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This trip started out just like all the others. I wanted to get out of town and needed the perfect excuse.

INTRODUCTION
Once the time off was secured, I set about looking at flights. WN was my first stop, as usual (no fees!), and the fares were in line with what I expected. I looked at F9 and UA as well. Flying Economy these days requires a degree in accounting adding up all the fees upon fees. For giggles I looked at UA's fares in First. It was obviously more expensive, but didn't come with all the add-on fees.

In the end, I went with UA in First mostly to be comfortable on the nearly two hour flight. WN is fine on the short hop between DEN & ABQ that I do quite a bit, but not on anything longer. Besides, it's an anniversary, you're supposed to splurge!


PREFLIGHT - 01 NOV 2019
After a full day of working at work, I went home, changed, and gathered my luggage for the flight. Once at the airport, I reprinted my boarding pass. I've been using mobile boarding passes for quite some time, but for the security portion, I like to have a paper back up. Technology has a habit of failing when you need it the most. Additionally, before I join the line, I like to have all my pocket items secured in my carryon aside from the printed pass and ID.

Past security (TSA PreCheck FTW!), I had plenty of time to roam the Concourse and see what photos I could get. I was tired (long week, early shifts, etc) so I just plopped myself down at the departure gate: B17 (get it?). I still managed to get a few shots before the aircraft operating my flight arrived.


OUTBOUND LEG


The Aircraft (B737-824):


The Route (BAYLR4 TEHRU JASSE Q90 DNERO ANJLL4):


Boarding went smoothly and I was quickly seated and enjoying a Coke. We pushed back a bit early and taxied out to Runway 25 for departure. We were warned about turbulence on the climb out below 17,000 feet but it was relatively smooth.

The aircraft was equipped with DirecTV but I only made use of the moving map display. Food was served and the choice was between a vegetable wrap or some sort of cheese plate. I took the wrap. Not sure exactly what was in it, but it was sufficient to sustain my life functions. Tasted alright too.

The terrain down below was fairly plain once passing the Rockies, though I'm pretty sure I was able to see a portion of southern Monument Valley. I was on the wrong side of the aircraft to see the Grand Canyon, so I mostly kept my eyes closed for the rest of the flight and caught up on my podcast listening.

I attempted to use the powerpoint at my seat during the flight. I don't know whether it wasn't working or the adapter was seating properly in the outlet, but I couldn't get any power from it. Good thing I brought my powerpack.

Arrival into LAX was uneventful. I'll probably be forever amused at the enormity of the area. I grew up and spent the first 30 years of my life in a small town, so these things stick with me.

After landing on Runway 25 Left, we taxied to gate 70A without any delays. Since I didn't have any checked luggage, I was curbside with a few minutes. I then began the wait for the shuttle to the Travelodge LAX South.

And so there I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I bought up the hotel's website on my phone to confirm that a shuttle was available. Yep, website says there is a shuttle. So I waited some more. I considered getting an Uber (I'm glad I didn't) but decided instead to call the hotel directly to see what the issue with the shuttle was. After a brief chat with the guy at the front desk, I learned that it ran hourly it it would indeed stop where I was waiting for it, at about 10 after the hour. At this point, I had 15 more minutes to wait. Sure would have been nice to know that it ran hourly, especially since had I not stopped at the restroom after deplaning I probably would have caught it and avoided the wait.

Whatever.

As mentioned in the title, the purpose of the rather quick out and back trip was to attend the NAS 10th Anniversary Meet. In short, it was a great time and I'm really blessed to have been able to attend and meet everyone.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25394


For the return home, see
LAX-DEN: NAS 10th Anniversary PT2

Yeah. Their airport shuttle. I was able to take a car rental shuttle bus from terminal 7 to the car rental place, wait in line there, get turned away due to a lack of vehicles, got driven back to LAX terminal 5, waited another 45 minutes, THEN FINALLY...the Travelodge hotel shuttle showed up. Cripes.

ShyFlyer wrote:This trip started out just like all the others. I wanted to get out of town and needed the perfect excuse.

