Tier Point Run to Palm Springs in Dec 2023: Day 5 – San Bernardino to Palm Springs

Normally, I try to minimize the distance from the place I spend the last night away to the airport I am due to fly from. It just minimizes the risk of anything going wrong! That’s my natural risk-averse approach to travel.

Today, I was a good 50 miles away from Palm Springs airport, and whilst that is not very far and can easily be achieved in an hour, it just unnecessarily raises a few worry beads.

I popped out at 4:30am to my local Starbucks for my first caffeine fix of the day. It was a pleasant walk and it was a lot warmer than it was yesterday in Victorville.

After packing up, I left San Bernardino at 5:15am to head southeast to Palm Springs before starting my journey home.

My first flight didn’t leave Palm Springs until just after 10am. So working backwards, I needed to be at the airport by 8:30am to be on the safe side, so I needed to be dropping the car off by 08:15am (Hertz opens at 8am, although I am sure the rental return would be open prior to that).

I had a Starbucks in focus, located a few mins away from the airport, where I could get my second coffee and some breakfast and while away the time ahead of dropping the car off.

Anyway, the drive was fine and I arrived at Starbucks, close to the airport at around 6:15am. No holds up on the I10. I got my drink and breakfast ordered and I settled down for a wait.

Luckily, I managed to check into my AA and BA flights using their respective apps, so that was another activity ticked off. So, I thought everything was in order!

My next concern related to the flight to Phoenix being on a CRJ-700 aircraft, which has reduced overhead bin space. I couldn’t afford for my rucksack to be checked into the hold, since I was planning on doing a B2B in Dublin.

If the gate staff insisted on me checking my rucksack in, I’d have no other bag to carry the stuff that isn’t allowed in the hold. For example, laptop, other battery-driven devices etc.

I just hoped they would offer to valet-check my bag (planeside baggage), where you leave your bag at planeside and pick it up at your destination in the jetway. Thus I’d have my rucksack back in Phoenix.

So I was hoping for a good outcome at the gate!

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