SkiAdcock
Jul 6, 04, 2:00 pm
Purpose of trip to Tennessee: attend family reunion on dad’s side & then attend a cousin’s wedding the next day. Bummer part – have to miss out on the Iceland trip because the family will disown me if I blow them off for Iceland.
Having walked luckily into a lucrative bump from LHR this year & always reading about the bumps by other FTers, I decided to deliberately try for one myself. This was also going to be my first trip on a RJ w/ First Class. I normally route through ORD to spend the least amount of time on a RJ, but prices were sky high so route through DEN. Sea_tigger & robotdoctor told me they’d flown on the RJ w/ F and it was fine, so I decided to try it since the airfare was $300 less. But it’s only because the RJ has F that I was willing to do it; otherwise, the flight’s too long & too painful to be in economy on a RJ. I found that out the hard way a few years ago when they rerouted me due to flight cancellation (and lied through their teeth telling me it was only 15minutes further than ORD – yeah right).
A few days before the flights are looking open, so my grand plan to go for a bump looks like it will be a wash. But am on FT the night before in chat & decided to pull up the load for my flights to/from (routing LAX-DEN-BNA). Wow – pretty much zero across the board, but a couple seats left in F. Hmm, maybe this will work out after all. Should I try; shouldn’t I try? Have to make a decision because if I don’t go for it, then I’ll check my bags but if I do, then roll-aboard it is.
Hmm, hey guys, what do you think? Looks good; go for it. Ok, but what’s the procedure? They fill me in & I start pulling up the VDB threads to get familiar w/ & also to get around the dreaded here’s a free ticket offer. I don’t want a free ticket. I want the $$ voucher to use on future flights. Their advice: don’t mention it until AFTER the plane has departed & also tell them I fly international so free ticket won’t be of use (that part is actually close to true).
So I get to LAX at oh-dawn-hundred & ask to be put on the volunteer list. Ok, but it’s only a bit oversold so we won’t need you. That’s fine, but would you put me on both segments anyway? Ok. Get card saying I’m on the list for first flight, but she’s having problems w/ the 2nd flight, but says she’s got it done. No card though – oh don’t worry; I have you on the list. I knew from reading threads no card probably meant I wasn’t on the list, but decided to deal w/ it at DEN.
Go to the gate, & since I am new to this stuff & figure it wouldn’t hurt to ask, I asked the gate agent if she would announce if they would need volunteers, or say no volunteers needed & to go ahead & board, and she agreed to do so (I asked when she wasn’t busy; also figured if she said no to the request, I’d just hang out). Reason for asking was because if they weren’t going to use me, I wanted to get on when they started loading the plane so I could stow the roll-aboard before overhead bin gets full.
So they didn’t need me & off to DEN. Flight uneventful; bkfst no great shakes. Land at one end of the concourse so of course the RJ flights are at the total opposite end – UA has a long-g-g concourse. Oh well, got my exercise. Get to the gate & it’s absolute chaos. Even though there are multiple gates the flights go out of, there’s only one entry to go to those & there are multiple flights leaving around the same time.
So I go to the gate & say I’m on the volunteer list & wondered if you’ll need me. Hmm, you’re not on the list (which didn’t surprise me given that I hadn’t gotten a card in LA). We could use you but can’t get you out until 6:30 tonight (this was 10:00am). What about the flight right after mine, which leaves mid-afternoon? That’s oversold too. Well drat, my first opportunity for a bump & I’m going to have to turn it down. Since the family reunion is in the evening & the family lives 1.5hours from BNA, taking the later flight would get me in too late & they’d be pissed off. Oh well. Maybe on the way back.
While I’m waiting for my flight to be announced, I hear them making multiple announcements for the Wichita flight, which is evidently very oversold. It’s 10am, they’re asking for volunteers saying they can get them to Chicago later that night, put them up & get them to Wichita the next day mid-day, they’ll give a free ticket and they need 4-5 volunteers. Now I may be new to the bump bizness, but you’re going to have to offer up more than a free economy, non-upgradable & non-mileage earning ticket if you want to inconvenience me by 24 hours. My flight was called, so don’t know how Wichita worked out.
Go through the door, down a hallway, down some steps to a long narrow hallway with doors on both sides for the various flights. Mine of course was at the very end, and they hadn’t started boarding yet. Then someone comes on & says there’s a delay, mumble – all I can think is please do not swap out the plane. I want my First seat. The only reason I was willing to do this routing is because of that; DEN-BNA is just too long in a RJ economy seat. She gets back to me (I’m at end of line) & repeats the message; it’s just a light that’s being changed. Phew. So eventually we get called & out we troop in the rain (no umbrellas offered). Leave my roll-aboard plane-side & get on.
