3rd class seat
Hindsight is 20:20…my original proposed flight itinerary for Korea and China was on Star Alliance airlines, but it meant leaving from Boston at 6 am and it included a 10 hour layover in Los Angeles on the return leg. I asked the travel folks to try and find a better return, and instead, they rerouted the whole thing through Portland on different airlines — non-Star Alliance airlines.
You’d think it wouldn’t matter all that much, especially in this first flight. I’m sitting in row 20 of 21 rows on a small regional jet en route to Atlanta on Delta Airlines. Its louder in row 20 then in row 5, for example, because regional jet engines are at the rear of the plane. The only bathroom is just behind me, so everyone walks by me and bumps me since my shoulders stick out into the aisle. And just to really remind me that I’m not flying in my favored Star Alliance Silver Elite status, by the time the drink service got to me, they were out of tomato juice. Fine, how about OJ? Sorry, we’re out of that too…hmm we’re out of juice! Oddly, this flight serves peanuts. I don’t think I’ve been on domestic flight that had peanuts in years.
I can tell this is going to be a very long day! I just got hip-checked in the shoulder for about the 10th time in 15 minutes….11…”this one goes to 11″…that’s for you Steve! I’ll stop counting, but I just wanted to note…#12 just hit me, and it was the stewardess. She didn’t even bother to acknowledge that she hip-checked me in the shoulder.