Orange County to San Francisco in only 11 hours... by air... nonstop.
Jan 16, 2019, 6:02 pm
#1
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Orange County to San Francisco in only 11 hours... by air... nonstop.
Four days after returning from Australia, Mrs. SFO777 and I were off to San Francisco last week as she underwent knee surgery. Despite the cold, rain and dreary weather, we enjoyed our time, well maybe one of us more than the other. LOL. She’s back in Orange County recovering nicely. I had not intended to do a report but I figured that our ridiculously long ordeal getting from SNA to SFO was worth a few laughs. Plus I'm bored here in the Delta JFK Sky Club. We flew to the Bay Area last Sunday, a day with some pretty awful rainy and windy weather in the Bay Area. Our midday options were an Alaska E75 or mainline United 738. Everything would have fine if I’d chosen Alaska. But alas, I opted for the larger plane for more comfort. LOL. Big mistake.
With a 1:35p SNA departure, we headed out on the 20 minute drive to John Wayne at 12:15pm, despite knowing full well that United is lying about on time departure. We figured that we’d relax and have lunch since we had a 3 hour cushion for dinner with the kids and grandkids. The first of many United lies. On time departure at 1:35pm with the inbound plane arriving at 1:39pm. LOL.
Terminal C PreCheck was a breeze and we were in the concourse by 12:45pm.
We decided on Javi’s, the only sit down restaurant in this part of the airport. Food was mediocre although the margaritas were good.
As we finished our meal, the first of many updated lies from United. Despite our inbound scheduled to arrive at 2pm, our departure was now rescheduled for 4:00pm. Hey, that’s a nice round number, let’s use 4pm. Figuring that this wasn’t the end of it, I decided that today might be a good day to burn my last two Chase United Club passes.
The SNA United Club is located on the 2nd level near Gate 9. The Club is smallish but comfy… at least for a short stay.
We parked ourselves and passed the time as we watched multiple updates and departure times come and go. By mid afternoon, the place was packed with mostly pleasant fellow pax, except for the single POS mom and her two semi-annoying kids who were left on their own while mom tossed down red wines at the bar.
Thank you United, for dumping on John Wayne today.
At around 5:30pm after the lounge dragon fessed that she didn’t think we’d be leaving until at least 8pm and she had no idea whether the crew might time out, I decided to check other options. I found and booked the last two seats on a 7:05pm Southwest flight to Oakland. Fortunately, all that was left was Business Select, so we were able to get A10 and A11 which insured that we’d have reasonably good seating, or as good as it might get on Southwest.
Yeah, good call.
By 6pm, we’d had enough of the Club, the kids and mom and headed down to the concourse and the long walk to Southwest. "Stay close by for updates". LOL.
While the lack of Business Class seating is my biggest complaint about Southwest, they do seem to have the nicest and friendliest employees in the industry. Generally crappy Bay Area weather even slowed down things from Oakland as our inbound arrived 40 minutes late.
Still better than United. LOL.
LOL.
Orange County SNA to Oakland OAK
Southwest WN
7:05p-8:30p (sked)
8:05p-10:20p (actual)
January 6, 2019
Seats 1C and 1D
We took our place in the Southwest cattle call and after the never ending pre-boards, general boarding for the A group boarding call.
Amazingly, we were able to get cross aisle bulkhead seats.
Finally.
Free texting on Southwest means I can get updates on our old flight while watching Oceans 8... for just about 8th time. LOL
Now after 10pm and nearly 2 hours in flight, we are on final to OAK.
Well we still beat them by at least an hour.
I changed my Avis rental from SFO to OAK without a problem. But, I'd forgotten about the long, long, long shuttle bus to the Oakland Rental Car Center.
We got to our old Marina stomping grounds around 11:30pm, checked into The Cow Hollow Suites on Chestnut and then went for dinner... finally going to The Brazen Head, the only restaurant open this late on a Sunday.
Classic atmosphere with so-so food... but we were hungry.
Ah yes, back home in San Francisco. Mrs. SFO777 was not amused with the urinal in her loo. LOL
With a 1:35p SNA departure, we headed out on the 20 minute drive to John Wayne at 12:15pm, despite knowing full well that United is lying about on time departure. We figured that we’d relax and have lunch since we had a 3 hour cushion for dinner with the kids and grandkids. The first of many United lies. On time departure at 1:35pm with the inbound plane arriving at 1:39pm. LOL.
Terminal C PreCheck was a breeze and we were in the concourse by 12:45pm.
We decided on Javi’s, the only sit down restaurant in this part of the airport. Food was mediocre although the margaritas were good.
As we finished our meal, the first of many updated lies from United. Despite our inbound scheduled to arrive at 2pm, our departure was now rescheduled for 4:00pm. Hey, that’s a nice round number, let’s use 4pm. Figuring that this wasn’t the end of it, I decided that today might be a good day to burn my last two Chase United Club passes.
