A week with the grandkids... while trying to survive 13 hours in Y
Jul 13, 2014, 9:24 pm
#1
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,632
A week with the grandkids... while trying to survive 13 hours in Y
Now that we are in Denver, Mrs. SFO and I don’t see our two California sons and our four grandkids (San Francisco and LA) as much as we used to. While grandkids are great, especially in small doses, we’ve thrown caution to the wind and decided to have all four here this week. I’ve been traveling with our SFO grandkids for years, usually shuttling them to Honolulu to spend time with my DIL’s family. Now that we’re in Denver, I pick up the SFO grandkids, bring them to Denver and then take them back home. Although this year, my oldest son ask “would you mind dropping them off in Hawaii instead of San Francisco?” Why not, I’m always up for a mileage running... or so I thought. And this year, the LA crew is coming at the same time. OMG, all four of them for 5 days…. two 6 year old girls and two 3 year old boys. What were we thinking? 
So here we go... starting with an SFO pickup. Unfortunately, DEN-SFO is a bad route for an AA Executive Platinum. United, Frontier and Southwest are the only nonstop options. Ugh. I picked Frontier for my DEN-SFO because they are perfectly fine if you get pay a little extra for Stretch Seating, with a 36-37” pitch, and the price was right.
More pics available in my report at SFO777.com.
http://sfo777.com/report/our-week-grandkids
With a 7:39A departure and no PreCheck on Frontier, I left the house at around 5:40A. Car seats installed I headed for convenient valet parking.
I used my CLEAR to skip the lines but got the regular invasive security nonsense, complete with Nude-o-scope. It has been so long since I didn’t have PreCheck, that I was like a kettle today including forgetting to take off my shoes. LOL.
Off to the train and over to the Concourse A…
And up to Level 4 and the AA Admirals Club. Not many people here this morning, perfect for a new batch of AC pics.
More pics here
At around T-50, I headed down to Level 2 and the gates.
Time for plenty of cool Frontier livery pics.
And over to Gate A31.
Frontier F9 Flight 657
Denver-San Francisco
A319
7:39A-9:09A
July 13, 2014
Economy - Stretch Seating
At $119 one way and an extra $25 for stretch seating, this $70 less than I would have paid for E+ on United. And I didn’t have to fly United, at least today. Organized boarding by zone. Stretch seating means a Zone 1 BP and priority boarding. Not sure how well they police carry-on size limit policy but the GA didn’t even look at my back pack which was borderline.
Pleasant looking cabin, with leather seats.
Lots of leg room. Well worth the $25 extra for a seat in rows 1-4.
Today's BOB menu.
Excellent service from 3 friendly FAs. While there is a charge for soft drinks, water and coffee are complimentary.
All in all, a better than anticipated 2 hour Y flight. More pics here
Next Up: OMG, the misery that is Southwest.
So here we go... starting with an SFO pickup. Unfortunately, DEN-SFO is a bad route for an AA Executive Platinum. United, Frontier and Southwest are the only nonstop options. Ugh. I picked Frontier for my DEN-SFO because they are perfectly fine if you get pay a little extra for Stretch Seating, with a 36-37” pitch, and the price was right.
More pics available in my report at SFO777.com.
http://sfo777.com/report/our-week-grandkids
With a 7:39A departure and no PreCheck on Frontier, I left the house at around 5:40A. Car seats installed I headed for convenient valet parking.
I used my CLEAR to skip the lines but got the regular invasive security nonsense, complete with Nude-o-scope. It has been so long since I didn’t have PreCheck, that I was like a kettle today including forgetting to take off my shoes. LOL.
Off to the train and over to the Concourse A…
And up to Level 4 and the AA Admirals Club. Not many people here this morning, perfect for a new batch of AC pics.
More pics here
At around T-50, I headed down to Level 2 and the gates.
Time for plenty of cool Frontier livery pics.
And over to Gate A31.
Frontier F9 Flight 657
Denver-San Francisco
A319
7:39A-9:09A
July 13, 2014
Economy - Stretch Seating
At $119 one way and an extra $25 for stretch seating, this $70 less than I would have paid for E+ on United. And I didn’t have to fly United, at least today. Organized boarding by zone. Stretch seating means a Zone 1 BP and priority boarding. Not sure how well they police carry-on size limit policy but the GA didn’t even look at my back pack which was borderline.
Pleasant looking cabin, with leather seats.
Lots of leg room. Well worth the $25 extra for a seat in rows 1-4.
Today's BOB menu.
Excellent service from 3 friendly FAs. While there is a charge for soft drinks, water and coffee are complimentary.
All in all, a better than anticipated 2 hour Y flight. More pics here
Next Up: OMG, the misery that is Southwest.
