September 04, 2006
Travel in the Key of argh!
At the end of July, I went to Detroit (Ann Arbor, specifically) to meet up with some people from the frequent flyer message board that I visit a lot. The plan was to meet some new people, share some tricks of the trade, and have an all-around good weekend. Here is a little "trip report" about my eventful evening trying to get back from Detroit to Minneapolis by flying for free (non-revenue). Enjoy.
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I was given a ride to the airport by the very nice couple from Texas (forget their names and handles, unfortunately). I think we got to the Smith Terminal in record time; I guess that’s how they do it in TX. I checked-in using the e-kiosk (which finally works for non-revs now, YAY!) and had my “gate pass” in no time, although no seat assignment. I waited in security while marveling that this terminal could still keep from falling in on itself. I kept looking for the chewing gum in-between the joints and the duct tape holding the walls up, but I couldn’t find any. Got to my gate and sat around for a while. The arrival from PHX was a little late, and as such, so was the gate agent. Soon the agent arrived and the plane shortly thereafter. People deplaned and they quickly began boarding for the return flight. I waited until the final boarding call. They called a few standby people and then looked as though they were about to close the door. I meandered over to the counter and politely asked how things were looking. I was #2 on the list—with a “real” employee ahead of me—and there was only one seat open. So, it’s not looking good, and because of the arrival delay, if I missed this flight, I’d really have to hustle down to the other concourse to try the flight to LAS that would close its doors in a few minutes. But happily, my good luck for the evening was beginning to unfold.
It turns out that #3 on the standby list was the boyfriend of an employee on this flight as well, and the employee was flying on a revenue ticket for some strange reason. The employee began to make it very well-known to the agent and everyone waiting for a seat that if her boyfriend wasn’t going to get on, she was going to give up her revenue seat and they would both try for the next flight (tomorrow?). Success! This little revelation basically guaranteed me a seat, as the only way this employee wouldn’t give up her seat is if her boyfriend made the flight. And if he made the flight,--being one spot behind me--that means that I would have made it on-board as well. A few minutes passed and still there was the one lone seat. The employee kept her word and rescinded her revenue seat. Now there were two seats open, and being #2 on the list, I was given my boarding pass and off I went. “Which seat do I have?” I asked the agent. She replied, “There’s only two seats, so you two [me and the other non-rev] can just decide.” I asked the other non-rev once aboard if she preferred one seat over the other. Two middle seats remained, one in the last row and one in the 3rd-to-last row. She didn’t care and took the last row and I settled in-between my two new friends and avoided the standard “Oh, you’re the reason we haven’t left yet” glares that come from being the last to board.
Door closes. Taxi, takeoff roll, gear up, airborne. One beverage service later and with the start of some boring Hollywood trash, I was asleep until touchdown in PHX.
With a thud, I was awake. Happy that I was able to sleep through most of the flight (a rather uncommon experience for me), I checked the time. We’re early. About 15 minutes early. Does that mean . . . no, it couldn’t . . .
(I had just planned to grab a Priceline hotel that evening in PHX since I would be arriving after all possible connections to MSP)
It seems that, while I was sleeping, my luck had been brewing and growing like a late-summer hurricane in the Pacific Ocean. Because of this early arrival, there was a chance, a small chance, that I could make a PHX-LAS connection on one of their hourly shuttle flights. This previously hadn’t been an option because my scheduled arrival time from DTW was supposed to be a few minutes AFTER the last possible shuttle flight that would allow me to make a connection in LAS to the daily LAS-MSP redeye flight. Being a few minutes early into PHX, I got off as quickly as one can from the 3rd-to-last row of an A320, never once really looking out the window and realizing that PHX was in the midst of a summer evening thunderstorm. This will become very important in about 10 minutes.
