Travel is Hard

The airplane is not designed for sleep. That's not an oversight. It's the architecture. Seats recline just enough to feel like a gesture. The cabin temperature swings between too cold and not cold enough, depending on where you're sitting and how recently someone opened the overhead vent above your head. The drink cart comes through at intervals that bear no relationship to your sleep cycle. And the air itself, pressurized to simulate an altitude somewhere between six and eig

I was standing in the check-in line last week watching two travelers lose their composure at the desk agent. One was a single mother traveling with a toddler. The other was a business traveler with an airline status tag hanging from his backpack like a merit badge. Both were upset. Both raised their voices. But I had more patience for one than the other. The mother was anxious, you could see it in how she held her child, how her voice cracked when she explained her situation.

After twelve years of Delta Diamond status, I spent four months testing American Airlines. I achieved Executive Platinum, their top published tier. Got upgraded less often. Service felt more transactional. Small things accumulated: gate agents who couldn't solve basic problems, inconsistent recognition, a creeping sense that I was being processed rather than served. Four months was enough. I returned to Delta. This wasn't pure math. I didn't track percentages or calculate dol