I’m in row 1A, which sea_tigger & robotdoctor told me was by itself. 1A & 2A are single, & there are 2 seats on the other side. Two rows of F. It might be me, but I thought 1A had even more leg room than 2A. Seat’s comfortable. I settle in & think this will be ok. I know the plane doesn’t have IFE, but I’d brought my noise-reduction headphones along anyway to minimize plane noise. Glad I did because an employee was sitting up front w/ captain & his daughter was in row 2. Nice girl but Miss Chitty-Chatty the entire way; I felt sorry for the woman sitting next to her. The meal was corn chex mix; they did have wine, so I went for the white. Uneventful flight & we made up the time delay.
Won’t bore you w/ the family reunion/wedding stuff, but gosh Tennessee is hot & humid in the summer.
So Sunday morning I check return flights – sold out across the board on both other than 1 F (I was dumb enough to think that might mean 2 bumps; more about that later). So get to BNA & offer to do the volunteer thing. Get the card. BTW – since Skywest is taking over from ACA at BNA, the entire staff at check-in & gate are from California on temporary assignment. Go to gate & again ask how it looks. We’ll probably need 1. Ok, I’m on the list. We’ll probably use you. They do. Plane takes off.
Here’s a free ticket. Excuse me, but I prefer a $$ voucher to the ticket as I can’t use the free ticket internationally. Ok, $100? No, UA’s rule is $200 for a 1-3 hour delay. Ok, hmm. They were very friendly about it. Free ticket requires a supervisor. They look at each other; I think since this was so new there wasn’t one there. They literally arrived in BNA at 11pm the night before themselves. But then one of them says try this, bingo – 4x$50 and I’m in F on the next flight. And we have you on standby for the flights from DEN-LAX. Ok. Sit down & start to read.
Hmm, wait a second. What happens in standby? Is that a bump? If I don’t clear, do they put me up or am I supposed to pay for it – which would kind of negate the free $200. Maybe I goofed myself up here. Yikes, where’s a computer (since it was a short trip & family stuff & they have computer, I didn’t bring my laptop)? Ask security & they direct me to a travel agent/biz center. Get on FT right away & hope that someone is on the United forum that can answer the question.
Basically it’s not a double-bump situation; you have to be on a flight in order to get bumped & my stand-by status isn’t that, and since I took the bump UA won’t have to put me up. Yikes & yikes again. They say get back to the gate, get them to get you on any airline to LAX & then try for stand-by. Only problem w/ that is the other airline flights are leaving from dif terminal within 10 minutes of UA. Drat. So go back to the gate, and say to the guy who did the bump & got me the certs. Excuse me Jorge, but I was just wondering. I took the bump & your colleague says I’m on standby for the other flights, but what happens then if I don’t clear? Do I stay overnight; what happens to little ole me? I’m confused never having done this before (that part was totally accurate!). He says hmm, click, click, click. You’re on standby for the 8pm & protected on the 9:15pm. Ok, phew…
Meanwhile, throughout the afternoon there are numerous pages. But not just flight announcements like we’re used to. Page: such & such your grandfather is waiting for you at baggage claim; such & such, you forgot your crayons & coloring book at such/such; very homey type announcements, which I’ve never heard at any other airport!
BTW – Frontier was in the same concourse as UA, and they must be new cuz there was soda, balloons, and cake at the gate. Also Independence Air is now in BNA. So my guess is flight prices might come down for BNA, at least on competitive routes.
Board (again in 1A), flight back uneventful. Walk down the long concourse to where the 8pm is. Hi, I’m on the standby list. Can you tell me how it looks? Looks good; come back 20 minutes before flight. Ok, not to sound greedy (knowing I do), any chance of an upgrade. Nope, ok. What about the later flight. Nope, smaller plane too. Ok, that’s fine. Off to RCC. Back 20minutes before flight, they call my name & I’m in F – unexpected & nice (helped that it was a 767). Flight back uneventful.
BTW – Jorge is going to get a nice letter written about him not only because he was great in helping me, but was very calm & professional when some jerk kept screaming at him because the inbound flight was delayed by a few minutes & why didn’t they make more announcements. I was ready to punch out the guy he was being such a jerk, but Jorge handled it well.
