Packed in like a sardine
Greetings from sunny and warm Los Angeles, Calif. I arrived late this afternoon -- about fifteen minutes late, due to unseasonably strong headwinds, according to the pilot.
I infinitely prefer traveling from TF Green Airport in Providence to going to Logan Airport in Boston. Logan is busy, and Boston is a mess -- TF Green is, by comparison, smaller, more convenient, and about equidistant in terms of overall mileage from where I live.
Unfortunately, because Providence is a smaller airport than Logan, there are no direct cross-country flights, so the few times I year I have to come out to the West Coast, I inevitably catch a connecting flight. My company's travel agent usually books us on United Airlines flights, which I've had good luck with. A few things worked against me this time, however.
First of all, I decided that I didn't want to have to hassle with rush-hour traffic in Providence, so I caught a later morning flight than I usually do. That was convenient in one aspect, but it also limited my options for flights. Rather than connecting through Chicago, I ended up catching a connecting flight at Washington/Dulles.
The plane they put me on was tiny. "This is more like carpooling than flying," I said to the lady sitting next to me. Like the Apple ad showing Yao Ming grabbing his 12 inch PowerBook from his overhead luggage without moving from his seat, I too could grab my backpack from the overhead bin without leaving my seat -- and I'm more than a foot shorter than he is.
Fortunately, we were up and down in about an hour and ten minutes, so it was a relatively easy burden to bear.
Dulles to LAX is a long trip -- more than five hours. Normally, this would be okay, but something happened between United and my company last year, and I got dropped from Premiere to regular Mileage Plus standing. I still accrue frequent flyer miles, but I'm no longer entitled to perks like sitting in the Economy Plus section, which has extra leg room.
To add insult to injury, they stuck me in a window seat in the ass-end of a 757. Behind a lady that decided to take a snooze. So there I sat for about five and a half hours. Unable to move. Thinking about all the news reports I've seen about people who suddenly die from deep vein thrombosis while traveling in cramped coach cabins.
On the flip side, I'm in LA. The hotel room is reasonably comfortable (although the Internet access sucks balls) and the weather is fine. I'm happy to be here and looking forward to this week.
Comments
Go play some Sam & Max for me, you lucky bastard.
Posted by: Dan Dickinson | May 13, 2003 01:55 PM