Several weeks ago, I posted about a friend who was shut out of 836 (and his grandmother's 90th b'day) due to crew scheduling. The responses were pretty much along the lines of, "s*** happens." No big deal I thought; at least my flights usually have crews.

But, during the course of the subsequent 10 days, the crew scheduling beast has reared its head twice on my flights. The first was ORD-SFO last week, which was delayed for an hour+ while we tried to find a pilot. I lived.

Yesterday, however, things weren't so pretty. I was scheduled to fly PDX-SFO-PEK on the 10:18a flight from PDX. It was imperatative that I arrive in PEK last night because my boss wanted me to attend his son's 5th b'day party.

So, I showed up at the airport at around 9a and proceeded to Mr. Chicken, who turned out to be the bearer of bad news, "there's no way I can get you to SFO in time to connect to 889," he told me. "Would you like me to search for other options?"

"Sure," I replied.

Then he told me, "no dice, sir moondog; you'd better stand in that really long line behind you."

At this point, I knew I could get to PEK via YVR if I could somehow get through that line and onto the plane in 15 minutes. But, that just wasn't in the cards.

While in line, I called up reservations and was told I would need to wait a day because my ticket was non-endorsable; they also told me to take the 6a flight to SFO in order to avert a repeat performance (i.e. suggesting that I was to blame for only scheduling a 2.5 hour layover). Since that wasn't really an option, I decided to try my luck with the airport people.

The woman that finally helped me was great. It helped that my girlfriend was with me and they had hit it off well several days prior. She spent the next hour putting me on NW5 and NW11, much to the chagrin of the angry folks behind me in the very long line (if any of you were among this group, I owe you a drink).

In the end, she got me onto NW5 with a great seat (27a; infinite legroom plus a window). Then, my gf and I killed around 2 hours at the sushi bar, which was great, as always (the salmon is good right now).

NW5 was fabulous in that good seat and I made friends with one of the FAs who hooked me up with free drinks (NW charges for booze to Japan now). Recently, I've started flying UA on 777 routes because I'm tired of the 744, but NW's 330s really are in a different league. Aside from the AVOD and superior Airshow, there was a power outlet, which allowed me to watch 4 episodes of 24 and 3 episodes of Prison Break that I had downloaded during the days leading up to my flight. The food wasn't terrible either.

During the flight, it occurred to me that I had been a jackass for not upgrading my Y fare for 15k NW miles, so, upon arrival in NRT, my first order of business was to upgrade my connection to PEK for 5k miles.

Then, I stopped by the RCC to grab a shower and play with everyone's favorite beer machine.

NW11 was heavily oversold and they were seeking volunteers. I didn't bite because I really needed to get to Beijing, but I did rise to the podium in order to counsel another traveler who was about to accept a free domestic ticket instead of the $400.

Business class to PEK was pretty good, but I can't comment on the service because I slept almost the whole way.

In the end, I am happy to be here and was really pleased with NW. They might have their problems, but their NRT thing (well, the 330s, at least) is certainly a feather in their cap.

In terms of miles, I received NW miles plus a class of service bonus and was told that my UA miles for the originally intended flights will post automatically.

So, I made out pretty well in the end and only arrived 5 hours behind schedule (after the party, but getting here on the same day was of symbolic importance).

On the other hand, as my gf pointed out, the majority of non-FTers would have been (and probably were) SOL in the same situation. On that note, I suppose I owe all of you a big, "Thank you."