More thoughts on flying

• Why the hell does it cost $500 for an upgrade on US Airways? Their Envoy class isn't that much nicer than some airlines' economy class.
• In books and movies someone always gets upgraded at the discretion of the flight attendants. I wish that would happen to me.
• I did, however, get to have three seats to myself. I put up the armrests and slept across all of them, which was great.
• I am probably one of the only people who says things like, "Yes, I owe a fee for that." My local airport doesn't do international flights (except to Canada and the Caribbean, but airlines always put them in the same category as US flights), so when I was checking my luggage all the way through to Heathrow (I was connecting in Philadelphia), the flight attendant wasn't sure if she was supposed to charge me for my overweight bag. I said yes. My theory is that I want my bags to be checked and tagged properly so they don't get lost anywhere!
• I really like Philadelphia airport. It's very clean and nice and has good air. I know the "good air" part sounds weird, but it's important when you have to spend 22 hours traveling.
• My new fun activity is buying day passes for the lounges. The US Airways lounges aren't all that exciting (it turns out there's an even specialer lounge for first class passengers), but they're nice and quiet and the seats are comfortable. It's a good place to wait when you have a four hour layover.
• The problem is, though, you have to keep an eye out for where your gate is. If your gate is far from the club, you have to leave kind of early. And with the goal to keep everything quiet in the club for people who are trying to work/relax, they never announce anything.
• The lounge for Virgin Atlantic looks amazing. They have a spa!!!!!
• I hate the smell of airplanes. They all smell the same, and it's gross.
• The in-flight magazines in the seat pockets in front of me had obviously gotten wet at some point. I do not want to know why.
• This was one of those flights where they had one screen for the whole cabin, rather than individual screens behind the seats. And the film they showed was "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Why would they show a movie like that, that had gory scenes just as we were eating?
  
• Why do people push up so close to each other when trying to get off the plane? It won't make you get off any faster, as you can't walk through me. As we were trying to get off the plane, a woman had her little girl practically on top of me. I was worried because I wanted to get my carry-on down, and I didn't want to hit her in the head.
• A girl fainted as we were trying to get off. I think that's the toughest part - you're standing up for the first time in hours, it's warm and crowded, and you're stuck there.
• It was the first time ever that both of my bags showed up on the belt at the same time. Luggage went very quickly, as it was a very empty flight. Sweet!
• For years I've been using my laptop backpack as my carry-on. I was getting tired of it, as it gets very bulky and heavy very fast. So this year, for Christmas I asked for a rolling backpack, and I got one. It's basically a carry-on suitcase, but it has straps that unzip from the back and a removable daypack on the front. It was amazingly useful. I recommend that everyone get one!
• Back in Ox and very tired. But I need to do some shopping, so I should go do that now.