Passover in Phoenix
Apr 20, 2000 | 11:44 am
#1
Original Poster
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 6,932
Passover in Phoenix
That darned Sh*ttle!
We cut it close so that Hunnybear would miss as little work as possible for our overnight Passover trip to Phoenix. We decided to try the LAX central parking lot, so I looked up “LAX parking” on www.google.com and to my surprise found a phone number for the parking lot. I called them and asked if there was plenty of room. Whoever answered the phone said, “Not plenty, but there’s room.” So we took Heather’s white Nissan Altima for the short trip up Lincoln Blvd. and headed into the airport. On the way we had the good head-on view of a United 737 landing. We though for a moment it might actually be our plane landing since it was then only about 40 minutes to departure time, but Hunnybear pointed out that it was a regular United livery, not the Shuttle.
We followed the signs to Terminal 7 parking but upon reaching the driveway found it coned off with a sign written in crayon saying, “Parking full park in 2B.” So I whipped around the driveway and headed to Terminal 2 parking. As promised it was open and we followed a green Jeep Grand Cherokee through a maze of twisty little passages until we found ourselves on the roof and grabbed a parking spot right by the control tower. “It will be easy to remember where we parked,” I pointed out to Hunnybear as we grabbed our bags and dashed for the elevator. The elevator was out of service so I traded my light carry-on for Hunnybear’s wheelie and carted it down the stairs.
When we reached the street, we saw that our way across was completely blocked by construction so we headed east until we got past the end of it, all the way to Terminal 8. Along the way we picked up an abandoned Smarte Carte and proceeded to Pushe it the Reste of the Waye. Then we hunted for the secret escalator to the ticketing level. LAX has to be one of the hardest airports to find your way from baggage claim to ticketing. We emerged, however, right in front of the 1K desk and with no wait checked in with one of the two unsmiling agents there. She warmed up when we started joking around with her and even showed us the double-secret escalator to Terminal 8.
We arrived at gate 85 to find the flight already boarding from both ends. The signs said zones 1, 3, and 5 on one side and zones 2, 4, and 6 on the other, but with no indication where first-class passengers were supposed to board. I sent Hunnybear on a mission to find the front of the plane, which she discovered was the door on the right, the 2, 4, 6 side. We abandoned the Smarte Carte and headed on board to seats 1C and D. All the overhead space was already taken but by moving a couple things around and putting one bag in the closet we got it all stowed.
The flight attendants were friendly on this flight but the service way minimal except for fanning us with the safety card during the demonstration. “Wait till I write home about this,” I threatened. “All the passengers are going to expect fanning service.” There was no preflight drink service and as usual on the hated Shuttle the stewardess took drink orders from the whole first-class cabin and the first six rows of coach before delivering a single drink. When the drinks did arrive they were served in plastic cups with cheap cheese crackers instead of nuts. We did luck out on the aircraft, though. It was a standard 737 rather than the Shuttle configuration meaning we got extra legroom (especially in 1C and D) and a bulkhead separating the coach cabin.
We touched down 10 minutes early in Phoenix and I called Arnie to let him know we were here. We raced to Budget and rented the Ford Ranger Pickup I had reserved through www.biztravel.com the previous day. I always check the car rental rates the day before a trip as they often go down at the last minute. Why don’t airlines do that? We got a green pickup with security lid for $27.99. I was dismayed to find out that I no longer qualified for my 15% discount with Budget because it was linked to my American Express Platinum card. Fortunately in this case the difference was very small.
We used our Mapquest directions to fine Arnie and Merle’s house and got there in plenty of time to celebrate First Seder with them and 14 relatives. Arnie himself cooked the meal, which was excellent. Arnie’s brother Gary gave rave reviews to his recent Renaissance Cruise from Athens to Istanbul with a stop in Israel. Apparently they’ve improved several facets of the service sine Hunnybear and I took our Barcelona-Lisbon cruise on the R2, for which Air France still owes me $683.20 plus interest.
One of the traditions of the Passover Seder is that no other forms of entertainment are allowed after dinner. So instead Arnie and I talked about the stock market, which was far from entertaining. Finally Hunnybear and I drove the pickup back to the airport and checked into the Sheraton Suites. We didn’t have much time to enjoy it but it was pretty much as expected. The Sheraton Suites are a notch above Four Points, kind of like Courtyard by Marriott without free local calls. We got upgraded to Club Level (floor 4 of 4) but didn’t have time to use the club as we put in a wakeup call for 5:15. The room was large, but that word “suite”—I do not think it means what they think it means! There was one robe in the room rather than two but we didn’t bother to call since we had already asked for feather pillows as had the night clerk knock on our door with two armfuls of every conceivable pillow. We slept like rocks.
