This is my first trip report. I had one written about a 3-week trip in J to Europe a few years ago but I lost the report on my laptop before I was able to post it. I figured I would give it another try. This might be a pretty boring report for some because it did not involve any first class flights or meals. The closest I got was extra space seating and a free Diet Pepsi on a Frontier flight.

Some background on the trip: I live in Denver and I have family and friends in Seattle. One of my nephews proposed to his girlfriend and they decided on a wedding date for late March. In January, I started looking at flights on Frontier and Southwest (they have the best rates usually). Both had rates in the $180-250 range, which is pretty good for a direct flight. I also looked at rental car rates and couldn’t find anything for less than $300 for a 5-day rental. Hmmm…I knew I still had to book a hotel for some of those days too. This was quickly adding up for an expensive trip though it would be worth it to see some friends and my family. I was talking to a friend (who works for Frontier) about my trip and he offered one of his buddy passes. Now, that’s an idea. The key to the buddy pass is that you have to fly standby for the flight(s) you want. Set me up, I said. I asked for the dates 25-30 March. He would check on flight availability every so often but kept recommending that I try the first flight of the day (there are 4 flights daily between DEN and SEA). In the meantime, I keep checking rental car prices. After reading a USA Today article about rental car cost saving tips, I booked with National but at the downtown Seattle location vs their airport location. I saved over $100 on the car rental alone by picking up the car downtown. Plus, I ditched the hotel stay and ended up staying with my sister after a few other family members cancelled.

Day of the flight: I dropped the dogs off at some friends the night before. I head to DEN at 6am. There is a convenient park & ride just a mile from my house that is worth using. I normally use that to get to/from DEN. In 2016, I can use the train that will run from Union Station downtown out to the airport.

I get to the airport shortly after 6am and get in the check-in line. I was told that buddy pass travelers could not check in ahead of time but are allowed 1 free checked bag. I get to the kiosk and get the error message: “You are not allowed to check in more than 24 hours prior to a flight.” Uh oh. I was inadvertently booked for Wednesday, 26 March to Sunday, 30 March. I knew I asked for Tuesday, 25 March. I had to get out of line and place a call to my friend. I felt bad that I woke them up at 6:15 but they felt bad for their initial mistake. I hang out for a few minutes while he worked his magic to re-book for that day. The only reason I had to travel that day was because if I changed my car reservation, it would be converted from a weekly rate of $140 to a daily rate of $70. Yikes. After rebooking for that day, I got back in line. I finally make it back to the kiosk to get a gate pass (and my luggage is tagged with a standby sticker). I am told that I am #12 trying to get on a flight to SEA and there are only 4 seats open for the entire day. Uh oh again. I started having second thoughts about flying on a buddy pass.

I make my way to the A concourse of DIA. For those unfamiliar with DIA, there are 3 concourses served by an underground train. There is also the choice to use a walkway to the A concourse (where Frontier flies from). Usually the lines are much shorter than the 2 other checkpoints that you go through to the train. The TSA agent is out in front with her handy iPad randomizer. I get the lucky pre-check arrow and am pointed to the left lane. Woohoo! It’s my first time using pre-check. I get to the ID checker and she reminds me that my passport wasn’t signed. Hmmm…I have traveled all over Europe with that unsigned passport and no one has ever said anything. Apparently she didn’t care too much because she let me pass after making the magic squiggles on my boarding pass. There is a family of 5 ahead of me. They are all busy taking off their jackets, their shoes, and their belts and filling up bins with their 3-2-1 baggies. I get a quick swab and ask the agent if this is the pre-check line, why isn’t someone telling the people in the line to keep their shoes, light jackets and belts on? That’s not his job was his reply. He apparently was too busy swabbing random people’s hands for non-existent explosives. The family in front of me make it through the WTMD and it’s my turn. No beeps and I am through. Why couldn’t American air travel be like this for everyone?

I used to be a member of the now-defunct NW World Clubs and the United Red Carpet Clubs when I travelled a lot several years ago. Since I only fly once a year (if I am lucky) it doesn’t make sense to get a club membership. Besides, I already have access to a pretty good club: the USO located in the A Concourse; next to the Admiral’s Club). They USO has just about everything a regular airline club has with the exception of alcohol. I had enough time to have a bagel, some coffee and a piece of fruit before going down to my gate to roll the dice on getting a flight out.

The gate area for this particular flight is packed. I tentatively ask the gate agent how it looks for that flight. She gives me a non-committal response. They start boarding and a few stand bys are called to the podium to receive their seat assignments. Will there be some hope for me? Only time will tell. All the zones are boarded. Furious pecking at the keyboard ensued. Then the invetible announcement to the 5 or 6 people hoping for a seat: no more seats are available. We are automatically rolled over to the next flight (leaving 4 hours later). I trudge back up to the USO for some more snacks and electronics charging. The good thing about having a few hours to wait for the next flight is that I get information on volunteer opportunities at the USO. There is only a 10-month wait for volunteers selected to start working there.

