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shannon_aWakeup. Up at 5am this morning. It was earlier than I needed for my flight, but that was the last step in my Bay Area–side time regression. I'll need to get up an hour earlier tomorrow, for our 8am design workshop, which is unfortunately far from our AirBnB.
That gave me time to shower and generally take my time. I chatted briefly with K. who'd been awake much of the night, and then I slipped out into the early morning.
Because I was running so early, I took BART into to the Oakland Airport.
Oakland. I took all my luggage carry-on this time, which means I walked straight back to the security check. Luxury! But then of course I had to worry about whether there'd be room for my bag in the overhead bins, because the airlines f***ed this whole process when they started charging for checked luggage. Less luxury.
As I sat down at my gate at Oakland, I found myself staring at a Spirit Airlines sign, asking people if they'd paid for their carry-on luggage. Super f*** you, Spirit Airlines. (They were the same airline that, a number of years back, put out feelers about charging for restroom use on their airlines and also presented some designs for a standing-room only airplane.) Fortunately, I'm flying Delta from SFO to LAX not Spirit; perhaps less fortunately, I'm flying a plane from LAX to Toronto that claimed to be Delta but turns out to be their partner, WestJet. I only discovered that when I had to followup with the airlines after my Orbitz purchase. I didn't love the fact that WestJet wouldn't assign seats until the day before the flight, which made me think that they were on the iffy side of the airplane world, and I was somewhat worried that that flight might be Spirit-like. (I purposefully avoided looking at reviews for WestJet once it was obvious what had happened, because I didn't want to stress myself out if they did turn out to be bad. And besides whiners on the internet complain about everything, so it wouldn't have necessarily been informative.)
At Oakland, I'm also tormented by announcements over the loudspeaker about a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Lihue. I briefly dream of hopping on the flight and ending up an hour from my dad and Mary and our future home. Alas, not 'til February or March. But on the bright side, Hawaiian now has a direct flight from Oakland to Lihue, which they never have before. (We've in fact never gotten a direct flight from any airport to Lihue on any airline, though San Jose has been running some in recent years, but that's like an hour past the Oakland airport.)
LAX. Oh gosh, LAX is horrible. K. and I went through it in 2000 on our way to Ireland, and I don't remember much about it probably because I was more focused on leading a half-conscious K. through the airport. But now ... I'm glad I don't live in LA, where I'd regularly have to use this terrible airport.
I stepped off the plane in Terminal 2 and it was shoulder-to-shoulder people, all crowding together to leap on the plane we'd just left. And all the nearby seating areas were full, and pretty much everywhere I walked through that terminal there were constantly hundreds of people around me. (Part of the problem turns out to be that Delta lines people up at numbered zone posts well before there's any chance of any of them getting on a plane.)
Delta apparently has planes (or partners) in Terminals 2, 3, and B ... and there's no rational connection between them. You had to take a "shuttle" with a with a very surly bus driver. Clearly, Delta knows that this is a cluster****, because they've got signs all over talking about how they're building the "terminal of the future". Apparently their big future advance is going to be a "skybridge", which is to say a walkway between the terminals. Yeah, Delta, real futuristic.
The shuttle ride doesn't take that long. We very officially get on in a secret entrance behind a gate (the shuttle is in fact labeled with the gate number and a "P"), and then we get off at a secret entrance behind a gate. It feels like we're sneaking around backstage, which really doesn't feel that professional. There's not much walking, I suppose, but I would have much preferred to walk between the terminals, which isn't even that far.
Arriving over at Terminal 3, I find the seating area by my gate entirely filled. There are no seats. There are also huge open spaces, and people sitting all around the floor. I think that Delta's Terminal of the Future should include some chairs too.
Fortunately, a previous flight (scheduled just 30 minutes or so before ours is supposed to start boarding) boards and some seats clear. There are still people on the floor. And no power plugs of any sort, which I thought would be assured in such a big airport, but apparently LAX is still living back in the '50s, which means that their Terminal of the Future probably includes jetpacks and flying cars.
