Living in Airports
Sep. 15th, 2008 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeTurns out the wi-fi as MSY is free. There wasn't much point in hanging around for one more hour at the hotel after we checked out at 2 PM, so we took a taxi to the airport, arriving way early for our 5:35 flight.
When we went to the check-in kiosk, it said "see agent." The agent announced that she needed to collect $30 from me for our checked bags. I told her, "I told the system about those bags when I checked in online."
She said, "It doesn't charge you at that time; you have to pay now."
I told her, "That's odd; it certainly did charge me when we were coming out from California," and handed her my credit card. She looked at me funny. I stayed pleasant. I can't expect much from people who know their employer is being merged and whose careers are in doubt. (I'd be very nervous if my job depended on the Memphis hub right now, as I predict Delta will de-emphasize it as soon as they can.) Anyway, as long as I only get charged the $30 once this direction, I'll be satisfied.
We had lots of time, so we looked around the airport. In the Tabasco Store, I had the misfortune of knocking a ceramic Tabasco-bottle holder off a shelf, costing me another $11. Phooey.
Having exhausted the excitement of MSY groundside, we proceeded through Terrorization, which was very quiet because we were not anywhere any flight times on the relatively small A concourse. Boy, this place is slow. Most of the shops are closed. But the relative quiet meant that Cheryl and I were able to find a couple of seats in the departure lounge next to a power outlet, which suits us both fine.
I also was able to spend some productive time answering e-mails from work, and also entering a bunch of receipts into Quicken. I find that I have around $10 for which I cannot account in cash. I expect it was probably money I gave in tips or to buskers that I forgot to record at the time.
It's about an hour until our flight is scheduled to depart, and since it's a CRJ-900, it doesn't take an hour to board like the bigger planes. From the weather outlook around here, it looks like we'll have a bit of a bumpy ride climbing up and over the remains of Hurricane Ike, but otherwise things look (fingers crossed) uneventful.
When we went to the check-in kiosk, it said "see agent." The agent announced that she needed to collect $30 from me for our checked bags. I told her, "I told the system about those bags when I checked in online."
She said, "It doesn't charge you at that time; you have to pay now."
I told her, "That's odd; it certainly did charge me when we were coming out from California," and handed her my credit card. She looked at me funny. I stayed pleasant. I can't expect much from people who know their employer is being merged and whose careers are in doubt. (I'd be very nervous if my job depended on the Memphis hub right now, as I predict Delta will de-emphasize it as soon as they can.) Anyway, as long as I only get charged the $30 once this direction, I'll be satisfied.
We had lots of time, so we looked around the airport. In the Tabasco Store, I had the misfortune of knocking a ceramic Tabasco-bottle holder off a shelf, costing me another $11. Phooey.
Having exhausted the excitement of MSY groundside, we proceeded through Terrorization, which was very quiet because we were not anywhere any flight times on the relatively small A concourse. Boy, this place is slow. Most of the shops are closed. But the relative quiet meant that Cheryl and I were able to find a couple of seats in the departure lounge next to a power outlet, which suits us both fine.
I also was able to spend some productive time answering e-mails from work, and also entering a bunch of receipts into Quicken. I find that I have around $10 for which I cannot account in cash. I expect it was probably money I gave in tips or to buskers that I forgot to record at the time.
It's about an hour until our flight is scheduled to depart, and since it's a CRJ-900, it doesn't take an hour to board like the bigger planes. From the weather outlook around here, it looks like we'll have a bit of a bumpy ride climbing up and over the remains of Hurricane Ike, but otherwise things look (fingers crossed) uneventful.
