Alaska Airlines from Austin Bergstrom International Airport - South Terminal to Indianapolis

Life, my dear adventurous souls, is a tour de force of ironies, like choosing a flight from Austin Bergstrom International Airport - South Terminal, only to discover that your chosen airline is named after a large, profoundly cold part of planet that most of the populace couldn't locate on a map if there was a bountiful supply of free beer at stake. It's like preparing for a road trip in Texas and deciding to opt for a dog sled. But here we are, gladly strapping ourselves into an "Alaska" branded metal tube headed to... Indianapolis. The world is a funny place. Isn't it?

Seriously, what's not to love about an intimate get-together with a few hundred strangers for several hours, all offering their unrequested opinions about in-flight services, mile-high etiquette, crying babies, and the mysterious allure of the "economy class - because, well, we are all economists up in the air, aren’t we?" Sharing intimate knee-to-knee conversation and snatching elbowroom - it’s all part of the journey, the communion of the semi-sardined. It's a bonding experience of which novels could be written, if any of us could only find the necessary elbow space for jotting down our Dickensian epiphanies.

Moving past this beguiling introduction, let’s turn our focus on flights, of the non-stop variety to be precise. Now, indulge me when I say, there’s something particularly enticing about direct flights. It's nearly analogous to a spotless romance where there exists no third party (read: layover) to meddle or disrupt – just you, your journey, and a destination that patiently waits.

And speaking about destinations, did you know that the sun, in the Alaskan town of Barrow, greets its residents for about 84 days straight in summer and goes on a sabbatical in winters for 67 days? Quite a peculiar twist of celestial loyalty, if you ask me! Who needs a daily rise and set when you can lump all the sun into one extended smorgasbord?

As intriguing as the concept of non-stop, one-way trips is, round-trip airfare and the delirious prospect of returning to the warm, loving embrace of Austin’s South Terminal is quite a compelling narrative too. Nostalgia hits when the rubber tires burn on the asphalt on your journey back from Indy, and you think to yourself – there’s no place like home. And by 'home', we mean Austin and not Providence, Rhode Island, for no matter how ghastly the turbulence on flights, at least it doesn't smell like calamari past its prime.

Then, there are the frequent flyer programs. Ah, the infamous allure of JJ Watt-sized benefits for minute Yao Ming-sized points, the mouse-print regulations, and the ever-moving goalposts. But we're all in it, aren't we? Feeling like a hamster on a wheel spinning in eternal hope – after all, what could be more fun than redeeming those hard-earned points for a splendid Economy class round-trip on a Tuesday afternoon from Austin to Indianapolis with a stopover in Honolulu? Wait, what?

Such are the lovable eccentricities of air travel. From enjoying that moment of bliss when you score last-minute flights at almost the same price as that Uber ride you took last weekend to debating the existential crisis you befall when your in-flight, reheated, pseudo-Italian pasta tastes startlingly better than the one from that fancy downtown restaurant you last visited. It's peculiar; it's enigmatic. It’s flights, it's life.

So, dear readers, next time you are aboard that Alaska, poised for your unique airborne adventure – peering anxiously at the 'Flight Schedule', arguing the fairness of baggage allowance, eying that distant and unattainable First-class partition or simply mulling over the flight cancellation policy – remember, it's all part of the grand, beautiful, absurd theatre that is air travel. Buckle up, and enjoy your flight.