So, my first-ever deliberate bump and my first-ever RJ w/ F; hmm, wonder about the next bump opps….
Having walked luckily into a lucrative bump from LHR this year & always reading about the bumps by other FTers, I decided to deliberately try for one myself. This was also going to be my first trip on a RJ w/ First Class. I normally route through ORD to spend the least amount of time on a RJ, but prices were sky high so route through DEN. Sea_tigger & robotdoctor told me they’d flown on the RJ w/ F and it was fine, so I decided to try it since the airfare was $300 less. But it’s only because the RJ has F that I was willing to do it; otherwise, the flight’s too long & too painful to be in economy on a RJ. I found that out the hard way a few years ago when they rerouted me due to flight cancellation (and lied through their teeth telling me it was only 15minutes further than ORD – yeah right).
A few days before the flights are looking open, so my grand plan to go for a bump looks like it will be a wash. But am on FT the night before in chat & decided to pull up the load for my flights to/from (routing LAX-DEN-BNA). Wow – pretty much zero across the board, but a couple seats left in F. Hmm, maybe this will work out after all. Should I try; shouldn’t I try? Have to make a decision because if I don’t go for it, then I’ll check my bags but if I do, then roll-aboard it is.
Hmm, hey guys, what do you think? Looks good; go for it. Ok, but what’s the procedure? They fill me in & I start pulling up the VDB threads to get familiar w/ & also to get around the dreaded here’s a free ticket offer. I don’t want a free ticket. I want the $$ voucher to use on future flights. Their advice: don’t mention it until AFTER the plane has departed & also tell them I fly international so free ticket won’t be of use (that part is actually close to true).
So I get to LAX at oh-dawn-hundred & ask to be put on the volunteer list. Ok, but it’s only a bit oversold so we won’t need you. That’s fine, but would you put me on both segments anyway? Ok. Get card saying I’m on the list for first flight, but she’s having problems w/ the 2nd flight, but says she’s got it done. No card though – oh don’t worry; I have you on the list. I knew from reading threads no card probably meant I wasn’t on the list, but decided to deal w/ it at DEN.
Go to the gate, & since I am new to this stuff & figure it wouldn’t hurt to ask, I asked the gate agent if she would announce if they would need volunteers, or say no volunteers needed & to go ahead & board, and she agreed to do so (I asked when she wasn’t busy; also figured if she said no to the request, I’d just hang out). Reason for asking was because if they weren’t going to use me, I wanted to get on when they started loading the plane so I could stow the roll-aboard before overhead bin gets full.
So they didn’t need me & off to DEN. Flight uneventful; bkfst no great shakes. Land at one end of the concourse so of course the RJ flights are at the total opposite end – UA has a long-g-g concourse. Oh well, got my exercise. Get to the gate & it’s absolute chaos. Even though there are multiple gates the flights go out of, there’s only one entry to go to those & there are multiple flights leaving around the same time.
So I go to the gate & say I’m on the volunteer list & wondered if you’ll need me. Hmm, you’re not on the list (which didn’t surprise me given that I hadn’t gotten a card in LA). We could use you but can’t get you out until 6:30 tonight (this was 10:00am). What about the flight right after mine, which leaves mid-afternoon? That’s oversold too. Well drat, my first opportunity for a bump & I’m going to have to turn it down. Since the family reunion is in the evening & the family lives 1.5hours from BNA, taking the later flight would get me in too late & they’d be pissed off. Oh well. Maybe on the way back.
While I’m waiting for my flight to be announced, I hear them making multiple announcements for the Wichita flight, which is evidently very oversold. It’s 10am, they’re asking for volunteers saying they can get them to Chicago later that night, put them up & get them to Wichita the next day mid-day, they’ll give a free ticket and they need 4-5 volunteers. Now I may be new to the bump bizness, but you’re going to have to offer up more than a free economy, non-upgradable & non-mileage earning ticket if you want to inconvenience me by 24 hours. My flight was called, so don’t know how Wichita worked out.
Go through the door, down a hallway, down some steps to a long narrow hallway with doors on both sides for the various flights. Mine of course was at the very end, and they hadn’t started boarding yet. Then someone comes on & says there’s a delay, mumble – all I can think is please do not swap out the plane. I want my First seat. The only reason I was willing to do this routing is because of that; DEN-BNA is just too long in a RJ economy seat. She gets back to me (I’m at end of line) & repeats the message; it’s just a light that’s being changed. Phew. So eventually we get called & out we troop in the rain (no umbrellas offered). Leave my roll-aboard plane-side & get on.
