in 8C, and settled in. Fortunately, the seat next to me was vacant, so I had room to spread out a bit.
The door closed at 17:37, and pushback commenced at 17:39. The taxi was long, mostly because of having to go around the construction zone where they're putting in the new concourse with jetways! No wait for the runway, of course. That's one thing I do love about PSP. Takeoff and climb to cruise was butter-smooth.
At cruise, they started with the dinner service. Anyone who has flown AS knows that they have what is generally known as the best coach food in the US. This was close, but I've had better on previous AS flights. The dinner consisted of a black bean and turkey burrito with a small garbanzo and bell pepper salad (with a light touch of cilantro...this is how you use cilantro; you don't beat the poor diner over the head with it), and a pecan/caramel candy. My complaint involves the burrito. Any time I've had burritos before, they've been full of stuff. This one was about 85% tortilla, and a little filling inside. I fail to see why they had to skimp there.
The flight became a bit bumpy around Lake Tahoe, but otherwise was smooth. Landing was likewise smooth, and we quickly taxied to gate C1. The jetway was connected in record time, and deplaning was quick and orderly.
Overall, this flight rates an 8. I expect a better job from AS in the food department, but otherwise it was AS's typical exemplary inflight service.
After deplaning, I went to the brand new parking machines to pay for the parking. I love these machines, except that I haven't figured out how to get a receipt from them. And I need one in order to expense parking. *sigh* But it was nice to have parking paid for before the luggage arrived. And I certainly had plenty of time; SeaTac is notoriously bad about luggage retrieval times. But there was no line to get out of parking! These machines make quite a difference.
Tune in next week for my next installment. I'm going to New York, Hartford, DC, and Philly all in a four-day period! This oughta be interesting: plane, train, plane, train, plane...in that order. http://talk.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
------------------
Michael
OnePass Platinum