Friday, August 3, 2012

Jump seating...a great privilege

Spending the weekend with family. Long day getting here.

My wife and daughter had "real" tickets that were purchased a while ago. Flights on my mainline partner are notoriously full so non-reving is not a good idea. I couldn't buy a real ticket as my schedule varies so much month to month.

Direct flights were out of the question. Flights were predictably full and I had ZERO desire to sit on a jump seat for 4+ hours. Instead I used Passrider.com to find a way to make a one stop trip.

It took a little work but I found a way. Both offline flights.  One of the legs was on Virgin America, an airline I've never flown on.

Aviation is a close knit community. I know a guy via an online forum that works for Virgin America. He let me know the loads were heavily in my favor for getting a real seat.

My first flight left at 7AM. I woke up early at 4 AM...couldn't sleep. I left the house at 5AM. I filled out the jump seat form and was able to get a seat in the back.

Same for the connecting flight on Virgin America. While waiting for the flight I saw a Flight Attendant I know from twitter. I didn't have time to say hi in person though.

While on board the Virgin America flight I spotted another Flight Attendant I knew. She used to work at my airline. Small world.

I arrived on time at noon. My wife and daughter were supposed to arrive at 7PM. Supposed to arrive.....yeah.

My family lives 2 hours south of the airport. Rather than drive up and back for 4 hours I just hung out in town. That would end up being a mistake.

Delayed. Big time.

They didn't end up arriving until 12:15 AM. So much for same day service.

By the time we got to the house I'd been up for 24 hours straight. I was so tired I had to pull over and let my wife drive the last 15 miles.

The benefit of unlimited travel is truly priceless. Being able to go to any airport...and board any flight....for free. Crazy eh?

Time to do a whole lot of nothing. Back to work on Tuesday.

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