It’s finally here, the time to travel to Seattle for my second MVP Summit. Only the day starts earlier than I normally do, and even earlier than I had originally planned. When I booked the flight in early February, I had selected an earlier-morning flight for cost reasons (to the tune of $100 less for this flight than for later flights). Besides, we had a pretty full day planned in Seattle on the Sunday before Summit, so arriving early wasn’t a huge problem. Originally, the selected flight was scheduled to depart at 7:40am from DFW, meaning with the traditional arrival at the airport two hour prior to departure and the 30 minute drive to the airport, I’d be getting up a little before 5:00. Of late, I’ve been getting up at 5:30, so this wasn’t a huge change. Even though I knew that I’d not get to bed early the night before, it’s not really a big deal.

But a few days ago, I got an e-mail from Marina that American had made changes to our flight reservations for the return to DFW from Seattle as well as our later flight from DFW to NOLA, and she sent the updated information to me. I got on and checked my own reservations, and the changes made to her flights were reflected on mine as well (we had scheduled to fly together on those two legs of the trip, so it would have sucked to have her scheduled to a completely different flight). That’s when I noticed that my outgoing flight had changed as well. An hour earlier. Ugh.

So I got up this morning at 4:00am and had the shuttle arrive at 4:35 (ten minutes before the requested 4:45, but that’s OK). That early on a Sunday, there’s no way I’m going to ask Anna to haul me to the airport, like I normally do. I’ve done that a couple of other times as well, and it’s usually me and the driver, and depending on the driver, it will be a quiet or talkative trip. This morning is a bit different, however, as there’s already another passenger in the shuttle, so the three of us converse throughout the brief trip to the airport.

I was the first to be delivered, because I was “cutting it close” in terms of my arrival to the airport. I was dropped off upstairs at the ticketing windows instead of downstairs at curbside check-in. I was initially a little annoyed, but in retrospect I have no idea if curbside check-in is open at 5am. I got into the terminal and shuddered at the line for checking baggage. I was tempted to take the escalator down and see if curbside was open or not when I noticed that the First Class window also offered its services to “Group One” passengers. Well, since I’m an AAdvantage Gold member, I get Group One status, so I whisked directly to the front of the empty line.
And found out the terminals were down.

The agent walked me over to self-check and we got my baggage tag printed as well as an updated boarding pass. I normally check in online the night before a flight, and last night was no exception. I even double-checked before I left the house that I had my boarding pass in my backpack. Yep, seat 9A. Window seat close to the front of the plane (one of the advantages of booking that far in advance). But my new boarding pass showed seat 30A. I asked the agent about the change in seats, and she looked at me like I was from another planet. I showed her my printed boarding pass that clearly showed my seat as 9A, reserved in February in the year of our Lord 2008.

“This flight has no seat 9A,” she tells me in a very matter-of-fact tone. “Row 9 is an emergency exit row and only has two seats on each side of the aisle.”

OK, the equipment got upgraded from the MD80 that was originally allocated for this flight. Not the first time I’ve had an equipment change right before a flight, but I guess it got changed from the time we left the house until we arrived at the airport. Sure enough, I’m on a 757, not an MD80. And honestly with all the delays the last four days with American cancelling thousands of flights to reinspect their MD80 fleet, I’m quite OK with the change in equipment. Except that I’m in the back of the plane and not the front. No big, I’ll deal.

I got through security quickly, not needing to use the Group One expedited line, because there were so few other passengers going through. I still have about an hour before boarding, so I decided to check out the Admiral’s Club to pull out my laptop and make sure it’s charged in case I want to use it on the flight. This is my first time into the Admiral’s Club, so I’m not sure what to expect.

What I didn’t expect is that it wouldn’t be open yet. Which it wasn’t. At 5:15am.
In fact, I can’t recall seeing fewer people milling around the terminal, especially at DFW. Especially after all the flight cancellations over the previous four days. I’d call it a graveyard, but I don’t know that it’s wise to liken an airport with a death metaphor. So I didn’t. But it was empty.

I did find the Samsung lounge near the Admiral’s Club, and unlike every other public place in the terminal, it has power outlets and comfortable chairs. Chairs are available all around the terminal, power is not. Used to be, but now that they can charge for access to power, all the “public” outlets have been covered by pay-for-power stations. Except in the Samsung Lounge. I assume that there must be some catch for the lounge, like there’s someone that goes through the lounge and tries to sell you all the cool stuff that Samsung has, but not today. Because there’s no one at the airport.

Except for the line of very impatient people at the Starbucks.

About 15 minutes before initial boarding time, I made my way over to the gate. I overheard a couple of other folks talking about the Summit, but they were across the seating area, and since I had no idea who they were, I opted not to go introduce myself to them. I know there are a number of MVPs in the DFW area, and supposedly one other actually in Denton, but I’ve met exactly one. Tom Shinder, and I knew him before either of us became MVPs, although I didn’t officially meet him in person until Summit last year. Ah, the joys of the remote work force.

There weren’t that many people in First Class or Group One, either, because once they called Group One for boarding, I walked right up to the counter and to the plane. Where I had to wait for catering to finish unloading. Because there was only one of them. At 6:15am.

I get the significant impression that very few people fly at God:30 in the morning. Maybe that’s why the fare was so inexpensive.

Seat 30A wasn’t too bad, except that it was the window seat of a three-seat row instead of the two-seat row I was expecting. That meant that I had to inconvenience two people instead of one when I got up to head to the rear of the plane mid-flight. The window was nicely placed in line with the seat so I could see out without having to resort to unusual bodily contortions.

We did fly directly over Denver, and the sky was clear enough that I got to take a different kind of picture of Coors Field than the others we have. And no, it’s not because the field was not buried in snow (which it wasn’t).

We did get a nice view of Mt. Rainier as we approached the airport, and landing went without a hitch. Though I got in earlier than expected, I waited in the gate area for Amy and Jim to arrive on their Frontier flight from Denver. We had a spot of lunch (after working to find an empty table in the food court), got our bags, and headed to the hotel. Well, I guess calling the Grand Hyatt a hotel is a bit of a misnomer, but anyway. Did I mention that the Dalai Lama is staying at the Grand Hyatt through Tuesday? Yep, he is.

After a brief layover in the hotel, we shuttled over to an associates boat for a slow tour around Lake Washington, where we witnessed a number of sights:

The house featured prominently in Sleepless in Seattle.

An office for a small company named Google.

A small house owned by a guy named Bill Gates.

After returning to the hotel, we made two more stops for the night. We registered at the summit, then headed over to the Rock Bottom Lounge for the annual SBS pre-summit party.

Since I’m still adjusting to my old time zone, and getting up very, very early, I shut down pretty early for Seattle time and am heading off to bed. More tomorrow.

Labels: Summit2K8