Long weekend in Jost Van Dyke
Jul 26, 2014, 5:32 pm
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Long weekend in Jost Van Dyke
Note, this trip report is more about the destination than the journey. There are basically no pictures of the UA hard and soft domestic F product since it has been well rehearsed in other TRs and in dedicated threads in the UA Forum.
Preface: trip planning and schedule changes galore
Fueled by one of my better discoveries and submissions to the MR deals forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...d-checked.html) I booked two round trips from PHX to STT on United for MLK weekend of 2014 for myself and Mrs. PV_. This would be our first big trip since the honeymoon, and after about 4 ruckus months of marriage and a lot of international travel for me with work we were ready to get away.
Booking 11+ months in advance on UA and making big plans based on that is never a good idea. Initially we booked the flights with a single stop in in EWR (PHX-EWR-STT-EWR-PHX with PHX-EWR as a redeye) and shortly thereafter I snagged acceptable positioning flights on US from RNO to PHX for $218pp. I immediately confirmed the whole UA round trip to first class with two RPUs per person and smugly patted myself on the back.
After about 3 months, the along came the schedule changes. United dropped the PHX-EWR redeye, meaning that to keep our trip together and make it work with the positioning flights were forced to accept on the outbound PHX-LAX-IAD-STT. Fine, all set, after an hour on the phone of course. 3 short weeks later, a whole new debacle emerged. STT-EWR got moved back an hour, making our connection at EWR impossible to the last flight of the day to PHX. The only possible option I could find on UA metal was an earlier CapeAir flight from STT to SJU, connecting onward from there in EWR, IAH, and finally arriving in PHX about 17 hours later. Although I really wanted to hold our ultra-cheap Caribbean trip together, that was too much to handle. Over the course of the next several weeks, I called the 1K line to no end and even paid a visit to SMF airport to speak with agents there with whom I'm on a first name basis, trying to negotiate a redirect of our trip into SFO, SMF, RNO, or even LAX to bring it back down to two connections. Everyone balked. I gave it one last shot late at night and hit the jackpot in HNL. Although the agent I spoke to initially was resistant, upon asking for a supervisor I got a very knowledgeable and reasonable HNL-based sup. I talked him through the history of the itinerary, and he flat out said that the only available routing wasn't acceptable. He quickly looked at the options into SMF and we settled on a routing of STT-SJU-IAH-SMF. However, he was unwilling to pry open the R bucket to re-confirm our upgrades. I cut my losses and told him to waitlist them since it was still more than 5 months in advance of the trip. Eventually, we cleared all the way back to SMF.
However, my positioning flights were also blown up at this point. Fortunately, US Air also had a schedule change along the line, changing RNO-PHX and vv from mainline to express service. I used this change to secure a refund on our positioning flights and rebooked one way travel from SMF to PHX on US for $155, which meant despite the stress and time commitment to having to spend all that time on the phone with UA, our trip actually ended up costing less out of pocket, and we didn't have to drive across the pass to RNO in January, which is always risky.
Outbound travel: SMF-PHX-LAX-IAD-STT (US and UA - coach and domestic F)
continuing the narrative of randomness of this trip, we arrived at SMF at about 3:15pm for our 4:30pm positioning flight from SMF to PHX. we checked in for the UA flights as well, just in case things got held up out of SMF. our cross-ticket connecting time in PHX was about 2hrs and 20mins. acceptable, but not 100% comfortable. anyways, we jumped in the security line at A terminal in SMF -- i was given PRE, Mrs. PV_ wasn't, alas maybe that was for the best as she ran into one of her friends from U PENN vet school while in the security line, who was doing an internship in PHX and headed home from visiting a friend in Davis. before departing we enjoyed a glass of wine together and then headed off to board our collective flight.