The morning after
I expected my cell-phone pager to go off at five with the two-hour status report on our flight but today it was 15 minutes early. We went back to sleep and the wake-up call came as expected. The video checkout didn’t work so we checked out downstairs and found they had waived the local call charges as usually happens in Club Level even with an upgrade. I appreciate that little touch. We drove the Ranger the short distance to Sky Harbor in the beautiful desert dawn. Hunnybear found it humorous that the airport entrance had a sign saying, “The airport has three terminals: 2, 3, and 4.” She wondered what happened to Terminal 1 while I got lost following the several “rental car return” signs all pointing in conflicting directions. Finally we ended up at the Terminal 2 Budget return where a guy with a handheld wireless device printed out our receipt in short order.
The United Premier/first-class checking was jammed with at least 20 people in line so we headed for the Red Carpet Club to check in. It was a nice, small club with a friendly agent who printed our boarding passes and collected Hunnybear’s 500-mile certificate. We got a cup of coffee and a caffeine-free Diet Coke and headed over to gate 7 just as they started boarding. This plane was an actual Shuttle but with the gray livery, not the white. We settled once again into seats 1C and D and had no problem with overhead space this time. We got coffee in Styrofoam cups and landed in time, but had to wait about five minutes on the ground for a United gate. We found a triple-secret exit to the street that looked like it couldn’t possibly be legal to go through without alarms and sirens going off but we did and there we were.
We snagged an abandoned Smarte Carte and pushed our bags back to parking structure 2, where we quickly found an elevator and the car right where we had left it. I don’t think parking in that structure was as quick as a taxi and it was only about $8 cheaper, even for less than 24 hours, so it’s not a real bargain. Hunnybear dropped me back in Marina del Rey and headed off to work just slightly after nine. United always stresses schedule flexibility and on-time arrivals as strengths of the Shuttle and we did get that. But how hard would it be to board some bags of mixed nuts?
The end.
[This message has been edited by QuietLion (edited 04-20-2000).]
We cut it close so that Hunnybear would miss as little work as possible for our overnight Passover trip to Phoenix. We decided to try the LAX central parking lot, so I looked up “LAX parking” on www.google.com and to my surprise found a phone number for the parking lot. I called them and asked if there was plenty of room. Whoever answered the phone said, “Not plenty, but there’s room.” So we took Heather’s white Nissan Altima for the short trip up Lincoln Blvd. and headed into the airport. On the way we had the good head-on view of a United 737 landing. We though for a moment it might actually be our plane landing since it was then only about 40 minutes to departure time, but Hunnybear pointed out that it was a regular United livery, not the Shuttle.
We followed the signs to Terminal 7 parking but upon reaching the driveway found it coned off with a sign written in crayon saying, “Parking full park in 2B.” So I whipped around the driveway and headed to Terminal 2 parking. As promised it was open and we followed a green Jeep Grand Cherokee through a maze of twisty little passages until we found ourselves on the roof and grabbed a parking spot right by the control tower. “It will be easy to remember where we parked,” I pointed out to Hunnybear as we grabbed our bags and dashed for the elevator. The elevator was out of service so I traded my light carry-on for Hunnybear’s wheelie and carted it down the stairs.
When we reached the street, we saw that our way across was completely blocked by construction so we headed east until we got past the end of it, all the way to Terminal 8. Along the way we picked up an abandoned Smarte Carte and proceeded to Pushe it the Reste of the Waye. Then we hunted for the secret escalator to the ticketing level. LAX has to be one of the hardest airports to find your way from baggage claim to ticketing. We emerged, however, right in front of the 1K desk and with no wait checked in with one of the two unsmiling agents there. She warmed up when we started joking around with her and even showed us the double-secret escalator to Terminal 8.
We arrived at gate 85 to find the flight already boarding from both ends. The signs said zones 1, 3, and 5 on one side and zones 2, 4, and 6 on the other, but with no indication where first-class passengers were supposed to board. I sent Hunnybear on a mission to find the front of the plane, which she discovered was the door on the right, the 2, 4, 6 side. We abandoned the Smarte Carte and headed on board to seats 1C and D. All the overhead space was already taken but by moving a couple things around and putting one bag in the closet we got it all stowed.