I bolted out of the jetway and found the first available seat in the gate area in order to sit down and fire up my laptop. I knew that PHX had free wireless Internet in the terminal, so upon realization that I might actually have a chance to make this LAS flight, I knew that I could get online and list myself on the PHX-LAS flight before running to the gate. This would be crucial because if I arrived right at the time the door were to close, the agents might not feel there’s enough time to manually list me for the flight and then assign a seat. If I’m already listed, it’s a quick process for them to assign a seat and print me off a boarding pass. So, I list for the flight, stow the laptop in my backpack, and rush three concourses away to this new gate, checking the clock and the departures monitor at regular intervals as I traversed the omnipresent maze of weekend travelers. As I approached the concourse, I could see through the windows that there was no plane at the gate I was headed to. My spirits took a sudden drop, but I was going to see this thing through, so I proceeded as planned, arriving at the gate one-minute before scheduled departure time. Another surprise! The boarding area was packed, bursting out into the hallway. I check the message board above the counter. It was still listing the PHX-LAS flight I was hoping to make, although with a departure delay of about 15 minutes. Yes! Passengers in the gate were obviously getting impatient with the delay, but unfortunately I couldn’t concern myself with their issues; travel can be a dog-eat-dog world sometimes, and especially when you’re flying non-revenue.
I approached what appeared to be the only non-stressed and non-hassled gate agent as all the others were being bombarded with questions about making their connections in LAS to their redeye flights or whether the airline was going to compensate them for their 15-minute delay. I politely asked this agent if she could verify that I was listed on this flight. I wasn’t sure that listing online less than 10 minutes earlier would actually work, and I needed to verify that it did. To my delight, it had worked. This night may just work out after all.
I sit and wait. 15 minutes pass, still no plane at the gate. Now the flight is scheduled for a 35 minute delay. I start getting nervous myself. Although the flight from PHX-LAS is only a short 57 minutes from takeoff-touchdown, this weather in the area may delay takeoff, or cause us to fly a different route, or may even further delay our departure after the incoming plane arrives. More time passes.
Finally, the plane arrives and the agents go into triage-mode. They begin the announcements. “Passengers connecting to BWI, your flight will not be held. Passengers connecting to TPA, your flight will not be held. Passengers connecting to MSP, your flight will be held…“
That’s all I needed to hear. Because of all the uncertainty of connections, people were moving off this flight and rebooking to morning flights out of PHX, causing even more chaos and unrest. Fortunately for me, this opened up a lot of seats on the flight and I had no trouble getting a seat. But just as I was about to board, a punishing blow came over the PA system. “Passengers connecting to MSP, it seems now that they will not be holding your connecting flight. Please approach the counter for rebooking”.
What to do? A quick review of my options at this point involve staying in PHX, finding a place to sleep for about 6 hours, and returning for the (Monday) morning flight to MSP, which doesn’t look very good for a standby passenger. Or, I could take this flight to LAS and hope something else goes right and I can make this connection to MSP. Worst case there is I have to spend the night in LAS, something I would have had to do in PHX anyway, and then hope for a seat on the morning flight from LAS-MSP. I decide to take the seat on this (now 46-minute) delayed flight and try my luck in LAS.
A very bumpy flight follows, along with my constant watch of the clock. After what felt like the longest hour in my life, we touched down. We were scheduled to arrive at the gate directly across from the departing LAS-MSP flight, so if there was a plane at the gate, I should be able to be on-board within a minute of deplaning. Uh oh, we’re taxiing past these gates. Another sinking feeling develops in my stomach. We park at a gate in an opposite satellite from the LAS-MSP flight I need to get to (refer to a LAS terminal map if you need to ). I deplane as quickly as possible and run to the gate, all the while hoping that the gate agent in PHX was wrong, that there was a mechanical delay, weather, crew duty-time issues, something to hold that flight about 7 minutes past departure time. I make it to the gate and the door is still open! Slightly breathless, I urgently ask the gate agent if there are any seats for a non-rev standby. She says the flight is wide-open and I am in luck. Boy, am I . . .
