Starting your day

When I woke up just shy of 2am this morning, I knew I was going to be in for a long day. It's not a daily occurrence for me, but I'm sure if I was required to be up at that time I might get used to it.

I mention this because I don't think the staff at United Airlines are morning people. They were helpful and attentive, but they were overwhelmed. I think I know why: They start about 45 minutes later than all the other airlines, yet they have 6am flights just like everyone else. This means they have to scramble the moment they turn on the machines (which looked like they were time locked to 4:45, no exceptions) to get everyone checked in. Since it's a Wednesday (cheap travel day) there were a lot of casual fliers and just as many going international.

I start to wonder if these poor folks are paid hourly wages. Is this a scheme by United to shave a few bucks off their payroll by starting their people later in the morning? If so, it's not exactly resulting in a great experience for anyone.

After I boarded my Asiana flight (where all of the staff are amazingly friendly and nice, a top notch airline), I realized that something was missing from the plane: First Class. They had Business and Travel class, that's it. I guess I always pictured 13 hour flights having that option for the super-frequent flier.

I'm in Korea now, looking at my last flight of the journey. Perhaps I'll sleep a bit this time if I'm lucky.