Minneapolis to Denver

I had breakfast earlier today, as I had to get down to the airport for my flight to Denver.  When I went down in the lift, there were a couple of porters wheeling about luggage with nice looking Texas Rangers baggage tags on them.  Lots of the visiting fans stay at the hotel, because it's convenient for the ballpark.  However, as I was leaving the hotel, I shared a lift with Rich Harden and a couple other Texas Rangers players who I didn't recognise.  Apparently, most of the visiting teams stay in the Marriott that I was in, but they are up on the concierge-level restricted  floors at the top.  I didn't ask for autographs or anything like that, as they clearly "off-duty" as it were.

When I checked in online the night before, I was most displeased at being asked to pay a $23 baggage fee by United Airlines.  My whole itinerary is with Continental, but with two of the internal flights operated by United (these are two airlines that have just had their plans to merge approved).  Continental also have baggage fees, but they are waived for all the flights in an itinerary if it includes an international flight, as mine does, obviously.  However, for the codeshare flight, they created a separate itinerary on United contaning just the internal flights, and thus no international leg, and therefore a $23 fee.  I expressed my displeasure to the Continental staff at Minneapolis St Paul and to the United staff at Denver, but didn't get anything other than an apology and a promise that I'm going to have to pay another $23 for my Denver to San Diego flight on Wednesday which is another codeshare flight operated by United.

I paid to upgrade to Economy Plus (it was only £20) and had the three seats in row 11 on my side of the aisle to myself, so plenty of space.  At Denver, I bought a round-trip Supershuttle journey to the hotel and back for $34 as there's no useful public transportation from the airport to downtown.  The flight left on time and arrived 20 minutes early.  The hotel room is very nice, and I've taken the option of getting bonus Marriott points by not having the room serviced.  I rarely really need my room serviced anyway, and this one's got two beds that I can use.

It's warm here in Denver - 33C/92F, but I'm sitting in my airconditioned hotel room until dinner time in a couple of hours or so which I've got booked at another expensive steak house right next to Coors Field, although the Rockies are away from home today, so I don't expect it will be to busy.