Sort of like exposing the Freemasons!

So I just got back from a 32-hour trip to Dallas, Texas - 4 hour flights each way, between which was one business dinner, a night in an airport hotel, a 6-hour business meeting at the airport, and a couple hours in a bar.

The flight home seemed absolutely interminable. I don't know why it seemed particularly long - after all, I did the 20-hour flight between Seattle and Buenos Aires this year. My colleague/boss from Seattle actually did the whole thing in one day. As he and I were waiting for the shuttle train to our departure terminal, I looked at him and realized he had travelled halfway across the continent with nothing but a file folder full of paper. No bags, no briefcase, no computer, no coat. Like he'd just popped out of the city for a quick meeting at Microsoft. He said it did feel a little weird.

The meeting itself was in one of those "airline clubs," where super-frequent flyers can get away from the hustle and bustle and the rest of us unwashed masses. They always have opaque glass doors, I've noticed, tantalizing with the suggestion of great luxury, but revealing nothing. It turn out they also have meeting rooms, and catering, and my boss is a member so he arranged it all. At dinner the night before, I confessed that I'd never been in one of these places.

"Is it just like an extension of the rest of the aiport," I asked, "only quieter and less crowded? Or is it, you know, spiffy?"

"Oh," he said, "it's spiffy."

And so - I reveal what they don't want you to know about what's on the other side of those opaque glass doors. It's nice. Big cushy chairs, like a private gentleman's club. Little cubicles where you can set up and work. Free munchies and coffee. A full-service bar. The meeting room was nice, and equipped with a speaker phone and a computer projector screen.

But, I wouldn't say it was anything spectacular. The catered lunch was myeh. The wireless wasn't free. The cushy chairs were built for people at least 5'10" in height, as if to intimidate anyone smaller by making you slouch and dangle your feet. The coffee was terrible. Don't get me wrong, it's a much, much nicer place to wait for a flight. But it's not awe-inspiring like, say, the Biltmore.

So now you know.