Paging Northwest Passenger Michael...

I've just travelled 14.5 hours, 6,500 miles, 12 time zones! (in coach class...no more to say!) After arriving in Osaka, Japan, everybody leaves the plane with their carry-on and and continuing passengers proceed to passenger screening for another security/passport/boarding pass check. The plane is refueled, cabin cleaned and security checked, the layover takes about 2 hours. After going through the security check, I immediately proceed to the men's room to make an organic deposit! Ahhhhh! After taking care of immediate business i'm walking back to the gate area and hear "paging northwest passenger michael r........, please report to the gate agent"! (it's a lot funnier to hear in a Japanese accent! the name is definately a mouthfull!) now, i know not a soul on the plane or in Osaka! i'm thinking it's about the extra bag of pretzels or whatever it is I'll give it back or whatever. Imagine my surprise when I get to the gate and the agent asks if i mind an upgrade to Business Class (old school first class!). it seems they overbooked coach class for the leg of the trip to Taipei! After careful consideration, i told her okay, if i had too! (HAH!)
Well, that was certainly a bonus!

Bankruptcy!

Bankruptcy will do that to you! On last years flights, there was free beer or wine with your meals. Now, 4 oz of wine is not a lot or a can of beer, but effective the first of this year, alcohol now cost $5US each. Oh well, best not to drink on a flight like this anyway!
You're lucky if you get any beverage service on a domestic flight of under 3 hours at all!
At least that's the story from Coach, i mean cattle class!

Rapture, and the Tribulation Force!

This is the "Coach" seating on the 747. The width of the seat, distance between the centerline of the armrests is 17.5". The pitch, distance between any point on your seat and the same point on the seat in front of you, is 31.5". As you can see, there is not a lot of room! But for the price, it beats walking!!
Each time I've travelled between Detroit and Taipei or back, the plane has been completely full!
When I got my tickets this time, 3 days before departure, the travel agent couldn't get me a seat on an aisle. He said to wait till checkin and hope for a cancellation. Being the nervous type, i logged onto NWA.com and reserved a middle seat, just so that i would have one!
During the online check in Friday morning (24 hrs ahead of departure, I was able to find an open aisle seat! Whew, so i changed my seat assignment.
Saturday the plane is ready to depart from Detroit, and the plane is filling up quickly. All of a sudden, they are closing the doors and the seat next to me in the middle is empty! Oh my God! the first time that ever happened. as a matter of fact, there were 5 or 6 empty seats in the whole coach section.
So i put my neck collar on, eyedrops in, and my birthday present of noise reducing headphones, and settled in for a 15 hour flight. The noise reduction headphones were amazing! (no, they are not the Bose ones! $) But still, every little bit helps! there is such a constant noise level of the air circulation system, engine noise, and just general background noise, especially in the center of the airplane over the wing. flicked the little power button on and wow! it dropped the background noise by at least 50%. may not seem like much, but for 15 hours it is!
Eat, doze, read, pee, eat, doze, read, pee! that's the next 15 hours. you get a beverage service and a tiny bag of pretzels! shortly after that they start the first meal service. i couldnt tell you what it was!
just like i couldn't tell you what the 3 movies were that they showed! after the meal, lights go down, shades go down, and they want you to sleep. most people do, or at least try. The aisle seat is nice because if i want to get up and walk to the back of the plane to stand and stretch, i can without crawling over someone. I try to drink a lot of fluids. After the 3rd movie, the cabin crew starts to serve breakfast, or was it dinner? but they no sooner finish cleaning up and its time to bring your seat backs and tray tables to their upright and locked positions. At this point, you're 30 minutes out of Osaka and beginning to descend.

On the road again!

Well, here we go again! Sorry to take so long! i'm still not sure what the day or time is!
this is a boeing 747, a very elegant airplane. this is the 400 passenger version.