Random Musings from 40,000 ft.

I'm on AA flt. 185 right now, cruising at 40,000 ft. somewhere over Arizona. I'e watched six episodes of The League on my laptop, and now I'm sitting here with another 40 minutes or so to kill. Some thoughts:

1. I'm on an empty 767-200 right now. When we boarded, the gate agent first asked for first, business, and Priority AAccess. Then she started to announce groups, but just gave up and said, "If you're breathing and you have a ticket on this flight, hop on." (I'm not kidding.) The FA told me that there are forty people on this flight. I can see from where I'm sitting that twenty seven are in business class and two are in first, leaving eleven people in coach. That means every coach passenger has more than ten seats to his or herself.

(My boss, who is traveling with me, wondered why they didn't just upgrade the whole plane. There are ten seats in first and thirty in business. They could have fit every passenger up front and made everyone ridiculously happy. I explained that the two people who paid for full-fare first wouldn't be so pleased.)

2. AA flight attendants wear a pin on their uniform. It signifies their membership in their union, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. I'm pretty sure the APFA logo looks just like a Starfleet communicator badge, and I keep thinking that the FAs are going to communicate with eachother (or make PA announcements) by simply tapping on their badge.

3. I'm not sure if GoGo is worth it. I'm using my last code for free internet right now, and I'm not sure what I'm going to do when faced with the decision of whether or not to fork out $12.95 for internet on a plane. Six months ago -- before I used GoGo for free on about twenty flights -- I would have said no way. Now I'm considering that the internet might be worth it. If anyone from GoGo is reading this, I'm thinking that your marketing plan may have succeeded.

4. Food on late night flights blows. Maybe worse than steak. It's quite the contrast. Had I flown less than two hours earlier, I would have been served a three-course meal, followed by a baked-on-board cookie, and then chocolates before landing. On this flight I was offered a craptacular cheese plate.

5. Airline loyalty is a funny thing. I think I just convinced my boss to fly AA for life because they loaned her a video player with a set of Bose noise canceling headphones.