OK, so my plan was pretty simple: book a one way PHX-SAN with a SFO connection, confirm on the PM flight, standby on an earlier PHX-SFO, spend a day with friends in the City by the Bay, and hand deliver 4 liters of liquor before I head to Tijuana for the balance of the weekend. UA had other plans for me, though.
The wide open 6am PHX-SFO was cancelled the night before. Already planning to take a friend to fly UA that night, I decide to ask the agents about chances for standby the next day, given the cancellation. The agent checked me in and put me on the standby list for the 8:30am, a day prior. OK, nice. ^ ^ More sleep for me.
I get to the airport, wait for the 8:30, but find it's a zoo-- apparently UA didn't have much luck rebooking the other 6am confirmed passengers. But, I wait patiently and watch the flight fill and ultimately push. Such is life for standby-- I'll still get on a later flight and have a number of hours in SF.
Then it happened: a UA alert that my SFO--SAN last flight of the night has been cancelled. No reason! So now my SFO stay will be instantly cut 2 hours short as I have to leave at 7:25.
The remaining flights from PHX to SFO are an overbooked flight at 12:30pm and my backup at 3:30 which gives me 2 hours in SFO, barely enough time to drop off the liquor. I call UA and find they can't rebok me on amything byt that 3:30pm PHX-SFO and the 7:25 SFO-SAN--- long enough travel time to be inconvenient and shoot the day, but too little time in SFO to drop my stuff.
Next plan: standby PHX--LAX then LAX-SFO-SAN. No such luck. All PHX-LAX flights are zeroed out. Even Chicago is a no-go.
Apparently every other UA flight to anywhere from PHX is overbooked.
I manage to snag a seat to DEN-- at this point, just desperate to get out of the state of AZ. Plan was to fly PHX-DEN-SFO, 4 hours in SFO, then SFO-SAN. I can live with that.
I arrive in DEN and find that my DEN to SFO has cancelled. I've been rebooked on a SAN nonstop
with no chance of getting on a SFO flight- they're zeroed out now. Talk to the SAN agent to explain my current dilema: I have to deliver the 4 bottles to SFO because if I don't, I'd go to Mexico and not be able to return to the US with them as I'd be over my limit. Any connections through RNO? SLC? SMF? Nope. A DEN-LAX cancels while we're checking, and weather is about to roll in, I hear--- I feel I'm dodging a mine field. The only way to CA, she says, is on the SAN flight I'm booked on. But, she does it one better: books a connection SAN to SFO. ^ I get in with 2 hours on the ground :-/ but at this point my options are limited.
I arrive SAN and find the earlier flight is still boarding. Completely full, but I find favor with the gate agent.... she closes the jetway as she walks me to the aircraft, and I grab the last seat on the plane. I'm now getting with 3 hours in SF. Life is good.
Well, almost. 3 hours turn into 2 1/2, and by the time I reissue my, SFO-SAN boarding pass, and head ot the BART (which I barely missed), I find time is not on my side. After guesstimating travel time to the city and back out, given BART's 20 min. frequency, I find that even if my friends met me in the BART station, I would be cutting the flight very very close.
In the end, I talked to them and they offered to meet me at the airport. A short hile later, we had a quick reunion on the curb, and I was back in the terminal. Caught the flight without a hitch (apparently not all of the late flight passengers had been confirmed-- so another zoo scene) but I got on and flew back to SAN.
Summary: my PHX-SFO-SAN became PHX-DEN-SAN-SFO-SAN.
Lessons learned:
-- UA res takes FOREVER to answer. I easily spent 15 min. on hold each time I called-- and I called a number of times.
-- UA zeroes (zeroed) out a lot of flights, leaving no options for involuntary reroutes. A number of agents asked if I wanted to fly outbound the next day, but that would totally blow the weekend.
-- UA cancelled a number of flights for no reason. Reminded me of the summer from hell, which I never personally experienced.
-- it pays to be an astute and vigilant traveler.
Oh yeah, and I got extra miles for the segs.
But next time, it would be faster and easier to just take the bus PHX-SAN.