Getting to Charlotte

Getting to Charlotte was a bit of an adventure in itself.

On Friday morning, I went to an 8am conference call with a client that was having problems with the software I develop. An hour later, I had booked tickets to Charlotte, NC. I was SUPPOSED TO leave at 3:30 that same afternoon.

I hurried home, packed my bags, returned to work, finished up a couple of things necessary for the trip, and then headed up to the airport. I left a couple of minutes later than I should have and traffic was a little worse than I had expected, and I ended up getting to the airport a little later than I thought I should have.

Unfortunately, I was later than the desk agent thought I should have been there. How much later? ONE MINUTE. The desk agent wouldn't check me in. I tried to check in at the kiosk. By that time, my flight was leaving in 29 minutes. The kiosk won't check you in less than 30 minutes before the flight. Crap.

I called the corporate travel service back and since the flight hadn't left yet and since the ticket had been purchased full-price, they just cancelled the ticket. HA! That'll teach them to not let me on the flight. I was re-booked for a flight the following morning at 6 am.

I am absolutely and totally NOT a morning person, but I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 3:20 in the morning. I've seen 3:20 am way more often from the going-to-sleep side, not the getting-up-early side. It was NOT fun. No. But I wasn't going to miss my flight by one stoopid minute again.

I parked my car in long-term parking and caught a shuttle bus to the terminal, just in time to see the last of the people getting off of not one, but TWO coach buses. They all got in line at the same place where I had been denied check-in the day before. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Fortunately, I remembered the self-checkin kiosk, and walked right past the line of several dozen people, checked in, and walked over to get through security.

The friendly old gentleman checked my boarding pass, and highlighted four letters at the bottom: "SSSS" In case you're wondering, it means that you're So, So, SO Screwed! Officially, it means something like "Secondary Screening Selection" (with one more 'S'). I got the full treatment, which is basically everything but a body cavity search. The first step was to remove my belt, shoes, watch, and everything metal and put them in a bin along with my jacket. Then my laptop came out of its bag and was put through the x-ray machine. Then I was asked to step into a machine that looked like a metal detector that puffed air all over me and then analyzed the air for traces of explosives. After what seemed like an eternity, the doors on the front of the puffer machine opened and I was escorted to the area where I watched TSA agents go through all of my belongings. They opened every bag, every pocket, every zipper, every case. They swabbed everything electronic item (Quite a lot of them. I'm a GEEK!) with the cloth swabs that they put in the sniffer machine that would sniff for traces of explosives. They swabbed the inside of pockets, all the zipper pulls, the back and insides of my carry-on and my laptop bag. They were VERY thorough.

And FINALLY I was on my way.

The rest of the trip to Charlotte was relatively uneventful. There WAS the free upgrade from Minneapolis St. Paul to Las Vegas that they were giving away at the next gate, but that's a story for another entry.