For whatever reason, every single time I plan to go an extended vacation work always piles up exponentially right before I leave. To give myself a bit of leeway, I booked a late evening flight. It was a good thing I did because I worked feverishly throughout day. The last thing on the agenda that day was a conference call in the early afternoon that was promised to me as short and sweet. It was neither short nor sweet. As the call dragged on, I stared the clock. 4:00 passed. 4:30 passed, with no end in sight. I had not packed a stitch of clothing at this point as I was just planning to do so right after the supposedly short call. With my flight departing at 6:55, I was getting a little antsy. By the time 5:00 rolled around with no end in sight, I ran to my bedroom with phone in hand and started flinging anything I remotely thought I needed for the trip into my bag while occasionally interjecting on the call. I was finally out the door at 5:30, which is typically the height of rush hour. But the travel gods were with me that day, as traffic was surprisingly light. My Uber came to a screeching halt right in front of Terminal A at George Bush Intercontinental Airport a little over 30 minutes after leaving my house.
Despite the massive line at security, I was able to walk right through thanks to CLEAR and I was got to the gate just as my E175 was arriving from Los Angeles.
Since my ticket to Asia actually originated from Los Angeles the following day, I booked a cheap American ticket to position to Los Angeles. Thanks to my Executive Platinum status my upgrade cleared at 100 hours before departure as advertised. American flies non-stop between Houston and Los Angeles several times daily using American Eagle Embraer E175s. Been on one E175, might as well have been on all of them. While mundane, Embraer’s E Jet series (-170/-175/-190/-195) are among the most comfortable narrow body aircraft in the skies. First Class is in a comfortable 1-2 configuration, with the one seat side very desirable for the solo traveller. Coach is in fantastic 2-2 layout, which of course means no middle seats, and the seats are typically a good inch wider than those found on your run of the mill Boeing 737. And its the overhead bins can fit most carry on bags. I daresay I would rather fly an E jet over a 737 any day.
Since I was traveling alone, I picked seat 2A on the single seat side of the cabin. But when I boarded, I found a lady already camped out in 2A. My usual play when I find a potential poacher in my seat is to ask “Did you get assigned X seat too?”, which I did politely. The lady said she was actually in 2F, just across the aisle, but asked if I minded taking her seat because it was much more comfortable on this side. Look, mistakes happen. I’ve accidentally sat on the wrong side of a row before too out of habit. But I have never ever taken someone’s seat to preemptively “persuade” someone to switch seats. I was definitely annoyed as I chose that very seat for that very reason. But at the end of the day, this is just a short mid-con flight, and I’m by nature not a very confrontational person. So I said whatever, and took 2F. I’m glad I did, because I got payback just minutes later.
It was a rather light load this evening, and boarding wrapped up in no time. As the door closed, the aisle seat next to mine stayed empty to the chagrin of Ms. Seat Poacher. I smiled and gave her a wink as she glanced over. She of course quickly looked away.
We push backed on time and was airborne 15 minutes later. As it has been for the last three years on American Eagle flights, dinner was a choice between a chicken salad and wrap. I chose the salad, which was served with a minuscule portion of grilled chicken. With record profits, you would think American might be able to afford to serve a decent sized chicken breast. But what do I know.
I spent the rest of the flight watching episodes of The Office on my laptop. I have no idea why I didn’t watch it while it was still airing, but thanks to Netflix I’m just a little late to the party.
Landing occurred 30 minutes ahead of schedule and we parked at the farthest gate of the infamous Eagle Nest, which was actually just across the street from my home for the evening, the Hyatt Regency LAX.
If only getting there was as easy as crossing the street. Instead, getting to the hotel involved two busses and a short ride in my rental car. At least, there was some entertainment on the way. While waiting for the terminal bus at the Eagle Nest, one of my fellow passengers, wearing a t-shirt bearing the Lone Star State flag no less, had trouble grasping the very clear instructions by the employee guarding the door to the bus loading areas. Perhaps it was strange language spoken in the foreign land of California. However, he seemed to have no trouble cussing out the said employee in the very same language on the way out the door. Y’all stay classy.
