Leavin' on a Jet Plane?

So I must apologize for my recent absence.  I have been traveling the US this past week and not by choice.  Our company has just acquired a new client in Seattle.  I was chosen as one of the staff to go to Seattle for our kick off meeting.  I was very excited not only to be chosen to go to this meeting but also to visit Seattle, a city I had never been to. 

Because the meeting began on a Monday, we decided to go up early on Sunday to see the sites.  Good idea in theory… however, it was not to be.  Our journey began early on Sunday with a 6:30am flight from our regional airport to connect in Atlanta and fly to Seattle. However, fog delayed our flight until 8:20 (1).  By the time that we finally arrived in Atlanta, all non-stop flights to Seattle were booked, making our day into a nationwide tour of airports.  From Atlanta, we went Cincinnati for a 4 hour layover and then would arrive in Seattle at 7pm (2). 

After our airport excursion, I made a few observations:

1. Regional airports = Airport Amateur Day. I'm not just talking about 1/2 of the passengers who had never flown in their lives.  It seemed that no one knew what was going on: desk agents, security and gate agents had no idea what they were suppose to be doing.  
2. Just because a restaurant has Wolfgang Puck in the title does not mean that it will be classy ... or even good
3. Paying $5 for Tetris on your iPhone never seemed worth it .. until you are stuck in an enclosed area with nothing to watch but the Cincinnati/Steelers game.
4. People in Cincinnati are serious about football
5. It is completely acceptable to lay on the floor and go to sleep in an airport
6. If you do decide to fall asleep, make sure that you have a buddy … otherwise people may draw things on you (3)
7. Apparently people think that it is fine to bring infants and toddlers on a red eye flight (4)
8. A neck pillow can be the best purchase that you have made in a month
9. If a gate agent gives you a first class ticket, take it and run
10. You may think that first class isn’t as great as people say it is, but after sitting in airports for 7 hours … a couple of glasses of wine and being able to stretch your legs is amazing (5)

 1. Coincidentally the same time that our connecting flight left Atlanta’s airport

 2. Only 8 hours after our original landing time

 3. Yeah and you thought that just happened in college

 4. Yeah … its not, not cool at all

 5. Apparently Delta felt bad for us and bumped us to first class,