The SNA United Club is located on the 2nd level near Gate 9. The Club is smallish but comfy… at least for a short stay.
We parked ourselves and passed the time as we watched multiple updates and departure times come and go. By mid afternoon, the place was packed with mostly pleasant fellow pax, except for the single POS mom and her two semi-annoying kids who were left on their own while mom tossed down red wines at the bar.
Thank you United, for dumping on John Wayne today.
At around 5:30pm after the lounge dragon fessed that she didn’t think we’d be leaving until at least 8pm and she had no idea whether the crew might time out, I decided to check other options. I found and booked the last two seats on a 7:05pm Southwest flight to Oakland. Fortunately, all that was left was Business Select, so we were able to get A10 and A11 which insured that we’d have reasonably good seating, or as good as it might get on Southwest.
Yeah, good call.
By 6pm, we’d had enough of the Club, the kids and mom and headed down to the concourse and the long walk to Southwest. "Stay close by for updates". LOL.
While the lack of Business Class seating is my biggest complaint about Southwest, they do seem to have the nicest and friendliest employees in the industry. Generally crappy Bay Area weather even slowed down things from Oakland as our inbound arrived 40 minutes late.
Still better than United. LOL.
LOL.
Orange County SNA to Oakland OAK
Southwest WN
7:05p-8:30p (sked)
8:05p-10:20p (actual)
January 6, 2019
Seats 1C and 1D
We took our place in the Southwest cattle call and after the never ending pre-boards, general boarding for the A group boarding call.
Amazingly, we were able to get cross aisle bulkhead seats.
Finally.
Free texting on Southwest means I can get updates on our old flight while watching Oceans 8... for just about 8th time. LOL
Now after 10pm and nearly 2 hours in flight, we are on final to OAK.
Well we still beat them by at least an hour.
I changed my Avis rental from SFO to OAK without a problem. But, I'd forgotten about the long, long, long shuttle bus to the Oakland Rental Car Center.
We got to our old Marina stomping grounds around 11:30pm, checked into The Cow Hollow Suites on Chestnut and then went for dinner... finally going to The Brazen Head, the only restaurant open this late on a Sunday.
Classic atmosphere with so-so food... but we were hungry.
Ah yes, back home in San Francisco. Mrs. SFO777 was not amused with the urinal in her loo. LOL
Last edited by SFO777; Jan 16, 2019 at 6:26 pm
Jan 16, 2019, 7:09 pm
#2
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: YVR - Vancouver, with most winter weekends in Whistler.
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Posts: 4,609
On the bright side, the United Club in SNA appears miles ahead of the Alaska Lounge in LAX!
Enjoyable reading. . .
Enjoyable reading. . .
Jan 16, 2019, 9:39 pm
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 1999
Location: Over the Bay Bridge, CA
Programs: Jumbo mas
Posts: 38,631
I gotta give it to UA for consistency. No matter how delayed things were, you could always depend on your SNA luggage arriving at Carousel 6, in the unlikely event that you'd ever arrive.
Last edited by Eastbay1K; Jan 16, 2019 at 10:23 pm
Jan 17, 2019, 5:05 pm
#5
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Sorry! We all should have a sfo777 do when you’re back in sf - I’m sure it would be SRO but all of us FTers would have fun. Wow total ual shame.
Jan 17, 2019, 5:08 pm
#6
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Wesley Chapel, FL
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 30,013
Did the dragon ever give a reason for the 8 hour delay? Mx? No crew?
What a joke. Will you get a refund on your UA ticket or it's gone? I bet it took a while to walk down to the WN terminal. Could you do the walk while staying airside?
What a joke. Will you get a refund on your UA ticket or it's gone? I bet it took a while to walk down to the WN terminal. Could you do the walk while staying airside?
Jan 17, 2019, 5:59 pm
#7
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Jan 17, 2019, 6:13 pm
#8
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Location: Wesley Chapel, FL
Programs: American Airlines
Posts: 30,013
Go figure.
Jan 18, 2019, 1:01 am
#12
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
Programs: BA Bronze, Emirates Silver, Virgin Silver, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 1,403
Wow at the delays on your original flight! That would be costing United a small fortune if it happened in the EU given the rules we have here - would customers receive any compensation for the delay in the US?
Jan 18, 2019, 7:39 am
#13
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No USA cash payments for delays esp if ATC, weather... not sure of MX. But it doesn’t matter because we don’t have yay Europe rule when in USA with delays.
Jan 18, 2019, 1:13 pm
#15
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Yeah, that was pretty much our take at the end of the day. Thanks wakesetter93.
Under normal circumstances I would agree. Except we needed to be in SFO for Monday morning pre-op.
The amazing that was the UA proactively refunded our tickets even though we no showed. Got an email from Amex by the next morning advising us of the full refund.
Last edited by SFO777; Jan 18, 2019 at 1:20 pm