hello all,
i hope you are having a great week!
now i consider myself a pretty savvy traveler, but every now and again even savvy travelers drop the ball a little bit. let me start with my tip: always check in for your flight in advance.
so for those of you that don't know, last week i was out in southern california for a few days. i'm on the road a considerable amount, so to say the least i have a pretty high status with both star alliance & one world airlines. this status makes life a little easier as a business traveler: shorter security lines, first group to board the plane, no checked baggage fees (if you ever have one), and of course upgrades to business or first class.
well my return flight from LA was a connection; LAX to PHL to LGA on US Airways and lucky me i had been upgraded to a first class seat a couple days earlier. it departed LAX at 6:25am. i wake up about 4:45am to shower and head out from my hotel in torrance to drop off my rental car and head to the terminal.
now i was just having one of those mornings. i get up and of course it's raining. i hop in the car and wouldn't you know it my GPS wasn't working. luckily i spend a lot of time in LA, so i had a pretty good idea about how to get to the airport....except for that first wrong turn out of the hotel that took me 10 minutes out of my way. anyway, after getting back on track i make it to drop off my rental car...its about 5:25am as i get on the shuttle bus..plenty of time for an avid road warrior like me i thought.
i get to the terminal in a few minutes, head to a kiosk to get checked in to my first class seat on both flights, and i get this interesting message when i tried to check in, that said no seat availability please see the gate agent. just excellent i thought, now i need to go stand in line to get checked in.
i head into the line for the first class counter, and after a few minutes i finally was able to speak to a gate agent. its 5:50am...35 minutes before my flight...plenty of time. well the gate agent proceeds to tell me that i've been bumped off of my 6:25am flight because there isnt "enough" time for me to get through security and they would have to rebook me on a 7:30 flight through charlotte getting into new york a couple hours later. i of course objected, but the gate agent stood firm and said well if you get through security fast enough go to gate 8 and see if they can get you on the flight.
it's 5:55am now, 30 minutes before my original flight and i hit the priority security lane..only about 5 people in line ahead of me. i breeze through security in about 5 minutes and quickly head over to gate 8. i speak to the gate agent and explained that i was originally on this flight, i had a first class seat, and the gate agent out front bumped me from the flight because i "wasn't able to make it on time"
a long story short, i was able to negotiate to get a seat on the flight. but it was a middle seat in the back as opposed to my comfy first class seat. now i was happy to get home on the same flight, but of course was a little disappointed about being bumped to a middle seat in the back. now had i checked in ahead of time, i wouldn't have had any problems. so to make sure you board your original flight with your original seat please take 30 seconds to check in when you get that reminder email and you won't have the trouble i did.
happy travels wherever the road may take you...
stay tuned for the next viewfromtheair
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