The plane ahead of was about 30 minutes late departing, then we were about 20 minutes late. Apparently WestJet has institutional problems with their schedule at LAX. Sitting on the tarmac for another 20 minutes or so is presumably an institutional problem that LAX owns all on its own. (And will hopefully be less of an issue on Saturday, when I pass through LAX at 9pm or something.)
Oh and remember those nice numbered zones? They almost caused a riot as we boarded. The biggest problem was that the announcer for another of the nearby gates had very poor PA discipline, and she kept telling people what to do without announcing the gate. So the poor disciplinarian's plane was boarding just a few minutes ahead of ours. As our "zone 2" was boarding, she announced that "zone 3" could begin boarding. Anyone actually listening knew the difference in the voices, but anyone not paying attention (e.g., all the Americans going to Canada) and anyone who was a jerk (e.g., all the Americans going to Canada) stepped over and started trying to board immediately. Then some of the people in the front of the zone 3 line started getting irate, screaming that they'd been waiting in line, and they were getting on first, and pushing ahead of the cutters and other cheaters. One old white-haired lady did so pretty violently, and that's when I thought fisticuffs were going to follow, but from there some of us up front managed to convince the remaining zone 2 people to curve around the zone 3 jerks and then zone 3 could load as planned, in order.
Thank you again, airlines, for causing these problems with your penny-pinching greed. And especially you Delta, with your boarding-by-caste zone system.
WestJet. So how's WestJet? Not horrible.
I'm shocked by the lack of First Class. There's just a wide array of "Plus" seats.
When I get back to my seat I find that the leg room is good. However within an hour it proves to be uncomfortable. My guess is the problem that the seat is thin and hard. Because thin is how you cram more seats into your jet. But, it makes my back ache. I'm reminded of the hellish trip back from Zurich last year. The difference is that this time I can actually squirm around in my discomfort because my seat hasn't been changed to a middle seat at the last minute.
Still, as with horrible Zurich flight, the uncomfortable seat makes writing somewhat challenging. And I've got stuff to finish up for the German edition of Designers & Dragons. (I'm doing better by the end of the flight.)
Despite being a 4+ hour international flight, there are no meals. The sum total of food offered for two flights, spanning 8 hours is 1 cup of water, 2 small biscotti "cookies", a cup of drink, a bag of pretzels, another 2 small biscotti "cookies", and finally another small cup of drink and bag of pretzels. I only take some of it, mostly eating the Subway sandwich and chips that I cleverly bought last night. (I'll probably need to partake of airport food and trail mix on the way back.)
There are, however, power plugs, albeit confusingly shaped ones that seem intended to support a few different plug shapes. I finally figure it out and get my laptop charging up from the 55% battery level that it had rundown to overly several hours.
Would I fly WestJet again? Maybe. They get about a "5" or "6" on a 10-point scale. Run of the mill for today's crappy airlines. They probably wouldn't kill a dog or drag a passenger screaming off of the plane after beating him. (United.)
Writing. On the plane, I updated my 2015-2017 yearly histories for the German Designers & Dragons books, just waiting on some footnotes and game lookups that I need the internet for. (I'm not going to waste $20 Canadian to do so, even if that's only $3 or $4 real bucks.) I also get in the edits and responded to comments from a few Evil Hat people for my updated Evil Hat article, also for the German Kickstarter. I'd hoped to do more proactive work, pushing into some of the "Lost Histories" I've been laying out, but somehow a bit less than six hours of actual flight isn't that much.
Oh well, I'm at least closing in on the end of my German updates, which have consumed a lot of my free time in August and September. Hopefully I'll be even closer after the flight home on Saturday.
Toronto. Just arrived here. It was dark, drizzling, and super humid. The airport was huge and we had a rather humorous interaction there: C. arrived about an hour before me, and was still there when I arrived. He suggested that I meet him at Door D, and I went there, and he was not there. A flurry of photographs followed back and forth. I showed his photographs to staff, and eventually found someone who identified that he was at Door D in Terminal 1 while I was in Terminal 3. (Terminal 1 was big and spacious, while Terminal 3 was small and gloomy.)
So, a short tram ride over and we were united.
The Lyft ride through Mississauga suggested to me that it's unzoned semi-urban hell. We rode down constant streams of straight streets with strip malls and occasional skyscrapers on all sides.
