When I get an SMS on my Samsung mobile, it gives out a cheery little beep-beep-beeeep!! Usually, it's one of my friends text-messaging me, but when I have a flight within the next 72-hours, those chimes make me smile because it means my upgrades have cleared!

United has this great little system called "EasyUpdate" that informs you via page, e-mail or text-message of -- among other things -- flight delays, upgrades and seat changes, and flight cancellations. Besides bringing good, but relatively irrelevant news (that, for example, I'll be sitting in 2A on an upcoming flight) this nifty feature also tells you if your flight might be delayed or canceled. It has saved me a lot of stress and countless hours of sitting around wasting time in airports.

I remember one time in particular about a year ago on a Seattle-Denver flight. I was sitting in my favorite 757 seat, 9C, waiting for us to push back from the gate. I waited and waited and waited. Then waited some more. Clearly, we were not going anywhere. People in official looking clothes kept walking in and out of the aircraft door (9C is right by the door) exchanging words. Every once in a while, a mechanic would walk into the cockpit and confer with the pilot. To his credit, the pilot did a good job of keeping us informed -- something was wrong with one of the flaps on the plane. Seemed critical enough to me. After about 50 minutes of sitting there chatting with the flight attendants, I hear that familiar beep-beep-beeeeeep! from my phone. Sure enough, reports EasyUpdate, this flight has been canceled.

There are a few telephone numbers I know by heart: 911, my parent's home phone, and the 1K desk at United. I called the third and glanced at my watch -- there was another Seattle-Denver flight leaving in 15 minutes. Within 60 seconds, the agent on the other end rebooked me on the other flight, getting me one of the last seats on the plane! Not five minutes later, the pilot comes on the PA and announces that our flight has been canceled and that we should deboard. You can imagine the mad rush over to N10 where the packed A320 was almost done boarding!! I sauntered over, got my boarding pass (the gate agent was shocked -- "How'd you get on this flight?!") and boarded the plane.

Technology, my dear friend, is a beautiful, beautiful thing.