Since I was leaving the airport, it didn’t matter which terminal bus I took. So I just hopped on the one that got there first, which happened to be the Terminal 4 bus. From there, it took just another 10 minutes to reach the National facility via short walk and another bus. And I was soon speeding away in my car to the hotel.
One of my biggest pet peeves are those hotels that undergo half baked renovations. The worst offenders are those hotels that splurge on new furniture and carpeting, but completely neglect the bathroom. New carpeting is nice and all, but that 1970s toilet in there isn’t. That pretty much sums up every other Sheraton I’ve stayed at. Fortunately, in the process converting the former Concourse Hotel to, or more accurately back to, a Hyatt Regency the building was renovated from top to bottom.
When I finally arrived at the hotel, there was a massive line of people waiting to check in. Although the elite line was shorter, it still took almost 30 minutes before I was helped. I booked my room using an expiring free night certificate. With rack rates hovering just below $300, I thought I get pretty good bang for buck there. With looked to be a full house at the hotel, I didn’t expect any sort of upgrade. Besides, I was pretty happy with my standard room which I found to be bright, clean, and modern
My room faced the Eagle Nest, and the E175 that brought me from Houston.
The bed was very comfortable, and I was asleep in no time. I slept well until I was rudely jarred awake far too soon by the shrill ringing of my phone. Reflexively, I grabbed my phone and answered it. One of my coworkers apparently didn’t check the office schedule and called me for a 15 minute answer to a 1 minute problem. By the time I got rid of said coworker, I was wide-awake and any attempt to sleep would be futile. So I decided to get my day started at a much earlier than desired hour.
First stop was El Segundo Beach, which is one of my favorite spots on a long layover at LAX. It’s close to the airport and never too crowded. And for an avgeek, it’s a perfect for spotting LAX departures.
There’s a nice paved bike/jogging path along the beach. With the beautiful blue sky and cool temperatures, the path was practically begging me to go out and put in a couple of miles. The quiet of the morning was broken every two or so minutes by an aircraft climbing out of LAX into the wild blue yonder. Traffic this morning was rather mundane, with a typical mix of various regional jets and narrow body Airbuses and Boeings that can be found at pretty much airport in the wrold. Still though, it was very enjoyable for me and made the run go by much quicker.
My original intent with the long layover was to give me a little time to myself before heading to Jakarta. One of my favorite things to do is plane spotting, and LAX is one of the best places in the world to do just that. In addition to plenty of interesting traffic, there are also several great vantage points that are easily accessible. One of the best known is the aptly named Airplane Landing View Point park right to the In-n-Out right at threshold of Runway 24R. In 2011, In-n-Out opened their first Texas location in the Dallas suburb of Frisco. The line to get in stretched down several blocks, and people were waiting hours for what really is just a burger. While I think In-N-Out makes a fine burger, it’s still just a burger, and a fast food burger at that, not worth waiting more than 10 to 15 minutes for. But, if you give me a double double with side of heavies, and an occasional super heavy, I’ll take that action any day of the week.
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I ended up cutting my visit short, but for very good reason. Another thing I had hoped to do during my time in Los Angeles was visit a friend. As she lives a good way from the airport, I naturally looked to rent a car. National happened to be offering a guaranteed luxury car reservation for a very reasonable price of $87. Intrigued, I went ahead and booked it. When I arrived at the National facility the night before, I asked the attendant if they had any BMWs available since I was looking to purchase one. He returned a few minutes later with a beautiful Alpine White 428i convertible with just a couple of thousands turns on the odometer. Not the exact model I was considering, but it gave me a perfect opportunity to figure out what to expect from a BMW without a pushy salesperson next to me.
My friend was sadly called away to work at last moment, so I just missed her. But no worries, I had plenty to keep me entertained. After fighting through traffic through Malibu, I found stretches of open road where I could open up the twin turbo ultimate driving machine a bit in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was rather delightful to put it mildly.