INTRODUCTION
Once the time off was secured, I set about looking at flights. WN was my first stop, as usual (no fees!), and the fares were in line with what I expected. I looked at F9 and UA as well. Flying Economy these days requires a degree in accounting adding up all the fees upon fees. For giggles I looked at UA's fares in First. It was obviously more expensive, but didn't come with all the add-on fees.

In the end, I went with UA in First mostly to be comfortable on the nearly two hour flight. WN is fine on the short hop between DEN & ABQ that I do quite a bit, but not on anything longer. Besides, it's an anniversary, you're supposed to splurge!


PREFLIGHT - 01 NOV 2019
After a full day of working at work, I went home, changed, and gathered my luggage for the flight. Once at the airport, I reprinted my boarding pass. I've been using mobile boarding passes for quite some time, but for the security portion, I like to have a paper back up. Technology has a habit of failing when you need it the most. Additionally, before I join the line, I like to have all my pocket items secured in my carryon aside from the printed pass and ID.

Past security (TSA PreCheck FTW!), I had plenty of time to roam the Concourse and see what photos I could get. I was tired (long week, early shifts, etc) so I just plopped myself down at the departure gate: B17 (get it?). I still managed to get a few shots before the aircraft operating my flight arrived.


OUTBOUND LEG

IMG_7582.jpg

The Aircraft (B737-824):

N77296.JPG

The Route (BAYLR4 TEHRU JASSE Q90 DNERO ANJLL4):

UA-559-map.jpg

Boarding went smoothly and I was quickly seated and enjoying a Coke. We pushed back a bit early and taxied out to Runway 25 for departure. We were warned about turbulence on the climb out below 17,000 feet but it was relatively smooth.

The aircraft was equipped with DirecTV but I only made use of the moving map display. Food was served and the choice was between a vegetable wrap or some sort of cheese plate. I took the wrap. Not sure exactly what was in it, but it was sufficient to sustain my life functions. Tasted alright too.

The terrain down below was fairly plain once passing the Rockies, though I'm pretty sure I was able to see a portion of southern Monument Valley. I was on the wrong side of the aircraft to see the Grand Canyon, so I mostly kept my eyes closed for the rest of the flight and caught up on my podcast listening.

I attempted to use the powerpoint at my seat during the flight. I don't know whether it wasn't working or the adapter was seating properly in the outlet, but I couldn't get any power from it. Good thing I brought my powerpack.

Arrival into LAX was uneventful. I'll probably be forever amused at the enormity of the area. I grew up and spent the first 30 years of my life in a small town, so these things stick with me.

After landing on Runway 25 Left, we taxied to gate 70A without any delays. Since I didn't have any checked luggage, I was curbside with a few minutes. I then began the wait for the shuttle to the Travelodge LAX South.

And so there I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

I bought up the hotel's website on my phone to confirm that a shuttle was available. Yep, website says there is a shuttle. So I waited some more. I considered getting an Uber (I'm glad I didn't) but decided instead to call the hotel directly to see what the issue with the shuttle was. After a brief chat with the guy at the front desk, I learned that it ran hourly it it would indeed stop where I was waiting for it, at about 10 after the hour. At this point, I had 15 more minutes to wait. Sure would have been nice to know that it ran hourly, especially since had I not stopped at the restroom after deplaning I probably would have caught it and avoided the wait.

Whatever.

As mentioned in the title, the purpose of the rather quick out and back trip was to attend the NAS 10th Anniversary Meet. In short, it was a great time and I'm really blessed to have been able to attend and meet everyone.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=25394


For the return home, see
LAX-DEN: NAS 10th Anniversary PT2

That was a fun read, but the wait sounded rough. I've heard that the new uber/taxi layout as they're going through the redesign means that there is really no great option at the moment. Painful!

Glad to hear the flight went smoothly, but man, sorry to hear about the shuttle. It's never a whole lot of fun waiting at an airport AFTER the flight trying to figure out the last mile (or ten.)