Thread: My latest adventures...

So, I just got done graduating this past month, and it definitely didn't take long for me to start flying again. Just thought I'd tell about a few places I've been to, 'cuz why not?

1: Austin, TX
Since I had a single day off to go somewhere, I figured I'd try for a daytrip somewhere. However, most places had bad loads or (more likely) bad schedules for a day run somewhere. Keep in mind, before I can go anywhere, I have to get to ORD, the one place my station has connections to, so some of those really early flights aren't possible. One idea was AUS. I've always wanted to visit that city, but transportation was an issue, and I'd only have about 5 hours before I'd have to go back to the airport. However, I did remember someone I know a bit that lives out there, so I was able to get in contact with him and exchange lunch + beer for a ride to and from the airport. After lunch, we went around the Texas state capitol building and he showed me around the entertainment district downtown. No problems getting back, good little quick trip like I used to do when I worked for NW

2: San Francisco, CA
This was originally going to be LAS, but then I looked up loads and hotel rates. Even on the weekday, both were horrible. Then I saw something about the consumer electronics show, and put 2 and 2 together. While that would have been amazing to see, I knew it just wasn't going to happen. However, I did get in touch with a friend in Oregon, and offered to give him a buddy pass if he wanted to meet me somewhere. We eventually decided on Madrid, and had a great time walking about 10 miles each full day we were there along the piers, through Chinatown, to the Golden Gate Bridge, etc. Awesome city, and I absolutely love the various neighborhoods in the area. Oooh, funny story. ORD-SFO filled up the night before, and MSP-SFO arrives a little late for my liking, so my final itinerary ended up being MSP-OMA-SLC-SFO-MSP. Once I knew my routing, however, it was all pretty easy.

3: Honolulu, HI
I know what you're thinking: uh-oh. Yup, by this time we were pretty much determined to get there to visit some of my family, even if only for a little bit. Unfortunately, our planned SFO-HNL flight filled up, so that option was out. I went to the airport offices and got on our systems, where I was able to look up some pretty detailed load info. Huzzah, Monday morning flight to OGG with over 100 seats left! We ended up arriving Monday afternoon after layovers in ORD, SAN, and LAX on Sunday (overnight in LAX, really close connection in SAN having to transfer to the commuter terminal) and then flew LAX-OGG. I was travelling with the fiancee, who doesn't get ZEDs yet, so I listed myself for a ZED ahead of time on Hawaiian Air and got on that with no problem. In the meantime, we bought her a ticket in LAX to get to HNL from OGG, which wasn't too bad. The last flight of the day was the cheapest, had the least chance of a misconnect due to a delay, and it was free for her to stand by for an earlier flight (which she made). After picking up my bag (I know that breaks one of the #1 nonrev rules, but this was the beginning of my 3-week trip away from home) I went to HA to get on the next flight to HNL, for which I received a seat assignment pretty quickly (though I didn't see many open seats left on the plane).

Once we got there, we did what I realized is now basically a ritual. Dinner with the relatives, drive to the north shore with shave ice and beach (and not much beach due to cloudy skies and some rain, just like last year), drive along I-H3 (very scenic freeway), International Market Place downtown. Cautious conversations with some politically-opposite relatives. Good times. When driving along the coast back towards home, I was trying to find a beach that I remember from the year before. Seemed pretty big, but not very crowded at all and close to the mountains. My cousins kept asking if I was sure about this beach, since it did take a while to drive to it. Eventually, we pulled over at this one beach that had some rocks after the water was up to your knees, just because I was starting to second-guess myself even and that seemed pretty close. It was ok there, but then after we continued down the road we found that exact place I was thinking of a mile later. Bah.

4: Oregon
Well, first of all, I have to talk about how I got out of HNL to get here. That is the most important part, isn't it? Well, after looking at the loads, I decided that we might have a shot on HNL-ORD, since that was about to capacity with the nonrevs factored in. My only fear was a weight restriction, just because it's such a long flight. Sure enough, they announced that there was one. Once dispatch called in with the numbers, they said they could take most 8A and 8B boarding priorities, but probably not any 8Cs (which includes United Express employees, like myself). We stuck around anyway, just in case, knowing that we could take a wide open flight from Kona the next day or one of two reasonably open (~40 seats on a 757) flights to PHX the next night on US Airways. Just after I called my cousin's wife to tell her to be prepared to come back to get us, the gate's phone rings again. More seats can be given. Couple more calls, and they finally say to send out a full boat. And wouldn't you know it, our seats were next! We ran to the plane while sending a premade text to my cousin-in-law that she doesn't need to pick us up (just in case we were too busy running, which we were). Few rows apart, but a seat's a seat! After a long redeye to ORD, we then had to backtrack to get to Oregon. Final flight route: HNL-ORD-PDX-EUG. A strong headwind made us miss our PDX-EUG flight, but it cancelled anyway so no big loss there I suppose. Got on the next flight just fine, but that little EMB-120 must have had a weight restriction preventing my bag from getting on. No big deal, I had a change of clothes in my carry-on and picked it up in PDX the next day.

Once in Oregon, we hung out with a couple friends, one being the one I met in SFO. Good time, met some great people, had some good beer, saw some sights, and had some awesome Voodoo doughnuts when we went to PDX. Get the maple bacon roll, unless you happen to be vegan. In that case, get the maple bacon roll anyway. This was right after that major snowstorm. While it didn't really hit Portland or Eugene (didn't see any snow on the ground) there was a LOT of rain. So much that on the drive to Portland, a lot of roads were closed due to high water, and my friend (who goes to grad school in Oregon State and works in student housing) had to stay on campus for a while after school was closed due to flooding. However, after a late start, we were able to go to Portland for the night and stay there.

5: Denver
Today is the day that I was supposed to be sent from my home station to DEN for a couple weeks of training. However, I was just having too much fun to come back home, so I instead planned on going straight to DEN. Just because it's so crucial that I get there, I did end up arriving yesterday instead. PDX-DEN was pretty uneventful and reasonably easy to get on. However, my fiancee has to work back at home tomorrow, so we had to send her back today. DEN-ORD didn't look good, and there was only one flight that would let her make our early arrival back home (otherwise wait a long time for the late night flight, which was surprisingly full). We decided to send her to MSP, then take a shuttle back home. Of course, DEN-MSP filled up a bit more last night, too. Fortunately, there must have been a bunch of misconnects/no shows, because when I brought her to the gate there were plenty of seats. Also, for once, she wasn't at the bottom of the NRSA list. Once she got on, she got back home without incident. And it's a good thing, too... when I walked back from the gate, I checked the United app on my phone to see if she would have had a chance on that DEN-ORD flight in hindsight. Turns out that 777 cancelled. With that and ORD's ATC mess today, I can only imagine how hard things could have been.

Now I'm sitting in the hotel room waiting to start learning the new computer system tomorrow, and I'll be in Denver for two weeks. I do have a weekend to myself, and am considering renting a car to see some scenery and/or other relatives, flying somewhere for the night, or maybe laying around in the hotel doing nothing (...nah! ). And how has your 2012 been so far?

-Brian