It's also the best way... better to be delighted and surprised rather than disappointed when an operational comes up. Not to expect something always makes it a bit more special when it does happen.

Row 30s not that bad, though on 7-hours to London might make the stomach a bit queezy. Coming back from my webspecial to FRA this weekend, and connecting back to YYZ on an award seat ex-YUL, I managed to get a standby seat on a flight 2-hours earlier than the one I had originally booked. Was the last name called on the waitlist and got 35E, centre seat, last row of a 767-200. Quite an experience to sit so far back and see the whole plane bounce up and down for an hour! Haven't flown this far back since the days when First Class was at the rear of the Vanguards! But I was appreciative of getting out on the earlier flight, particularly because of heavy bookings on Easter Monday.

Oh, by the way, by way of commenting on a previous post somewhere, boarding passes for Aeroplan tickets do not have elite status printed on them, but otherwise hold elite priority for standbys.