Early morning

I set my alarms for 4.30am, 4.50am and 5.05am this morning, each recurring every 15 minutes, as I had my taxi coming at 5.25am to take me to the airport.  I made sure that everthing bar essentials was packed the night before, and everything left over was laid out ready for final use before being packed, and I made it down to the lobby just about on time, where the taxi driver was waiting.  All I had to do was drop my bag off and go through security, and the whole procedure took very little time, as I had suspected - in fact, less than half an hour after leaving my hotel room, I was through security, so I had time for a coffee.

It was just about light as we took off, in a Boeing 737-900.  I had the aisle seat and somebody was in the window seat, with a gap between us.  It was very modern, with a seatback TV for everybody on the plane, plus for $6 (free in 1st class), you could have live satellite TV throughout the flight.  In the end, I didn't pay for that.  Yet again, I seemed to be seated behind the only person who fully reclined their chair for the whole journey.  The flight arrived early at Houston, but it was a long walk to the other end of the terminal building for the Atlanta flight.  I knew I was on the upgrade standby list for this flight, because I saw it on the website when I checked in.  However, when I arrived in Houston, I looked at the list on my laptop and I wasn't on it any more.  I enquired at the desk why my name had been dropped off, and the lady poked around the computer for a bit and finally found out that I had indeed been put in first class, in seat 1A.  Sadly, this was an older aircraft with no TVs at all, but I did get a free lunch: nuts, bowl of fruit, shrimp salad with champagne vinaigrette, cheese and crackers, two Milano biscuits, and constant refills of water and coffee - all served on proper plates, in proper glasses, with metal cutlery!  I had intended to watch a TV programme that I had downloaded, however, by the time the meal was over with, we had nearly arrived at Atlanta.

I took the MARTA train from the airport into the centre of town and then got a bit lost finding the hotel, not helped by the directions being wrong (the bit where it says turn right, should say turn left), but fortunately, there are lots of maps around in the street so I didn't go far wrong.  I arrived at the hotel and had a couple of surprises!

Firstly, as a Gold priority club member, I could choose a free gift (I chose a free breakfast, as the Internet here is free).  Secondly, I noticed my name up on the wall in reception on a "Guest of the Day" poster!  I'm not sure how they choose the Guest of the Day, and unfortunately, they'd spelt my name incorrectly and got the first and last names around the wrong way, but it was definitely me.  The Guest of the Day automatically receives a free breakfast (so I've got two vouchers for free breakfasts, which is handy, as I'm here for two nights) plus a wad of vouchers for free drinks in the hotel bar, which is not so useful for me.

A colleague from work arrived at Atlanta airport from London a couple of hours after me, but he's staying out of town near a customer site.  We are going out for dinner tomorrow evening.  Maybe we'll find something to drink for free in the bar afterwards, although he'll be driving, so won't be able to use up all the vouchers.