Jul 14, 2014, 7:15 am
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Germany
Programs: Some
Posts: 11,539
Jul 14, 2014, 7:26 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,632
Jul 14, 2014, 8:11 am
#6
was thetravelingRedhead
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Western Michigan
Programs: Delta Silver Medallion, United Silver Premier
Posts: 642
Jul 14, 2014, 1:40 pm
#11
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Bedfordshire, UK
Programs: BA Gold, Geek platinum
Posts: 2,004
Wow we are really through the looking glass now, next you will be saying that you had a pleasant experience on United and BA! This kind of change unsettles me, I feel like my whole TR world has been turned upside down!
Jul 14, 2014, 10:32 pm
#15
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Denver • DEN-APA
Programs: AF Platinum, EK Gold, AA EXP, UA 1K, Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 21,632
Despite an initial warning about an ATC hold, we departed DEN and arrived SFO on time, at around 9:10AM. We pulled into Gate 43 of T-1 and I used work stations at Gate 42 and Free SFO Wifi to catch up on work. At around 9:55A, I started heading over to the Southwest counters to meet my son and two grand children. Ah memories...
The old Continental counters and Presidents Club at the far end, now another SFO conference room.
With a football field length line inside, we queued ten minutes outside to check bags, then headed off to security. I didn't even realize the I had PreCheck on my BP until the security line dragon told me. Also said I could take the kids with me, even though they didn't have PreCheck. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of my day with Southwest. Don't know what it is but I loathe this airline. Well I actually do know why. It's like riding a bus that flies, except not as comfortable. And at SFO, an horribly antiquated concourse.
Plane watching, three year old style.
Southwest 334
San Francisco-Denver
737-800
11:35A-3:05P
July 13, 2014
Seats... does it really matter
The Southwest cattle drive. No assigned seats... it's essentially a free-for-all. Boarding is done according to check-in time but you can jump the queue by paying a fee. I checked in at precisely T-24 and got A58, A59 and A60 which meant we were the 58th, 59th and 60th pax to board.
And naturally, the usual evil eye that I only found later when I was editing.
Finally our turn. Wifi on board. Another Southwest joke.
Ugh...
With A58-A60, we were able to get three seats together mid-cabin. Not that it really matters because, except for 10 seats (4 bulkhead and 6 exit row seats), they are all garbage seats unless you are 3 or 6 years old. A far cry from Frontier or any other airline with extra legroom economy seats. What kind of fool pays extra to buy a Business Select ticket to get a low A boarding pass in the hopes of running down the jet bridge fast enough to get a bulkhead aisle or window or exit economy seat?
Southwest does hand out snacks to everyone, if you are so inclined, and complimentary non-alcoholic beverages.
Live TV is available on your personal computers, tables and smart phones. I opted to pay $8 for Wifi which was completely useless for anything other than slow downloading of emails. Hard to believe but even United's Wifi (where they have it) is actually faster.
We departed and arrived on time and mercifully only had to endure 2.5 hours in this tin can. Two Y flights down and one more (the big one DEN-HNL) flight to go before returning to the pointy end, hopefully for the rest of my life. The kids also enjoyed being on the ground.
The complete report with more pics at: SFO777.com
The old Continental counters and Presidents Club at the far end, now another SFO conference room.
With a football field length line inside, we queued ten minutes outside to check bags, then headed off to security. I didn't even realize the I had PreCheck on my BP until the security line dragon told me. Also said I could take the kids with me, even though they didn't have PreCheck. Unfortunately, that was the highlight of my day with Southwest. Don't know what it is but I loathe this airline. Well I actually do know why. It's like riding a bus that flies, except not as comfortable. And at SFO, an horribly antiquated concourse.
Plane watching, three year old style.
Southwest 334
San Francisco-Denver
737-800
11:35A-3:05P
July 13, 2014
Seats... does it really matter
The Southwest cattle drive. No assigned seats... it's essentially a free-for-all. Boarding is done according to check-in time but you can jump the queue by paying a fee. I checked in at precisely T-24 and got A58, A59 and A60 which meant we were the 58th, 59th and 60th pax to board.
And naturally, the usual evil eye that I only found later when I was editing.
Finally our turn. Wifi on board. Another Southwest joke.
Ugh...
With A58-A60, we were able to get three seats together mid-cabin. Not that it really matters because, except for 10 seats (4 bulkhead and 6 exit row seats), they are all garbage seats unless you are 3 or 6 years old. A far cry from Frontier or any other airline with extra legroom economy seats. What kind of fool pays extra to buy a Business Select ticket to get a low A boarding pass in the hopes of running down the jet bridge fast enough to get a bulkhead aisle or window or exit economy seat?
Southwest does hand out snacks to everyone, if you are so inclined, and complimentary non-alcoholic beverages.
Live TV is available on your personal computers, tables and smart phones. I opted to pay $8 for Wifi which was completely useless for anything other than slow downloading of emails. Hard to believe but even United's Wifi (where they have it) is actually faster.
We departed and arrived on time and mercifully only had to endure 2.5 hours in this tin can. Two Y flights down and one more (the big one DEN-HNL) flight to go before returning to the pointy end, hopefully for the rest of my life. The kids also enjoyed being on the ground.
The complete report with more pics at: SFO777.com