I’m in a window seat, at 36,000 feet, and just finished up my free mini bottle of buffalo trace. Years ago, this was my happy place. Flying somewhere, leaving some place, being treated like someone special because I spent so much damn time and dollars for the right to sit on an airplane as it took me from point A to point B.

Sure, I’ve been a United 1K for half a decade at this point. Racked up almost half a million millions flown in the past 6 years. But it was more than that. I was a frequent flier, damnit. I could navigate airports with my eyes closed, could tell you the best seat on every plane in UA’s fleet. Hell, I called United Airlines “UA”, because that showed how much of an insider I was.

Now, we’re several years and one giant global pandemic later. The world’s been turned on its head so many times over the past two and a half years, I can’t even remember if it’s currently upside-down or rightside-up. And here I am, sitting in seat 10F (have booked 10D, don’t ask questions), having consumed my in-flight freebies, and …… it’s not the same.

Shocker.