It's Ninjas All The Way Down

[mangosteen]

Meta: This is the first in a series of backdated entries about the trip to London.

My sweetie and I are currently en route to London. Arrival time: 3.5 hours. By then it will be early morning, and I'll be cheated out of a night's sleep due to time-shifting. Then again, I'll get it back on a virtual two-hour flight home. It's about as close to borrowing time as one can really get.

So... me and my sweetie get to the airport, and we get to wait in the "elite" check-in line, due to the fact that I fly too much, and because I took advantage of a lot of offers immediately following 9/11. Ergo, we walked right up to the counter and checked in, as opposed to waiting for an hour in the regular check-in line. That was ninja.

Then we went quickly through the "elite" line to get to the security scanners, avoiding a thirty minute wait. That was ninja.

Then we got to go to into the airline's "club room" to wait for the flight. Comfy seats, free drinks, reasonably quiet, and a voice over the intercom telling you when to leave the lounge to get to your boarding gate at exactly the right time. That was really ninja.

Then, for boarding, the first class passengers were called first, followed by the Very Frequent Fliers, such as myself, thus giving extra time to put one's carry-ons in the bins. Also, reasonably ninja.

The tricky part about this is that I'm feeling all ninja and stuff because I'm not being treated like cattle. Rather, I'm just being treated like a human being. As soon as you step into an airport, your expectations are lowered, and simple courtesies, along with even the slightest extra services beyond sheer utilitarianism make you feel all ninja.

It's ninjas all the way down, until you stand on the ground and look up.

Date: 4 March 2002
Altitude: 35,000 feet.

Comments

[awfief.livejournal.com]

You've earned it, though. In some way, yah, being able to swoop past all those suckers in line, who don't travel as much, or at least not by plane, is satisfying and guilt-inducing.

On the other hand, you're there because you've taken a lot of flights. How many times have you waited in that line?

Granted, you may never have taken a bus trip to Florida. That's a totally different culture. But I digress.

One thing I learned while travelling not-as-frequently-as-you (or at least, I never racked up enough miles, because I was only travelling to New York and DC, but when you go monthly, you should get something, ya know?): I learned how to work the system. The security lines and check-in lines were never an hour for me. You pick a time to fly when it's not too busy, and you go in early. And when I say early, I mean, you get there when they recommend you to get there. Sure, post-Sept. 11th, I have *never* needed the full 2 hours for a domestic flight (and I haven't taken an international flight since then, except to get home, and even then, from Israel, I didn't need 4 hours). Anyway, so I've never needed all that time. But if you have a 6 pm flight on a Friday, and you get to the airport at 4 pm, there are no lines. Likewise at 9 am on Saturday morning for an 11 am flight. You sail through them and talk to your sweetie, or read a book, or, if it's a weekend trip, pop in a few DVD's you rented into your laptop and make all the other people who beat the system wish they had something as fun to do as watch a movie.

Anyway, I guess my point is, I feel pretty ninja when I beat the system, even though I'm not "elite". In the eyes of the airlines anyway. And that's OK -- perhaps some people, like me, find the good in it.

[cos]

It sounds like lending time, not borrowing it.

Too bad for me, the Interstates don't have frequent driver benefits. :-)