New Year's Eve

I had drafted the following blog entry whilst I was at the airport yesterday:

Wow, that was not a particularly pleasant experience flying back.  No upgrade again, which was very disappointing.  Among the many perks I missed out on were use of the exclusive check-in desk and lounge and priority boarding.  Instead I had to queue up for an interminably long time with the other common folk just to drop my bags off.  And then try to find some peace and quiet in the loud and busy terminal area.  And to top it off, the flight was delayed.  I think this might be the first time I haven't been upgraded when flying from London to the States, at least from Heathrow Terminal 5 - I fear those days may be over, so time to start collecting those air miles to go towards an upgrade.  I didn't even get a window seat in premium economy - another disappointment, though grateful for the extra space over plain economy.  I know that one of the American airlines now also flies directly from Seattle to London, so might be time to switch up from BA next time.  And if you will allow me a rare populist opinion - I hate the exaggerated class divides on long haul flights, just emphasizes the increasing separation between the 5% and the ordinary people.

But then that all became moot when my row got called to board the plane, and I got upgraded then.  So I missed out on a lot of the perks, but at least I had a relatively nice flight.  Which was good, because I needed my wits about me to drive myself home from the airport in a rainy-snow mix and slick roads on very little sleep.  They have also introduced electronic security checks at Seattle airport, which I haven't encountered before - and actually made things a lot quicker because now all I need to do is scan my green card to get back into the States rather than queue up for ages.  Fortunately, they work a lot better than the electronic checks getting in the UK which I couldn't get to scan my passport.  Unfortunately, you are still left hanging around for ages waiting for the luggage which presumably also has to go through American security and at a much slower rate.