OMA - SNA August 2004
Aug 30, 2004 | 8:39 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Omaha, NE USA
Posts: 34
OMA - SNA August 2004
OMA-SNA – August 2004
I have not spent much time in Southern California, so when I got the chance to visit on biz, I took the opportunity and also booked a bit of time in for fun after the biz was done. When I have been to CA, I’ve usually flown into LAX, with only one trip into Burbank—a horrible SW experience not to be repeated even if the fare was so low they paid me to fly. In fact, I’ve done my best to avoid the “SWA Cattle Car” experience since then….and that was way back in ’95! (besides, who would fly this airline after the way their CSR’s treat people on that obnoxious show “Airline”)? This trip was going to be OMA-DEN-SNA returning SNA-DEN-OMA, all on UA.
Flying into SNA was going to be a new experience. Our office travel secretary booked the e-tix on Orbitz about 2 weeks in advance—I wish she could sit in some of the seats she assigns me into…….and when I got the printout the first thing I noticed was that I had no seat assignment on the SNA-DEN segment on the return. The next thing I noticed was the rest of the seat assignments were all “back of the bus”. As a lowly UA FF with no initials after my name, always booking the cheapest on ORBITZ, that’s where ya end up 99% of the time. No matter, from OMA its almost always two shorter flights to anywhere in the country—only time it’s a problem is when there is a short connection (30 min or so) at ORD.
Back to the no seat assignment. Experience has taught me that no seat assignment means a probable bump unless you check in extremely early, and since I knew that A) I was not giving up any sunny CA time, and B)the flights that could make the DEN-OMA connection were limited, I did my best to get an assignment in advance……with no luck either on the phones or in person at the airport on an earlier trip. Oh well, I’d just have to take my chances.
OMA-DEN was lucky enough to get 17E, between 2 sumo wrestler wannabes who had been eating way too much of that corn fed cattle and couldn't reach their armpits with deodorant. Forunately was a short hop to DEN. The departing gate was just down the hall, and I pulled off an EXIT ROW seat for the DEN-SNA segment. Vindication!
Landing at SNA was pleasant, but listening to ATC on Ch 9 on the way in was a bit disconcerting…..lots of smaller traffic, and even parachutists were in our way, and we weaved into SNA as if we were creating a Hallmark Collectable Basket, landing on a visual approach in light smog. Ahhh, the joys of OMA, where often, even when its busy, you are the only thing in the sky within 10 miles.
Waited 45 minutes for baggage to arrive. Apparently, the baggage handlers at SNA have the same union as the handlers at EWR--another of my favorite destinations.
Ground transportation to my nearby Embassy Suites was quick, polite, and friendly, and the hotel itself was everything I’ve come to expect from Embassy Suites…..no complaints and lots of kudo’s to the staff. Hate paying $9.95/day for internet though, but I figure I saved the company about $50 AND I got out of having to check e-mail for a few days! Whoo Hoo!
Once the biz was done a few days later, I now had a day and a half to peruse sunny southern CA….and had called up some friends from High School in NJ who were now living there. They had bought me a ticket to see Seinfeld in San Diego with them, and so before I knew it, I had spent the better part of the morning/early afternoon on the beach, and the rest of the day seeing southern CA with the locals. Pre-show we went to a fantastic bar in San Diego—can’t remember the name, found the show, (Jerry had all new material and was quite funny--worth the $80 tix), drove back up the coast after the show and closed down the Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Island before hitting the final hotspot of the night closer to “home” back in Costa Mesa (my age is showing....in my 20's the "Cheesecake Factory" would have been a hopping nightspot--open to 3AM and I'd have been leaving with a BAC of about 2.5......now it was decaf and cheesecake and a BAC of 0.0!--but no headache in the AM!).
On my last day, did more “beach time”, picked up some trinkets for the kids (I live in OMA and have a daughter into surfing--go figure), and, at the last minute, washed the sand off my feet and headed for the airport for the grind back to OMA.
SNA is a cool airport….but winding my way back to the rental car drop off was as insidious as trying to return to EWR if you don’t know the system. Got it in 1 of course, but saw lots of tourists who missed the turn and thus were doing the roundabout for another go at the entrance. Checked in……got a seat on a full A320…..another center seat (yech), but got lucky when a mom traveling with 3 kids was trying to get the family together….they had been scattered all over the plane by the UA reservation system….and ended up with 17D
After we boarded, a “mechanical” was discovered that had us leave SNA 45 minutes late, but since I had a 2 hour layover in DEN, and they kept the AC on for us, didn’t really matter. Besides we made most of the time up in the air.
Landed at DEN to discover the aircraft I was scheduled to use for the DEN-OMA flight was still on the ground at LAX., and not likely to take off from LAX until about the time we were supposed to be taking off from DEN. Uh-oh. Since I used to work at the airport in OMA, I knew that no good could come from this. Went to the US Customer Service Desk to get re-routed to either LNK or DSM….both an hour or two away from OMA….the UA CSR was cool, told me up front the likelihood of my 1900 departure being cancelled, told me the 2100 was already booked, that I had missed the 1830 to LNK, and that the only way to DSM was through ORD (I wasn’t going for THAT). So, they re-assigned me onto Frontier at 1955. No biggie. A terminal change, a quick bite to eat, and I’d only be an hour late into OMA!
