Best travel day ever!

Tuesday afternoon, I flew out to Arizona to visit my second home and to spend the holiday with cheshcat. Even though I bought my plane ticket five weeks in advance, Thanksgiving is apparently the most heavily travelled holiday of the year, making airfare quite pricey. Most itineraries that I found were at least three hundred dollars. Not wanting to pay much more than two hundred for a Chicago-to-Phoenix round trip, I searched extensively and eventually found something for $188. The catch? There were two: The outgoing trip had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver (which, in and of itself, is longer than a direct flight to Phoenix from Chicago) and the return flight next Monday, though direct, was a red-eye. Not thrilling, but I could cope...

So on Tuesday, The Moof dropped me off at the airport for a 3:45pm flight. I checked in and went down to my gate, secretly hoping that to get bumped. After all, this was the day before the busiest travel day of the year, so it seemed likely. And with a 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver, I was certain that I could get to my connection in time, even if I took the next plane out of O'Hare. Waiting in Chicago versus waiting in Denver would be no different to me, and getting some sort of free travel voucher would be nice. So I sat at the gate, but they loaded the plane on time with no announcement about needing volunteers to be bumped. I was disappointed, but took me seat. About ten minutes later, an announcement came over the airplanes PA system: The flight had been oversold and one volunteer was needed to be bumped. Only one volunteer! As soon as I heard that, I shouted and started waving my arm around wildly to be noticed. My seat was very far back in the plane and I wanted to be seen before anyone else could volunteer. I hadn't even waited to hear when the next flight to Denver would be, or what compensation was being offered to the bumpee. I was sure I could get to Denver for my connection and, since I expected to get to Phoenix at the same time no matter what, any compensation was worth it. They didn't hear me shouting in the back, but I rang the flight attendant call button and I was in, or rather OFF -- of the plane.

As it turned out, they have a hard time getting volunteers to be bumped right before a big holiday. So my compensation was a voucher for a free round-trip, regardless of price, anywhere within the continental US. Not too shabby! And the next plane to Denver at 4:55pm -- only seventy minutes later -- which would give me plenty of time to catch my connecting flight. After the first plane left, the woman from United started to arrange me a seat for the next flight to Denver. In doing so, she noticed that I was only flying through Denver en route to Phoenix... and so she asked if I would prefer a direct flight to Phoenix instead. Of course I would! She said there was space on the 7:50pm flight to Phoenix, which would arrive at 10:44pm, nearly the same time as my originally scheduled arrived time of 10:56pm. It would mean a lot of time sitting around O'Hare, but less time on a plane and no time in Denver. Not too shabby...

Once I received my voucher and my new boarding pass, I went to get food. After all, I had nearly four hours to kill. Then I checked out the departure monitors to see what gate my flight was departing from. Wouldn't ya know it? In less than an hour, there was a 5:20pm flight to Phoenix leaving. I had a boarding pass for the 7:50pm flight, but headed down to the gate and asked to go standby on the earlier flight. I was informed that the plane was booked, but they could put me on the standby list. Not expecting much, I figured that it couldn't hurt and sat down to wait.

When they began boarding the aircraft, I was called to the podium; there was room for me to ride on this flight after all! I borrowed a cell phone and hurriedly called cheshcat to inform her of my new arrived time: 8pm. At this point, I was flabbergasted with how amazing well this trip had turned out! By the right combination of initiative and luck, my cheap Thanksgiving flight was going to bring me to Phoenix three hours earlier than planned and with a free voucher in my pocket!! How awesome is that? Even will all the travelling I do, I've never seen anything like it before. Needless to say, I was quite pleased, and that is the story of how this ended up being the best travel day that I think I have ever had...

Best travel day ever!

Tuesday afternoon, I flew out to Arizona to visit my second home and to spend the holiday with cheshcat. Even though I bought my plane ticket five weeks in advance, Thanksgiving is apparently the most heavily travelled holiday of the year, making airfare quite pricey. Most itineraries that I found were at least three hundred dollars. Not wanting to pay much more than two hundred for a Chicago-to-Phoenix round trip, I searched extensively and eventually found something for $188. The catch? There were two: The outgoing trip had a 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver (which, in and of itself, is longer than a direct flight to Phoenix from Chicago) and the return flight next Monday, though direct, was a red-eye. Not thrilling, but I could cope...

So on Tuesday, The Moof dropped me off at the airport for a 3:45pm flight. I checked in and went down to my gate, secretly hoping that to get bumped. After all, this was the day before the busiest travel day of the year, so it seemed likely. And with a 3 1/2 hour layover in Denver, I was certain that I could get to my connection in time, even if I took the next plane out of O'Hare. Waiting in Chicago versus waiting in Denver would be no different to me, and getting some sort of free travel voucher would be nice. So I sat at the gate, but they loaded the plane on time with no announcement about needing volunteers to be bumped. I was disappointed, but took me seat. About ten minutes later, an announcement came over the airplanes PA system: The flight had been oversold and one volunteer was needed to be bumped. Only one volunteer! As soon as I heard that, I shouted and started waving my arm around wildly to be noticed. My seat was very far back in the plane and I wanted to be seen before anyone else could volunteer. I hadn't even waited to hear when the next flight to Denver would be, or what compensation was being offered to the bumpee. I was sure I could get to Denver for my connection and, since I expected to get to Phoenix at the same time no matter what, any compensation was worth it. They didn't hear me shouting in the back, but I rang the flight attendant call button and I was in, or rather OFF -- of the plane.

As it turned out, they have a hard time getting volunteers to be bumped right before a big holiday. So my compensation was a voucher for a free round-trip, regardless of price, anywhere within the continental US. Not too shabby! And the next plane to Denver at 4:55pm -- only seventy minutes later -- which would give me plenty of time to catch my connecting flight. After the first plane left, the woman from United started to arrange me a seat for the next flight to Denver. In doing so, she noticed that I was only flying through Denver en route to Phoenix... and so she asked if I would prefer a direct flight to Phoenix instead. Of course I would! She said there was space on the 7:50pm flight to Phoenix, which would arrive at 10:44pm, nearly the same time as my originally scheduled arrived time of 10:56pm. It would mean a lot of time sitting around O'Hare, but less time on a plane and no time in Denver. Not too shabby...

Once I received my voucher and my new boarding pass, I went to get food. After all, I had nearly four hours to kill. Then I checked out the departure monitors to see what gate my flight was departing from. Wouldn't ya know it? In less than an hour, there was a 5:20pm flight to Phoenix leaving. I had a boarding pass for the 7:50pm flight, but headed down to the gate and asked to go standby on the earlier flight. I was informed that the plane was booked, but they could put me on the standby list. Not expecting much, I figured that it couldn't hurt and sat down to wait.

When they began boarding the aircraft, I was called to the podium; there was room for me to ride on this flight after all! I borrowed a cell phone and hurriedly called cheshcat to inform her of my new arrived time: 8pm. At this point, I was flabbergasted with how amazing well this trip had turned out! By the right combination of initiative and luck, my cheap Thanksgiving flight was going to bring me to Phoenix three hours earlier than planned and with a free voucher in my pocket!! How awesome is that? Even will all the travelling I do, I've never seen anything like it before. Needless to say, I was quite pleased, and that is the story of how this ended up being the best travel day that I think I have ever had...