dc-10

dc-10, originally uploaded by pr9000.

Your annoying TSA travel moment of the day:

So I busted my considerable ass last year to get silver elite status on Northwest. My lovely wife had gold for a while and even silver, and she always got the first class upgrades. It was like that scene in "Seinfeld" where Jerry and Elaine are on the same flight; he gets the upgrade, she doesn't, and their trip is a dichotomy (take that, Foo!) of wonderful and hideous travel.

I wanted that silver elite status, so that I could enjoy free upgrades all the time. And I flew what, for me, was a massive amount last year to get it. I didn't take any unnecessary trips, nor did I spend more on flights on Northwest than I would have on other budget carriers -- everything was above-board and legitimate. I just flew here, there and everywhere, and, a week before Christmas, the trip down the runway out of LaGuardia bumped me to silver.

So now that I'm silver, I've been on three Northwest trips. The first had no first class (commuter jet), and the second found me about 30th on the waiting list for first class upgrades -- most annoyingly so on an 8 a.m. Saturday flight from Denver to Minneapolis. Eight fucking a.m. in the morning and I was behind 12 people to get first class.

My lovely wife didn't exactly understand this. So when I checked in online yesterday, once again I got the "you're on the wait list" message. She told me to get to the gate immediately and ask once again about first class upgrades.

I did ... and here's the TSA moment of the day: I told the gate attendant about this discussion with my lovely wife, and without prompting, she printed out the wait list for me.

This is very nice, and I'm guessing very, very illegal. But it proves that I'm below 10th on the wait list. So I've got that going for me.