First Deliberate Bump, First RJ w/ First Class - & Interesting Pages at BNA Airport
Jul 6, 2004, 1:00 pm
#1
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2002
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Posts: 71,163
First Deliberate Bump, First RJ w/ First Class - & Interesting Pages at BNA Airport
Purpose of trip to Tennessee: attend family reunion on dads side & then attend a cousins 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 theyd flown on the RJ w/ F and it was fine, so I decided to try it since the airfare was $300 less. But its only because the RJ has F that I was willing to do it; otherwise, the flights 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; shouldnt I try? Have to make a decision because if I dont go for it, then Ill 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 whats the procedure? They fill me in & I start pulling up the VDB threads to get familiar w/ & also to get around the dreaded heres a free ticket offer. I dont want a free ticket. I want the $$ voucher to use on future flights. Their advice: dont mention it until AFTER the plane has departed & also tell them I fly international so free ticket wont 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 its only a bit oversold so we wont need you. Thats fine, but would you put me on both segments anyway? Ok. Get card saying Im on the list for first flight, but shes having problems w/ the 2nd flight, but says shes got it done. No card though oh dont worry; I have you on the list. I knew from reading threads no card probably meant I wasnt on the list, but decided to deal w/ it at DEN.
Go to the gate, & since I am new to this stuff & figure it wouldnt 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 wasnt busy; also figured if she said no to the request, Id just hang out). Reason for asking was because if they werent 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 didnt 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 & its absolute chaos. Even though there are multiple gates the flights go out of, theres only one entry to go to those & there are multiple flights leaving around the same time.
So I go to the gate & say Im on the volunteer list & wondered if youll need me. Hmm, youre not on the list (which didnt surprise me given that I hadnt gotten a card in LA). We could use you but cant get you out until 6:30 tonight (this was 10:00am). What about the flight right after mine, which leaves mid-afternoon? Thats oversold too. Well drat, my first opportunity for a bump & Im 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 & theyd be pissed off. Oh well. Maybe on the way back.
While Im waiting for my flight to be announced, I hear them making multiple announcements for the Wichita flight, which is evidently very oversold. Its 10am, theyre 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, theyll give a free ticket and they need 4-5 volunteers. Now I may be new to the bump bizness, but youre 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 dont 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 hadnt started boarding yet. Then someone comes on & says theres 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 (Im at end of line) & repeats the message; its just a light thats 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.
Im 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. Seats comfortable. I settle in & think this will be ok. I know the plane doesnt have IFE, but Id 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.
Wont 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. Well probably need 1. Ok, Im on the list. Well probably use you. They do. Plane takes off.
Heres a free ticket. Excuse me, but I prefer a $$ voucher to the ticket as I cant use the free ticket internationally. Ok, $100? No, UAs 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 wasnt 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 Im 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 dont 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, wheres a computer (since it was a short trip & family stuff & they have computer, I didnt 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 its not a double-bump situation; you have to be on a flight in order to get bumped & my stand-by status isnt that, and since I took the bump UA wont 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 Im on standby for the other flights, but what happens then if I dont clear? Do I stay overnight; what happens to little ole me? Im confused never having done this before (that part was totally accurate!). He says hmm, click, click, click. Youre 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 were 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 Ive 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, Im 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, thats fine. Off to RCC. Back 20minutes before flight, they call my name & Im 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 didnt 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 theyd flown on the RJ w/ F and it was fine, so I decided to try it since the airfare was $300 less. But its only because the RJ has F that I was willing to do it; otherwise, the flights 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; shouldnt I try? Have to make a decision because if I dont go for it, then Ill 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 whats the procedure? They fill me in & I start pulling up the VDB threads to get familiar w/ & also to get around the dreaded heres a free ticket offer. I dont want a free ticket. I want the $$ voucher to use on future flights. Their advice: dont mention it until AFTER the plane has departed & also tell them I fly international so free ticket wont 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 its only a bit oversold so we wont need you. Thats fine, but would you put me on both segments anyway? Ok. Get card saying Im on the list for first flight, but shes having problems w/ the 2nd flight, but says shes got it done. No card though oh dont worry; I have you on the list. I knew from reading threads no card probably meant I wasnt on the list, but decided to deal w/ it at DEN.
Go to the gate, & since I am new to this stuff & figure it wouldnt 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 wasnt busy; also figured if she said no to the request, Id just hang out). Reason for asking was because if they werent 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 didnt 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 & its absolute chaos. Even though there are multiple gates the flights go out of, theres only one entry to go to those & there are multiple flights leaving around the same time.
So I go to the gate & say Im on the volunteer list & wondered if youll need me. Hmm, youre not on the list (which didnt surprise me given that I hadnt gotten a card in LA). We could use you but cant get you out until 6:30 tonight (this was 10:00am). What about the flight right after mine, which leaves mid-afternoon? Thats oversold too. Well drat, my first opportunity for a bump & Im 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 & theyd be pissed off. Oh well. Maybe on the way back.
While Im waiting for my flight to be announced, I hear them making multiple announcements for the Wichita flight, which is evidently very oversold. Its 10am, theyre 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, theyll give a free ticket and they need 4-5 volunteers. Now I may be new to the bump bizness, but youre 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 dont 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 hadnt started boarding yet. Then someone comes on & says theres 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 (Im at end of line) & repeats the message; its just a light thats 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.
Im 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. Seats comfortable. I settle in & think this will be ok. I know the plane doesnt have IFE, but Id 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.
Wont 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. Well probably need 1. Ok, Im on the list. Well probably use you. They do. Plane takes off.
Heres a free ticket. Excuse me, but I prefer a $$ voucher to the ticket as I cant use the free ticket internationally. Ok, $100? No, UAs 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 wasnt 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 Im 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 dont 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, wheres a computer (since it was a short trip & family stuff & they have computer, I didnt 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 its not a double-bump situation; you have to be on a flight in order to get bumped & my stand-by status isnt that, and since I took the bump UA wont 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 Im on standby for the other flights, but what happens then if I dont clear? Do I stay overnight; what happens to little ole me? Im confused never having done this before (that part was totally accurate!). He says hmm, click, click, click. Youre 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 were 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 Ive 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, Im 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, thats fine. Off to RCC. Back 20minutes before flight, they call my name & Im 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 didnt 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.
Jul 10, 2004, 12:57 pm
#4
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2002
Programs: UALifetimePremierGold, Marriott LifetimeTitanium
Posts: 71,163
It's been a few weeks so I can't remember if Jorge was LAX-based or one of the other LA-area airports. The entire crew was LA & Palm-Springs-based. I don't fly UX out of LA (or haven't to date), so don't know. But he is getting a nice letter written this weekend.
Edited to add: I'm guessing he's a supervisor. The others were nice, but clueless & pretty much deferred to him on stuff.
Edited to add: I'm guessing he's a supervisor. The others were nice, but clueless & pretty much deferred to him on stuff.
Jul 10, 2004, 8:49 pm
#5
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: SoCal; DO-RAGS: Old Gold tagged, PIP, LatPass 1/2, AA 4MM, HH LT Diamond, Marriott Titanium/LT Plat, Omni
Posts: 9,205
Nice trip report.
I once took my mom to Tenn, where she was born, and the trip report was nothing but bizarre family stuff. So, dish out some dirt....
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
Wont bore you w/ the family reunion/wedding stuff, but gosh Tennessee is hot & humid in the summer.