Sitting at the gate waiting for the Frontier plane to arrive………at 1930…no plane. I’m trying to read a magazine, and being forced to listen to some rube calling everyone he knows from his cell phone (“Guess where I am!--can you hear me now? “ I'm at the DENVER airport!”). Then I overhear somebody say that the departure to OMA wasn’t even on the board. THIS piqued my interest. “Oh S**T”, I thought! In my days at OMA, Frontier was well known for canceling flights due to “mechanical difficulties”….i.e; the plane was too “light” to fly. So, I went over to the only Frontier employee I could find in the entire terminal, who was working a Boise departure and said “Whats up with the OMA flight?” She said, “That’s boarding downstairs, at the commuter gates, you should already be on board!” I said “That’s great, but what about that sign over at gate X that says its boarding here….and what about those 30 or so people over there waiting to get on it (including the rube)?” At this point the color drained from her face as if she knew she had done something very wrong, she got on the mike, and made the announcement that should have been made 30 minutes earlier……and I, at the head of a pack of anxious OMA flyers trundled down the stairs looking for another airplane to fly on.
What had happened was that Frontier had decided to stop using 737’s and instead gone to commuter jets on the DEN-OMA route….and this was apparently the first day of the change. So, the fine folks at the gate were standing down there wondering where a fully booked flight full of people were……and we were wondering where the airplane was.
The upshot was a very full commuter plane…..one rather disappointed stand by who was on the plane but summarily escorted off when all the checked pax actually showed up, and a 75 minute late arrival into OMA (based on my originally scheduled time). Luggage showed up the next day (UA said Frontier would have it, Frontier said UA should have it…..whoever wants a suitcase full of dirty clothes, please stand up…..(even the TSA probably wouldn’t want THAT bag!)
Now, my only question is…..do I get FF credit on UA, Frontier, or (greedy, evil grin here), BOTH?
OMAFlyer
I have not spent much time in Southern California, so when I got the chance to visit on biz, I took the opportunity and also booked a bit of time in for fun after the biz was done. When I have been to CA, I’ve usually flown into LAX, with only one trip into Burbank—a horrible SW experience not to be repeated even if the fare was so low they paid me to fly. In fact, I’ve done my best to avoid the “SWA Cattle Car” experience since then….and that was way back in ’95! (besides, who would fly this airline after the way their CSR’s treat people on that obnoxious show “Airline”)? This trip was going to be OMA-DEN-SNA returning SNA-DEN-OMA, all on UA.
Flying into SNA was going to be a new experience. Our office travel secretary booked the e-tix on Orbitz about 2 weeks in advance—I wish she could sit in some of the seats she assigns me into…….and when I got the printout the first thing I noticed was that I had no seat assignment on the SNA-DEN segment on the return. The next thing I noticed was the rest of the seat assignments were all “back of the bus”. As a lowly UA FF with no initials after my name, always booking the cheapest on ORBITZ, that’s where ya end up 99% of the time. No matter, from OMA its almost always two shorter flights to anywhere in the country—only time it’s a problem is when there is a short connection (30 min or so) at ORD.
Back to the no seat assignment. Experience has taught me that no seat assignment means a probable bump unless you check in extremely early, and since I knew that A) I was not giving up any sunny CA time, and B)the flights that could make the DEN-OMA connection were limited, I did my best to get an assignment in advance……with no luck either on the phones or in person at the airport on an earlier trip. Oh well, I’d just have to take my chances.
OMA-DEN was lucky enough to get 17E, between 2 sumo wrestler wannabes who had been eating way too much of that corn fed cattle and couldn't reach their armpits with deodorant. Forunately was a short hop to DEN. The departing gate was just down the hall, and I pulled off an EXIT ROW seat for the DEN-SNA segment. Vindication!
Landing at SNA was pleasant, but listening to ATC on Ch 9 on the way in was a bit disconcerting…..lots of smaller traffic, and even parachutists were in our way, and we weaved into SNA as if we were creating a Hallmark Collectable Basket, landing on a visual approach in light smog. Ahhh, the joys of OMA, where often, even when its busy, you are the only thing in the sky within 10 miles.
Waited 45 minutes for baggage to arrive. Apparently, the baggage handlers at SNA have the same union as the handlers at EWR--another of my favorite destinations.
Ground transportation to my nearby Embassy Suites was quick, polite, and friendly, and the hotel itself was everything I’ve come to expect from Embassy Suites…..no complaints and lots of kudo’s to the staff. Hate paying $9.95/day for internet though, but I figure I saved the company about $50 AND I got out of having to check e-mail for a few days! Whoo Hoo!
