The car was at my house at 1:20 PM and shortly thereafter, we were on our way to the airport. The car was brand new and one of the nicer town cars that I have been in. There was no traffic and it was a quick drive to the airport. Halfway through the drive, I realized that I thought I’d read that there was no denim allowed in the Red Carpet Club and I was wearing jeans. I called jkashlock and asked him to check the website for me. The website left it ambiguous, but I decided to take my chances.
When I got to the airport, I walked into the United Business “line”. I said “line” because there was no one in it. I walked up to agent, handed him my passport and told him where I was going. I checked my two bags and 2 minutes later, I had my ticket. My bags are checked all the way through to Venice. I have to stop at a kiosk in Munich to get my connecting ticket.
Next was the security lines. I wandered over to the security checkpoint, and got into the Premium “line”. Once again, there was no one in it (the regular security line wasn’t terribly long either but it was definitely longer than the Premium line). I was through security in 2 minutes and then caught the shuttle to the C terminal. Once in the C terminal, I checked to see where my gate was relative to the Red Carpet Club; and then I nervously headed into the club, wondering if they would toss me out on my ear for wearing jeans.
They said nothing about it. They check me in and told me to head down stairs.
It’s a large club (it seems to me). Lots of mahogany. I found a comfortable seat with a little table that has jacks for my laptop (which is convenient, even though I don’t need it. I have a power adapter that allows me to plug my laptop and iPod into the power jack on my airplane seat so I don’t have to worry about wasting battery life). There is a kitchen area that has soft drinks and snacks, all of which are “free”. I say “free” because I really paid for them when I paid my annual club dues. There is also a full bar (for which you have to pay). I’ll probably get a drink before I get on the airplane. In the meantime, I am sitting here sipping a Sierra Mist and eating some cookies. Here’s what my view looks like:
I recently added T-Mobile’s “hot spot” to my phone plan and since most of these clubs have T-Mobile hot spots, I’m able to access wireless, high-speed Internet without a problem.
It’s just now a few minutes past three. My flight boards at 5 PM so I have a few hours to kill. I’ve got the laptop, of course. I brought a few movies with me. I also have the new issues of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN and Call of the Wild and White Fang; plenty with which to kill two hours.
And my flight is on-time–so far…
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