My unexpected overnight
As you know by now airline travel currently is somewhat of a challenge. I am sure most people have seen the pictures of luggage stacked in a huge room or long lines in airports. By now everyone should know that if you are traveling there is a possibility of your flight cancelling/missing your connection/ or losing your luggage. So think of how fun this is as a paying passenger and how full flights are and then add in the standby component.
As airline employee's we get the "perk" of flying standby which means that we can fly (mostly) anywhere we want on (most) other airlines, there are exceptions but in general it's true. It is not free, when flying internationally. We have to pay that taxes and departure fees, and also, it's not a guaranteed seat, just because I have paid taxes and departure fees does not mean that I get a seat. I still need for there to be a seat available. So needless to say, commuting back and from Europe to the US right now can be a challenge given the chaos in the industry.
Take for instance my recent trip back to the US. It took me 2 days and 4 flights, and I felt lucky to have made it. For about two days before I had planned to leave, I was watching flights to see how full they were. This is not an exact since by any means, it's basically a stoplight system. I can look at a flight and see if it's green, yellow, or red and those colors correspond to how likely I am to get on a flight. I always look for a green flight but right now those are hard to find. So I had quite a few plans and backup's written out on my notebook. I have learned it's critical to write these options out and have a good 2-3 back up plans a head of time, because if you haven't you will constantly be behind the power curve and chasing a flight you may or may not make.
That being said I ended up leaving an entire day before I had planned as when I woke up and checked the flights for the next day, they had all gone to red (bad), but the first leg I was going to take looked ok for that day. So, I changed my plans threw a few things in my bag and ubered to the airport within an hour of newly hatched plan.
My first flight was to an island off the coast of Europe where I spent the night. Worked great. Got there grabbed a cheap(ish) hotel and had dinner and was back at the airport within 12 hours of when I landed. Made my second flight out with no problem landed back in the US in New York about 1:15pm and had to wait for a gate for 1/2 and hour. This is where I started to stress a little bit. I knew coming into New York was a bit of gamble as it can be really hard to get out of, but at least it got me to the US so it was worth it, that being said my next flight was at 2:30. So I got of the flight at about 1:40 and made it to the next flight at about 2:10. I feel certain that has to be a record particularly since I was coming from an international flight and had to clear immigration and customs. I am super thankful for Global Entry and of course not checking a bag. I did manage to get on my 2:30 flight and which point I was ecstatic I just wanted out of New York even if it wasn't to my final destination. When I landed, I checked to see how my final flight looked. To my happy surprise I saw that an earlier flight to Chicago had been delayed and was now scheduled to leave in 40 mins. So, as I sped through a second airport in less than two hours, I figured I was at least getting my steps in, and luckily enough was able to catch my final flight home with a few minutes to spare.
Now I am sure this seems crazy to a lot of people (my parents included sometimes) but it worked. I have not yet started looking at flights back to Europe, but I am sure it will be something equally convoluted. I really am thankful for our "perk" of being able to travel standby I have had the opportunity to see so much of the world and sure sometimes sleep in airports, but for me it truly is a perk.
Comments