Check in online 24 hour before my flight? Don’t mind if I do! I like using the Westjet app to check in, and to get a scan code for a ticket, right on my phone. I’m not gonna lose my phone, so that way I won’t lose my ticket.
At that time, I can choose my seat for no extra charge. Choose before, and it seems like you have to pay. I keep hearing that there is more leg room in the exit row, and it looks like a window seat in such a row is free, so I choose it. One last dinner, picked straight from Lindsey’s garden, and we are off to the airport. I have a craving for chocolate or some such dessert, so we stop at the Purple Perk on the way out. Suitably trendy, and they even have wraps. We get one to go, and a piece of pie to share, and that’s about the time I start getting stressed about my departure time. I decided to carry on my luggage, and have already checked in, so all I have to do is security and make my way to my gate. Plane boards at 10 pm. We are downtown Calgary. It is 9:20. I may have made a mistake, despite Lindsey asking if I was sure about going for dessert. She lets me drive her car, and doesn’t even stress about me going 10 over the limit on the deerfoot, which appears to be at least the norm. I bail out of the car, last minute hugs, and hustle into security. No prob, I am a pro at this. Yeah, I forgot to take off my belt. Whoops, there is my phone left in the tray after I grab the rest of my stuff. Good thing there is a guard there to call my attention to it, as I am walking away. Ok, stride towards my gate. Wait, counting down? Turn around, skirt a construction zone, walk thru a door advising US travellers to have their passports ready, and I make it to my gate. Phew, just enough time for a bathroom break and a water bottle fill, then they are boarding exit row people first. Another perk! I should choose exit row more often!
I assure the stewardess that I feel capable of opening the exit door after she instructs me on how to do so, should the need arise. I am pretty sure chances are slim I will have to make such a choice, as airplanes are one of the safest ways to travel, and in the case of a crash, death is almost certain anyways. Ahh, there is more leg room here! Neat! And the seat beside me remains empty, as we taxi and takeoff. Great, time to stretch out…. what’s this? The armrests in the exit row don’t lift?!? Noooo! What have I done? Exit row is terrible!
After some fitful tossing in the seat, trying to find some sleep, I finally remember why the seat back table. I have tried to sleep on those before,, but usually am co close to the seat ahead that I can hardly get my head down to the table, let alone stretch my back out. But wait, this iis exit row! Just maybe…
Sure enough, in this row it works. I enjoy a fitful nap on the seatback tray. Once we begin to descend, I eat my wrap, and blink some bleary semblance of wakefulness in to my eyes. Deplane, and there is my mum, waiting to meet me. In respect to the early hour, and my complete lack of being a morning person, no matter the time zone, Mum is reserved in her greeting.
Hello Nova Scotia!
Wherever you are, Be There 