I flew ExpressJet from OKC to Albuquerque this morning. Rumor has it they’re trying to do things a little differently. I can now say, they are trying to get you fired up about flying with them. The pilot sounded like an early morning deejay. He was all, “Hey, welcome to ExpressJet! We’re going to have a great flight! The weather’s is great, our crew is fantastic, and we’ve got dollar beers in the back!” He actually said, “We’ve got dollar beers in the back.” Had it not been 7:00 am, I might have taken him up on that. But, see what I did take them up on…by clicking “more”.

The flight also offered XM Radio for every passenger. I was excited by this, because I have listened to my own music, maybe, 100-times since I left Dallas. Sadly, my XM worked all of 3-minutes. Hey, they gave it a shot.

Everyone at Express Jet was extremely nice (maybe a little too nice for one as grumpy as myself), and they did their best to make you feel welcome. The plane was a little cramped, but it was a short flight, so that didn’t really bother me. The one thing that did kind of freak me out was when the deejay pilot got on and said, “I’m Captain Doug and my co-pilot is Mark.”

OK, I don’t need to be your buddy. I need you to land the plane. I want my pilots to have serious names like Captain Smith…Captain Van Helsing…Captain Kirk…Captain America.

I’m all for treating each other like human beings and everything, but on the plane, Captain Doug and I aren’t equals. He has the lives of a large group of people in his hands, and I have to sleep, so maybe it’s cool if we’re not on a first name basis.

–GS (flying over the great state if Utah.)