Tuesday, January 3 – Flight 1582
Depart Los Angeles (LAX) at 09:10 AM
Arrive in Sacramento (SMF) at 10:30 AM

Friday, January 6 – Flight 2545
Depart Sacramento (SMF) at 06:50 PM
Arrive in Los Angeles (LAX) at 08:10 PM

Lost in the shuffle this past week between updating the blog with the 2011 Year in Review and 2012 Goals was the fact that I traveled to Sacramento, California. This was a follow-up business trip for a project I started during August 2011. The usual suspects were in place as I flew with Southwest, rented a car through National Car Rental, and stayed at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott. All of those were the same as the trips that occurred in August. However, there was one big change to how it all happened. With all the travel last year I was able to gather enough points to get status with Southwest and National. As a Southwest “A-List” member I’m guaranteed priority check-in, allowing me to board with the first group and get the best available seat. No more having to check-in 24 hours in advance to get the best boarding number. I was also able to use a special baggage check line allowing me to cut the whole line of other people looking to check-in. The perks don’t stop there. I was also allowed to use the priority security lane access, allowing me to again cut the whole line of people going through security. If you’ve read any of my posts about dealing with Southwest on a Monday morning at LAX, you’ll understand how big a deal that is. The perks of traveling also made its way to the renting a car. I’m now an Emerald Club Executive member with National, allowing me to rent the mid-size car and get an automatic upgrade to a full size car. This week I had the pleasure of driving a Dodge Charger. I thought it would be fun to drive a fun/fast car for once, which is about as far from a Jeep Wrangler as you can get. And it was a nice ride. The hardest part was figuring out how to open the gas tank.

A small piece of advice for people that don’t know or don’t rent cars often. Have you ever rolled up to a gas station, parked, the figured out the tank is on the other side of the car? Well, I learned last year that the answer is right in front of you. Located in the middle of the gas gauge is a picture of the tank and an arrow pointing either left or right. The arrow is pointing to the side of the car the gas tank is located. And you thought there was nothing to learn on my blog!

My next travel for business isn’t scheduled until mid-February, so I have another small break from the travel life… assuming I don’t take a much needed vacation at some point in between.