Friday, April 25, 2008

Signs and Omens

I'm not superstitious, but in statistics there is a concept known as conditional probability, the probability of event B happening given that A has occurred.

* So what does it mean when your duffel bag rips while you are trying to pack it? In my case I just went to REI and bought another one. Good sign or bad?

* I got picked up by Super Shuttle from Minh's at 5am, guy took us around town and to National (DCA) and my flight was out of Dulles (IAD). Driver tells me my reservation is from DC to Reagon (which it is, I just checked, I must've selected the wrong airport). He says I'm in luck because he's headed out there anyway. At this point he's ambivalent on whether he can get me there on time, it's 0600 and I have a 0850 flight. We pick up two more people and head over to Dulles, whole time I'm worried about lines, closing of check-in and missing my first flight. He gets me there at 0650, I pay him the extra fee for Dulles and run into the airport. I find the Air Canada line empty and try to check in my bags. I get an error, saying something about itinerary change... I hand the agent my passport and he goes over some info and hands me back my ticket. I got put on another flight, I had got bumped to an earlier flight of 0830. Either the other one was cancelled/recheduled or something else happened. I had checked the status of my flight the night before and it showed no changes. The whole check-in and security thing took less than 20 minutes. Was at the gate with time to spare. Does this mean I'm to expect close calls but spectacular finishes? A lot of worrying for nothing?

* I was on my laptop at the gate and this girl beside me asked if they had wireless in the airport. I told her they had, she was worried cause she had limited batteries and didn't want to waste it checking for wireless if there wasn't any. I pointed out to her that there are random outlets around the terminal and she tells me she forgot her power plug. Earlier I had noticed she had an Macbook, so I offered her my power plug. She thanked me and took off looking for a power outlet, leaving her bags in her seat. I waited for a bit and then they started calling for boarding for my flight. I had assumed she was going to be on my flight because she had this cute French accent, so figured she'd be back before my flight left for Montreal. After a bit of fretting on my part, she comes running back and hands me my power plug and I board my plane as the last passenger (no she wasn't on my flight, wish we had more time to talk...). I guess another sign of close calls?

So ripped bags, wrong airports, changed flights and last minute power plugs, what does it all mean?

PS: I over heard an United employee at Dulles excitedly telling another one it was Aloha Friday, anyone know what that means? Do they all fly jump seat to Hawaii and party on Aloha Friday?