Leaving Los Cabos
Los Cabos Travelog #20
38,000' over Mexico - Thu, 9 May 2024, 1pm
We wrapped up our 5 days in Los Cabos today. Sadly it ended not with a bang but a whimper (see previous blog). But now we're en route to our next adventure.
Now that we're aboard the flight and well on our way things are going smoothly. Getting through the airport to the aircraft was a bit of a rigamarole, though.
The trip started with a bus ride to the airport. That part was easy; the Viceroy is just outside of San Jose del Cabo, so the ride to the airport was only 10-15 minutes.
SJD has been modernized a lot since our previous trip here 4 years ago. No longer does it feel like a crowded podunk airport but now has spacious halls for checkin, security, etc. Immediately after security it even has you walk through a high-end shopping mall before getting to any of your flights- which is what it seems like all international gateway airports outside of the US are becoming like. (It was the same in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.)
The security gantlet was a bit of a nuisance as the baggage screener alarmed on a pair of carved wood gifts we had in our bag. The heavy ironwood seemed too dense on the x-ray scanner. She told us we couldn't have them in our carry-ons. When we demanded an explanation she pantomimed that we could use them as weapons, to hit someone. So we had to go back out to check-in and check another suitcase with them in it. Fortunately we had another suitcase to use. But then when we came back through security for the second time the automated system alarmed that it was our second pass through. It took a supervisor to permit us reentry.
Once we cleared security it was time to shop! We had to walk seemingly half a mile past stores and restaurants before we reached any gates. Now, passing restaurants would seem handy as we were hungry for lunch, right? Except the food there was ridiculously expensive. I've written before about my dislike of "Paying $25 for an airport pizza and a bottle of Coke." Well, here it was $27 and change for two slices of Sbarro pizza and a cup of coke. And this is in Mexico. Twice in the past 5 days we literally had meals for two, with table service and freshly cooked food, for less than that.
Finally we arrived at our gate.
It took me a moment to spot what was off about this picture.
Can you see it?
Hint: this is the gate at an airport, not a bus station.
Yeah, that's a parking space outside. For a bus. We'd be taking a bus to our aircraft and boarding across the tarmac.
This reminded me of what the pilot said on our inbound flight when we parked on the tarmac. "Well, folks, we lost the lottery for gate space, so we're out here." He made it sound like that flight was unfortunate to arrive at a crowded time of day. It turns out that's just where Southwest always parks its planes... likely because they cheaped out and didn't rent a more expensive gate with an air-bridge rather than a shuttle bus.
As we boarded the bus I wondered how Southwest was going to manage its boarding order, if at all. Some people pay for earlier boarding numbers, and we elites get earlier boarding numbers, too, as an elite status benefit. But when people board a bus in order then get off on the other end, neat order tends to be scrambled. To my surprise, staff on the tarmac asked us to line up again in numerical order! But of course nobody did. Because it's like nobody can count higher than 1 without help. So then the staff on the tarmac started calling us in small groups of numbers. At that point I felt entitled to push my way past the people with later numbers crowding to get on first.
It turns out little of the fuss about boarding numbers was important on this flight. It's only about 2/3 full. That means pretty much nobody has to take a dreaded middle seat... unless they really want to. And everybody's bags fit in the overhead compartments. So now it's a smooth flight on to our next adventure.
38,000' over Mexico - Thu, 9 May 2024, 1pm
We wrapped up our 5 days in Los Cabos today. Sadly it ended not with a bang but a whimper (see previous blog). But now we're en route to our next adventure.
Now that we're aboard the flight and well on our way things are going smoothly. Getting through the airport to the aircraft was a bit of a rigamarole, though.
The trip started with a bus ride to the airport. That part was easy; the Viceroy is just outside of San Jose del Cabo, so the ride to the airport was only 10-15 minutes.
SJD has been modernized a lot since our previous trip here 4 years ago. No longer does it feel like a crowded podunk airport but now has spacious halls for checkin, security, etc. Immediately after security it even has you walk through a high-end shopping mall before getting to any of your flights- which is what it seems like all international gateway airports outside of the US are becoming like. (It was the same in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand.)
The security gantlet was a bit of a nuisance as the baggage screener alarmed on a pair of carved wood gifts we had in our bag. The heavy ironwood seemed too dense on the x-ray scanner. She told us we couldn't have them in our carry-ons. When we demanded an explanation she pantomimed that we could use them as weapons, to hit someone. So we had to go back out to check-in and check another suitcase with them in it. Fortunately we had another suitcase to use. But then when we came back through security for the second time the automated system alarmed that it was our second pass through. It took a supervisor to permit us reentry.
Once we cleared security it was time to shop! We had to walk seemingly half a mile past stores and restaurants before we reached any gates. Now, passing restaurants would seem handy as we were hungry for lunch, right? Except the food there was ridiculously expensive. I've written before about my dislike of "Paying $25 for an airport pizza and a bottle of Coke." Well, here it was $27 and change for two slices of Sbarro pizza and a cup of coke. And this is in Mexico. Twice in the past 5 days we literally had meals for two, with table service and freshly cooked food, for less than that.
Finally we arrived at our gate.
It took me a moment to spot what was off about this picture.
Can you see it?
Hint: this is the gate at an airport, not a bus station.
Yeah, that's a parking space outside. For a bus. We'd be taking a bus to our aircraft and boarding across the tarmac.
This reminded me of what the pilot said on our inbound flight when we parked on the tarmac. "Well, folks, we lost the lottery for gate space, so we're out here." He made it sound like that flight was unfortunate to arrive at a crowded time of day. It turns out that's just where Southwest always parks its planes... likely because they cheaped out and didn't rent a more expensive gate with an air-bridge rather than a shuttle bus.
As we boarded the bus I wondered how Southwest was going to manage its boarding order, if at all. Some people pay for earlier boarding numbers, and we elites get earlier boarding numbers, too, as an elite status benefit. But when people board a bus in order then get off on the other end, neat order tends to be scrambled. To my surprise, staff on the tarmac asked us to line up again in numerical order! But of course nobody did. Because it's like nobody can count higher than 1 without help. So then the staff on the tarmac started calling us in small groups of numbers. At that point I felt entitled to push my way past the people with later numbers crowding to get on first.
It turns out little of the fuss about boarding numbers was important on this flight. It's only about 2/3 full. That means pretty much nobody has to take a dreaded middle seat... unless they really want to. And everybody's bags fit in the overhead compartments. So now it's a smooth flight on to our next adventure.