Okay, it’s been a couple of days since I have posted…here’s why:

My Florida life has ended, and my husband and I are back in California visiting family before going back home to Utah. As my husband has been flying for the past 6 or so years, he has accrued quite a few people in the aviation industry that has helped and supported his dream to become a commercial airline pilot. The amazing family we stayed with in Florida is one of them.

When you live the life of a pilot, part of your benefits include flying standby. Now, this isn’t such a bad thing when you plan your trips strategically, and choose a flight you know you will get on. The flight that we chose to come home on was reaching its capacity, but it still wasn’t full; we still had a chance. Well, that changed when we tried to check in at the service desk; it ended up that at boarding, they only had one seat available.

Here’s the thing: this wouldn’t have been a problem had we flown standby before, but this was our first time; and honestly, we were nervous to spilt up and take separate flights in the fear that one of us wouldn’t make the next connection to California, which would mean that we would have to spend how ever long in an unfamiliar airport alone. It ended up that the next flight available for us was the next morning, so in true pilot life fashion, we decided to take the adventure and wait until that next flight. Here is some advice from the both of us based on our experience:

1.) Don’t sweat the small stuff! If you don’t get on the flight you want, it’s okay, this is when you can really work on your plan B (of course, it would be good to have one in place prior to your flight so you don’t have to sit for however long figuring out what to do next). There are questions you can ask the individuals behind the desk when you are in this position. These were some that came up when we dealt with this: When is the next flight taking off? Will we most likely make it onto that flight? Generally they will be more than happy to answer any questions you have for them.

2.) If you have to stay over night (which we had to do-our first flight was supposed to take off at 6, the flight we got on was at 6:30 the next morning), and are considering getting a hotel room, do it. We contemplated getting one for about half an hour. Is it worth it? what hotels are around? Can we afford it? Well, after discussing, we felt like it wasn’t worth it. We considered that by the time we found the hotel, booked it, called for the shuttle and traveled there, it would be 10 pm. Then we would have to wake up around 3 or so to get to the airport on time, and we just didn’t want to deal with it, so we chose to spend the night in the terminal. It was one of the longest nights I’ve had in a long time! we ended up spending half of our night trying to sleep between 3 planter pots, and the cafeteria booths because they had some sort of cushion. All I can say is that I longingly dreamed of that hotel bed, and the sleep I could have gotten!

3.) Don’t check bags if you don’t have too! Generally, we don’t check our bags, but because our Florida stay was so long we had three bags on top of our personal carry on items. Heading to Florida was just fine, we got off the plane and our baggage was waiting for us on the carousel. Well, coming home was a bit if a different story. When you fly standby, you have some idea that you may be getting onto your desired flight, so it wasn’t much of a concern when we checked our bags. It took us until solidifying our plan B to realize that, even though we didn’t make our flight, it didn’t mean that our bags missed it too. It was the opposite; we not only watched the plane pull back from the terminal, we watched our luggage head out as well. Luckily it was intercepted at our final destination before being put onto the carosel, and was put safely in an administration office to wait for us to arrive in Sacramento. All is well, and we were able to receive all of our things, but it’s always better if you don’t check your bags, just in case you don’t make your flight.

This is just the first standby fail we have had as a couple, and honestly, I can’t wait for the others because this is a great memory I have that I can look back on and laugh about.

I am writing this on Wednesday night, listening to the frogs croak, and as my dog snores, and am coming to find that the jet lag is hitting me as I am now three hours behind the time I have become familiar with in Florida. I’m going to go hit the hay in a real bed; but, if you have any advice or funny stories, don’t be shy, I’d love to add to my advice and hear all of the great adventures you have had!