Monday, May 16, 2011
*I preface this post with the fact that we brought all of the issues mentioned below upon ourselves by being total cheapskates.*
Jason and I have a very awesome brother-in-law (actually we have two, but in this case I'm talking about the one married to Jason's sister) who works for American Airlines. As part of this benefit package, he gets a limited number of discounted flight coupons for family use. The only caveat? They are standby tickets only.
Jason wanted leave Sunday morning. So we had this grand idea that Jason would fly standby for his flight from Tulsa to New Dehli using brother-in-law's coupon. Brother-in-law kept a close eye on the number of real (read: non-standby) tickets sold and up until Saturday around noon, things were looking great for Jason to snag a business class seat for his cross-ocean trek. Jason went ahead and booked the final leg of his journey from New Dehli to Bangalore, and we went out for a final Olive Garden meal before starting to pack.
Well, brother-in-law broke the bad news at lunch....big flight was now oversold (with real tickets) by 4 or 5, plus several other actual American Airlines employees were on waiting list in front of him. Meaning Jason had a flight from Tulsa (TUL) to Chicago (ORD) and from New Dehli (DEL) to Bangalore (BLR), but was now missing that crucial 14 hour hop across the oceans.
We finished up lunch, went back home, and shopped for tickets. He found a flight from ORD straight to BLR for cheaper than he could find one ORD to DEL so he booked it and cancelled the DEL to BLR.
Once in Chicago the morning of the flight, the original ORD to DEL was no longer oversold, and Jason had an actual chance to get on this flight, as several of the real tickets had been cancelled, and many American employees had also fallen off the waiting list.
Jason opted to stay with his guaranteed flight and just pretend he didn't hear about the fancy business class seat he could have had.
Confused? I've drawn an illustration below:
Jason and I have a very awesome brother-in-law (actually we have two, but in this case I'm talking about the one married to Jason's sister) who works for American Airlines. As part of this benefit package, he gets a limited number of discounted flight coupons for family use. The only caveat? They are standby tickets only.
Jason wanted leave Sunday morning. So we had this grand idea that Jason would fly standby for his flight from Tulsa to New Dehli using brother-in-law's coupon. Brother-in-law kept a close eye on the number of real (read: non-standby) tickets sold and up until Saturday around noon, things were looking great for Jason to snag a business class seat for his cross-ocean trek. Jason went ahead and booked the final leg of his journey from New Dehli to Bangalore, and we went out for a final Olive Garden meal before starting to pack.
Well, brother-in-law broke the bad news at lunch....big flight was now oversold (with real tickets) by 4 or 5, plus several other actual American Airlines employees were on waiting list in front of him. Meaning Jason had a flight from Tulsa (TUL) to Chicago (ORD) and from New Dehli (DEL) to Bangalore (BLR), but was now missing that crucial 14 hour hop across the oceans.
We finished up lunch, went back home, and shopped for tickets. He found a flight from ORD straight to BLR for cheaper than he could find one ORD to DEL so he booked it and cancelled the DEL to BLR.
Once in Chicago the morning of the flight, the original ORD to DEL was no longer oversold, and Jason had an actual chance to get on this flight, as several of the real tickets had been cancelled, and many American employees had also fallen off the waiting list.
Jason opted to stay with his guaranteed flight and just pretend he didn't hear about the fancy business class seat he could have had.
Confused? I've drawn an illustration below:
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