I board, go to my seat and find a passenger sitting in it. I politely ask if this is his seat and he tells me it is, even after I show my boarding pass to him and he declines to show me his. I don’t fret though, as the plane is wide open. I go chat with the lead flight attendant and he checks the manifest. Sure enough, someone is sitting in my seat. But he tells me not to worry, and I can take any seat I like, even suggesting that the exit row has only one person in it. I coyly reply that ‘these first class seats sure do look comfortable’ and that I’ve got an upgrade coupon if there’s space. He grins a bit and tells me that he ‘doesn’t need any coupons’. He says I can wait a bit to make sure that there is a seat open, or I can just take the exit row. I decide to opt for the latter, mainly to save my upgrade coupon for a future episode. I settle-in and stretch-out across my own exit-row window and middle seats and blissfully drift off into the most peaceful sleep I’ve had on a redeye flight. Just shy of 3-hours later, we glide into MSP and my unnecessarily eventful last 12-hours come to a gentle rest at gate C9.
Posted by Derek at 01:33 PM | Comments (5044)
August 17, 2006
Sleeplessness in Seattle
I shamelessly stole and adapted the title of a popular '90s flick. Where's my cookie?
Last weekend, my dad and I completed our mileage run from Syracuse to Seattle and back. Overall, it was a good trip. I'm glad that we were able to do at least part of it on Northwest so that we could get some upgrades and fly some familiar aircraft. The return flight on the Delta 767 was rather poor, at least in my opinion.
All my miles posted and I'm now rougly 7,000 miles short of my goal for this year. With next week's trip to Cyprus and Italy, I'm set for the year. Any further flying will probably be done on the "for-free" basis using USAirways/AmericaWest. ;)
Posted by Derek at 05:20 PM | Comments (2147)
February 28, 2006
The Fourth Corner
February 27, 2006
It seems appropriate that my visit to the last uncharted corner of the U.S. (for me, at least) happened while doing a mileage run, on my way to a mileage run seminar. I never know when I'll end up somewhere, but double dipping on my travel is immensely rewarding. I've been to San Francisco a number of times and love it more each time I go back. I've been to Los Angeles for no more than 6 hours at a time, all awaiting connections to/from international points, and only once leaving the airport property. Of the major California cities, that leaves only San Diego and, due to my partial avoidance of the mess that is Los Angeles, one corner to left conquer.
San Diego is a unique town. It isn't a very geographically expansive city, but its neighborhoods and rolling hillsides seem to stretch for miles. The downtown area looks freshly renovated, undoubtedly due to the revitalized Gaslamp Quarter and Petco Park where the Major League Baseball San Diego Padres now call home. Even Old Town, the area just north of the airport where San Diego residents first called home, is clean, restored, and thriving. Local shops and boutiques boast handicrafts and home-cooked meals just a few steps away from a major interstate freeway, and visitors can take it all in within easy walking distance of everything Old Town has to offer. Balboa Park, located in the center of the city, is a pristine cut of land that boasts a beautiful public golf course with picturesque views of the harbor, and the world-renowned San Diego Zoo, among other things. This is not exactly how you might expect to find several hundred acres of prime real estate used in any other major city, but San Diego is not any other city.
The public transit system is somewhat lacking compared to other larger cities, but you can get to most of the main spots and attractions without too much hassle. The downtown trolley system reaches back to an era that I can only read about in history books and newspaper archives, but still impresses me, even after transiting some of the world's largest and most complex metropolitan rail systems. Moreover, the buses and trains are very clean, a testament to the environmental awareness of San Diego locals. Ah, yes, the locals. The locals are a friendly bunch. A very culturally diverse area, San Diego residents seem to have an air of calm and optimism about themselves. And who could blame them? Nary a cloud in the sky, balmy evening temperatures, and palm trees gently swaying in the wind on nearly every street corner. Many people are tan, but it's definitely natural. They tan because they're enjoying their beautiful outdoors, nothing like their neighbors to the north in Los Angeles who will apply their suntans hairline-to-heel each morning before their coffee and power bar. No, San Diego locals take the time to sit down each morning at their favorite breakfast nook and talk about about the good old days while eagerly anticipating what is yet to come.
But make no mistake: San Diego, while appearing sleepy and laid-back on the surface, is a bustling and rapidly expanding metro area. I'm sure I'll be back in a few years to experience the new wonders San Diego has in store for us all, reflecting on what used to be a sleepy little city with the charm of a local neighborhood but with a wingspan of global proportions.
Posted by Derek at 06:04 PM | Comments (1)