(We'll see what it looks like in the daylight tomorrow.)
That gave me time to shower and generally take my time. I chatted briefly with K. who'd been awake much of the night, and then I slipped out into the early morning.
Because I was running so early, I took BART into to the Oakland Airport.
Oakland. I took all my luggage carry-on this time, which means I walked straight back to the security check. Luxury! But then of course I had to worry about whether there'd be room for my bag in the overhead bins, because the airlines f***ed this whole process when they started charging for checked luggage. Less luxury.
As I sat down at my gate at Oakland, I found myself staring at a Spirit Airlines sign, asking people if they'd paid for their carry-on luggage. Super f*** you, Spirit Airlines. (They were the same airline that, a number of years back, put out feelers about charging for restroom use on their airlines and also presented some designs for a standing-room only airplane.) Fortunately, I'm flying Delta from SFO to LAX not Spirit; perhaps less fortunately, I'm flying a plane from LAX to Toronto that claimed to be Delta but turns out to be their partner, WestJet. I only discovered that when I had to followup with the airlines after my Orbitz purchase. I didn't love the fact that WestJet wouldn't assign seats until the day before the flight, which made me think that they were on the iffy side of the airplane world, and I was somewhat worried that that flight might be Spirit-like. (I purposefully avoided looking at reviews for WestJet once it was obvious what had happened, because I didn't want to stress myself out if they did turn out to be bad. And besides whiners on the internet complain about everything, so it wouldn't have necessarily been informative.)
At Oakland, I'm also tormented by announcements over the loudspeaker about a Hawaiian Airlines flight to Lihue. I briefly dream of hopping on the flight and ending up an hour from my dad and Mary and our future home. Alas, not 'til February or March. But on the bright side, Hawaiian now has a direct flight from Oakland to Lihue, which they never have before. (We've in fact never gotten a direct flight from any airport to Lihue on any airline, though San Jose has been running some in recent years, but that's like an hour past the Oakland airport.)
LAX. Oh gosh, LAX is horrible. K. and I went through it in 2000 on our way to Ireland, and I don't remember much about it probably because I was more focused on leading a half-conscious K. through the airport. But now ... I'm glad I don't live in LA, where I'd regularly have to use this terrible airport.
I stepped off the plane in Terminal 2 and it was shoulder-to-shoulder people, all crowding together to leap on the plane we'd just left. And all the nearby seating areas were full, and pretty much everywhere I walked through that terminal there were constantly hundreds of people around me. (Part of the problem turns out to be that Delta lines people up at numbered zone posts well before there's any chance of any of them getting on a plane.)
Delta apparently has planes (or partners) in Terminals 2, 3, and B ... and there's no rational connection between them. You had to take a "shuttle" with a with a very surly bus driver. Clearly, Delta knows that this is a cluster****, because they've got signs all over talking about how they're building the "terminal of the future". Apparently their big future advance is going to be a "skybridge", which is to say a walkway between the terminals. Yeah, Delta, real futuristic.
The shuttle ride doesn't take that long. We very officially get on in a secret entrance behind a gate (the shuttle is in fact labeled with the gate number and a "P"), and then we get off at a secret entrance behind a gate. It feels like we're sneaking around backstage, which really doesn't feel that professional. There's not much walking, I suppose, but I would have much preferred to walk between the terminals, which isn't even that far.
Arriving over at Terminal 3, I find the seating area by my gate entirely filled. There are no seats. There are also huge open spaces, and people sitting all around the floor. I think that Delta's Terminal of the Future should include some chairs too.
Fortunately, a previous flight (scheduled just 30 minutes or so before ours is supposed to start boarding) boards and some seats clear. There are still people on the floor. And no power plugs of any sort, which I thought would be assured in such a big airport, but apparently LAX is still living back in the '50s, which means that their Terminal of the Future probably includes jetpacks and flying cars.
The plane ahead of was about 30 minutes late departing, then we were about 20 minutes late. Apparently WestJet has institutional problems with their schedule at LAX. Sitting on the tarmac for another 20 minutes or so is presumably an institutional problem that LAX owns all on its own. (And will hopefully be less of an issue on Saturday, when I pass through LAX at 9pm or something.)
