The Travel Crunch

I am truly a travel snob when I complain about the current state of World Business Class on Northwest Airlines. Sure, its great to go through the short lines for check-in, short lines for security, and to get a nice glass of champagne as soon as I get to my giant seat. I was offered more beverages on this flight than me and my college friends could handle (and that is a lot). All good things.

But the food was mostly arse. For the uninformed, that's mock Scottish for "ass". I actually had one of the best meals in my blessed life flying to Japan. Fresh seafood, good sushi, and it all clicked. Not this time.

Today, we had a salad to start -- and that is where they should have stopped. I knew I was in trouble when the steward was complaining that the menu I had in my hand wasn't really what we were going to get. I had a choice of beef, chicken, or fish and the only one that sounded good was the beef. I thought my salad was the main beef course, since it was small side salad and two very rare medallions of beef fillet. For airplane food, it was really a good dish. Then came the unexpected main course, a bunch of beef and rice -- some sort of faux Chinese preparation. If only I could have had a slice of beef pie for dessert.

The movies were way below par, too. I managed to watch 'Be Kind, Rewind' (crap), '21' (not bad), and then used 'Solaris' (huh?) as a vehicle to take my mid-flight nap. Most of the movie options were at least 2 years old. Big disappointment since this is usually my chance to catch up with the wife on movies. And what the hell is Jack Black thinking these days?

No mid-flight pizza? A bag of chips instead? Not quite the same.

Just before landing, they served another meal. Going into Japan, we would normally get a good breakfast with several options regardless of what time of day it was. This time, we got the nastiest selection of cold stuff I could imagine. Chunks of cold, dry chicken (thought it was salmon), some mayo that had started to tint brown on top, two very hard, cold shrimp, a piece of sushi (couldn't eat it), a giant bread roll that crumbled away when I touched it, and some sort of whipped fruit mousse and cake dessert. I couldn't help thinking I was eating leftovers from meals served earlier in the day. Thankfully, they served hot coffee with all this and that was exactly what I needed.

My pen then self-destructed while filling out my landing form. My hands are stained black, my jeans may have some issues, and the pen (a favorite) was undoubtedly toast. Luckily the steward was being extra friendly and brought me some hot hand towels to destroy with the ink that was just about everywhere.

Now I am glad to be on the ground in Seattle waiting to catch my last flight to Portland then a bus to Corvallis.

Til then!