Hell in an Airplane

Now before I start ranting, I do need to state that my ranting will be petty. There will be plenty of people in the next hour alone who will have many bad travel stories to top mine. But they're not me. And I have blog, so there. Get your own.

Northwest Airlines is crap.

They're chronically behind schedule, and many of their employees seem to have difficulty completing an entire sentence. Example: "It will just be a few minutes while the ramp is connected to the...." the plane. Just say it. You know, that thing you work on and fly across the country in all day.

Minor kvetch, I know.

They're stingy with beverages, their airplanes still smell like stale smoke, the seats are crowded, and completing simple tasks like boarding passangers is apparently entirely too complicated for them to handle. "Passangers seated in rows 19 and higher may now board." Eagerly I take my place in line. And stand there while the man with the not-so-manly blue scarf does something I don't know what with someone's boarding pass for hours. I'm surprised we all didn't start rioting.

However, I'm going to deflate all of my complaints with this: when I asked to be moved up to an earlier flight, they complied quite nicely. So thanks. But still, I missed the chocolate chip cookies and big comfy seats (where the hazard of someone else's elbow in your eye is significantly reduced) of Midwest. And they fly on time. And my baggage is often off the plane and circling around the claim area before I even get there. They rock. Go Midwest.

I personally find airports fascinating. There are just so many different kinds of people, like the woman (from Green Bay area, obviously) happily trotting around in her Packer warm-up suit, with her dyed blond hair and coordinating gold jewelry (you have to have the matching necklace and earrings to go with your Packer outfit). Oh, and did I mention she had a Packer visor on? Oh yes, she did.