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Thanks to the folks at Southwest, there was no easy way for me to get to San Jose. My wife and I fly them any chance we can for a number of reasons: cheap fares, decent size planes, and their record of not crashing. All important things when selecting an airline.
Anyway, we've accumulated a couple Rapid Reward certificates. That means I get a free flight anywhere that Southwest flies. Good times, or so I thought. Apparently the folks at Southwest only allow a certain number of Rapid Reward seats per flight. Everything was sold out for Tuesday and Wednesday into San Jose. Not only San Jose, but the whole Bay Area. I couldn't fly into San Francisco or Oakland either. The flights were not full.....I could just use my free flight. But Southwest was more than happy to offer the seat to me for a little under $700.
No thanks. It was time to get creative.
(Quick tangent: Shouldn't I be able to use my free flight whenever I want? I know they have policies and procedures, but the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. If there is room on a flight, why can't I get on it? Also, you can't fly standby with a free Southwest ticket. I'm should write Southwest and thank them for their hospitality, but yell at them for making it so hard to get access to it.)
After a fearful realization that I might have to fly into Reno and drive four hours to San Jose, God gave me a nice escape. I was able to book a flight in Sacramento that arrived late Tuesday night. That would allow me to attend media and practice day on Wednesday. Now we're talking.
To save some cash, I decided that I'm going all out mass transit while I'm here. I would like to say that I'm going Green, but I'm just trying to save cash. Sorry Mother Earth. To rent a car for five days from the Sacramento airport was over $500. Pass.
So because Southwest hates its passengers and Budget Rent-a-Car isn't really on my budget, I had a long, fun, absurd journey to California. Here's the full itinerary:
Nashville - Los Angeles
Las Angeles - Sacramento
Shuttle to Hotel
Shuttle to Amtrak
Amtrak to San Jose
I'm like a modern-day Daniel Boone...or somebody that traveled to California...you get the idea. All for the love of Vanderbilt sports.
Southwest flight from Nashville to Los Angeles
I forgot who said it, maybe Bill Simmons of Jim Rome, but you really can tell the difference in a flight to LA. It was like a cattle car for pretty people. I'm surprised that didn't take a look at me and make me take a different flight. I got a B Boarding Pass, so I thought I was going to get an aisle or window. Apparently B is the new C for SW, because I got stuck in the middle seat. At least it was a short flight. Oh wait, that's right, its 4 1/2 hours.
Nightmare. Two points of interest here:
At some point over Tulsa the pilot came on the speaker and basically told the stewardesses to sit down. Man, I hate that feeling. I don’t mind turbulence, but when the pilots want the people who know what they are doing to sit down, things aren’t going very well. It turned out not to be that bad.
The second was that I was sitting near the mother and aunt of pop sensation Kesha. Let’s just say they’re proud of their daughter. By the way, she spells her name Ke$ha. I mean…a dollar sign. Wow. Does that mean I can change my name to Eric with a Euro sign for the E? What about a cent sign for the C.
Regardless, I’m going to start spelling John Jenkins name as Jenkin$. You know why, he’s cash money.
After the quick jump to Sacramento, I had to take the Amtrak down to San Jose. A couple points of advice. Don’t ask the ticket lady if they serve drinks on the train. She’ll think you are asking her to get you one and bluntly tell you that she isn’t a stewardess. Whoops. Also, don’t sit next to the bathroom. For that matter, don’t sit next to the bathroom on any sort of mass transit. That was a mistake by me.
Currently I’m sitting in the media work room getting ready for the Vanderbilt news conference, which is them followed up with a 40-minute practice session.
Pictures and impressions of Murray State and Vanderbilt to come in a few hours.
Stay tuned.
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