Let's Take a Trip !

 A cranberry bog near Vancouver with fresh snow on the mountains.  Quite a panorama. The mountains were beautiful and the skyscrapers in the foreground made for a great picture

SSSS stamp--this crap is not random. 



 

I traveled this week to Vancouver, BC Canada on business.  I want to inform the uninformed, that it is not like on TV.   I traveled on Southwest and Delta Airlines, which is a little odd , but there are reasons that I will try to explain. 

On TV commercials, they show the travelers that paid for first class seats having their wine and cheese in their fancy seats and enjoying the sunset out the window of the plane.   OK, it can happen, but those people are not you and I.    By the way, Delta has only 8 747 planes, the big ones that are shown quite frequently on TV commercials, so your chance of riding in a big 747 and behaving like these people is remote.   They basically run a lot of the MD 88's and 90's, which happen to be some old loud planes.  I got that off my chest. 

This was the last trip of the calendar year for me.  I was just a few miles short of getting to a major milestone for the frequent fliers program on Southwest--SWA, and needed to fly one trip on SWA to get free wifi on their planes next year and get to board in the first 30 people.  Sounds petty, but those little perks make life significantly easier for me.  I could have flown Delta the entire trip, which would have been easier to do, but the only options were to fly in the Regional jets the entire way--flying tubes.  I hate them.  They are narrow and my shoulders do not fit in the seats--I am too wide to be comfortable.  I nixed that idea.  So, I flew to Seattle on SWA and then hopped an RJR on the 35 minute hop to Vancouver with DL.   I worked the details and got the flights all arranged to get the points and also to minimize the hanging around airports.  So I had a 3 hopper up and a 3 hopper back. It was a long trip any way you slice it, but I survived and actually we had a good sales call at the tissue mill.  I may go back, but I have better plans next trip.  My learnings from each trip get put into the next trip plans. 

The second picture is of my boarding pass in Vancouver, BC on the hop to Seattle.  I am not sure how it happens and it is not random--I am convinced of that--but I was randomly selected for the SSSS.  The SSSS?  Well, it means that you get the extra special screening and just get to be aggravated more than the other passengers.   I have gotten this at Atlanta as well--do I look like the German terrorists with the bleached blonde hair that were fighting Bruce Willis??  I think the TSA crowd is watching too many old movies again.....  I am not a Hans or Klaas.  Nope.   The SSSS meant that I had to do the body scanner and just be aggravated a few more seconds that anyone else.  But why do I seem to be that guy??  Drives me nuts.    

Now my comments on how much crap you need to tolerate to fly international.  I had a 6:00 AM flight leaving Vancouver.  You need to be checked in 2 hours before an international flight.  I know people that have not be allowed to board due to this rule.  I got up early--my body was on CST and I was in PST so it was not that big of a deal.   Leave for airport at 4:30 AM and check in-show passport.   Take luggage to a line to be screened that opens at 5:00AM.  Wait in a really long line for 20 minutes.  Get thru that line where they photograph your luggage and check your passport again.  Bag is checked now. Go thru the SSSS exam where three different people look at your passport.  I bitched about the SSSS randomness to tin ears.  Queue up for customs.  It opens at 5:00 AM.  Another 20 minutes of patiently waiting.  By the way no phones are allowed in either location and I am glad I stopped for a potty break earlier--rest rooms are quite limited in those areas as well.  Stay in line! I got thru customs where they check your passport, ask a couple of questions and send you to the gate.  They always ask me what I do for a living and I have not been able to explain that for 9 years now.  I try, but "making toilet tissue softer" is not really working anymore. They need to show this crap on TV a little better-- it is a genuine grind. 

I get the gate within the 30 minute window to be on board for international so they do not cancel your flight.  Flight is scheduled for 6:00 AM-- arrive at airport at 3:45 AM for two hours of hurry up and waiting.  At the gate- they checked my passport again before we started to board.  Also when you board it is checked again.  I think that is 7 times by now.  Also the second gate agent wanted to check it again, after the first agent checked it.  I asked what was up with this ??  They did not need to see it again, they did not update their roster.  I thought 7 was enough.   There is little regard for the traveler-- it is a constant queue and lame questions that you must answer in the proper manner..

I made it home without any delays. Neither SWA plane on the return trip had wifi working, so the TV was down on each.  Passing the time was a lot tougher without entertainment. Enough whining.  I was glad to see Linda and start getting ready for Santa.

   When we pulled into our gate at Nashville, the plane that ran off the run way this week was parked on the tarmac.  It was unstuck and patiently waiting to go back in service.  The planes also get to wait their turn. At least the waiting it is not all my burden to bear alone. And I am glad to share it!!