At 1130, I go to the new gate for the next flight to SEA. The gate agent, this time, gives me a much more positive indication that it looked good for getting a seat. Even before they reach zone 2 boarding, I am called to the podium to get my seat assignment. It’s a middle seat but in their stretch seating area. I will take it. Who knew those extra 3 or 4” would make much of a difference. The remaining passengers load and we are soon ready for the 2 ½ hour flight to Seattle. Frontier now charges for all snacks and drinks unless you purchase their higher end fares (or are Summit and Ascent members of their loyalty program; then you only get 1 free drink). Plus if you are forced to gate check your carryon (because it’s too large for their sizer), you could be charged up to a hefty $100 fee. Double yikes.

Soon, we are winging our way westward. We had an on-time departure of 12:05 and expected arrival time of 2pm local. I am offered my free drink (I guess it’s automatic based on my stretch seat). I purchased a bag of mixed fruit/nuts for $2.99. I fire up my tablet and watch Anchorman 2 (hilarious). It was hard not to laugh out loud. The flight went by quickly enough and soon we were descending for landing. There were clouds for most of the flight and the cloud ceiling was pretty low coming into Sea-Tac. We landed in a passing rain shower. Frontier uses the B gates at Sea-Tac. We quickly arrived at our gate and disembark. The bags are at the baggage claim a short 10-15 minutes later. My bag was the last one to come down the conveyor belt. I made my way to the Seattle Link train for the ride to downtown Seattle. It is only $2.75 for the trip to the Westlake station. It is literally only 1 block away from the National Car rental site on 3rd Ave. The only problem with catching the Seattle Link is the never-ending walk from the baggage claim to the station. I buy my ticket and quickly boarded the train. If you can swing it, the train is a quick and easy way to get to downtown Seattle. It was 31 minutes or so total and there are 8-10 stops between the airport and downtown. Off topic: I have always thought those cities that offer a train option from their downtown to the airport are doing things right. Luckily, Denver is joining that club and their train should be operational sometime in 2016.

I arrive at the last stop of the train (Westlake Station) and walk up 1 block to my rental car site. I am quickly given my choice of a Nissan Altima or a Chevy of some sorts. I took the Altima. I get a map to figure out how to get from downtown to points north. It is the start of rush hour (and pouring down rain) and it took me a good hour or more to get up to Mulkiteo (west of Everett and site of my first ferry ride of the trip). The ferry goes every half hour and I missed the 4:30 ferry by just a few minutes. One way to pass the time is to wander over to the Ivars stand and have a bowl of their amazing clam chowder. 10 minutes to 5pm, they start loading cars on the ferry. This particular ferry held 120 cars. It is only a 10-15 minute ferry ride from Mulkiteo to Clinton Landing. I have taken this ferry a few times since I have friends that work at Whidbey Naval Air Station. It was a downright miserable ride. It was raining, the wind was blowing and the water was churning. However, we landed and offloaded safely. It is about 45 minutes from there to Oak Harbor near the top of the island and I got in a bit after 6pm at my friend’s house. The other option was to keep on I-5 to Hwy 20 and come back down from the north. It is an extra 35-40 miles but you save an $8 ferry ride. My friends says time-wise it is about the same. What a frustrating day it had been up to that point. It was nice to relax and enjoy my friend’s company. We had dinner at a place in Coupeville (directly across Penn Cove from their house). I called it an early night and slept soundly til 7am the next morning.

My first full day in Washington was to meet some friends that live about an hour away in Bellingham. This involved going over the Deception Pass Bridge that connects the north end of the island to the mainland. There is a state park near the bridge that I had visited in the past. It offers an incredible sight to watch the water and tides go in and out. Soon, I was in Bellingham to meet some friends for lunch. He is a border patrol agent and she is a wine distributor. We met at a local pizza place in historic downtown Fairhaven. It is home to the ferry terminal to Alaska and a few other local tour boats. The pizza was thin crust and was decent. The wife had to go back to work but the husband was off. He offered to take me around the area, showing me the sites. As a border patrol agent, he spends most of his time looking for smugglers either up in the mountains or coming down the sound in a boat. It is a much better location than his last assignment in New Mexico. On the way home, I take a somewhat different route back to Whidbey. Hwy 11 offers a beautiful view of the coast line. My friend compared it to the Monterrey CA 17 Mile Road. It was definitely worth the drive. There were plenty of waysides to pull over and take pictures. It was actually a fairly sunny day. I got back at my friend’s house just in time for dinner (a local Mexican restaurant).

