I'm home tonight. I'm back here in beautiful Kansas City next Wednesday night, and home during the entire week of Thanksgiving. After next week's flight, I hit my NorthWest Gold Elite status. It may not sound like a big deal, but the perks are nice - including early boarding, extra luggage and automatic first class upgrades. Working in an industry where most of the people travel heavily, people can recite the various plans and tiers to achieve them for just about every hotel and airline out there, and people weare them as a badge of honor. I've made this flight between Detroit and K.C. so many times that I know the guy who works at the metal detector at the K.C. airport by name.