Got home last night from my 30 hour trip to wild and exotic Minneapolis where it was about 10 below upon arrival at nearly midnight on Sunday, and about 5 when I left yesterday around 4pm ("felt like -10," according to Weather.com). "Wild" applies more to the Denver stopovers, where a storm made de-icing necessary, and they were worried about the wings icing over again while the tail was being done. Minneapolis was actually mostly clear but extremely dry. There was so much static electricity in the air that just rolling over in bed set off miniature lightning storms among the sheets. Even though we had to hike a few block to breakfast and then a few more blocks to our meeting at Game Informer it really wasn't all that bad. I had a capilene top on under my cotton sweater, gloves and a hat and I was perfectly comfortable... other than the snot inside my nose freezing. That was a very odd sensation.

Keep your hat on, Mary. It's cold.

I flew United because there weren't many choices, and it's interesting to see the marked cultural difference between them and (efficient) airlines like Southwest and JetBlue. United still makes a huge deal out of "perks" for their business and wealthy/idiot customers with things like boarding first over a--I kid you not--red carpet (a red mat slapped down over the same ol' dirty airport gate carpet we all walk on). It's bizarre to me why anyone bothers with first class for flights under two hours; a free drink or two does not justify paying double the economy price. However, since United is squeezing the economy seats so close together in the back to the point where even I at 5'3" have trouble crossing my legs, paying more begins to make more sense. If you want an inch or two more space without paying first class prices, they also offer "economy plus" for anywhere from $14 to over $100. I ended up in one of these seats between Denver and Minneapolis (without being charged the fee) and in my case it didn't make that much difference, but the flights were short.

United's policy of nickel-and-diming their customers to death causes other problems, too. While their system of boarding the window seats first, followed by middle and then aisle makes a lot of sense, the new charges for checked bags mean that everyone wants to carry on their luggage so the people in aisle seats who end up boarding last are SOL because the overhead space generally fills up before they even set foot on the jetway. I had trouble on two of the flights even finding room for my small duffel. At least the people whose bags were yanked away to be checked weren't then charged for it, but I wouldn't have been at all surprised if they had been.

In United's favor, they have friendly pilots and their cabin staff is generally nicer than American's.