This past weekend I had planned a getaway to see friends affected by the fires in Santa Rosa, California (STS-PDX) . My nonstop departure from PDX has been changed a while back from a reasonable mid morning flight to a crack of dawn 6:36 AM. That may be handy for business commuters but it is not doable due to the weather in the area. There is a chronic issue with fog in the area. It burns off usually by about 11 AM. That means this flight is frequently dealing with difficult landings. The station is being diverted or delayed frequently. Why make us get a 6:30 AM departure when it doesn't work? Grrr.

Second issue. On March 9th departure we actually diverted to San Jose for refuel after 3 aborted landing attempts in fog. During two of the attempts I myself could see the tower. The pilot's opinion was that it didn't make flight minimums. Fine better safe than sorry. Divert is done. Passengers are told in SJC very clearly by overhead announcement before deplaning and in the terminal itself not to leave the boarding area. We were told the flight will take off immediately after refueling the prop plane.

Are you still with me?
My real rant is that one IDIOT passenger who left the boarding area. This idiot went outside the TSA secured area with neither his boarding pass nor ID. He then held a full plane load of people in their seats for one hour and 20 minutes. Alaska took this time to locate this selfish IDIOT. We all sat waiting for him for over an hour. REALLY? That left us arriving STS around noon. That meant us sitting over 5 hours sitting in a Bombardier Dash 8 seat. Naturally no compensation. They just smiled without even a scold to the IDIOT. Alaska you disappointed me. Off load his luggage of the IDIOT. Let him take the bus. Don't be so nice, you did your due diligence. Extra Biscoff is not really doing it for me. Grr.