RailsConf ... the Adventure Begins

The waiting begins: 
3:16 AM awake with the alarm, crawl out of bed, sss, last moment packing, garage, car, freeway, air port, and the waiting begins. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:00 with boarding starting at 5:30. I arrived at the air port at 4:20. It turns out that the security checkpoint doesn't open until 4:35. Except this morning when it opened at 4:50. A bit of waiting at the gate, did not get an exit row. Sitting at the gate, in my seat on a full plane I see a ground crewman start to bring large sand bags to the underside of the plane, and then more, and then another crewmen starts bringing some too... "May I have your attention please? There has been a fuel spill and everyone must exit the plane while it is being cleaned, as a precautionary measure." 

American Airlines is horrible: 
By the time boarding begins again, it is to late to meet my connecting flight to Portland. I have already called the American Airlines reservation office and am on the 4:30 flight. I missed the 9:00 flight and the 11:45 flight is full, but I am on the waiting list. I naturally do what anyone would do, I ask to be upgraded. "No." "No, I am not authorized to give you an upgrade." "No, I am not authorized to take care of our customers and make the best out of a bad decision." "I am sorry if that means neither you, your family nor any member of your business will never fly with American Airlines again." As the plane boards I am still in line at the gate to try to get something (there were several empty first class seats). I overhear the gate agent give someone a seat on the 11:45 flight to Portland, the same seat that the phone rep just told me is not available. The gate rep had to call his "Revenue Manager" to get approval. I am last in line and there is only one other person in line at the counter, everyone else has boarded the plane. Not wanting to be the reason the plane is an extra minute or two late, I step out of line and hand my boarding pass to another agent. I lean and gently ask if I may have one of the empty first class seats, she is very stressed, I watch as her stress level rises. I softly add "Because of this problem I am loosing almost a days work, with the extra room I could at least get some work done."

First Class is wonderful:
The last time I flew first class was on my honey moon almost a decade ago. The airline industry should be ashamed of themselves for not giving everyone this type of treatment. I am horrified, but loving it. Everything is better. The seat is better, the food is better, the waitress is nicer and prettier. I fell asleep for the first twenty minutes. As soon as I awoke the waitress asked for my beverage order. She brought some water (in a glass) and a coffee (in a mug) with three sugars, smiles sweetly and asks "Is that enough sugar?" Write unit tests for a bit and then comes the omelet (choice of omelet or pancake). Real napkin (of course), real silverware (including real knife) and real food. The omelet was quite good, the fruit was fresh, the biscuit warm and the butter soft. When I am done, the waitress clears my tray almost immediately and asks if I would like anything else? I am quite comfortable. This is nice. This should be what everyone gets. It is despicable the difference between first class and coach. But I am still loving it. Back to writing tests.