linzjane88
Closet Disneyphile
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1,427
OK I gave up trying to catch up and skipped the last 20 pages. The only relevant changes for me is that Marriott is still being a big flaming poop and trying to destroy my Hawaii plans. I was hoping they would change their tune in the last week and say "YES! You can pay to upgrade your 7 night cert!".
Lessons learned from my travels: trains, while fun, don't actually save time/money/stress. Well, maybe if your smart and know how to train travel. If you are a non-city type like me unaccustomed to public transit (with children and luggage in tow) the stress will take years off your life. After my eventful trip up there I had an equally eventful trip home. We were taking a red eye from ANC to SEA so I thought I would sedate the 3 of us with a touch of dramamine so we would have a nice sleep on the flight--I've done a red eye with the girls when they didn't sleep and it was terrible. This seemed like a solid plan. Unfortunately we took them a smidge too early and DD6 basically slipped into a coma 10 minutes before boarding
. So, ontop of boarding with my roll on, personal bag, and having DD's carry their backpacks I ended up carrying a dead weight DD6 on top of all my bags. Thankfully a kind gentleman offered to roll my bag on for me. I am not usually one to accept help from random strangers but I willingly accepted the offer. Our flight got in at 430, half an hour early , which would normally be great but our train didn't leave until 730 and there is no station (as I so harshly discovered on my way up. LOL!) so I didn't want to hang there. But wait! I have lounge access!! I have my choice of 3 Alaska lounges, 2 "The Club"s, and a Centurion. Except for that minor detail where Alaska lounges no longer accept PP (despite not officially ending their relationship until 9/1, unofficially there are signs at every entrance and ya ain't gettin' in! 
). That's ok, we'll just head to The Centurion. Except, oh wait, they are only accepting departing flights this morning (never mind that it is empty). So at this point it's 530, I decided to hike (ok, monorail) ALL the way to The Club in the satellite terminal. I have lounge access and I am not leaving until I get into a lounge darnit! Luckily they let us in and while very basic in offerings it was like 
. Now, don't judge, but up until this point I hadn't given one thought to my checked bag 
. I suddenly had that sinking 
feeling thinking about my sad little bag going round the carousel by itself. So at 630 we head over to bag claim and wouldn't you know it--no bag. I search everywhere for a JetBlue baggage dept like all the other airlines have with none to be found. Every airport employee sends me to a different end of the airport for it. After 45 minutes of still not finding a baggage dept (or even a helpful airport employee willing to so much as give accurate directions) I give up and Uber to catch my 730 train one bag short when I get the call from JetBlue saying they brought my bag back up to the ticketing/check-in counter upstairs
. What?! Why? I have never had a lost bag go back to the ticket counter! Anyway I couldn't go back for it because I would miss my train (had to work later in the day so not an option to get a later one), and I live over 90 minutes from the airport. They wouldn't ship it to me because it wasn't them who lost it, and they wouldn't allow me to pay for them to ship it to me.
Through sheer luck a family member is flying in and picked it up for me today so in a few short hours I will be reunited with my bag.
So, long story longer, I definitely should have listened to @afan (I think?) who said SEA Centurion lounge access is *not* worth specifically getting the Amex Plat for. I also should have listened to @Lain who recommended not checking bags. And while I am at it basically every person in my family who knew I was doing this silly train+uber+SEA thing as opposed to driving to the conveniently located and delightful PDX airport and leaving my car there.
Holy cow I went a little crazy with the emojis.
Lessons learned from my travels: trains, while fun, don't actually save time/money/stress. Well, maybe if your smart and know how to train travel. If you are a non-city type like me unaccustomed to public transit (with children and luggage in tow) the stress will take years off your life. After my eventful trip up there I had an equally eventful trip home. We were taking a red eye from ANC to SEA so I thought I would sedate the 3 of us with a touch of dramamine so we would have a nice sleep on the flight--I've done a red eye with the girls when they didn't sleep and it was terrible. This seemed like a solid plan. Unfortunately we took them a smidge too early and DD6 basically slipped into a coma 10 minutes before boarding
. So, ontop of boarding with my roll on, personal bag, and having DD's carry their backpacks I ended up carrying a dead weight DD6 on top of all my bags. Thankfully a kind gentleman offered to roll my bag on for me. I am not usually one to accept help from random strangers but I willingly accepted the offer. Our flight got in at 430, half an hour early , which would normally be great but our train didn't leave until 730 and there is no station (as I so harshly discovered on my way up. LOL!) so I didn't want to hang there. But wait! I have lounge access!! I have my choice of 3 Alaska lounges, 2 "The Club"s, and a Centurion. Except for that minor detail where Alaska lounges no longer accept PP (despite not officially ending their relationship until 9/1, unofficially there are signs at every entrance and ya ain't gettin' in! ). That's ok, we'll just head to The Centurion. Except, oh wait, they are only accepting departing flights this morning (never mind that it is empty). So at this point it's 530, I decided to hike (ok, monorail) ALL the way to The Club in the satellite terminal. I have lounge access and I am not leaving until I get into a lounge darnit! Luckily they let us in and while very basic in offerings it was like . Now, don't judge, but up until this point I hadn't given one thought to my checked bag . I suddenly had that sinking feeling thinking about my sad little bag going round the carousel by itself. So at 630 we head over to bag claim and wouldn't you know it--no bag. I search everywhere for a JetBlue baggage dept like all the other airlines have with none to be found. Every airport employee sends me to a different end of the airport for it. After 45 minutes of still not finding a baggage dept (or even a helpful airport employee willing to so much as give accurate directions) I give up and Uber to catch my 730 train one bag short when I get the call from JetBlue saying they brought my bag back up to the ticketing/check-in counter upstairs. What?! Why? I have never had a lost bag go back to the ticket counter! Anyway I couldn't go back for it because I would miss my train (had to work later in the day so not an option to get a later one), and I live over 90 minutes from the airport. They wouldn't ship it to me because it wasn't them who lost it, and they wouldn't allow me to pay for them to ship it to me. Through sheer luck a family member is flying in and picked it up for me today so in a few short hours I will be reunited with my bag.
So, long story longer, I definitely should have listened to @afan (I think?) who said SEA Centurion lounge access is *not* worth specifically getting the Amex Plat for. I also should have listened to @Lain who recommended not checking bags. And while I am at it basically every person in my family who knew I was doing this silly train+uber+SEA thing as opposed to driving to the conveniently located and delightful PDX airport and leaving my car there.
Holy cow I went a little crazy with the emojis.
The Club in A was open before 7? Because it says it doesn't open until 7, they changed the hours recently. Between that and the AS changed that happened means no lounge for me on Saturday if it really doesn't open til 7. My flights at 7:25am. I don't need to hang out there I just want to get some drinks and snacks.
