By far my biggest frustration when traveling is when I know the rules better than the gate or customer service agents. And yes, this confirms that I am a geek. Regardless of my membership in geekdom, it must be wrong that a customer knows more than people being paid to be professionals? A case in point: A few days ago, flying from Wasington-Reagan to New York on US Airways Shuttle, I seemed to be the only one who knew that since I was on a United ticket (I had bought my ticket from United), I could standby for an earlier flight without paying the US Airways $25 standby fee.

One proactive US Airways gate agent went as far as to look up the rules on her computer. She agreed that my United fare rules applied, but was clueless as to look up the fare rules (which, by the way, state that standby is permitted... every domestic United fare allows it). So she gave up. And I sat at DCA for four hours.

I now carry a copy of these rules in my briefcase, so I can tell agents where and how to look the policies up. It's kinda like being a mystery shopper.