Mission Completion!
Gold status has been verified in the Alaska Airline app

and I got to meet my son AT THE GATE on his holiday travels home. The last time I did that was when the kids were travelling as unaccompanied minors to visit my parents in TN.

I have fond memories of childhood waiting at the arrival gates of T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island to pick up my Dad from his travels–often a consulting trip to DC. 9-11 changed everything. Engineering an opportunity to relive that experience to pick up my son was priceless.