Another early morning departure time, this time the plane was scheduled to leave
at 9:55 AM. I was surprised when I checked my baggage, I had not been preselected for
additional searching as I had in 2002. In fact, they were really only concerned that
one of my suitcases was over 50 pounds and they wanted me to rearrange what I had packed
so both were under 50 pounds or they would charge me an additional $50. I didn't want
to mess with repacking in the middle of an airport concourse, so I paid the extra fee and
headed for the gate.
I figured out how to get through the X-Ray search quickly. I got behind someone who
looked like they were likely to be searched, and they were too busy with them to harass
me. My biggest problem was putting my shoes back on and the long walk to the gate.
I flew on Northwest Airlines this time, so the first leg of the trip was to Detroit, because just about every plane they fly goes through their hub at Detroit. I was seated next to a quiet older gentleman who was not much for conversation. But I was behind the engine and in front of the bathroom, so the odor and noise were somewhat overwhelming. I might have been off the list to be searched at every opportunity, but I was still on the list to be put in the noisiest and smelliest seat on the plane.
Arrival at Detroit, Michigan
I arrived at Detroit, and for a city with a reputation of looking like a bombed out war zone, the terminal looked really nice, with a shopping mall and hotel attached. I had a little over three hours to wait for the next flight to leave, so I looked around and had lunch.
This being Detroit, they even had a Ford Museum store and a GM store. I'm not an American car enthusiast, but these were at least entertaining.
I would later find out that this is only the Northwest Airlines terminal and the other unattached terminals are average to below average. I would also find out why Northwest could afford to spend so much money on their hub terminal.
Departure from Detroit, Michigan
I loaded on the plane to Nagoya a little before 4 PM, and it was more like a railroad freight car than a piece of aerospace technology. Compared to the American Airlines plane I took in 2002, the seats were smaller and much less comfortable, with less leg space, and no video screen on the back of the seat in front of you. They had overhead screens, but no in flight movies, just the longitude, latitude, and flight speed. Snacks have almost totally been eliminated, but in an ingenious money making scheme, they will be more than happy to sell you a snack box for $12. The passenger demographic was much different too. This plane was going to Manilla after Nagoya, and instead of being filled with middle to upper class older Japanese tourists, returning home from their vacations in the US, there were significantly more young couples with infant and toddler children, yelling loudly and running loose everywhere. I would not have been surprised to see someone trying to wedge a crate of live chickens into the overhead baggage compartment. I thought I was being loaded onto a 50 year old bus to cross the Andes Mountains in South America. And the flight crew was lazy to the extreme, delaying the flight and complaining to children's parents that they would not take off until these parents captured their children who were running up and down the aisles and strapped them into their seats. As opposed to the flight crew helping these non-English speaking parents to do this themselves.
I was seated next to what appeared to be a Philippine woman who was studying medical text books and an older Japanese woman. No one seemed interested in conversation. But the airline did manage to make sure I was directly behind the engine so that I couldn't hear anything even if anyone said anything.
The flight was over Canada, Alaska, and Russia, instead of over the ocean. I suppose I could count on a hard crash and a quick death on impact instead of drowning after treading water for a day or two. At 32,000 feet at 560 miles per hour watching scrub grass pass below, you have a lot of time to think. Anyone worried about preserving the pristine wilderness up around the Arctic Circle should probably get on one of these flights, because oil pumps and pipelines would be a definite improvement to the million square miles of nothing that is there now.
Thank goodness for the ipod, but next time, I'm buying some of those noise cancelling headphones.
