Up In The Air
One of the things that Kim and I agree completely about is that the worst part of traveling is the actual traveling. In the case of going back and forth to Europe or the Middle East from San Diego, its an especially grueling ordeal that usually involves at least three flights. We usually like to transit through New York so we can see the kids. On our flight over this time we went straight through New York and on to Barcelona. That was long and tiring enough. Our plan was to fly back from Lisbon to New York, spend the night there to have dinner with the kids and then fly directly back to San Diego the next day. For a motorcycle trip there is a lot of gear to take including boots, helmets, riding jackets and riding pants. Then there are gloves and map cases and special GPS and other instruments, not to mention tools in case there’s a breakdown along the way. At the end of the day, the motorcycle gear bag probably weighs 70 pounds and pushes the airline weight limits and that is not including the clothes needed for each evening and for traveling.
After a week of lugging the gear bags around in the van, it occurred to me that transiting with an overnight in New York on the way back and having to lug those monster bags around would not be much of a treat just to see the kids for dinner since we would be back in New York for a proper stay in a few weeks anyway. So, several days before we got to Portugal, I checked on Delta flights that we could take to go straight back to San Diego, checking the bags in Lisbon to go straight through to San Diego. I had already changed our flights once to accommodate a late need by Kim to return earlier in the day to make a rehearsal. It was expensive, but it was important to her and all it took besides the money was a willingness to add another leg by transiting through Atlanta, a perfectly good airport so long as you are arriving and departing from the same bank of gates. I have had far too many O.J. Simpson moments running through the Atlanta airport for my comfort. But that is what I did and when I wanted to move our NYC to San Diego flights up a day, the same Atlanta transit program was the best available in First Class and there were only two seats available for another bunch of money extra.
I bit the bullet and clicked on the flight change and price point. But when I did, I was only able to book the First Class seats in the Atlanta to San Diego leg. The NYC to Atlanta leg showed two seats free in First, but the system wouldn’t assign them to me for some reason. When I went back into the system to secure the seats, I was informed that I was booked in the Main Cabin and that there were no First Class seats left. I had been bait and switched by the Delta online system. It was too hard to resolve that by phone from Portugal, so I figured I would use my five hour JFK layover to make my case to Delta, having paid twice for a long First Class trip.
Naturally, neither the Delta agent at the JFK Customs bag check nor the supervisor at the check-in was much help. They explained that the online system was not their responsibility and the First Class seats to Atlanta were all taken. They couldn’t even put me on the top of the wait list because it was also controlled by the system. So I resigned myself that during our 21 hour travel day, the three-hour segment between JFK and Atlanta would be a miserable economy class flight. I even tried to get them to block or sell me the middle seat between us and the flight was already oversold, so no dice. Great, just great.
As we boarded our flight to Atlanta, I saw that the window seat in our aisle was occupied by a Delta senior pilot who was deadheading back to Atlanta. It somehow made me feel better, figuring that if it was OK for him, I could muscle through it. We settled in for a grin-and-bear-it three hours. The purser on this flight was a lovely tall (I’m talking 6’4”) black woman wearing a special pink Breast Cancer Awareness Delta uniform. She came to my seat and knelt down and asked if I was Mr. Marin and I said I was. That’s when it happened.
Do you remember the movie with George Clooney called Up In The Air? He plays an executive who spends his life on the road and loves the life of a flying man. At one poignant moment in the film, he is on a flight and is told that he has reached the vaunted 10 million mile level. Sam Sheppard, the pilot, sits next to him and congratulates him and thanks him for his loyalty. He realizes that the prize he has been striving for is not all that he had expected it to be and it doesn’t bring him the happiness he thought it might.
Well, that tall purser knelt down to tell me that I had achieved the rare 1 million mile milestone with that Atlanta flight and she wanted to congratulate me and thank me for my loyalty. The captain at the window seat also did the same, even though he didn’t look quite like Sam Sheppard. I’m not sure what exactly I get for being a member of the 1 million mile club on Delta, but it did all make me forget about the annoyance of getting downgraded and at the same time marveling at the irony that a client service firm that tracks things like that and congratulates clients like that couldn’t figure out some way to accommodate me during that fateful leg. I guess that just like George Clooney, I too am realizing at this stage of life that flying a bunch, even in First Class and getting entrance to the special lounges and even the special club lounges is not all that great a compensation for the hassle of traveling.
I’m not sure I will be able to stay away from it, but what used to be a special upscale event has, indeed, turned into a visit to the modern equivalent of the bus station, and now, with the crowds and the value engineering, it has become a visit to a cheesy and overcrowded bus station. I don’t think special clubs and lounges do much to make it better, but I will hold my opinion on that until I see if my Million Mile standing makes airport or airplane life a notch better. It would serve an anti-elitist like me right if it didn’t get me one damn thing, but we’ll see. Meanwhile, I will still fly now and then and may even use Delta more if there proves to be an advantage. Who knows, maybe the accommodations will keep me up in the air more than I otherwise thought I wanted to be.