If your going to Vegas you have to get there and back. Airplanes. My least favorite thing to do. I would love flying if I could have the plane all to myself and not share it with 300 other people. But that's not the way it works.
So we're flying Southwest. You know the happy plane. Just like the commercials say. The one good thing is it was a newer plane and actually had some 'OK' leg room. Then it happened. The guy in front of me did the recline thing. And then the guy in back started doing the nervous kick the seat like a 3 year old thing. That happened on and off the whole trip. And to top it off the closer we got to Vegas the more the plane turned into a party bus. The little kiddies just couldn't hold their excitement in. When they announced we would be landing in 10 minutes the plane broke out in cheers. Who says the economy is bad?
When we left the airport it was night time and 99 degrees.
Saturday it was 108. 115 at Hoover Dam.
Sunday it cooled off to 105.
Monday it plummeted into the mid 90's.
So the flight back was equally exciting. If you haven't flown Southwest recently they still do the A, B, C boarding stuff. But you can guarantee an A boarding by paying an extra 10 bucks. The frequent flyers have figured out how to beat the system already. One person in a group will pay the extra 10 dollars and get on the plane first. Then they 'save' seats for their friends that are in the B and C groups. The flight attendants put up with this. (I've already written a nasty gram to Southwest.)
So Claudia and I (along with other people) work our way to the back of the plane where we see empty seats only to be told the seats are 'saved'. A couple of people start asking (very loudly) the flight attendants, "HOW CAN PEOPLE SAVE SEATS!!!!! THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE OPEN SEATING!!!" Response from flight attendants - nothing, look the other way, I don't care attitude. So one woman tells one guy saving two seats, "YOU CAN'T SAVE SEATS, WE'RE SITTING HERE" and proceeds to sit in the seats. Claudia and I decide to fight our way back through crowd heading toward their 'saved' seats.
As we pass an attendant she say's, "I told you there weren't any seats back there" with this big grin on her face. It was really hard not to let go with a big fuck you and punch her out.
So we push back past the pack and by now there is one seat that we can see open. I send Claudia to that seat and turn around to head back. Where's another seat I say to an attendant as she passes me heading to the front ignoring me. I keep moving to the back (alone in the aisle now) looking for the last seat. I ask another attendant who was about to pass me where is the last seat? (I won't let him pass) So we head back and he goes 'there'.
Know why it was the last seat? Because the guy sitting in the middle seat was taking up half of the window seat. So I go to the row and him and his nearly as big female friend sit there staring at me. "I HAVE TO GET TO THAT SEAT!" This starts them rolling out into the isle. I get seated and back they come. He's so big the seat arms won't come down on either side of him.
So the flight back was a little cramped. I would have rather had the 'seat back' in front of me down and the kicking kid again.
More tomorrow.
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The Felon-elect will do it anyway...
2 minutes ago
10 comments:
Welcome to my travel world. The seat-saving thing is a new wrinkle, but I guess we should have seen it coming.
vw: surpro - a sur who gets paid.
That sounded like the trips we used to take between Kuala Lumpur and Palembang. Seat saving, squashing back and forth, flight attendants that look the other way etc etc etc...
At the very VERY beginning, we were ok because they seated people with young children first. But, by our second trip, they got rid of that perk and we had to run with the herd.
Thank goodness the Air Asia flights between KL and Brisbane have allocated seating these days.
Where are the photos??
Last time I went to Vegas it was through a wholesaler and basically the same people were going out there on Monday and coming back on Thursday. Funny thing was, on the way out everyone was happy and drinking and playing cards and laughing and all that. On the way back everyone was miserable and exhausted.
Good times.
B - It adds a new layer of fun to traveling.
A - I have to work on the pictures to get them to an uploadable size.
J - This was my first and probably my last time to Vegas.
More reasons why I will never get on a plane, not even for the pretty lights of Vegas.
no comment
huge coincidence...we went to Vegas to meet our friend, Lynn, who drove up from Arizona. Who did I happen to get to sit next to on the way back? Her late uncle's neighbor of 42 years. How did I know he was really Lynn's uncle's neighbor? He could describe the luncheon after Uncle Bob's funeral perfectly, down to the washtub full of iced-down Stag beer.
mistol: what New Jersey natives do on their turnpike...I've been a passenger in one of their cars and seen the driver come up to the collection basket, bang it with her fist and speed off, saying something like, "If they want my quarter, they'll have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands!"
Good times.
J - You big chicken. Even I can get the arm rests down.
C - You forgot the identifier WV!
Sounds awful. They should restrict the range of reclining seats more than they do. It's kind of claustrophobic.
Grand - Restricted range at least. No reclining at most.
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