Text 32473, 70 rader
Skriven 2013-01-10 06:18:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: recent trip 71
======================
US 990 DCA CLT 1210 1333 320 11F
  1578 CLT PHL 1445 1623 321 22F
  4139 PHL IPT 2135 2227 DH8 4F
was
  3740 DCA PHL 1200 1305 CRJ 2B
  4405 PHL IPT 1534 1626 DH8 4A

I checked in at the machine, which told me that I needed to
see a real person. Okay, I thought, Williamsport wasn't going
so I'd have to wait a long time - turns out they had really
cancelled the Philly plane and couldn't get me on any other
nonstop this day. After some work, the agent found space (in
coach of course) on the other, not a great thing, as instead
of a 100-mile flight I had 800 miles, largely in the wrong
direction, on an award ticket. And as Annie had promised to
take me out for sushi and beer, her treat, this was a major
loss. Instead of a relaxed trip with some nice raw fish at
the end, this became an unwieldy mess punctuated with
scrounging around for whatever calories were available.

The first flight: pretty full, but I got the exit row window
with nobody sitting next to me. The guy at the aisle viewed
me as an obstacle and was quite reluctant to make enough
room for me to get to my seat (and this was the exit row, so
he was very obstructive indeed). He looked kind of like
Dizzy Gillespie, beret, funky clothing, etc., and the black
FA seemed unduly impressed, asking him pointed questions
like, do you play an instrument?; I almost pointed out that
the Diz has been dead for almost 10 years now. The flight
itself was okay.

Unfortunately, I had gotten to this gate pretty late, and
they made me check my bag through - the good thing is that
Philly can be tough to negotiate with luggage; the bad thing
is that if you entrust your bag to the airline, the chances
are exceedingly good that something will go missing from it
in this city. They should take all the baggage handlers at
this airport and put them in jail, and then the city's crime
stats would improve notably.

The second flight: totally full, but I got the exit row
window with an excessively pretty 21-year-old sitting next
to me and in fact a number of quite eyepleasing women in the
neighborhood, including the FA. I chatted a bit with my
seatmate, but she seemed inclined more toward the guy on the
aisle, who was younger and probably less threatening-looking
as well.

Another perfectly okay flight.

I recognized the F FA on the way out as someone who had
served me many times on the BOS-DCA route, so we exchanged
pleasantries.

Plenty of time to guzzle beer and Bourbon at the club, where
two familiar bartenders were working, Mike and some black
girl whose name is unpronounceable. I gave them good tips.

Next flight: I stayed as long as reasonable at the club and
then took the shuttle to the commuter terminal. I arrived at
"boarding" only to find that our aircraft was parked at a
remote stand, way off someplace, and we had to take another
bus to it.

Another boring flight, and I got to Williamsport only
6 hours late.

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