[photos forthcoming]
US518, SMF-PHX A320 Seats 4B,4C Sched: 415pm, Actual: 525pm
My opinion is the worst feeling you can have is when you have a positioning flight booked with a relatively short connection to a different ticket and your plane pulls into the gate and goes MX. This is exactly what happened with this flight, upon arrival they announced maintenance was going on board for an indicator that cropped up on the inbound trip from PHX and that the delay would be of "unknown length". Knowing the situation in PHX, that we had a separate ticket and that the UA terminal was completely distinct and not walkable from the US terminal, I started to get anxious. I walked over to the UA gate area and chatted with an agent there, telling her about my situation. They had a flight leaving from SMF to LAX and I told her I would be willing to purchase a ticket on it if she would drop the PHX-LAX from my record. She pounded away in SHARES for awhile then her eyes got big and she told me the supervisor who rerouted my return back to SMF (who I thought was cool) annotated my ticket as no more changes permitted, so she could not and would not drop the PHX-LAX segment. I cursed under my breath and walked back over to the US gate. The plane was still MX and they were not updating about anything, so i went over to Delta to see if they could get me to PHX somehow in a pinch. They had an F fare with a 35 minute connection in LAX that would get us to PHX about 70 minutes before the departure back to LAX on UA.
fortunately just as i went back to relay this information to Mrs. PV_, US announced we would begin boarding. the total delay was about 1:10, leaving us about 1:10 in PHX for our connection. fortunately we arrived a bit early and the interterminal transfer was fairly efficient, thus arriving at the gate for PHX-LAX about 40 minutes in advance of departure.
UA6528, PHX-LAX CRJ200 Seats 8A,8B Sched: 900pm, Actual: 905pm
quick hop back over to LAX, about an hour en route over the darkened desert of western AZ and extreme SE California. it was on time, the GA in PHX was a jerk about our carryon bags so they ended up gate checked even though they clearly would fit in the bin. whatever. we made it and it's one more flight down on the Devil's Chariot, hopefully very few more remaining in this lifetime.
UA1422, sCO 757-200 LAX-IAD Seats 3A,3B Sched: 1035pm, Actual 1055pm
Arrived in LAX at gate 85 and started the journey over to Terminal 6 for our departure to IAD. Mrs. PV_ was hungry and knowing that the snack plate was coming our way on the transcon redeye, I suggested she stop and get a bite for the road.
Preface: trip planning and schedule changes galore
Fueled by one of my better discoveries and submissions to the MR deals forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...d-checked.html) I booked two round trips from PHX to STT on United for MLK weekend of 2014 for myself and Mrs. PV_. This would be our first big trip since the honeymoon, and after about 4 ruckus months of marriage and a lot of international travel for me with work we were ready to get away.
Booking 11+ months in advance on UA and making big plans based on that is never a good idea. Initially we booked the flights with a single stop in in EWR (PHX-EWR-STT-EWR-PHX with PHX-EWR as a redeye) and shortly thereafter I snagged acceptable positioning flights on US from RNO to PHX for $218pp. I immediately confirmed the whole UA round trip to first class with two RPUs per person and smugly patted myself on the back.
After about 3 months, the along came the schedule changes. United dropped the PHX-EWR redeye, meaning that to keep our trip together and make it work with the positioning flights were forced to accept on the outbound PHX-LAX-IAD-STT. Fine, all set, after an hour on the phone of course. 3 short weeks later, a whole new debacle emerged. STT-EWR got moved back an hour, making our connection at EWR impossible to the last flight of the day to PHX. The only possible option I could find on UA metal was an earlier CapeAir flight from STT to SJU, connecting onward from there in EWR, IAH, and finally arriving in PHX about 17 hours later. Although I really wanted to hold our ultra-cheap Caribbean trip together, that was too much to handle. Over the course of the next several weeks, I called the 1K line to no end and even paid a visit to SMF airport to speak with agents there with whom I'm on a first name basis, trying to negotiate a redirect of our trip into SFO, SMF, RNO, or even LAX to bring it back down to two connections. Everyone balked. I gave it one last shot late at night and hit the jackpot in HNL. Although the agent I spoke to initially was resistant, upon asking for a supervisor I got a very knowledgeable and reasonable HNL-based sup. I talked him through the history of the itinerary, and he flat out said that the only available routing wasn't acceptable. He quickly looked at the options into SMF and we settled on a routing of STT-SJU-IAH-SMF. However, he was unwilling to pry open the R bucket to re-confirm our upgrades. I cut my losses and told him to waitlist them since it was still more than 5 months in advance of the trip. Eventually, we cleared all the way back to SMF.
