5am: Get up and get ready to get to the airport. Gonna take the commuter plane to Phoenix then eventually get to San Jose. The commuter terminal doesn't start having people go through security till 6am (last December, I was there at 5am and just stood in line for an hour). Plus the commuter parking lot is like 50 meters from checkin. So today, I was going to take a calculated leisurely prep this morning.
6am: Checked my itinerary to see what gate I need to get to, and then I saw something that changed the course of the day. I wasn't taking a commuter flight. I was supposed to go through "regular" checkin which takes forever and is at the furthest terminal. Oh, did I mention that my flight was 6:30am? Furthermore, San Diego International is once again going through construction and this time they're redoing the parking lot. As the time ticks away, I can't find a parking lot to I just park at Terminal 1 and my objective is to get to Terminal 2. So I park and then I run. Good thing I intended to make today just a day trip so I didn't have any luggage to bring. I continue to run till I get to the ticket counter. 6:15am. Not gonna make it through security and to the gate in time. The appointment that I had been waiting for about 3 years is at 1pm, in San Jose; I was not going to miss this.
About $450 later, I have a roundtrip flight and I'm on a last-minute flight on Southwest Airlines (why didn't I think of them when I booked my flight originally, instead of using Expedia which doesn't include flights with Southwest Airlines?).
So I arrive in San Jose via direct flight from Southwest Airlines, and I'm like 3 hours early. So ok, I take the time to have breakfast, find a phone charger, and basically dilly dally. I loved eating at Scramblz the last time I was in San Jose, so why not go there again?! Being a single let's me skip the huge wait and make a B-line for the counter seats.
Meanwhile, I realize, "I paid for a round trip flight originally. Would I still be able to use my original return flight and refund my return ticket from Southwest?" So I call the customer rep with my original booking. And I'm on hold. So I wait. Then I get a response, "you can't use the ticket to get back home, but you can get airline credit towards a future flight, but since it'll be looked at like a 'flight change' then you would be subject to the $150 flight change fee on top of using the credit. Basically it'll be like buying a ticket without a credit." WTF? Did I hear that right? Yes. And no thanks. Meanwhile, I'm gonna take this as a learning experience and stick with Southwest Airlines when going to San Jose. I'll be going there pretty often, so maybe I should be looking at any incentives I can earn while flying up there.
Oh, and Southwest Airlines has "open seating" which means you sit anywhere you want, but people get inside the plane according to ticket type and order purchased (I assume) so if you have a Group A position 30 ticket, you'll get better dibs than someone in Group B position 1.
Meanwhile, everyone still gets a small pack of peanuts and a beverage. 1 hour and 20 minutes later, we're back on the ground. Thank goodness.
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