At the airport again on my way to Chicago and this place couldn't be more opposite than Friday.

About 40% capacity, seats all around, on my first Bloody Mary and relaxing.

Thank God.....

I love the Sacramento airport. I love tiny airports period. Santa Fe - awesome. Vail/Eagle - awesome. Victoria, BC - awesome. Ontario, California - awesome. Burbank - awesome. Reagan - awesome. Kona - awesome. Lihue - awesome. Guatemala City - awesome. Denver - F U. Seattle - F U. Orlando - F U. Dulles - F U. LAX - F U. Phoenix - F U.

There is this small subset of random travelers who are oblivious to their surroundings, the protocols and rules for baggage, think spending $250 for a roundtrip flight cross country entitles them to private jet service and then the overpackers and gate rushers.

That small subset of assholes have ruined travel for the 90-95% of the rest of us.

At security screening at Sky Harbor, this women and her two kids packed EVERYTHING against regulations and it took 25 minutes to screen and confiscate half their shit.

I stood there in my bare feet for a good 25 minutes waiting for this shit show to end.

That's why I had two Bloody Mary's before boarding and I'll be having more on board.

Traveled between 1.4 and 1.6 million miles in my life and I used to LOVE it and now I hate it.

TSA Pre is soooo worth it, man. Just do it and skip the non-frequent traveling morons line.

I knew it was too good to be true.

A ****ing ground hold in Phoenix for 30-60 minutes due to Chicago storms and the plane is a ****ing sauna. Packed in here like Sardines and it's at least 85+ inside.

FML!!! :doh!:

TSA Pre + Global Entry + Lounge Access = life altering. I actually get to the airport early these days just to relax and have some free food and drinks.

(Granted, a lot of lounges are becoming pretty overcrowded these days as well, but it's still better than being out there with the riffraff.)

I have traveled so little by plane in the last 10-15 years but things may suddenly be very different moving forward.

If I go on the road again, I will absolutely follow your game plan.

I was a United Airlines Executive Premier member for nearly 8 straight years and I loved the private lounge access, many free upgrades, early boarding and how they solved any problems you have.

I flew back and forth in United Business Class from Newark NJ to Beijing or Hong Kong via Tokyo's Narita Airport 26 times, flew all over the US for 6 weeks training our software resellers, and most pleasure trips were on United.

I even met TV star Alan Thicke in Newark's Red Carpet Lounge one evening.

I can't stand being one of the shitbums in coach on the back of the plane in the middle seat. :deevee:

I still don't get the appeal of the lounges. They're just another place to sit in my opinion, and the only time that I did it in the past few years they were just as crowded as being out at the gates. Maybe I was there on a bad day or something, but I was in three lounges and one of them was under construction and not comfortable. Another was really crowded, and the third one was fine, I guess. They had free food that I wasn't really into, and the fine one had a nap room where I could stretch out on a hard uncushioned bench, which was admittedly a good thing since it was an international layover. But I need more evidence of comfort before I would actually pay for lounge access.

Are you going to Chicago for a hooker

I tend not to stick around airports long enough to need the lounge. Unless there are delays.

Doing nothing for hours at a time tends to aggravate me. So, I try to keep layovers within the hour to two hour range.

ATL can be quite busy for sure.

Do you have an interesting anecdote from meeting Alan Thicke.

How thick was he scho??

There's your problem. If you're paying for it, you're doing it wrong. :)

But yeah, they can be crowded. Still, they almost universally have more comfortable seats than you'll find on a concourse, often have nice views of the airfield, and the expectation is that you'll be there hanging out for a while vs. a restaurant that wants you to get in and get out. I also generally find that I eat healthier food in lounges than I do at restaurants - casseroles, soups, salads, roasts vs burgers and fries.

You don't care about alcohol, I know, but for me that's worth around $15-$20 per person for a couple of drinks compared to what I'd pay in a restaurant.

That said, some lounges suck. I'm excited for United to get all their upgrades done at DEN, as the current lounges there are some of my least favorite I've ever stepped foot in.

I've flown in and out of PHX well over 200 times. Since they finally demolished the old United terminal, it's much better. And the new rental car center train is awesome. Standing outside in July waiting 20 minutes for the old buses to show up and then a 15 minute ride to the rental car center was brutal.