Have Patience - The Adventures of Standby

Some adventures don't always go as planned, and you have to look for the silver lining. Leif and Saga were quite excited for their first trip to the United States. Our newest travel companion, Rob, has parents who winter in Arizona. Whenever I tell people my blog is called "My Co-pilot Is A Troll", Rob is quick to point out that he is not the troll (even though he has the beard for it!) 

A perk of his job as a Westjet employee is free flights. We only pay the taxes, which makes for a very affordable long weekend. The catch - you have to fly standby. I wasn't worried about that. I flew standby a lot as a student and never had an issue.

Turns out that Calgary to Phoenix is a very popular route, but uses very small planes, only about 150 people. Unbeknownst to us, it was also Nascar weekend. Every single flight was packed full. We were supposed to leave at 3 pm on Friday. We didn't get on a plane until 5pm on Saturday! I believe we were bumped 5 times all together. 

We learned a lot about flying standby. When you are bumped, you have to be bumped to the next available flight, regardless of the time or available space. For example, if the 5 pm flight is full, but you can see the 7 pm flight has available seats, you still have to stick around and try for the 5 pm flight. Then you get bumped to the next one in the queue. 

Since we were flying internationally, and had to go through security, we couldn't leave the terminal until then end of the day. When the last flight departed on Friday night, without us, we realized that we couldn't just go back the way we came. We had to be escorted by the gate agent through a series of back hallways. She had to confirm to security that we had tickets, but did not fly, to be let out again.

As a side note, if you are flying standby, you definately only want to have carry on. Your bags may leave without you! Some of the tips we learned from the agents at the gates include:

Redeye flights tend to have more space. (There are no Calgary-Phoenix red eyes)

You are more likely to get a seat if you are willing to split up. A few flights had one seat available, but not 2. (Rob asked, I wasn't allowed to sit on his lap!)

Indirect routes through major airports like Vancouver, LAX and Toronto are more likely to have space, but you do run the risk of being stuck in a different city.

So, I mentioned something earlier about a silver lining. What could possibly be good about sitting in an airport for 24 hours, watching you weekend dissapear? At this stage, Rob and I had only known each other for 5 months. Between the two of us, we have 5 children, 5 cats and a dog. Even now, after almost a year, we have only been totally alone for one day. 

With no kids, no tv, no work, no chores - you can do a lot of talking in 24 hours. We got to see how we handle stress and disappointment. We also each had a good book, and about once an hour would update each other on what we read. It was like reading two books at once!

On Friday night, since we still had no idea if we would ever get on a flight, we decided to treat ourselves to a nice hotel and dinner out. The Clique Hotel at the airport has a really nice restaurant. Since we would have to leave at 6am, before the complimentary breakfast, the desk clerk gave us vouchers to go towards our dinner.

When things don't go as planned, you might as well make the best of it. We made some great memories and came back closer than ever.