The flight attendants were friendly on this flight but the service way minimal except for fanning us with the safety card during the demonstration. “Wait till I write home about this,” I threatened. “All the passengers are going to expect fanning service.” There was no preflight drink service and as usual on the hated Shuttle the stewardess took drink orders from the whole first-class cabin and the first six rows of coach before delivering a single drink. When the drinks did arrive they were served in plastic cups with cheap cheese crackers instead of nuts. We did luck out on the aircraft, though. It was a standard 737 rather than the Shuttle configuration meaning we got extra legroom (especially in 1C and D) and a bulkhead separating the coach cabin.
We touched down 10 minutes early in Phoenix and I called Arnie to let him know we were here. We raced to Budget and rented the Ford Ranger Pickup I had reserved through www.biztravel.com the previous day. I always check the car rental rates the day before a trip as they often go down at the last minute. Why don’t airlines do that? We got a green pickup with security lid for $27.99. I was dismayed to find out that I no longer qualified for my 15% discount with Budget because it was linked to my American Express Platinum card. Fortunately in this case the difference was very small.
We used our Mapquest directions to fine Arnie and Merle’s house and got there in plenty of time to celebrate First Seder with them and 14 relatives. Arnie himself cooked the meal, which was excellent. Arnie’s brother Gary gave rave reviews to his recent Renaissance Cruise from Athens to Istanbul with a stop in Israel. Apparently they’ve improved several facets of the service sine Hunnybear and I took our Barcelona-Lisbon cruise on the R2, for which Air France still owes me $683.20 plus interest.
One of the traditions of the Passover Seder is that no other forms of entertainment are allowed after dinner. So instead Arnie and I talked about the stock market, which was far from entertaining. Finally Hunnybear and I drove the pickup back to the airport and checked into the Sheraton Suites. We didn’t have much time to enjoy it but it was pretty much as expected. The Sheraton Suites are a notch above Four Points, kind of like Courtyard by Marriott without free local calls. We got upgraded to Club Level (floor 4 of 4) but didn’t have time to use the club as we put in a wakeup call for 5:15. The room was large, but that word “suite”—I do not think it means what they think it means! There was one robe in the room rather than two but we didn’t bother to call since we had already asked for feather pillows as had the night clerk knock on our door with two armfuls of every conceivable pillow. We slept like rocks.
The morning after
I expected my cell-phone pager to go off at five with the two-hour status report on our flight but today it was 15 minutes early. We went back to sleep and the wake-up call came as expected. The video checkout didn’t work so we checked out downstairs and found they had waived the local call charges as usually happens in Club Level even with an upgrade. I appreciate that little touch. We drove the Ranger the short distance to Sky Harbor in the beautiful desert dawn. Hunnybear found it humorous that the airport entrance had a sign saying, “The airport has three terminals: 2, 3, and 4.” She wondered what happened to Terminal 1 while I got lost following the several “rental car return” signs all pointing in conflicting directions. Finally we ended up at the Terminal 2 Budget return where a guy with a handheld wireless device printed out our receipt in short order.
The United Premier/first-class checking was jammed with at least 20 people in line so we headed for the Red Carpet Club to check in. It was a nice, small club with a friendly agent who printed our boarding passes and collected Hunnybear’s 500-mile certificate. We got a cup of coffee and a caffeine-free Diet Coke and headed over to gate 7 just as they started boarding. This plane was an actual Shuttle but with the gray livery, not the white. We settled once again into seats 1C and D and had no problem with overhead space this time. We got coffee in Styrofoam cups and landed in time, but had to wait about five minutes on the ground for a United gate. We found a triple-secret exit to the street that looked like it couldn’t possibly be legal to go through without alarms and sirens going off but we did and there we were.
We snagged an abandoned Smarte Carte and pushed our bags back to parking structure 2, where we quickly found an elevator and the car right where we had left it. I don’t think parking in that structure was as quick as a taxi and it was only about $8 cheaper, even for less than 24 hours, so it’s not a real bargain. Hunnybear dropped me back in Marina del Rey and headed off to work just slightly after nine. United always stresses schedule flexibility and on-time arrivals as strengths of the Shuttle and we did get that. But how hard would it be to board some bags of mixed nuts?
The end.
[This message has been edited by QuietLion (edited 04-20-2000).]
