Made the right choice

I had to be back in my temporary base by 2:55PM today.

I began looking at my options yesterday. Flights yesterday were all very full. Flights today were even worse.

Due to weather in the north east yesterday,  flights were delayed. Which tends to help non-revs.

The 5:20PM flight was delayed until 6:15PM. The 6:25PM flight was delayed until 7:20PM. The 7:20PM flight was on time. There were a handful of open seats on the 7:20PM flight....the last flight of the night. Before I left home I was number 28 on the standby list....but the only pilot which meant I could get the jump seat.

My wife dropped me off at 6:20PM. I breezed through security and was at the gate at 6:40PM. I took out my IPad to see where I was on the standby list. Things got a little worse, I was number 30. Only 15 open seats, but again I was the only pilot.

Within a minute I heard my name called. Surely I was getting the jump seat. To my surprise the agent said she had a window seat and that I was the first person to come up as she had been calling standby names for a while. I was shocked.

The seat was in the last row, but it was a seat. Sure enough there were a lot of no shows. I think this was due to many passengers were at the delayed 6:25PM flight.

I was on the hotel shuttle at 11:45PM. There was a flight attendant who got on with me. No bags...no other crew. She said her crew left without her because there wasn't enough room. Ouch.

This morning I took a look at the direct flights here. First flight went out full with a mainline jump seater meaning I would likely have not had a seat. The second flight cancelled. My back up option of making a 2 hop connection wouldn't have worked as the second leg cancelled. I would have been in a serious jam.

By coming up last night I am more rested anyway. Today I do a turn and then a Canada overnight. I'm going to have to read up on Canada operations as I know they do things a little differently up there.