It Must Suck to be Them

I really don’t know how regular people travel these days. I’m traveling today, which is a Sunday. I figured that Sunday morning would be a pretty slack time at the airport. Business travelrs (like myself) would be traveling later in the day. Vacationers would have left on Friday or yesterday if possible. I could not have been more wrong.

The airport was a mad house. Before I even got off the parking shuttle bus I see the huge long lines of the curb check-in. That line must have been 50 yards and 50 minutes long. I find a hole in that line to get into the terminal building and see the same horror repeated at the ticketing desk and again at the first class check in. I was running a little short on time to catch my flight, but I wasn’t checking any bags, so this was only some rubber-necking on my part (you know, slowing down to look at a disaster and being glad that it’s not you).

I find a ticketing kiosk in my personal corner of the asylum. I wait while the one person ahead of me finishes up and I’m on my way to the security screening in about 45 seconds. I notice that the folks that I shared the shuttle with have barely dinted the check in line. That must suck.

The line for screening is pretty long as well. There are just people everywhere. However, I’ve get my platinum status with US Air’s frequent flyers club and Charlotte has a special line for us. This line is not really a line as there is nobody waiting there. I zip to the front and the process goes just great. By not ckecking a bag and having preferred status, I’m guessing that I saved about 90 minutes in the boarding process.

I’ve got plenty of time now to find a breakfast biscuit, get to my gate and wait for the call for first-class passengers to board. That’s right. I got bumped up for this cross-country flight. I waited at the gate for about 10 minutes.

We are on our way now with arrival in about 3 hours. I’ve got a comfy seat with lots of elbow room and brunch on the way. This makes travel bearable. I don’t know how I survived travel as a commoner. It must suck to be them.