Oh and remember those nice numbered zones? They almost caused a riot as we boarded. The biggest problem was that the announcer for another of the nearby gates had very poor PA discipline, and she kept telling people what to do without announcing the gate. So the poor disciplinarian's plane was boarding just a few minutes ahead of ours. As our "zone 2" was boarding, she announced that "zone 3" could begin boarding. Anyone actually listening knew the difference in the voices, but anyone not paying attention (e.g., all the Americans going to Canada) and anyone who was a jerk (e.g., all the Americans going to Canada) stepped over and started trying to board immediately. Then some of the people in the front of the zone 3 line started getting irate, screaming that they'd been waiting in line, and they were getting on first, and pushing ahead of the cutters and other cheaters. One old white-haired lady did so pretty violently, and that's when I thought fisticuffs were going to follow, but from there some of us up front managed to convince the remaining zone 2 people to curve around the zone 3 jerks and then zone 3 could load as planned, in order.
Thank you again, airlines, for causing these problems with your penny-pinching greed. And especially you Delta, with your boarding-by-caste zone system.
WestJet. So how's WestJet? Not horrible.
I'm shocked by the lack of First Class. There's just a wide array of "Plus" seats.
When I get back to my seat I find that the leg room is good. However within an hour it proves to be uncomfortable. My guess is the problem that the seat is thin and hard. Because thin is how you cram more seats into your jet. But, it makes my back ache. I'm reminded of the hellish trip back from Zurich last year. The difference is that this time I can actually squirm around in my discomfort because my seat hasn't been changed to a middle seat at the last minute.
Still, as with horrible Zurich flight, the uncomfortable seat makes writing somewhat challenging. And I've got stuff to finish up for the German edition of Designers & Dragons. (I'm doing better by the end of the flight.)
Despite being a 4+ hour international flight, there are no meals. The sum total of food offered for two flights, spanning 8 hours is 1 cup of water, 2 small biscotti "cookies", a cup of drink, a bag of pretzels, another 2 small biscotti "cookies", and finally another small cup of drink and bag of pretzels. I only take some of it, mostly eating the Subway sandwich and chips that I cleverly bought last night. (I'll probably need to partake of airport food and trail mix on the way back.)
There are, however, power plugs, albeit confusingly shaped ones that seem intended to support a few different plug shapes. I finally figure it out and get my laptop charging up from the 55% battery level that it had rundown to overly several hours.
Would I fly WestJet again? Maybe. They get about a "5" or "6" on a 10-point scale. Run of the mill for today's crappy airlines. They probably wouldn't kill a dog or drag a passenger screaming off of the plane after beating him. (United.)
Writing. On the plane, I updated my 2015-2017 yearly histories for the German Designers & Dragons books, just waiting on some footnotes and game lookups that I need the internet for. (I'm not going to waste $20 Canadian to do so, even if that's only $3 or $4 real bucks.) I also get in the edits and responded to comments from a few Evil Hat people for my updated Evil Hat article, also for the German Kickstarter. I'd hoped to do more proactive work, pushing into some of the "Lost Histories" I've been laying out, but somehow a bit less than six hours of actual flight isn't that much.
Oh well, I'm at least closing in on the end of my German updates, which have consumed a lot of my free time in August and September. Hopefully I'll be even closer after the flight home on Saturday.
Toronto. Just arrived here. It was dark, drizzling, and super humid. The airport was huge and we had a rather humorous interaction there: C. arrived about an hour before me, and was still there when I arrived. He suggested that I meet him at Door D, and I went there, and he was not there. A flurry of photographs followed back and forth. I showed his photographs to staff, and eventually found someone who identified that he was at Door D in Terminal 1 while I was in Terminal 3. (Terminal 1 was big and spacious, while Terminal 3 was small and gloomy.)
So, a short tram ride over and we were united.
The Lyft ride through Mississauga suggested to me that it's unzoned semi-urban hell. We rode down constant streams of straight streets with strip malls and occasional skyscrapers on all sides.
(We'll see what it looks like in the daylight tomorrow.)
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Date: 2018-09-26 04:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-09-26 05:31 pm (UTC)