I love it when a plan comes together.

Here I am, sitting cozily in my hotel room in Providence, Rhode Island. My trip here today from Toronto was full of wonder and adventure. My colleague and I had it planned. We were going to have a late lunch, and then mosey on over to Pearson International Airport with loads of time to spare for our 4:10 flight. Well, lunch started a little later than it should have and we were rushing out at around 2:30 to fight traffic to the airport. Not an ideal start.

Well, we get to the airport and the line up for check in is a mile long. I’m not exaggerating. My colleague has Elite Status with Aeroplan, so he has the privilege of checking in at the Executive Class line. I went with him. (I’m not Elite and I shouldn’t be there.) The lady at the check-in was classy enough to overlook my brazen approach, and even put a priority sticker on my luggage. Off to US Customs. Once I got through the line, I went up to the wicket. Besides saying Hello, all the agent did was hum and dance, stamp my customs declaration and shoo me along. On to security. The guy at security laughed and joked with me and my belt buckle didn’t even make the detector beep. Then, in Providence Airport, my bag was the first off the plane, thanks probably to the priority sticker the nice lady at Air Canada put on it.

What’s the big deal with people complaining about traveling through customs?