Let the Adventure Begin

A free* stay in a world class hotel (Windsor Casino) and a free* supper, with the love of my life. What a great way to start a trip. Having someone drive you to the airport and then using the ‘Kiss and Fly’ saves on parking fees. Careful who drives you, remember it is a ‘Kiss and Fly’. In my case it all worked out well as the ‘goodbye’ brought me back to a time, long ago, when I said goodbye to my heart, at the same airport, and sent it to Belgium.

*not technically free as we had to feed the one armed bandits downstairs on the gaming floor. 

When you travel as a minimalist your ‘little bag’ is your everything. You will have researched weight and size restrictions for each airline you are flying with. You will also find the loopholes around ‘carry on’ and a ‘second bag allowance. All this having been met and my bag having passed the watchful eye of the gate attendant, I was confident I had pulled it off until, once on the plane (seat 1A at the entrance), I attempted to ram, cram and slam my bag into the overhead compartment.  I ignored my seat mate, who was an undercover flight attendant ( they live among us ). As it turned out my bag missed fitting by ‘this much’. Then I heard those dreaded words from Kate, our actual flight attendant: “I can place that in our sky cot for you sir”. I dug deep and found my most charming, helpless and appreciative smile and said that I would prefer to hang on to it. The main reason is that I didn’t want her to take it was because whenever I hear them say ‘sky cot’ I picture them chucking it out the window onto a cloud. ‘Sky cot’ my butt.

She sensed my reluctance and offered option number 2, she could keep it ‘on board’ and place it under another person’s seat ‘inside the cabin’. Although this wasn’t really what I was planning for, I removed my mini day bag, preloaded with my extra critical stuff, and surrendered my bag while still holding that smile. I had held up the boarding of the other passengers onto the plane long enough.

In these delicate ‘high level’  negotiations you have to know when to retreat. It was time. I was traveling alone after all and with my extreme motion sickness I might still need Kate as I fill barf bag after barf bag later on. I thought that Kate might be a fellow minimalist, by the nature of her job. I sensed a positive offer coming my way as I still held that smile. Sure enough the angel spoke these words “if you would like to move to the ‘wing seat’ there will be room there for your bag under the seat in front of you and no one else will be next to you either”. I didn't know I could move that fast. It was like I was in a transportal and found myself at seat 4B before I could thank her or change my smile to one of gratitude, appreciation and relief.

So here is the travel tip. Don’t pay for upgraded seats just remember that the ‘wing seats’ are usually the last assigned and if you give them a reason to offer this to you then there is a great chance you will get it. Avoid the temptation to ask for it and worse yet say ‘I know that there are seats...bla bla bla’ if you are kind, patient and hopeful sometimes good things happen. The added bonus was that I am now trained as an ‘emergency door opener’. I agreed to single handedly take responsibility for the entire crew and passengers in the event of an emergency. I was that guy, the silent, trained but eager hero. Fortunately, my services were not needed.