Well the zone continued a bit. UA doesn't fly to SJC from SNA and I needed to take a flight around 2pm so my only choice was AA from LAX. AA flights to SJC and SFO from LAX now leave from T3 instead of T4. There is no Admirals Club in T3 and it's a long walk to T4 so I tried to break into the TWA Ambassadors Club. I happened to have some TWA appreciation certificates which the ladies at the club valued quite a bit so I was in and got my work done.

It was a routine flight to SJC, but arrival put me back into the zone. It used to be such a nice easy airport with a short walk to the rental counter followed by a short drive to the 101. NOT ANY MORE!!

The rental area near Term C was getting a bit crowded so they have copied SFO and moved the rental facility 10 minutes away. AND you have to drive 10 minutes back to the 101. So you now have to add a half-hour to your travel time when renting at SJC.

It got worse. I had a Hertz res and when I arrived at the Gold board, my name wasn't there. Judging by the huge line no one elses res was right. And it was raining. And there was no cover outside the Gold booth. It was then I noticed that there was no line at the Avis Preferred booth. Forget Hertz, I went to Avis. As I waited behind a couple people, another 10 people followed me over to Avis.

Avis is great now that I have a Presidents card. They asked me if a Town Car was OK for $45 per day minus my discount. The agent said her boss loves Presidents card bookings as I guess they get some kind of incentive. Whatever it is, I like it.

I drove up to the Sheraton/Westin and checked in at the Sheraton. I got a sizable room with a large spa next to the bed.

My colleague got in at the Westin and said it was empty! He got upgraded to a huge suite and he's not even elite with Starwood! I guess things are too new there and they don't have many rooms open.

I do have some good news. I tried an excellent steakhouse on El Camino Real near Stanford. It's called Sundance and I highly recommend it. It's full of players.