Unhappy travels

What is it they say about it being better to travel in hope than arrive in Seattle?

The plane landed half an hour early, but that didn't get us into town any faster than usual. First, none of the Immigration staff qualified/willing to deal with foreigners had woken up until 7, and then the luggage conveyor belt began to malfunction, wiping out the time savings from arriving early. How I miss the days when I'd fly to Seattle from London with hand baggage only, and have my time wasted at Customs instead, because I fitted the right demographic for a drugs mule.

The flights themselves were ok. Landing at Narita the pilot brought the plane in with a godawful thump, but thankfully at Seattle they were more gentle. I paid the extra for Economy Plus on the NRT-SEA leg and didn't noticed much difference. There's slightly more leg room (there isn't a metal box jammed under the seat in front of you) but it's no wider, and the promised limitless booze never appeared. It wasn't as if I was desperate for 8 hours of solid drinking, but apart from disembarking the plane earlier (rendered pointless by the baggage delay) there wasn't really anything to recommend it over Economy.

Still, some people had it much worse than me. Imagine starting yesterday in Seoul and doing Seoul-Narita-St Louis-Detroit. Imagine going to Detroit from anywhere, really.

I've a short journey (with cryptic directions) from the airport and then I think I'm going to see how well I've acclimatised from the tropics to sub-zero Seattle. I've a feeling it doesn't go well...