Frequent Flyer Programs and Westercon Airline Choices

Because Lisa and I hadn't quite made up our minds about how to get to Westercon in San Diego this year, I hadn't made travel arrangements yet. We were considering taking the Coast Starlight, but when your plans more or less require your train to be six to eight hours late or else you face having to sleep in LA Union Station on the connection night, we decided it just wasn't worth it. Lisa says that if she can come at all, she will drive and I should fly down on Friday and back on Wednesday. (The convention runs Saturday-Tuesday.)

( Dithering over airline choices )

Working through all of the permutations, it's about $20 less expensive total to drive to Fremont BART and park and ride BART to catch that 6:30 AM flight on United than it would be to fly Southwest and take the Capitol to connect to/from my flight. And I get the frequent-flyer mileage on United, whereas I've not been flying Southwest enough lately for it to do me any good. So I booked the United ticket. At least it shouldn't be difficult to find a parking space at BART at 4 AM.