Standby Stress

If you read my last blog post, you are fully aware of the loops and bounds I went through before I was able to figure out my plan for this next year and finally settle in in Ireland, the place that had been waiting for me all along. Well, I left out one part: my plane ticket was standby.

I was wonderfully and incredibly blessed by a generous friend from work who is engaged to an American Airlines pilot. She and I were discussing taking a trip to Spain for vacation this summer (since flying comes at quite a low cost for her) but when our schedules didn't match up for us to both go at the same time, she still offered to let me use a buddy pass. Can I just say I have amazing friends?? Anyways, I went on ahead of her and am still hoping she'll be able to come visit me in Spain this summer so we can have a few days to do some touristy things :)

What I quickly found, however, is that along with the blessing of a cheap tickets comes an endless amount of anxiety and quite a bit of extra work. Fortunately again, I have a wonderful friend who was patient and helped me the whole way through. It was not, however, without its difficulties and definitely not without its stresses. I chose the day I wanted to fly and had my friend sign me up for a flight. The day before the flight came, I packed, cleaned my room before I left it for a year, and went to bed hoping to get on a flight the next day. One problem: I was signed up for an overbooked flight. Originally, the flight I had chosen from Phoenix to Chicago had 20-something empty seats available and the flight from Chicago to Dublin had almost 30. As I was packing, things still looked great. In a matter of two hours, all the flights from Phoenix to Chicago filled up and became overbooked by several people with standby lists of up to 30, my place being at the very end of that. What happened? Good ol' tornadoes in Dallas threw off the flight schedules for several days and damaged quite a few American Airlines planes. On top of that, Chicago had such bad weather that some of the morning flights were completely cancelled... meaning all those people were re-booked onto later flights (my flight) with much higher priority than me.

I faced a dilemma of whether or not to even go to the airport and try to get on a flight that day. I ended up going and waiting in line to check my bags, but the ticket agents looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I was trying to get on a flight that day. They told me to come back in two or three days. Did I mention that there is only one flight a day out of Chicago to Dublin? Not getting to Chicago for several days meant potentially several more days after that, waiting in Chicago to try to get on the flight to Dublin each day, possibly postponing my trip up to a week.

Flying standby definitely teaches you a lot about patience... and gives you lots of opportunities to practice not stressing out. It was a little overwhelming carrying two 60 pound bags through the airport with me, juggling in my mind whether or not I should send them ahead of me to Chicago not knowing if I will even be there to meet them, and trying to mentally prepare myself for a possible overnight flight and a complete life transition, or instead another night at home in my bed with my family. The mental disparity of facing a long-term move and not knowing when it is going to start was killing me. I didn't even know if I should say goodbye to my mom when she dropped me off at the airport because chances seemed pretty likely that I'd be back home in the evening... but who knew for sure?

After missing my flight the first day, I decided to go to bed and check again in the morning for the following day's flights. When I got up, we had all expected it to be overbooked and a repeat of the previous day, but it actually looked pretty good! I decided to give it a chance and headed to the airport with my mom to see how things looked there. After checking my bags, I said my "see ya later" to my mom and went to go wait at the gate. I didn't have to wait very long before I found out they could get me on the flight! I was thrilled! That meant I would be able to be in Chicago... which would at least mean I could try to get on a flight to Dublin, although every flight that I didn't make would be another full day of missing out on Ireland. That also left the risk of me getting stuck in Chicago for an indefinite period of time, with nowhere to stay and only a few pairs of clothes packed with me. I went for it anyways.

When I arrived in Chicago, I contacted an acquaintance of mine from college and was able to make arrangements to stay with her if I was unable the Dublin flight, and then I would just wait till the following day to try to make the next one. I went up to the gate for the flight to Dublin and waited and waited as the entire list of passengers boarded the flight. My name was number six on the standby list, and they said the flight was entirely full. After everyone had boarded, they still hadn't cleared my name yet. They said they had a few things to figure out first. I thought there was no way... but yet I was still hoping. Talk about anxiousness! When it seemed like there wasn't even time left for me to board the flight, they told me that some of the passengers scheduled for that flight were going to miss it because of delays on the first leg of their trip. That meant I could get on! It was quite a whirlwind and happened very quickly, but all of a sudden I found myself sitting in the back of a plane on the way to Ireland! I guess it maybe should have been a goodbye when my mom dropped me off. ;-)

So now I'm here, having arrived right on time with everything having gone perfectly and smoothly. I can't say I didn't have reason to worry, because I think I actually did. But I am so thankful that it all worked out so well and without all the possible complications that could have occurred! In the end it ended up definitely being worth it flying standby, although that is all thanks to all the hard work my friend put into it, helping me check flights and make difficult decisions about them. It is because of her and her fiance's help and generosity that my trip was even possible, and I will gladly take the stress that comes with standby to finally be able to be here. :)