Once the biz was done a few days later, I now had a day and a half to peruse sunny southern CA….and had called up some friends from High School in NJ who were now living there. They had bought me a ticket to see Seinfeld in San Diego with them, and so before I knew it, I had spent the better part of the morning/early afternoon on the beach, and the rest of the day seeing southern CA with the locals. Pre-show we went to a fantastic bar in San Diego—can’t remember the name, found the show, (Jerry had all new material and was quite funny--worth the $80 tix), drove back up the coast after the show and closed down the Cheesecake Factory in Fashion Island before hitting the final hotspot of the night closer to “home” back in Costa Mesa (my age is showing....in my 20's the "Cheesecake Factory" would have been a hopping nightspot--open to 3AM and I'd have been leaving with a BAC of about 2.5......now it was decaf and cheesecake and a BAC of 0.0!--but no headache in the AM!).
On my last day, did more “beach time”, picked up some trinkets for the kids (I live in OMA and have a daughter into surfing--go figure), and, at the last minute, washed the sand off my feet and headed for the airport for the grind back to OMA.
SNA is a cool airport….but winding my way back to the rental car drop off was as insidious as trying to return to EWR if you don’t know the system. Got it in 1 of course, but saw lots of tourists who missed the turn and thus were doing the roundabout for another go at the entrance. Checked in……got a seat on a full A320…..another center seat (yech), but got lucky when a mom traveling with 3 kids was trying to get the family together….they had been scattered all over the plane by the UA reservation system….and ended up with 17D
After we boarded, a “mechanical” was discovered that had us leave SNA 45 minutes late, but since I had a 2 hour layover in DEN, and they kept the AC on for us, didn’t really matter. Besides we made most of the time up in the air.
Landed at DEN to discover the aircraft I was scheduled to use for the DEN-OMA flight was still on the ground at LAX., and not likely to take off from LAX until about the time we were supposed to be taking off from DEN. Uh-oh. Since I used to work at the airport in OMA, I knew that no good could come from this. Went to the US Customer Service Desk to get re-routed to either LNK or DSM….both an hour or two away from OMA….the UA CSR was cool, told me up front the likelihood of my 1900 departure being cancelled, told me the 2100 was already booked, that I had missed the 1830 to LNK, and that the only way to DSM was through ORD (I wasn’t going for THAT). So, they re-assigned me onto Frontier at 1955. No biggie. A terminal change, a quick bite to eat, and I’d only be an hour late into OMA!
Sitting at the gate waiting for the Frontier plane to arrive………at 1930…no plane. I’m trying to read a magazine, and being forced to listen to some rube calling everyone he knows from his cell phone (“Guess where I am!--can you hear me now? “ I'm at the DENVER airport!”). Then I overhear somebody say that the departure to OMA wasn’t even on the board. THIS piqued my interest. “Oh S**T”, I thought! In my days at OMA, Frontier was well known for canceling flights due to “mechanical difficulties”….i.e; the plane was too “light” to fly. So, I went over to the only Frontier employee I could find in the entire terminal, who was working a Boise departure and said “Whats up with the OMA flight?” She said, “That’s boarding downstairs, at the commuter gates, you should already be on board!” I said “That’s great, but what about that sign over at gate X that says its boarding here….and what about those 30 or so people over there waiting to get on it (including the rube)?” At this point the color drained from her face as if she knew she had done something very wrong, she got on the mike, and made the announcement that should have been made 30 minutes earlier……and I, at the head of a pack of anxious OMA flyers trundled down the stairs looking for another airplane to fly on.
What had happened was that Frontier had decided to stop using 737’s and instead gone to commuter jets on the DEN-OMA route….and this was apparently the first day of the change. So, the fine folks at the gate were standing down there wondering where a fully booked flight full of people were……and we were wondering where the airplane was.
The upshot was a very full commuter plane…..one rather disappointed stand by who was on the plane but summarily escorted off when all the checked pax actually showed up, and a 75 minute late arrival into OMA (based on my originally scheduled time). Luggage showed up the next day (UA said Frontier would have it, Frontier said UA should have it…..whoever wants a suitcase full of dirty clothes, please stand up…..(even the TSA probably wouldn’t want THAT bag!)
Now, my only question is…..do I get FF credit on UA, Frontier, or (greedy, evil grin here), BOTH?
OMAFlyer
Aug 30, 2004 | 10:04 am
#2
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: I have resided many places, but only ever lived in San Francisco.
Programs: UA, AA
Posts: 293
Glad to hear you enjoyed your time here in "The Southland"! Yes, John Wayne Airport can be deceptively confusing for all aspects of parking, circling, and the like... but then I look at LAX and say "It's not THAT bad"!
Be sure and come back any time.
Oh and BTW... you will have to phone UA to get credit for your cancelled DEN-OMA, but yes, Frontier should be willing to give you credit too.
Be sure and come back any time.
Oh and BTW... you will have to phone UA to get credit for your cancelled DEN-OMA, but yes, Frontier should be willing to give you credit too.
