Go West, Giants fan

Where possible, I choose flights that leave around midday in order to avoid having to get up too early.  So in this case, my flight wasn't until 12.52pm.  This morning, it was raining, but fortunately, it'd just finished when I left at 10.30am.  I got to the airport just before midday, went straight through the priority queue for the ID check, but then had to wait in a very long line for security - apparently, Premier Access doesn't give you premier access to the security line as well.

I did not get the upgrade to first class that I had requested, so I'll get the miles back and the money too - minus another lot of foreign transaction charge.  However, I was still in the second boarding group, so I walked straight onto the plane when I got to the gate as they were just starting to board group 3, so I had plenty of space for my bag in the overhead bins.  I was in the middle seat of three, and waited and waited for the window and aisle seat people to arrive before settling in with so little space between the rows.  They never came.  So, although I didn't get the first class upgrade, I had three seats to myself, so put up the armrests, used all three tray tables and had plenty of space after all.

I did buy a baguette for lunch ($9.49!) but there was no wi-fi and although there was DirecTV available on the flight, I didn't fancy paying $7.95 for that.  Unfortunately, the flight map channel was also included in that, so I didn't even get to watch our flight progress over Nebraska, Denver, the Rockies and into San Francisco - I complained about that in my feedback to United later.

I topped up my BART ticket from a couple of years ago to have enough credit to get me into town and back to the airport again, and made the journey downtown.

I had originally planned to stay in the Marriott on Beach Street, but did not like the sky high prices (over $400 per night!) because I couldn't find any space at other hotels that I like here.  The new Hampton Inn I'd been keeping an eye on still isn't open and its website now says it's opening in October.  However, rooms opened up at another of my favourite hotels: the Hilton on Union Square.  It didn't have any when I'd looked previously, and these are a little less eye-wateringly expensive, so I'm here instead.  It's fairly close to Powell station and the cable cars.  This is a "Skyline Bay View Room"  The bay, when it isn't shrouded in fog, is about as visible as the sea near Fawlty Towers!