However, my positioning flights were also blown up at this point. Fortunately, US Air also had a schedule change along the line, changing RNO-PHX and vv from mainline to express service. I used this change to secure a refund on our positioning flights and rebooked one way travel from SMF to PHX on US for $155, which meant despite the stress and time commitment to having to spend all that time on the phone with UA, our trip actually ended up costing less out of pocket, and we didn't have to drive across the pass to RNO in January, which is always risky.
Outbound travel: SMF-PHX-LAX-IAD-STT (US and UA - coach and domestic F)
continuing the narrative of randomness of this trip, we arrived at SMF at about 3:15pm for our 4:30pm positioning flight from SMF to PHX. we checked in for the UA flights as well, just in case things got held up out of SMF. our cross-ticket connecting time in PHX was about 2hrs and 20mins. acceptable, but not 100% comfortable. anyways, we jumped in the security line at A terminal in SMF -- i was given PRE, Mrs. PV_ wasn't, alas maybe that was for the best as she ran into one of her friends from U PENN vet school while in the security line, who was doing an internship in PHX and headed home from visiting a friend in Davis. before departing we enjoyed a glass of wine together and then headed off to board our collective flight.
[photos forthcoming]
US518, SMF-PHX A320 Seats 4B,4C Sched: 415pm, Actual: 525pm
My opinion is the worst feeling you can have is when you have a positioning flight booked with a relatively short connection to a different ticket and your plane pulls into the gate and goes MX. This is exactly what happened with this flight, upon arrival they announced maintenance was going on board for an indicator that cropped up on the inbound trip from PHX and that the delay would be of "unknown length". Knowing the situation in PHX, that we had a separate ticket and that the UA terminal was completely distinct and not walkable from the US terminal, I started to get anxious. I walked over to the UA gate area and chatted with an agent there, telling her about my situation. They had a flight leaving from SMF to LAX and I told her I would be willing to purchase a ticket on it if she would drop the PHX-LAX from my record. She pounded away in SHARES for awhile then her eyes got big and she told me the supervisor who rerouted my return back to SMF (who I thought was cool) annotated my ticket as no more changes permitted, so she could not and would not drop the PHX-LAX segment. I cursed under my breath and walked back over to the US gate. The plane was still MX and they were not updating about anything, so i went over to Delta to see if they could get me to PHX somehow in a pinch. They had an F fare with a 35 minute connection in LAX that would get us to PHX about 70 minutes before the departure back to LAX on UA.
fortunately just as i went back to relay this information to Mrs. PV_, US announced we would begin boarding. the total delay was about 1:10, leaving us about 1:10 in PHX for our connection. fortunately we arrived a bit early and the interterminal transfer was fairly efficient, thus arriving at the gate for PHX-LAX about 40 minutes in advance of departure.
UA6528, PHX-LAX CRJ200 Seats 8A,8B Sched: 900pm, Actual: 905pm
quick hop back over to LAX, about an hour en route over the darkened desert of western AZ and extreme SE California. it was on time, the GA in PHX was a jerk about our carryon bags so they ended up gate checked even though they clearly would fit in the bin. whatever. we made it and it's one more flight down on the Devil's Chariot, hopefully very few more remaining in this lifetime.
UA1422, sCO 757-200 LAX-IAD Seats 3A,3B Sched: 1035pm, Actual 1055pm
Arrived in LAX at gate 85 and started the journey over to Terminal 6 for our departure to IAD. Mrs. PV_ was hungry and knowing that the snack plate was coming our way on the transcon redeye, I suggested she stop and get a bite for the road.
Last edited by PV_Premier; Jul 27, 2014 at 10:41 am
