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We didn't get to bed until 2 AM last night so we just decided to sleep in this morning. When we first checked into the hotel we had arranged for a late check-out of 1 PM so that we wouldn't have to leave to the airport way too early for our 5:35 PM flight. We originally booked a late flight to return home thinking we'd do something in New Orleans in the morning, but we were just too tired from the prior night to have the energy to get out early.
Mardi Gras ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent. Almost everything is closed down on Wednesday. City services were busy cleaning the trash from all the streets with high power blowers. During Mardi Gras there is tons of trash everywhere on the streets and sidewalks. It is like the whole city becomes one huge trash bin. Most dangerous is all the beads strewn on the sidewalks. One has to be careful not to slip and fall stepping on them. The city services on Wednesday were also busy taking down all the barriers and the grandstands that had been set up for people to sit above and watch the parades.
The dates for Mardi Gras change every year and can be anywhere from January to late March, so check your calendar before coming to attend. Mardi Gras always ends on Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent.
I recently read an article that many people are using Uber and Lyft even when a taxi might be much less expensive as they have gotten used to just using their Apps to request a ride. We just learned that the hard way. We had taken an Uber from the airport to our hotel when we arrived on Sunday. Because of Mardi Gras the ride hailing services were at "peak pricing." Taxi fares that are regulated at a fixed price per mile and don't rise and fall based on demand. Uber and Lyft will raise prices in order to encourage more drivers to make themselves available to meet demand. Thus prices for ride hailing services can rise far above that of a taxi during peak demand. With tip, we ended up paying over $100 for the Uber ride from the airport to our hotel, which is only about 15 miles from the airport. On our return to the airport we found that taxi rates are fixed at $36 flat rate to the airport, plus tip. Live and learn!
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We arrived at the airport around 2 PM, a good 3 hours before our flight would be boarding at 5:05 PM. As we walked to our boarding gate, we looked at each eating place that we past. The most appealing one was MoPho, a Pho restaurant right in front of our boarding gate. We each ordered a bowl of pho; Barbara ordered the Chicken Pho and I ordered the Vegetarian Pho, but we shared them so we could both try each. They were almost identical other than Barbara's having chicken and mine having tofu.
The boarding of our flight was delayed about 30 minutes. This wasn't good as there was only about 30 minutes between the time our first flight was to arrive in Denver and our second flight was to start boarding. Our first flight landed in Denver exactly when our second flight started boarding, but we still had to walk past 8 gates to get to our boarding gate. By the time we got there, they had already boarded Groups 1 & 2 and were about to start boarding Group 3. Since we had been assigned to Group 2, we went right up to the gate and managed to board just before they started with Group 3. This is where I do like the new reserved seating policy of Southwest Airlines. We had reserved seats in the Extra Leg Room Row 5 and our seats were right there waiting for us even though dozens of people in Groups 1 & 2 had already boarded.
So here we are boarding behind Groups 1 & 2. A few years ago we purchased these backpacks with wheels and extendable handles. They have been a huge help and I don't know why we didn't think of them sooner. For all the long walks at airports, we just roll our backpacks everywhere instead of carrying them on our backs. They fold up to the size of a normal backpack and fit nicely in the bin above our seats.
I was curious what method Southwest Airlines was using to assign people to Groups and found out. Anyone that has booked Extra Leg Room seats, or paid for early boarding, or is at the A-List Preferred Level (like us) will be assigned to either Group 1 or Group 2. Everyone else is assigned a Group based on the location of their seat with the seats at the back of the plane being in a lower Group number. This means the further back you are in the plane, the earlier you will board. This makes total sense as that keeps people with seats toward the front from blocking people going to the back of the plane.
It is not mandatory that you reserve a seat when you fly on Southwest Airlines under the new policies, but then you will just be assigned a seat randomly from whatever seats are left over after others who paid to upgrade or earned a free reserved seat from their status level. But then, it is very likely you are going to end up in a middle seat. Or, you could get lucky and be assigned an empty seat in the Extra Leg Room section where you will get for free all the benefits of those that paid for a seat in that section including a free alcoholic beverage and upgraded snacks.
Here is a trick that Barbara and I leaned many years ago: we always reserve a window and an aisle seat, leaving the middle seat empty. As seat reservations are booked, the last seat anyone is going to reserve is a middle seat. So, if the plane isn't full, it is very likely that seat will remain empty for the flight giving us more room to spread out. Using this method, we have flown many times with the middle seat between us remaining empty, as it did on the second segment of this trip from Denver to Portland. If someone does have a ticket for the middle seat between us, Barbara just moves over to the middle seat to be next to me and allows that person to have the aisle seat. That is always a pleasant surprise to the person as nobody wants a middle seat and they are always happy to take the aisle rather than the middle seat. That happened on the first segment of our trip from New Orleans to Denver as the plane was 100% full on that segment.
