coming back today... maybe

My father tells me he's currently stuck in Minneapolis, waiting for a 6PM flight out. He was originally supposed to arrive in DC between 10 and 11AM today, but somewhere along the line, a large flight was cancelled and all those passengers were booked onto other flights, including the one which Dad had hoped to board. That never bodes well for people flying on "standby space available" status: standby flyers are always the lowest priority when it comes to boarding.

I told Dad that he doesn't have to catch a flight to National Airport; he can fly to BWI or Dulles, and I'll have no problem picking him up at either place. Dad replied (all this through text messaging) that the best-looking flight out is the 6PM flight, so he's on that waiting list. It's a gamble for him to wait that long, spending all day not searching for other alternatives, but when you're a "non-rev" (i.e., non-revenue) customer, you're always gambling, even if you do scramble around to look for other flights.

Here's hoping that Dad's airline savvy (he's a retired Northwest Airlines employee, after all) has given him the instincts to pick the flight that's most likely to have seats. If he doesn't make it out of Minneapolis tonight, he'll have to stay overnight in the city and try again tomorrow. Flying standby, as a non-rev customer, has its hidden costs; unforeseen hotel stays are among them.


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