Seattle and Lake Tahoe

DEN-SEA-DEN-RNO-DEN

A few weeks ago, I flew up to Seattle for an interview.  The company I was interviewing with paid for my flights and put me up in a hotel room.  I left on a Thursday night and took a very uneventful Frontier flight to Seattle.  I stayed at the Doubletree near the airport.  It's kind of confusing because there's two Doubletrees at the Seattle Airport.  So knowing which airport shuttle to get into proved somewhat challenging.

When I finally arrived at the hotel, I checked in and the front desk person recognized my Hilton Gold status and upgraded me to higher floor with a view.  She also gave me two $10 food and beverage certificates.  The best part about staying at Doubletree is, of course, the free cookies. 

Doubletree cookies

My room was very nice and it had balcony.  It was a pretty standard Doubletree room and it was quite large.

Balconies - not much privacy

View from balcony

That night I ordered room service, which tasted decent, but definitely wasn't worth $40.

Room service - salmon salad with clam chowder

The next day, I headed out for my interview.  I asked one of the bellmen if he could call me a cab.  A few minutes later, a Lincoln town car pulled up to the hotel.  The bellman said that the car was for me.  At first, I thought he was kidding, but then I realized he wasn't.  I didn't want to have to pay extra for a town car, but I was already running kind of late so I decided to just take it.  On the way back from hotel, I took a regular taxi, and surprisingly the town car ended up being about $5 cheaper than the taxi.  I have to start taking town cars more often.

After a long day of interviews, I headed out to do some exploring.  It was a nice day, so I walked around for a few hours and got a good look at the sites.  

After getting a good look at the city, I headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.  I had a flight to Reno from Denver with my family the following morning.  That night, while checking my email I noticed an email from United saying my upgrades had cleared on my SEA to DEN flight as well as my DEN to RNO flight.  This was quite a surprise, as I wasn't expecting to be upgraded at all this year as a lowly Premier Silver.

I woke up early the next morning and headed to the airport.  I was through security in no time thanks to my first class boarding pass.  I headed over to the United Club near gate B9.  I have to say that this is one of the best United lounges I've been to.  When I first walked in, I was greeted very warmly by the lounge agent.  Usually when I try to enter a United Club, I'm greeted with an immediate look of "you don't have access here".  I handed the lounge agent my Aegean card and my boarding pass, and she graciously welcomed me to the lounge.  Usually when I give them my Aegean card they say "what is this?" and "Aegean isn't part of Star Alliance."  This agent also used my name and was just overall friendly and pleasant, which is what you want from a lounge agent (especially at 5 AM).  

I think her customer service skills are best illustrated by the interaction detailed below that I witnessed:

[Man and his wife walk into the lounge]

Agent: Good morning! Welcome to the United Club.

[The man gives his frequent flyer number and the agent types it in to her computer]

Agent: Something doesn't seem to be right.  Do you have your club membership number or club card?

Man: I have my Continental number and United number.

Agent: Do you have a club membership or Star Gold status on an airline besides United or US Airways?

Man: I'm a 1K.

Agent: I'm so sorry, but 1K status only grants you lounge access on international flights.

Man: Oh, this is the first time I've flown domestically in about 5 years.  I pretty much fly international exclusively.  It's alright though, I think our flight is boarding soon anyway.

Agent: I'm so sorry, Mr. Smith, that we couldn't grant you access to the lounge, but let me say that we still highly value your loyalty.  I hope to see you back here on your next international flight.

Man: Definitely. Thank you for your help.

My recounting of the conversation doesn't do it justice.  You really had to have seen it for yourself.  Her demeanor was just so polished and friendly.  It's something you sadly don't see too much of these days in the airline industry.

The lounge itself is an extremely small lounge and there were only two people working in it.  The other person there was managing the food/drink setup and the bar.  The funny thing is that even though I was the only person in the lounge at the time, she would still come by to check on the food/drink table literally every two minutes!  And the second I was finished with anything, she would clear my table immediately and ask if she could get me anything else, all while addressing me by name.  That's great service!

It's kind of crazy that I'm praising people for simply doing their jobs.  But the truth of the matter is that these days, it's getting harder and harder to find people in the airline industry that actually care.

United Club 

United Club

United Club

After about 40 minutes in the lounge, I left to board my flight to Denver.  When I got to my gate, I was confused because there were Delta signs and the red carpet (blue carpet now I guess) was a Delta elite carpet.  I thought I was at the wrong gate at first, but the guy taking tickets was wearing a United uniform.

I boarded the flight, and settled into my comfortable first class seat.  I watched with a smirk on my face as the commoners looked at me with envy on their way back to economy.  The flight itself was pretty uneventful.  The flight attendants were nice, but nothing special, and I had an omelette for breakfast.

View leaving Seattle

We arrived in Denver on time, and I raced over to catch my flight to Reno where my family was already waiting.  Again, my first class upgrade for this flight had cleared 24 hours out.  Since I had just flown in first class and first on a CRJ is nothing to write home about, I traded seats with my dad.  He was in an exit row, which isn't very different from first class.  I had a good time watching the guy in front me devour his snack box like he hadn't seen food in days.

The flight went by quickly and we were soon at the Reno Airport.  We then headed out and started driving to Lake Tahoe.  We had a fun couple days in Tahoe.  We went kayaking, hiking, and drove all around the lake.

Our flight home was fairly uneventful.  I did not get an upgrade this time, but I was in an exit row.  My family was in the back of the plane next to the lavatories.  After everyone had boarded, I realized that I was the only person in the exit row so I called my family and told them to hurry and come up and get the seats.  As they were walking up, the flight attendant asked two guys sitting behind me if they'd like to sit in the exit row. They obliged and sat down next to me.  Right then, my dad walked up and I gave him a look of "sorry, too slow bro."  The guys sitting next to me, then said "I'm sorry, we're you sitting here?"  My dad said "yes, that's my son."  And the two guys got up and left.  So in the end, we all got to sit in the exit row.

Overall, it was fun weekend and I'd like to visit Tahoe again during ski season.