Apr 20, 2000 | 12:35 pm
#2
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Rochester, NY USA
Programs: Hilton - Diamond, IHG - Platinum
Posts: 1,433
Great trip report - but I have one question. how did you make that drive to the Sheraton after the 4 glasses of wine? (for those who have never attened a Sedar, part of the dinner/service/celebration includeds the drinking of four glasses of wine throguhout the meal).
Apr 20, 2000 | 5:11 pm
#4
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: St Paul 02/04...not flying Delta
Posts: 2,326
Your Sedar was better than mine. I flew from MSP to DEN (my home away from ORD). When I got back to the corportate apt, I ate two pieces of fish out of the jar, two pieces of matzo on a napkin and a couple of hard boiled eggs. Tonight, I am going to make fried matzo.
Apr 20, 2000 | 7:38 pm
#6
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 321
I can't even "bear" to think of drinking 4 glasses of that cough syrup! This was an especially good seder, because we had drinks and appetizers before it even started! Also, Arnie is a chef extraordinaire. We'll be sedering at UZen sushi tonight (no rice, though!) Gefilte sushi. I'll order that. 
Apr 20, 2000 | 7:45 pm
#7
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: tx
Posts: 90
FWIW, the original Terminal 1 at Sky Harbor was an old military bldg. When they finally quit using it, rather than re-number the terminals, they just dropped the Terminal 1 designation. But I agree with you, the rental car return signs at Sky Harbor could use some clarifying - especially for the companies that have returns at more than 1 terminal. Nothing more frustrating than to finally find the right company, only to be at the wrong terminal.
Apr 20, 2000 | 9:03 pm
#9
In Memoriam: Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: LGB/LAX
Programs: UA 1K, SPG Plat
Posts: 1,853
To my newest SoCal neighbors, Hunnybear and QuietLion, welcome to SoCal! I just wanted to tell you about the Ultra Secret Long Beach Airport that has flights to Phoenix everyday. America West is not the United Shuttle but for a 1 hour flight, it is not bad!!!
Hope to meet up with you two very soon!
Hope to meet up with you two very soon!
Apr 20, 2000 | 10:26 pm
#10
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: source of weird and eccentric ideas
Posts: 40,031
Great report, QL! Glad you enjoyed your Pesach. My wife surprised us all (esp. me) and opted to do one this year, the first year we are living on the East Coast and not going to my mom's. It was loads of fun.
Speaking of rental car returns, I find LAX's *extremely* hard to find (the Avis at least.) It is a secret car rental return IMHO.
BTW, ye hade a funny smarte carte remarke.
Speaking of rental car returns, I find LAX's *extremely* hard to find (the Avis at least.) It is a secret car rental return IMHO.
BTW, ye hade a funny smarte carte remarke.
Apr 20, 2000 | 11:27 pm
#11
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Programs: AA PLT, SPG GLD, PC PLT SPIRE
Posts: 4,531
QL,
"We got a green pickup with security lid for $27.99"-For my car rentals, I don't know if I am just cheap or what, but I love the Budget Ford Ranger Pick-up truck. I rent one every week in SJC. BTW, I thought that the Ranger was $19.95/day all the time when you rent throught the Budget.com site? At least that is what Budget advertises? You may want to check there next time.
"We got a green pickup with security lid for $27.99"-For my car rentals, I don't know if I am just cheap or what, but I love the Budget Ford Ranger Pick-up truck. I rent one every week in SJC. BTW, I thought that the Ranger was $19.95/day all the time when you rent throught the Budget.com site? At least that is what Budget advertises? You may want to check there next time.
Apr 21, 2000 | 12:01 am
#12
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: JFK/LAX
Posts: 1,436
QL, have you tried any of the sushi places I recommedend in your post about UA's transcon service? There's another sushi bar--that I didn't mention--right in Marina Del Ray that's excellent. It's called Tsuji No Hana. It's on Mindano Way off of Lincoln in a strip mall. I, too, like Uzen, but think you'll like this better and it's right in town.
Apr 21, 2000 | 6:23 pm
#14
Original Poster
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 6,932
onedog, I didn't know that tip about the budget.com site -- thanks!
scribbler, we haven't tried anything but U-Zen yet... maybe next time I'll bee successful in getting Hunnybear to go somewhere else!
KK... (shudder)
scribbler, we haven't tried anything but U-Zen yet... maybe next time I'll bee successful in getting Hunnybear to go somewhere else!
KK... (shudder)