Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 19:01:22 -0500 From: Larry Stone Subject: [BARGE] BARGE flight report Ross Poppel's "why do airlines hate me" trip report has made me decide to relate my trips. Those of you who know me know I work for an airline and travel to BARGE space available. Space-available flying can be a (ob BARGE) crap shoot and flexibility is the key. I had both pre-BARGE and post-BARGE side trips planned. Pre-BARGE was to Boston as I've always wanted to ride an Acela Express train on the Northeast Corridor and I decided now was the time while I still had airline flight benefits to get me to and from. So the plan was to be in Boston by 11am Sunday 7/27 to ride the train to Washington, then fly to Las Vegas on Monday. By a couple of weeks out, the idea of flying to BOS Sunday morning and immediately getting on the train was looking unlikely. So go on Saturday I said. Originally I planned on directly to BOS, then maybe BOS via Washington-Dulles. By Wednesday, it was first flight Saturday morning to Boston, then maybe I should try New York and take the train up as well, then, well let's just say it was getting interesting. By Friday night, it was first flight to Washington-National and then train to BOS (this is going to be a lot of train riding). I booked the train up. The first flight to National then promptly cancelled. In the end, I took the first flight to Baltimore (with shuttle at the airport to the BWI rail station) and boarded my train at BWI. Up to Boston, into a hotel, and oops, at 2am, the fire alarm went off. An hour later, we have the all clear and it's back to sleep. Train to Washington went fine (riding a train at 150mph is a kick) and out to a motel near Dulles. We have three flights from Dulles to LAS. The first was very oversold so I decided to sleep in. That was the first mistake of the day. The second was slightly oversold and third wide-open. But the third was five hours after the second. I also knew Southwest (WN) had an LAS flight an hour after our flight so I checked with them and was told it shouldn't be a problem to get on. So I bought a backup industry ticket on them just in case. I headed to our flight's gate where it didn't look good. The flight was showing checked in full and then it went "on decision" with a mechanical problem. Concerned that it might cancel which would then fill the third flight, I headed to WN where I was immediately given a boarding pass. OK, it was C-8 but when you travel space available, any boarding pass is a good one. Besides, I got a window and noted there were empty aisle seats at the rear. So I made it to BARGE and then it was time to leave. I was heading to my parent's house, ideally into Oxnard, CA with LAX as an alternative. Monday morning and all went as planned. The only flight that would work was the 06:14 flight but as I said, any boarding pass is a good one so that's what you do. Up at 0300 (one last check of flight loads just in case - just such a check saved my butt getting to BARGE '07) and off I went. Into Oxnard before 9:00. Today was Oxnard back to Chicago. I wanted the 09:30 flight out of Oxnard but that was starting to look doubtful so it was to be the 05:30 (ouch!). With LAX-Chicago loads looking tight, I actually planned to route myself back home via LAS where it looked good. But up at 03:30 and that last flight check, I noticed that the 07:30 Chicago flight had lost about 15 passengers so had become possible and being 45 minutes before the LAS flight, wouldn't risk that routing. At LAX, I watched the numbers (we have these cool displays at our hubs now that show the standby list and how many seats are left) and it became apparent it would work. But when I got the boarding pass, it was 34B, a dreaded middle. But on the jetbridge as people slowly boarded, a Customer Service Rep. suddenly appeared calling my name and then informed me my seat had been changed to 6C. It took my tired brain a moment to realize that not only was it not a middle, it was in First Class. Ding! So back home now where it's only 51 weeks to BARGE '09. -- Larry Stone lstone19@stonejongleux.com http://www.stonejongleux.com/