this is a frustration about myself, and I wonder if many of you all can commiserate.

Why is it that when it comes to air travel, I/we are willing to spend so much time planning/thinking about what will happen regarding such a relatively short time on the plane? I.e. probably in very few areas of my life do I spend this ratio of time and care (although I should) -- many minutes thinking about what choices to make regarding say, a few hours' duration in the future.

Part of it is that when planning a trip, there are many things that need to be taken care of, that's for sure, and excusable. But now I'm talking about stuff like seat assignment, meal choice, upgrade, boarding priority, etc. Look, it's just a place to sit for a few hours. It's just one meal out of your life, and maybe you wouldn't have even planned to eat at that time. It's just a piece of paper that says you get to go on board the plane first to sit there in that seat for the same amount of time as other people. I spent 10 minutes writing up an email for a friend who asked how to handle the 3P checkin and security at Dulles, after gifting the status to him.

What I'm saying is if I didn't spend the time doing all this stuff, it would probably be not a terrible flight either. Or consider someone who doesn't know about all this, and doesn't feel any need to dwell on such things -- they get off the plane just the same and no worse. I flew Icelandair a little while ago, and I didn't get to choose any of the things I do with UA -- I was powerless! The flight was not great, but it was done in a few hours, and I've forgotten about it.

Is UA feeding this obsession somehow? What is this this that I'm suffering from? I feel I should try devoting more of my energy to productive things instead... Admittedly, knowing all these things about UA, and spending time on the details puts you in practice for things like irreg ops where you can run circles around other stranded passengers, and it pays off. But still...

Ah well.