I’ve hit the age the place it’s time to begin celebrating half centuries. This time, my spouse and I headed as much as Napa to go be a part of a buddy for his fiftieth. You’d assume I’d have flown Alaska to get my elite standing, however… no. For the flights we’d have taken to Santa Rosa, the airline needed over $800 roundtrip every. No thanks. With that off the desk, my spouse determined she needed to fly out of Lengthy Seashore. Southwest it could be.
This was a considerably nostalgic journey, as a result of it could very nicely be the final time I fly with Southwest earlier than open seating goes away. On the best way up, I remembered why I’ll miss it, and that’s the main focus of at present’s put up. The return? Nicely, that was a distinct story completely.
We checked out each Sacramento and Oakland, however Oakland was the higher deal at $343 roundtrip, in order that’s the place we went. It was a primary economic system ticket, however I didn’t actually care since assigned seating hasn’t began but. There aren’t sufficient variations to trouble shopping for up till that occurs.
I checked in for our first flight 24 hours prematurely, and we had a fairly good A44 and A45. This was going to offer us the choose of the litter onboard, together with in entrance of the wing which can quickly value further.
We took a Lyft to the airport, and I appreciated how a lot room there was to get dropped off on the newly-rebuilt curb space in entrance of the terminal.
We went via safety the place there was no line, and we walked over to our gate. The terminal was completely filled with vacationers.
With nowhere to take a seat, we simply lined up on the boarding poles and waited. Perhaps I did get slightly unhappy standing there. Perhaps I did give a pole a hug. You’ll be able to’t show it. Oh wait.
The aircraft had arrived on time, however I used to be anxious we have been going to be late when early boarding went very slowly. Then issues sped up.
Southwest 2402October 24, 2025
From Lengthy Seashore➤ Scheduled Departure: 1p➤ Precise Departure: 1259p➤ From Gate: 6➤ Wheels Up: 106p➤ From Runway: 30
To Oakland➤ Wheels Down: 159p➤ On Runway: 30➤ Scheduled Arrival: 220p➤ Precise Arrival: 210p➤ At Gate: 26
Plane➤ Kind: Boeing 737-7H4➤ Delivered: December 8, 2025➤ Registered: N225WN, msn 34333➤ Livery: Sizzling Canine on a Stick
Flight➤ Cabin: Coach in Seat 7F➤ Load: ~90% Full➤ Flight Time: 53m
Ultimately they known as the A gaggle, and we slowly made our manner up the ramp within the entrance as an alternative of doing the end-run up the again stairs. We grabbed seats 7E and F. My spouse loves flying from LGB however she completely hates open seating. This time, she had a brand new purpose to hate it. There was a man sitting within the aisle in entrance of us, and as individuals walked by asking if it was open, he mentioned the seats have been being saved, which is obnoxious however not towards the principles. His companion in crime boarded towards the very finish, and it was only a single individual. Due to that, they ended up with an empty center on the mostly-full flight. That’s the type of scheming technique that won’t be missed, however on this case, I didn’t bug me a lot. We had our seats.
Regardless of the gradual early boarding, we pushed again a minute early. It was then that I made a decision to be one of many first to check Southwest’s newly-free wifi on its first day in operation, October 24. (Thanks T-Cell.) I used to be on an previous B737-700, so I had no hopes of practical wifi, however that didn’t cease me from making an attempt. After which… a miracle.
It logged proper in and obtained me about 5 Mbps obtain speeds. It was practical sufficient that I may even do some work. All I needed to do was watch a T-Cell industrial. It was nicely price it.
We have been up within the air in a short time. It was a particularly-smoggy day within the LA Basin, but it surely was a easy experience as we climbed above the air pollution.
We took a proper simply previous LAX and there have been some spectacular views.
Then as we handed north into the valley, I may see a B747 between Westwood and Century Metropolis on the point of land at LAX. That was an thrilling begin to the journey.
As we stored climbing, the flight attendants got here via. I had a glass, er, paper cup of water. It took awhile however finally the flight attendants got here via with these Maui Monk pretzels which are so good.
Whereas we have been at cruise, I obtained a textual content from our associates who have been dog-sitting saying that there was an issue and we would have liked to name after we landed. Oh nice, that obtained me anxious for the final 20 minutes as we descended into Oakland on a partly cloudy day. It seems that considered one of our pups determined it could be enjoyable to wreak havoc, however a minimum of it wasn’t catastrophic. I attempted to benefit from the method, and did snap this shot with our shadow in view.
After briefly considering an instantaneous u-turn, we thought higher of it and stayed the course. We waited for our associates to come back choose us up. With time to kill, I believed we’d attempt to use the Precedence Move membership I’ve by no means really used regardless of it coming with a bank card. We walked over to a really empty Terminal 1 and have been thwarted when the lounge desk man required a boarding go. Since we had already flown, we weren’t going to be allowed in. Rats. However you recognize, that place was packed, so we didn’t miss a lot.
As an alternative, we visited one of many empty eateries and shared an overly-greasy and mediocre quesadilla. Then it was off to Napa.