Day 3 of my trip had me taking the ferry back to Mulkiteo and driving the 30 miles or so to my sister’s house. She had a list of wedding preparations that I was asked to do. She had household chores to do and stuff to get at Costco.

Day 4 of my trip was a frantic pace of more wedding preparations. Another trip to Costco and delivery of items at the wedding location. Apparently, all the rage is to get married at these wedding venues that charge outrageous prices for a simple wedding. For the building and reception area alone was $5,000. That did not include any catering or extras. With typical Seattle weather in the spring, it has been known to rain. A lot! Wedding day was no exception. The wedding itself was indoors but the reception was outside (under a covered area). Luckily, the $5,000 cost included outdoor heating. Everyone was huddled around those heaters. The reception was a dessert only. One of my nieces is a high school teacher and teaches a catering class. She had her class make a majority of the desserts. It turned out very well.

Day 5 of my trip was spent with my parents and 2 of my sisters that live in the area. My parents drove up from Oregon and barely made it to the wedding. They refused to follow a map and while my mom had directions, she lost a page somewhere and they were incomplete. After several frantic calls, they were finally guided to the right place. Saturday included my 3rd trip to Costco in as many days. My mom thought it was a great place to have lunch by going to all the different food demonstration stands. It turned out to be a 5-hour Costco trip. Helpful hint: Do not go to the Woodinville Costco on Saturdays. I called it a very early night because I have a 6am flight the next morning and my sister lives about an hour from the airport.

Day 6 home started so early. I set my alarm for 3:10 but ended up getting a little earlier. I was up, showered, and out the door by 3:25. I stopped for gas and headed south to the airport. While I rented the car downtown, I made the reservation for an airport dropoff. Not surprisingly, there was absolutely no traffic at time of the morning. I drop the car off at the off-site car complex. I had backed my rental into something and put a hole in the fiberglass bumper. I pointed out the damage and gave them my contact information. It was a quick 5 minute shuttle bus ride to the terminal. I was let out right at Frontier check in at the North Terminal. It was a relatively short line for baggage drop off. This time I had done the 24-hour check in. I printed off another boarding pass and dropped my bag off. I found out that I was #3 vying for 7 seats that morning. I go to the checkpoint. There is one TSA guy whose only job is to ensure you have a boarding pass. He didn’t check anything or ask for any ID. I probably could have shown him an old boarding pass and still gotten to the next step. I didn’t see any pre-check line; just a premium line that feeds into the 1 NOS machine that was up and running. There was a WTMD machine but it was blocked off. This could be interesting. There were 3 lines feeding into the 1 NOS machine. Everyone was instructed to take their shoes, coats, belts off and remove everything from their pockets. When it was my turn, I told the agent manning the NOS that I couldn’t raise my left arm. I was instructed to the WMTD where they literally turned the machine on in front of me and removed the blocking item. I guess not very many people opt out at 5am in the morning. I walked through and was given a hand swab. When I asked if I could get my personal things first, he told me that “no, you can get them after I am done swabbing your hands.” Luckily, they were only 15-20 feet away and I was watching if they were coming out of the x-ray machine. The hand swab only took 15 seconds or so and I walked over to get my items. Of, course the laptop cable that I have literally carried around the world seemed to stump the agent manning the x-ray machine. He said he had to completely swab each compartment of my laptop bag and pulled out the mysterious laptop cable. He ran both back through separately. After the 2nd screening, he handed the bin back and wished me a nice day. Thank you for that complete waste of time. I venture over to the nearest Starbucks and fill my traveler’s mug with a hot, morning beverage and go to gate B1. It is nearly boarding time and I ask the gate agent how my chances were for that flight. Apparently a few others with higher priority had shown up. “Meh…we shall see” was his only response. All the zones were boarded when my name was called. I got an aisle seat near the back of the plane. At least I got a seat.

It was a uneventful flight back to Denver. I didn’t buy any of the on-board offerings. I slept some, read the Sunday paper and watched most of another movie on my tablet. We landed 10 minutes early at gate A36 (around 10:30am). I stopped by for a quick snack at the USO and walked to the baggage claim. The bags were already coming down the carrousel. I picked up my bag and walked to the bus back to the park & ride. I couldn’t have timed it any better.

Overall, the trip was worthwhile. I am not sure I would try using a buddy pass again unless it was dire circumstances. The uncertainty of getting on a flight or not was nerve wracking at times. Though I guess, if you traveled in off peak times, it would be worth it. It was great to see my family (or most of them). The one person I wanted to see most of all was my 5 year old nephew who has undergone chemo treatments for leukemia over the past year. Unfortunately, he was battling a severe infection and couldn’t have any visitors at all. He missed the wedding too. But he was still excited about the Make-A-Wish trip to Disneyland the previous week.