We did notice one huge problem with the new Southwest Airlines policies: baggage. There are various ways you can qualify for one or two free checked bags, like being at the A-List Preferred Level (like us), but most others have to pay to check bags. This causes a huge number of passengers to bring just a carry-on bag which is free, to avoid the checked baggage fee. Far more people are now bringing carry-on bags than can possibly fit in the plane. Thus, the gate agent has to plead for people to gate check their bags, especially those in higher number groups that board last and won't find anywhere to put their bags above their seats. This ends up with a huge number of bags sitting by the gate that have been gate checked and slows down the boarding process. Sad to say, but the only solution I can think of is for Southwest Airlines to start charging for carry-on bags to discourage people from bringing bags on board rather than checking them. Or maybe reduce the size of carry-on bags allowed to backpack size.
A good side effect of Southwest Airlines new reserved seating policy is that it has greatly reduced the number of passengers requesting priority boarding. In the past, this has been a huge problem for Southwest Airlines. Every flight used to have a huge number of priority boarding passengers including a large number in wheelchairs tying up assistance staff and slowing the boarding process. It has long been known that many request priority boarding that don't really need it, just to get to board early and have the first choice of seats on the plane. It has always been odd how many arrive at the gate in wheelchairs, but don't seem to need a wheelchair to get off the plane! With the new reserved seating policy, one no longer gets a better seat by boarding early. Thus, most no longer request priority boarding unless they truely need assistance boarding.
I think all 4 planes we were on during this round trip from Portland to New Orleans were a Boeing 737-MAX8. Southwest Airlines operates a lot of these planes. I know Southwest Airlines used to operate some older Boeing plane models and don't know if they still have those older planes in service. Unlike other airlines, Southwest Airlines stayed with a single plane model for years until they upgraded to the Boeing 737-MAX8, but even their older plane model was a Boeing. This greatly helped to keep costs down as they only needed a spare parts inventory for one plane model, only needed their mechanics to be trained on one plane model, and allowed any of their pilots to fly any of their planes. Even with the new Boeing 737-MAX8, their pilots did not need recertification on it due to its cockpit similarity to the older Boeing model.
With the new Southwest Airlines policies of adding Extra Leg Room seating, I don't know if they replaced all the seats, or just moved the seats in the first few rows to add the extra leg room. Some, but not all, of the planes we flew on this trip had USB power at our seats. I don't know if this was just at the Extra Leg Room seats, or at all the seats on the plane. They have 2 different type of USB ports, both the new fast charging 60W USB-C and the older USB-A standard. I thought the old USB-A was always 5W, but I think I'm wrong about that. The seats did not have AC power at them as many newer planes do have. I think that is because Southwest Airlines mostly does shorter hops of 4 hours or less unlike long-haul airlines whose flights can be more hours than any computer battery would last. I just realized that Barbara's Chromebook could last forever on this plane as it is powered by a USB-C cord and does not need to be plugged into AC power.
I think I might already have mentioned that free WiFi internet and texting is provided to all T-mobile subscribers on Southwest Airlines. It is also now provided free to Southwest Airlines Rewards Credit Card holders. Everyone on the plane gets free live TV and movies via the WiFi, but you have to use your own device: mobile phone or pad. When I fly Southwest Airlines, I log in on my notebook computer using my Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards account for the free internet. I use my Confirmation Number to log in on my mobile phone for the free internet on that device. I'm not sure if it would work if I used the same method to log in on both.
It turns out that driving our own car and parking at the airport was a terrible idea. We figured this trip was only 4 days and it would be more convenient and cheaper than taking Uber. We were definitely wrong! Portland has the largest garage I've ever seen at an airport, even than Los Angeles (LAX)! All the parking spots near the terminal were taken, even all the handicapped spots. We went through every level. The only spots open were extremely far away from the terminal, what any other airport would call "remote paking" and charge a lower rate with shuttles to the terminal. Instead, we had to wheel our luggage through the longest tunnel I've ever walked through in my life. I swear it had to be close to a mile to get to the terminal. Then, after we checked our bags, due to terminal construction, there is about another 20 minute walk to get from the baggage drop to the terminal gates! We certainly got our walking exercise for the day.
Departing from the airport, we were a little smarter. After we collected our luggage, Barbara sat with it at the curb while I went to bring up our car. I can't believe how far the walk was from the terminal bag to our car. It must have taken me 20 minutes to walk to our car, and I'm a relatively fast walker. I'm glad we didn't try to wheel our luggage back to the car. The cost of the parking for 4 days was $96, about the cost of taking Uber round-trip from our house to the airport, so there was little cost savings by driving ourselves to the airport. Once I drove out of the garage, I was forced to drive about a mile or so before getting to a spot where I could make a U-turn to return to the terminal. Next time we make a short trip, we decided we are going to park in a remote parking lot that I believe is only $4.50 per day, and they provide a free shuttle service to the terminal. That would make a lot more sense.
All in all, this was a great trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. It was an item on Barbara's "Bucket List" that she could now cross off. We mostly just wanted to see in person what Mardi Gras was all about and get a little flavor of the live jazz scene in New Orleans, and we did that. We want to visit New Orleans again in the future to see more of it, but not when Mardi Gras is going on. The city is much different during Mardi Gras as everything is oriented to all the tourists that come to the city, and many things are more expensive such as hotels and Uber. So, that will be for another year.
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