This morning I got up early and headed to the airport to take a quick flight that was just there and back.

I needed to have just one more flight to fulfill the requirements for the next level of frequent flier status.

I had told myself a long time ago that I would probably never do this, but the benefits outweighed the costs of the flight that I took this morning. The six global upgrades will be worth it in the long run.

I had to be up early this morning and on the road so that I could get to the airport for a 6:30 flight. I also had to have time to park my car and get to the terminal. It was much cheaper to park at my normal lot and pay for a days parking than park at the terminal.

Here I am waiting for my flight. They have some interesting lights in the recently renovated section of the United terminal at SFO.

Of course flying so soon after Christmas meant that the flights were still full. I was hoping for a complimentary upgrade and had been first on the upgrade list since I had checked in. I kept watching my app and just as they started boarding I got the upgrade. It was nice to relax a bit on the short flight.

You should be able to tell from this picture where I flew to this morning. Here is the “Theme Building” at LAX. At one time it was to be the centerpiece of a futuristic airport, but the project was scaled down. Today it is just an observation deck, but at one time it was a restaurant. With the airport security today it is difficult to access quickly, so does not get visited much.

I did not have a lot of time before my return flight, but did get a walk in as I wandered the concourses and took some pictures.

I was also watching my app to see if I would get an upgrade on the return flight. I was number three on the list after the last upgrade went through. I guess it was better to miss it by a few than to be the first to not get an upgrade. However, I was able to get moved to a better seat as the upgrades went through.

I napped for a good part of the hour long flight.

I was soon heading toward the exit at SFO. I even walked across the sky bridge area instead of taking the moving walkways. This allowed me to stop and look at a few of the SFO Museum exhibits and also take a picture of the planes at the International terminal.

We got in about 20 minutes early and I was out of the airport and on the shuttle to pick up my car before we were even scheduled to land.

Then I had a nice drive home as traffic was a bit less with it being a Saturday.

When I got home I took a long nap 🙂

Now to finish my study for my lesson tomorrow. It has been a long day, but it will be worth it when I get those upgrades on 12 hour+ flights.

Steven