Phillydelphia

HI! So there was actual work to be done last week - sorry for the dissapearance. Just got back from a long weekend in Tahoe (expect some serious commentary on the Reno airport soon - i did see with my own eyes an ipod vending machine there - major excitement!!!). Anyway - heading to the airport in a few minutes to fly to beautiful exciting (meaning...near good mexican food) DALLAS!! As a native Texan, it's always exciting to be flying to the motherland, even if it's not to my actual hometown. I'm sure some of my loyal readers will understand and agree...i'm looking at you kolitz. :)

So, last weekend I flew into PHL on Sunday evening. Then i rented a car from Hertz then drove down to Wilmington (about 30 minutes or so? not too bad). I didn't check a bag, so I was trying to be super efficient. Anyway - here is what happened. I arrive (we land about 3 minutes late...). I deplane. I walk alllll the way to where the Hertz bus comes to get me, and see it already waiting there! awesome. what great luck i'm having!!! then i board the bus, shoot over to the hertz lot, and get off the bus and go read the board (where it says your last name and your car parking spot #). my name isn't there! annoying. so i go in the little hut where there is a line of 5 people ahead of me. more annoying. there is no one working. EXTREME annoying. i can hear about 3 women in the backroom gossiping and chatting. INSERT MAJOR RAGE HERE. anyway - they eventually see the huge line forming and come out (acting very annoyed, i might add) to help us. Once its my turn, i explain that i have rented a car online and my name isn't on the board. (Note - i do this all the time. i rent a car every single week. i never have problems. hertz is usually very good). she says 'yeah your name isn't on there because you are late and we remove your name once you are late'. um, how am i late? when you reserve a car online you give them your flight #, so even if you are majorly late, they should know. she explains that "in Philly, we dont do that". so it's basically like total chaos and there are no rules. anyway - i found this annoying. especially since my airport experience had been relatively good until then. how on earth could i have been ANY faster to arrive at hertz!? unless i had teleported myself? or worn those shoes with roller skates attached!? i was so confused. anyway - major shout out to katy for being on the receiving end of my phone call rant to her at 11pm that night on the drive down to delaware.

also - katy has started blogging again. you can check her out here!!! - http://www.xanga.com/sanantoniogirl

ALSO!!! One of my loyal readers Benet asked about the United SFO ticketing area recently. it's still in construction, so i can't give a full update. but i will say that in my experience, their interim solution totally sucks. the lines are really long, and they've made a fake security area way down by the international terminal (it spits you out right by gate 75...by the gordon biersch). and they no longer have a 'status' security line during construction, so it's pretty congested and the business people complain and stand in line bitching (as far as i can tell, these men just stand in line and talk loudly about how much they fly...is this supposed to impress people? it doesn't.). however, i was there like the 1st or 2nd day of their plan, so maybe things are better after a week and today will be less confusing. i'll let you know.

So - let's discuss the Philly airport. I will refrain from judging based on the hertz experience above. :)

PHILADELPHIA!!!!!
PROS:
1. the bar/grille by the SFO gate makes a killer cuban sandwich.
2. the bathrooms in Terminal D have about 90 stalls, which is great bc you never have to wait. the stalls are still about 4 cubic feet big, but at least you can get in there quickly.
3. they have a food hut called the 'king of pizza', and the pizza is pretty tasty. (see below for the king of pizza negative)


CONS:
1. the rental car return is a complete nightmare. basically they have a loop that you're forced to drive in to get to your company. now, when the bus is driving you back to the terminal, it has to make the loop TWICE bc their driveway is juuuuuuust a little too far to make the turn off (it's a one way). this is difficult to explain, but trust me it's horrific. if it's not too cold, and i'm not wearing super high heels, AND my bag isn't full of bricks and concrete, then i usuallly just walk to the terminal. it's through a parking garage and takes about 1/10th the time of the bus.
2. it's a LONG flight to SFO from here. this isn't so much an airport gripe i guess. but there is also only 1 direct flight in the evenings....so my options are quite limited.
3. the security line for terminal D is insane. i've never been able to get through there in less than 40 minutes - no joke.
4. the luggage takes foreverrr (notice a theme...someone really needs to revolutionalize the luggage reclamation process)
5. King of Pizza sold me a bottle of water where the plastic lid was like....melted shut. so the bottle was totally useless. there was no perforation between the lid and the plastic ring that stays on the bottle when you remove the lid. so the bottle wouldn't open bc they were just 1 piece...not separateable. i didn't notice until i was on the plane suffering from major thirst.
6. Maybe it's the proximety to Delaware (the credit card capital of the US) but there are no less than 3 airline credit card stands where people are hollering at you to sign up for a credit card and get a free t-shirt. There's always a Southwest, a United, and an AirTran stand. They get really vocal and yell loudly. i dont like it - it's offensive. and they act all miffed if you dont go sign up. they scream 'THIS IS A FREE FLIGHT...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE THAT YOU DONT WANT ONE!?!??!!" well, because almost everyone in that terminal has enough miles for a few lifetimes (at least i do) and i dont want some piece of crap airtran shirt. or a stuffed airplane doll.

note to my readers - dont sign up for these. credit cards are bad. pay them off. they're making a killing off of you if you dont. if you desperately need a tshirt that badly, i'll send you one. and i wont leave you saddled in debt.

ok off to SFO. adios!!!