I'm off today to Arizona for a long weekend at a dude ranch with my two California sons, SFO777Jr-LAX and SFO777Jr-SFO. A short flight to Phoenix and then a three hour drive north east and then south again thru the Tonto National Forest to a place called Young, Arizona and Cherry Creek Lodge. Surprisingly, there was no morning rush hour traffic on the 405 and I made the 60 mile drive to the T5 garage at LAX in just 55 minutes.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1605_2.jpg)
7:45am on a Friday and little traffic at LAX.
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A few more people inside.
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And a Terminal 2 concourse that looked pretty busy.
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On the mezzanine level is the Delta Sky Club, which is the former Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge. Didn't get a chance to stop in today for a photo op as I mistakenly left my Amex Platinum card at home. Duh.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1614_1.jpg)
So off to the gate to wait for boarding.
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Delta DL 3522
Los Angeles LAX to Phoenix PHX
E75
8:55am-10:20a (sked)
8:41am-9:45a (actual)
Seat 3D and COVID distancing blocked Seat 3C
Strange boarding call today with rows 16-20-something, and 3 minutes later... Diamond Medallion and First Class are welcome to stand in line behind Economy pax and board at their leisure.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1617_4.jpg)
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Delta's COVID snack pack was apparently handed out to everyone, First or Economy.
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We arrived at Terminal 3 about 30 minutes early. Since both sons were arriving on Southwest from BUR and OAK... I headed out to Terminal 4 to meet them at their gate... or so I thought.
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It's been at least 10 years since I was last at PHX and that was a simple connection. But try to arrive at Terminal 3 and meet someone arriving in Terminal 4 and you begin to understand what an insanely stupid airport this is. PHX Sky Train and Terminal 4 seemed easy enough... until it became apparent that none of this was airside. In addition, Terminal 4 may as well be in a different time zone it was so far from Terminal 3.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1642_2.jpg)
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America's Friendliest Airport??!? ROTFLMAO.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1652_2.jpg)
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And of course, my LAX-PHX boarding was not valid at PHX so I sat outside for the BUR and OAK flights to arrive. Thirty minutes, we were all in PHX and ready to pick up our rental car. A few years ago, PHX relocated all the rental car companies to an offside facility, which is located 10 minutes away, seemingly closer to downtown Phoenix than the airport.
![](https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/sfo777/IMG_1655_2.jpg)
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