One of the things about flying stand by is that you have to watch the flights, sometimes like a hawk. This can be stressful as you watch the open seats tick away, especially if there is someplace you really want to go.
Last week my husband was heading to Frankfurt for a trip and I wanted to go with him. I decided to go about two days before the trip. We scheduled the dogs for boarding, I took the day off of work and I booked myself on the flight. For the airline, we have to check in 24 hours ahead of time. It is a first come (check in) highest priority on the list. There are a few things that can bring you up the list but basically, you know where you stand ahead of time. So… I checked in 24 hours ahead and was number three on the list to leave from Jax. My husband was number one and I was number three. Since I needed a ticket for Frankfurt and he didn’t I had to do them separately. So on Thursday morning, the flight to Frankfurt looked okay, not green but not red. There were 12 seats open. It looked good and I should not have had a problem getting on. That night I went home and I was cooking dinner and decided to check on the flight. There were -2 seats open on the flight. What happened to my 12 seats? Well, weather happened (remember last week’s blog, well, weather got me again). The weather had been bad in the northeast and more than likely what happened was that people had missed connections and they were put on the flight to leave the next day, which was my day. I checked and saw that Frankfurt out of Dallas had 25 seats on it. So my brain goes how can I get to Dallas, Jax, no, Orlando, no, Daytona, no, Philly, no, Charlotte, no, Chicago, no, Maimi, no. Nope not happening. Instead of making a rash decision I figured I would sleep on it, get up at my regular time for work and decide then. As of that point I had lost every bit of excitement to go. I couldn’t even bring myself to pack. I’ll pack in the morning if I decide to go, is what I told myself.
In the morning I looked at the flight and even the Jacksonville to Philadelphia flight looked pretty bad and the Frankfurt flight was still overbooked but in addition to being overbooked it had 17 non-revs on it. Ok decision made, I was going into work. I might as well save the vacation day. My husband decided to fly out of Orlando as the flights looked good there. Thankfully we live between two major airports. He made it up to Philadelphia on time and was able to get on his flight. When I got home from work I pulled up the trip once again and guess what….
Yes 8 seats open. What the heck. I stayed home! I didn’t get on a plane because I was afraid to get stuck in Philadelphia and here it is right before the flight and there are 8 open seats! Ughhh! I sulked, cursed and whined, Then I wished my husband a safe flight and vowed next time to take a chance and get on the plane.
The next day I went shopping with my friend for a dress for a gala we are going to. Meanwhile in Frankfurt my husband was walking around taking photos and thinking this is what Laryssa would be photographing. Here are some of his photos from his cell phone. He has a good eye.
So my husband was checked in on the flight from Philadelphia to Orlando for the following day. Plenty of seats available. No issues, until Sunday morning when I opened up the app to check and see how the flight was looking…..
Do you see that -40 seats. What the heck! I have never seen it that bad before. I was like well glad I didn’t get on that flight going out there because there was no way I would have made it back. My husband was listed as #1 on the flight and he can ride in a jump seat which is the only reason he made it on the flight otherwise he would have been stuck in Philly also.
Sometimes, you have to trust your instinct and trust in your first thoughts. I’m glad the travel Gods intervened in my travel, and though I was not happy at first, I didn’t have to worry about getting home. Had I gotten off of the plane from Frankfurt and seen the overbooked flight, I would have freaked out. According to my husband, they were rebooking people for Tuesday. Yes, Tuesday!
6 COMMENTS
Sorry but lucky for you. Did you at least get a dress and the dogs?
Yes I did get a dress and kept the dogs. Probably save almost 200 on not boarding them.
Yikes, glad you listened to your gut! That could have been a painful trip otherwise
Yes I probably would have to have driven home.
Fun post! Not fun about not traveling but good you weren’t stuck missing work!
Good thing that you didn’t go…I know how you feel, have experienced something similar but in the end, it was a good thing that I didn’t go though I badly wanted to. Sometimes there’s a reason which we will never know. I’m sure you will be able to make a trip to Frankfurt some day 🙂 Cheers!