Home Again Yeah! and Way to go Southwest Airlines!!

Today started at 6:00am when I could sleep no longer with that annoying voice nagging me to get up and get some work done. I awoke with a ton of items on my plate and decided to get up and do something rather than lay in bed. I logged in to the clients site and attempted to download a few updates to their software. I was not able to work from the Hotel last night due to the clients system running slow. Hampton Inn was not the culprit for once... I think their backup may have been slowing down performance..

None of the downloads worked until I got on site and started it from the clients server. I did get to the practice early and worked on getting some notes together prior to them opening at 8:00am.

I cleaned up a few loose ends and got their immunizations in nice shape. I'm finishing notes to email now.

I left at noon with plenty of time to get from Athens to the ATL airport.. I had that same feeling before when I missed my plane. I was pretty nervous with a 3:16pm flight and a good 1.5 hour drive with good traffic. The ride on 316 Atlanta Highway was nice and quick till I-85... Slowed a little and then I-85 was light. I got to the downtown section and we were in stop and go past the curve. I made it to Virginia Ave Shell to fill up at about 1:50 0r so. I was fleeing good. I hit the turn to the airport and boom there was all the traffic for some reason.

This was the worst back up I have ever seen at ATL. GREAT... Dropped the car at Avis and I was still in good shape. Checked a bag and then realized the line was horrific. worst I had ever seen for Security. It was 2:00pm now and I had and hour and 15 mins to get to the gate. I can't believe how rude people can be at cutting in line at the Atlanta airport. This really was looking bad. I made it through security and it was now 3:00pm.. Thanks Delta for going out of T2 today. I just had a short walk to the gate from Security and did not even have to get on the train. I heard rumors that the C gate had lost power so that may have added to the chaos but I think it was just a Friday in Atlanta and i will try to avoid these 3:15 flight from now on.

Got the boys and met Amy for Dinner. We had a nice family dinner and even had some fireworks while we ate. I'm looking forward to a nice quiet weekend with baseball and softball games and helping the kids get some homework projects done.

News of note this week:

BlogWorld in Vegas kicked off the first Blogger convention yesterday and today in Las Vegas.

The Best News of the week for me has been Southwest finally implementing their changes for business travelers!! Woo Hoo!! I'm on the A-List and I'm 5 credits form a companion pass right now. Sweet!

I looked today on my Southwest login and see I made the A-list already. Southwest will give you an Auto A boarding pass 36 hours before your flight. Which negates Iboard A which I used for a few months. They also will Board you by the number assigned on your boarding slip . It's about time and totally does away with the Cattle Call standing in line for 45 minutes prior to a flight. Thank you Southwest Management. This should definitely draw more business travelers. I have always flown Southwest when possible just Please Please Please add Atlanta to your route map???

Here is a link to their changes. http://www.southwest.com/new/?ref=HP_hero_110707

Here is addl info from Southwest website:

Rapid Rewards A-List Membership
Effective Thursday, November 8, 2007
Introducing the Rapid Rewards A-List, where Rapid Rewards Members who fly 32 or more qualifying one-way flights within a 12-month period will receive reserved boarding privileges for an entire year. When you purchase your travel at least 36 hours prior to your flight time, we’ll reserve you the best boarding pass number available—most likely an “A.” And since it’s already reserved, it’s one less thing to think about. You can just print your boarding pass and go! Log in to your MySouthwest® account to see how close you are to becoming an A-List Member—because flying more always gets you more.
When you qualify for our A-List membership, you will automatically be added to Rapid Rewards' A-List, and we will notify you by e-mail (if an Account E-mail Address is designated on your account) or by postcard.
A-List qualification is based on actual revenue flights flown, not Rapid Rewards credits earned.
Once you qualify for Rapid Rewards’ A-List, you are entitled to reserved boarding privileges for 12 months, which means that Southwest Airlines will automatically reserve a boarding pass for you 36 hours prior to each of your confirmed Southwest Airlines flights to ensure you will receive the best available boarding pass prior to the start of regular checkin.
For a Member with Rapid Rewards’ A-List membership to receive reserved boarding privileges, the Member must include his/her Rapid Rewards account number in his/her reservation at least 36 hours prior to checkin. Reserved boarding privileges will be provided for A-List Members for both revenue and Rapid Rewards Award travel on Southwest Airlines-operated flights as long as the above requirement is met. Reserved boarding privileges are not available on ATA Airlines flights.
Southwest Airlines will “reserve” boarding passes for A-List Members, but Members will still be responsible for “printing” their boarding pass. Passengers who do not obtain a boarding pass and are not present and available for boarding in the departure gate area at least ten minutes prior to scheduled departure time may have their reserved space cancelled and will not be eligible for denied boarding compensation.