You know what they say. Pics or it didn't happen. See? Pics. So it did happen. *nods*
I blame the Internet. I asked it if it was a good idea to fly on February 29, and it never said that, no, in fact it was not.
So, there I was, at the airport, on Feb 29, all set to fly to FRA, then SF, then BUR. But.
I found out that my flight was cancelled. (FRA airport was on strike.) And THANK GOD for connecting flights because they still had to get me to Burbank somehow.
I went to get my new itinerary, was told that I'd be going to Zurich and then to SF with Swiss and just as the woman was about to print my e-ticket, the printer went kaput. And she was trying to fix it for 20. Fucking. Minutes. (With a pair of scissors.) While I was standing there mostly panicking because I still didn't know WHEN my first flight was. Or anything else for that matter.
She finally managed to print the ticket (it came out all crooked, but at least it came out) and I found out all the details. New itinerary wasn't that bad, but I really didn't like that I'd be getting to Burbank at 8 pm instead of 6 pm. And believe you me, 2 hrs make a huge difference after such a long trip. 22 effing hours!!!
Oh yeah, the pic. I'm SO glad I'm not scared of flying. The first plane was god-awful. It wasn't just incredibly noisy, it was vibrating. Not shaking, vibrating. Can you imagine sitting there for hour and a half while everything around you vibrated? REALLY annoying. And I had an amazing view of the plane's propeller. Y'all envy me now, don't ya?
Swiss fed us nicely. As you can see. I never tried hash browns before. Turns out I like hash browns. Ice cream was a VERY nice surprise and pizza was really good. I definitely didn't miss Lufthansa food.
BTW, 50 ice cubes in a tiny cup of apple juice, United? My upper lip got frostbite.
By the time I finally got to Marriott Burbank I was really sick and tired of everything. The only good thing was that I got a room on the 2nd floor so I didn't have to spend a lot of time in the elevators. Room itself? Was noisy. Like, really noisy. And I think it tried to freeze me to death a few times.
But, OTOH, this was the first time that I slept in a hotel room and didn't wake up with a headache every day.
I finally booked a room at Marriott Burbank Airport. And I got that lower room rate for the whole stay even though I'll be checking in on Feb 29. My eyes almost popped out when I checked the availability and didn't get that Unsuccessful Sell page. Yeah, I'm grinning like mad right now. I saved $165. Still grinning like mad. This was a good day. Ironically, I'm listening to Powter's Bad day. lol Love that song. :D
The original post about room rates is here: Lower room rate? Sounds good. In theory.
First day of BurCon is March 2nd, so it stands to reason that some of us who'll be needing a whole day to get to Burbank might want to get there at least on Wednesday since Wednesday actually means 7pm so it's almost Thursday anyway. (I have to have at least one buffer day for my jet lag issues. Plus, there's always a possibility that something'll go wrong somewhere along the very long way and if I'm getting stranded, I'd prefer to be stranded on Wednesday and/or Thursday and not on Friday.)
But if you want those lower than normal rates, I dare you to try and book a room from Feb 29th. Sorry, no can do. However, Marriott does offer that lower rate until March 7th. Hello! Convention ends on March 4th. What's up with all the extra days?
Don't get me wrong, these lower rates are a great thing (especially in Vancouver, cause OMG, Sheraton is beyond expensive) and it's not like hotels have to offer them so thanks for that, but I really don't see the point here. Cause unless I want to make two reservations (and spend half of Thursday checking out, waiting for hours and then checking in again), this lower rate might as well be nonexistent.
The original plan was to stay until Tuesday, but I guess I won't be able to. :( And I really hate flying back home on Monday because I'm always so exhausted from everything that happened on Sunday. But one less day at Marriott saves me $240, so it's not like I really have a choice here.
I'm not happy about it though. :(
UPDATE
Sept 19th - Lower room rate? Sounds good, full stop.
- book a flight to Rome
- book a flight to Burbank
- get booking confirmation from Hilton Rome
- decide how long I want to stay in Burbank and book a room at Marriott
- upgrade Demon pass if possible
- get a part-time job
