Back again!

Well, that was a good trip home. 11AM to 3:30PM door-to-door.


For this trip, I very happily relied on my BlackBerry as my go-to travel tool. BlackBerry Travel is a very nicely designed app that keeps track of my transportation for me, and stores everything that I need to know. On the way to the airport, I got an on-screen notification that my gate was changed, and my flight is on time. Nice!


When I got the airport, I went straight to security. Not the fastest, not the slowest line. I was excited to use my BlackBerry as my boarding pass. Even though I had previously intended to use my iPod, I decided that it would just make things more complicated. As I waited on line, I scouted out how the system would work. I noticed that at the podium where the TSA agent checks boarding passes and ID, there was a barcode reader facing the line. Nice. I get to do it myself.


Ready to pull out my paper boarding pass in case anything went wrong, I approached the podium and held my phone face down over the glass. It scanned. *phew* I was relieved. Of course, the agent then tells me that I did it too soon, and was supposed to wait for her go-ahead. (In all fairness, I did scan it while she was still checking someone else's ID). So I scanned it again, and gave her my ID. She looked at my ID, and looked at the display. It was almost too easy. She then gave me this card:

And that was it. She never touched or looked at my phone. Heh. I proceeded to security. It wasn't very well designed, because there isn't really any room for people to lay out their items before the metal detector. Cramped, but irrelevant, because I was in the zone. As my items went through, I hoped that my bag wouldn't get pulled. I almost thought he was going to say something, because he paused and then looked around. But I got my bag, and got out of there.


I was glad that I had no issues at all this break, because I didn't check a bag, so my carry-on was extra packed. Now that I think of it, there wasn't even anyone yelling about gels or liquids. I'm thinking of doing a breakdown of the contents of my bag later today if I have time.


Anyway, I headed over to my gate. Number 4. And then sat there for about an hour. Like last time, we were informed that the flight was overweight, and they were looking for five volunteers. Well, I wasn't up for it, and I couldn't be at risk of getting kicked off because I checked in 25 hours in advance. I was Zone 4 again, but I realized that it wasn't possible for me to get a lower zone on that flight. It doesn't really matter though, because there aren't more than 40 people on the flight. As soon as boarding starts, I'm standing ready. I board as soon as I possibly can. When Zone 3 was finishing, I stood near the gate, close enough to claim the spot of next up. She reached for the microphone, and I reached for the gate.


This was test two for my mobile boarding pass. Anxiously, I held out my phone under the barcode reader. It scanned. Of course, she wasn't done with announcing that Zone 4 was now free to board, so she motioned for me to wait. When she was done, she verified that I wasn't one of the people who might be denied boarding, and then waived me through. Yessss. Win! I was very proud of my BlackBerry. 


I speedwalked down and across the tarmac to board my ride home. Luckily, this flight was a little less than full. I had an open seat next to me, which Fudge gratefully accepted. Unfortunately, this flight attendant was a bit strict, so I had no takeoff song. I had a connection to make...To the bus. My flight was scheduled to land at 2:56 and the bus leaves at 2:55. However, I knew that we would land before that, so I was keen on making the connection. And I did, with about ten minutes to spare. 


I'm sitting in the lounge at Bankus now; it's about 4:30 and theres no one around.