I’m in row 1A, which sea_tigger & robotdoctor told me was by itself. 1A & 2A are single, & there are 2 seats on the other side. Two rows of F. It might be me, but I thought 1A had even more leg room than 2A. Seat’s comfortable. I settle in & think this will be ok. I know the plane doesn’t have IFE, but I’d brought my noise-reduction headphones along anyway to minimize plane noise. Glad I did because an employee was sitting up front w/ captain & his daughter was in row 2. Nice girl but Miss Chitty-Chatty the entire way; I felt sorry for the woman sitting next to her. The meal was corn chex mix; they did have wine, so I went for the white. Uneventful flight & we made up the time delay.
Won’t bore you w/ the family reunion/wedding stuff, but gosh Tennessee is hot & humid in the summer.
So Sunday morning I check return flights – sold out across the board on both other than 1 F (I was dumb enough to think that might mean 2 bumps; more about that later). So get to BNA & offer to do the volunteer thing. Get the card. BTW – since Skywest is taking over from ACA at BNA, the entire staff at check-in & gate are from California on temporary assignment. Go to gate & again ask how it looks. We’ll probably need 1. Ok, I’m on the list. We’ll probably use you. They do. Plane takes off.
Here’s a free ticket. Excuse me, but I prefer a $$ voucher to the ticket as I can’t use the free ticket internationally. Ok, $100? No, UA’s rule is $200 for a 1-3 hour delay. Ok, hmm. They were very friendly about it. Free ticket requires a supervisor. They look at each other; I think since this was so new there wasn’t one there. They literally arrived in BNA at 11pm the night before themselves. But then one of them says try this, bingo – 4x$50 and I’m in F on the next flight. And we have you on standby for the flights from DEN-LAX. Ok. Sit down & start to read.
Hmm, wait a second. What happens in standby? Is that a bump? If I don’t clear, do they put me up or am I supposed to pay for it – which would kind of negate the free $200. Maybe I goofed myself up here. Yikes, where’s a computer (since it was a short trip & family stuff & they have computer, I didn’t bring my laptop)? Ask security & they direct me to a travel agent/biz center. Get on FT right away & hope that someone is on the United forum that can answer the question.
Basically it’s not a double-bump situation; you have to be on a flight in order to get bumped & my stand-by status isn’t that, and since I took the bump UA won’t have to put me up. Yikes & yikes again. They say get back to the gate, get them to get you on any airline to LAX & then try for stand-by. Only problem w/ that is the other airline flights are leaving from dif terminal within 10 minutes of UA. Drat. So go back to the gate, and say to the guy who did the bump & got me the certs. Excuse me Jorge, but I was just wondering. I took the bump & your colleague says I’m on standby for the other flights, but what happens then if I don’t clear? Do I stay overnight; what happens to little ole me? I’m confused never having done this before (that part was totally accurate!). He says hmm, click, click, click. You’re on standby for the 8pm & protected on the 9:15pm. Ok, phew…
Meanwhile, throughout the afternoon there are numerous pages. But not just flight announcements like we’re used to. Page: such & such your grandfather is waiting for you at baggage claim; such & such, you forgot your crayons & coloring book at such/such; very homey type announcements, which I’ve never heard at any other airport!
BTW – Frontier was in the same concourse as UA, and they must be new cuz there was soda, balloons, and cake at the gate. Also Independence Air is now in BNA. So my guess is flight prices might come down for BNA, at least on competitive routes.
Board (again in 1A), flight back uneventful. Walk down the long concourse to where the 8pm is. Hi, I’m on the standby list. Can you tell me how it looks? Looks good; come back 20 minutes before flight. Ok, not to sound greedy (knowing I do), any chance of an upgrade. Nope, ok. What about the later flight. Nope, smaller plane too. Ok, that’s fine. Off to RCC. Back 20minutes before flight, they call my name & I’m in F – unexpected & nice (helped that it was a 767). Flight back uneventful.
BTW – Jorge is going to get a nice letter written about him not only because he was great in helping me, but was very calm & professional when some jerk kept screaming at him because the inbound flight was delayed by a few minutes & why didn’t they make more announcements. I was ready to punch out the guy he was being such a jerk, but Jorge handled it well.
So, my first-ever deliberate bump and my first-ever RJ w/ F; hmm, wonder about the next bump opps….