A plane! A plane!

    I took my first COVID era flight a few weeks ago. I was uneasy about it but it was a calculated risk. My preparations began with getting some N95 masks and I drove myself to the airport which is a rarity as I generally take transit or rideshare but wanted to limit my bubble. The pre-security airport experience was cautious, everyone was keeping their distance and appeared to be following all guidelines on masks and personal hygiene. 

    Security was a breeze due to the limited number of travelers and my PreCheck status. I did have to unmask for TSA to verify me identify. There was some confusion on my part, to limit contact boarding passes are self scanned but the TSA still needs to handle the ID. One of these articles will be disposed of by most after the flight and the other carried for years. I still don't get the logic there but alas it is TSA. 

    Post security things became less comforting. Support staff chatting in an empty gate area without masks and a true asshole that thought he did not need a mask as he had the secret idol of a cup of coffee in his hand. No coffee was consumed in the several gates that I had to follow said asshole. I was surprised to see my boarding gate was as full as it was, from the seat map the night before I assumed there would be about 30 passengers on the A320. Many others had the same idea I did, buy basic economy as it fully changeable and there are no middle seats. 

    Coffee asshole turned out to be on my flight a few rows ahead of me. Delta in flight service was a snack bag with a bottle of water and various snacks, the exact selection left to chance. Ideally, there would have been no service. The proffered water resulted in most of the cabin unmasking immediately to consume it. Additional bottles were offered later in the flight. Deplaning was surprisingly done orderly per instructions to depart front to back and wait for those ahead to clear the plane. I was quite happy to get off the plane and out of the airport and demask for fresh air for the first time in 6 hours.

Reduced Mileage Awards

I carry the Citibank AAdvantage Mastercard so I can get miles for most of my everyday purchases. In addition to the mileage earning aspect of the card the other prime benefit is the option to redeem miles at reduced amounts for selected destinations. I have made use of this feature about once per year so my $85 annual fee is essentially buying me 7500 miles, not a bad deal by itself. The list for spring 2012 has been released and can be found here. As usual the Northeast US is lacking,represented exclusively by Charleston WV more southern/Applachia than Northeast. The upside I see is that my home airport, MSP, is again on the list as are my haunts on I-75. I may very well be attending March Madness in Lexington again to experience the UK riots.

Spirit!

After much teasing MSP unveiled Spirit's arrival.  It is not Jetblue or Virgin America, but I not totally sure I really wanted those. San Francisco is nice but already well served and I needed to see outer California and my East Coast travel is Philly centric, not JFK.

I knew there were hoops and fees involved in Spirit travel but did not really poke around until today.  It took me a good 45 minutes of clickful trial and error to release the advertised low fares.  Pro-tip: Roundtrip required. Baggage/carry on fees are still not totally clear so I think I will suck it up and prepay for a bag on my first adventure.

30" pitch in nonreclining seats does not bode well for my odds of appearing on the Vegas flight and their Chicago flights price out nearly identical to the others on non-sale days and the sale days don't really suit me.  I guess I am glad they are here, but am unlikely to actually use them beyond a fare match.