a girl with curls, trying to see the world
Trip Report: A Week in Hong Kong
TL;DR: 15 hours in economy is tolerable for daytime flights. Bring extra food with you, and pray for an empty middle seat.
Last week, I travelled to Bentonville, Arkansas for the Bentonville Film Festival. It was a quick trip, so this is a quick trip report.
This flight was at 7am. My driver picked me up at 6:15am. There are no photos.
The plane was extremely cold and Elisabeth came back with strep throat.
That’s it.
Other posts about Bentonville Film Festival: #bff2016
A trip report in five installments covering my recent trip to New Orleans for fun and Houston for Grace Hopper – the largest conference for women in computing.
On Saturday, we flew United 1094 from SFO -> MSY. I was the last of my friends to arrive at SFO, and the pre-check line was out of control. The bay area is just full of lifehackers who pay for global entry 😉
Even though this was a work trip, I paid for the ticket using my United MileagePlus Explorer card, so I could get priority boarding. One of my friends also has the card, so boarded the plane together in group 2. I love sitting at the window, so the first thing I did when seated was open the window shade. Somehow, I opened it and it got misaligned on its track and got stuck.
The flight was fully boarded when the flight attendant came on the PA to announce that they were performing “maintenance on the brakes” and we would be delayed about about 40 minutes. She gave us the option to deplane but we would have to bring our carryons with us.
Forty minutes is nothing when you’ve got internet, so I decided to stay on the plane. A little bit later, the FA comes on the PA again: “Actually, everyone needs to get off the plane.” After deplaning, we were told to stay in the area as they would announce when it was time to reboard.
Suddenly, something magical happened. An SFO therapy dog came by the terminal to cheer up the delayed passengers. The woman with the dog says she brings him to gates where flights are delayed.
Successfully cheered up, I settled in some seats and went on my laptop while my friends went in search of hot chocolate. Slowly, a commotion built up with many people in the terminal leaning against the windows taking pictures. All flights were temporarily grounded, because Obama was leaving SFO. #thanksobama
Finally, we reboarded the plane again – over two hours delayed.
When I visit my family, I always choose to fly into Burbank airport, due to its small size and proximity to my parents’ house.
Since YouTube HQ is <10 min drive to SFO, I prefer to depart from San Francisco airport to catch one of United’s daily flights between the two cities I call home. But when the cost of the United ticket outweighs the convenience, I take BART across the bay to catch a flight from Oakland to Burbank on Southwest instead.
So I’m thrilled that Southwest announced daily flights between SFO and BUR! They’re running a promotion where one-way flights start at $49, which is so much cheaper than the last SFO-BUR flight I booked on United ($450 – luckily it was for business).
I do like the tiny planes United uses – 2×2 meant no middle seats but on a 45 minute flight it doesn’t matter that much 😉
