Sunday, June 12, 2011

Traveling "elite"!

This past weekend I took another flight. I don't fly much and I really am not a savvy traveler. We got to my favorite part -- the security check! I was surprised there were so many people that early in the morning. I removed my shoes and my belt, took out my wallet, my keys, my phone and some change in my pockets etc. The line behind me grew by the minute and there were a lot of impatient faces, taking quick glances at their watches. Then I had the choice of a stranger patting me down or an unseen stranger doing my whole body scan! And God knows what they can see in that scan. Well, I eventually made it past the security check and waited for my stuff to roll out on the belt.
"Who's bag is this?" A voice boomed and the gentleman pointed sternly towards.....my bag!
"That's mine," I said, hesitantly.
"Sir, do you have a laptop in this bag?"
"Well, it's an i pad," I said.
"Sir, you need to take it out," he said, as he handed me my carry on bag with a disapproving look.
"Oh...I'm sorry," I said, quite embarrassed. I proceeded to take out the i pad. The line got held up and there were quite a few stares directed at me, with a whisper traveling the length of the line -- "He didn't take it out...he didn't take it out..."!

We finally made it to the boarding area. When our rows to board were announced, I hurried to the gate.
"Are you traveling first class or business class?" The petite lady at the gate asked me, quite crisply.
"No--" I replied.
"Are you a club-world, platinum-club, club-elite, world-elite, silver-club or silver-club-elite member?" She rattled off. My head was spinning!
"I..I don't think so," I replied nervously.
"Well, sir, then you shouldn't be standing on the red carpet," she said sharply, pointing to the ground.
I looked down and I was indeed standing on the red "elite" side of the boarding walkway. I gently stepped two feet to my right on the "grey" side of the walkway carpet, apparently for regular folks like me.
"Welcome to flight 289 to Houston, your seat number is 29 C." It was a bright smile now!
When we disembarked, as we walked out of the plane, the now familiar red and grey carpets were laid out on the walkway. Nobody was watching me, so I casually walked onto the red carpet and waited for that "elite" feeling to sweep over me. But nothing happened! Regular grey or the elite red, it was the same.

"The first step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go. Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated." ~ Confucius

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