The gamble of non-rev travel...

Friday afternoon I pulled Rosie out of school at lunchtime, and Mike drove us to the airport. We had our standby reservation for the 3:30 flight to LAX. Once we were at the gate, we found out that the flight was oversold by 8 seats. After 2 hours of security and waiting at the gate, we watched as passengers went to the gate agent to accept a flight on Saturday for a first-class upgrade and free travel voucher. Just as we were going to be getting on the flight, two men changed their minds on the bump and we didn't get on the flight. The next two flights (5:30 and 10:00 PM) were both oversold by at least 10 seats. The gate agent changed our reservation for the 6:20 am flight on Saturday and told us to go home and get some sleep. It was MSP to John Wayne/OC, but it still would get us there in time for helping with the reception.

We got back to the airport at 5:00 am Saturday, with no problems getting on the MSP flight. When we talked to the gate agent at MSP, she said that there were 4 open seats, with 10 ahead of us on the standby list. She wasn't hopeful we'd get on, but said we might be able to get on the next flight 3 hours later (which consequently, was also very full). Rosie and I braced ourselves for a long wait, looked into options of Minneapolis sightseeing opportunities in case we couldn't get on a flight in time for the reception. Just as they were ready to close up the flight, they called our names and we were on!

Tomorrow night on our way back to Detroit, we're on the standby list for the 5:20 pm flight. Although there are earlier flights, this one has 38 open seats...which we're fairly certain we can catch. We'll arrive at DTW just after midnight, run home for a few hours of sleep, and get our apartment keys and move in to Stoneybrooke Monday morning.