I had to get up at 4AM this morning to catch a plane to come home. I love coming home but because I am "losing" three hours of the day flying east I have to leave very early to get home at a reasonable hour. I am not a morning person and so this is not a good way to start the day.
But I do it, I get to the airport (almost forgetting to fill the gas tank of the rental car), return the car and check in. So far so good.
At security the guard suggests I take off my shoes. Well I wear these shoes because I know they will not set off the metal detector. It wastes everyone’s time for me to have to take them off , get them scanned and put them back on. So I tell him not to worry and walk through. The detector does not go off (or not so that I could hear it) but they decide to do a more extensive search for who knows what reason. The first thing they do is ask me to take off my shoes. The guard says that all shoes with an inch thick sole or heel have to be scanned. I explain that the shoes I am wearing do not have soles or heels that thick but apparently the guard has made up his mind that the rubber along side my foot counts. Needless to say I was not in a good mood after this. My faith in the TSA (the security guys at airports) is shot. I believe I was lied to and given a hard time just because I was trying to save myself needless inconvenience. Plus if the rule the guard said about scanning shoes existed why didn't anyone insist on scanning them the last 8 times I went through security wearing them?
Giving me a hard time at 5AM is not going to get me in a good mood. Fortunately there was good news at the gate. I was given a free upgrade to first class. I had already gotten an upgrade for the second (shorter) part of my trip. Flying first class the whole way home (about 6.5 hours on airplanes) definitely helped my mood.
Getting home and being able to spend some time with my wife for the first time in almost 5 days helped even more though.

I’m probably not going to qualify for free upgrades next year though – not traveling enough. I'm going to miss them.