Rocking chairs, Wi-Fi, and flight delays
I’m sitting at the confluence of terminals at the Charlotte Airport.
My flight is delayed 50 minutes, from 5:50 PM to 6:40. I was wandering aimlessly to kill time when I noticed a lot of people sitting with laptops in the rocking chairs (a nice, Southern touch) in front of the windows. It turns out there’s free Wi-Fi.
Rocking chairs and Wi-Fi? I’m home.
I had to walk the row of rocking chairs for about 15 minutes before I was able to snag one. Sure, there were plenty of open tables in the foot court area, which is about 30 feet away from the chairs, but I decided sitting in one of the rockers would add a quaint element to my flight delay. Apparently I’m not alone in this belief–the first three chairs that opened were taken before I could get to them.
If I don’t show up in New York by tomorrow I’m probably asleep in this rocking chair. Don’t worry, I’m happy.
UPDATE: Just as I finished the post the airport Wi-Fi dropped. As a result Charlotte’s ranking dropped from a 10 to an 8. (10 for intent, 6 for execution–I have a low tolerance for Wi-Fi outages.) That’s still four points above any other airport.
UPDATE 2: I should have been careful when I said, “I’m home.” I wrote the above three hours ago. Now I’m stuck in Charlotte overnight due to a weather delay. Argh, I really AM home. If I’m motivated and ticked enough later I expect to throw out a “flying sucks” post. I’m confident a rant will change flying for the better.
UPDATE 3: It’s five seconds later. I’ll just say it now and be done with it: Flying sucks. However, rocking chairs and free Wi-Fi do make it suck a little less.