flying Forrest Gump style

The Hubby used to travel a lot with his old job. Even though it's nice having him home now, I'm gonna miss all those frequent flyer miles we could use on vacations.

We used up our last free miles for this trip. And there was just enough left over to bump us up to first class....but only on the way there.

I've never flown first class before and I'm sure it probably isn't what it used to be but it was definitely nice to have the big seats, pillows and blankets, "first class" bathroom up front [sure I didn't have to share it with all the other passengers but there's nothing special about it....you can trust my professional bathroom connoisseur opinion].

The best part was getting on the plane first and not having to fight to stow your carry on.

To me, that is the worst part about flying, especially since they started charging to check luggage.

I wish they would start enforcing their rules about carry-on's. You know, one carry on that you can store over head and one you can stow under the seat in front of you. There are so many people who bring two HUGE pieces on the plane, shove them in the overhead compartment at the front of the plane as they head to their seats in the back. Then the people getting on later have no where to put their stuff and end up having to check it anyways.

They need to have the overhead compartments labeled with the seat numbers. You get to put your ONE carry on in that space only. Then have a stewardess at the back of the plane when you board who is watching these people who try and shove coats another piece of luggage up there and say "No I'm sorry, you'll have to check that if it doesn't fit under your seat." They can sit there with it on their lap until everyone else boards and then go to the front and check it.

I know it would take extra time, but it seems like it takes forever the old way with the stewardesses trying to move luggage around in the overheads and shove things in there anyways. We still had a line of poor souls who were the last on the plane and only had one carry on and had to check it.


The last time I flew, I was alone after helping Nae drive out to Colorado for her summer internship. I flew Northwest Airlines. They have this "choose your own seat" boohaha. It was awful. They still assign you a "zone" and a "number". You get called to board by zones then when you get in line they ask you to get in numerical order. I felt like I was in kindergarten again. Of course, I was in the last zone and the last number so I was the last one on the plane.


Our flight wasn't full, which in a "choose your own seat" arrangement is considered a nightmare. Trust me.


I looked down the center isle and there were open seats scattered through out the plane, but with at least one person sitting in each row. I looked into the face of the person sitting next to the first open seat. He was a big man who kinda reminded me of the boy who would throw rocks at me at the bus stop when I was a kid [yeah Kim, you know who I'm talking about :)]. He kinda glared at me and spread his big muscly arms out to demonstrate how my personal space would be violated if I chose to sit next to him.


The next guy who I looked at with an open seat quickly looked away and suddenly developed this phelmy nasty cough that he obviously couldn't possibly cover with his hand if I chose to sit next to him.


There was a woman who was knitting who decided that her yarn needed it's own seat as I passed by.

A teen who threw her legs over the next seat.

Some people didn't do anything but glare at me and give me the "I'll kill you if you take this seat" message.


Even though no one actually said "Seat's taken" I still felt like Forrest Gump on the school bus that first day of school.

And there was no "Jenny" volunteering up a seat.

http://media.photobucket.com/image/forrest%20gump%20images/uploader2010/snapshot20091030063117.jpg

I finally asked the stewardess to find me a seat "or otherwise someone is gonna hurt me".

I'm wondering if the people at Northwest Airlines who decided this "choose your own seat" was a great idea have actually tried it themselves....