Sunday, July 20, 2008
Standby sucks
I decided to spend about a week of my vacation visiting the US. At the time I made this decision, flight weren't looking to crazy expensive but by the time I was ready to buy a ticket, the price had jumped to around $2,100 to get to Denver and back. That was a bit too rich for my blood, but my mom offered to get me discount tickets via her many airline connections. And thus begins my airport adventures. The problem with discount tickets is that you have to fly standby, so when I got to the airport and discovered that all the flights were basically booked, I knew I was in for a rough day.
After waiting for one flight after another, I ended up not getting on any flight and was left with the undesirable task of finding a hotel in the Narita/Tokyo area on a Saturday night. It didn't happen. Luckily I managed to get out of the airport in enough time to catch the very last train back to Yamanashi station and then took a taxi home. Then I got to take the same 3 hour long bus ride I'd taken the day before, back to the airport the next day. Ended up not getting on the first flight out but managed to get an Economy Plus seat on a flight to LAX.
Got to LAX and didn't make it onto the first available United flight to Denver so off to Frontier I went. However, that proved to me more difficult than I thought it would be. Everyone kept telling me to take a bus to terminal 3 but no one seemed to be able to tell me where this magic bus was. So I ended up walking from terminal 7 to terminal 3 and going through security twice. Then I didn't get on the Frontier flight either. So right now I bored, typing up this rant, while sitting at the airport, waiting to see if I can get on the next Frontier flight to Denver. Wish me luck!
After waiting for one flight after another, I ended up not getting on any flight and was left with the undesirable task of finding a hotel in the Narita/Tokyo area on a Saturday night. It didn't happen. Luckily I managed to get out of the airport in enough time to catch the very last train back to Yamanashi station and then took a taxi home. Then I got to take the same 3 hour long bus ride I'd taken the day before, back to the airport the next day. Ended up not getting on the first flight out but managed to get an Economy Plus seat on a flight to LAX.
Got to LAX and didn't make it onto the first available United flight to Denver so off to Frontier I went. However, that proved to me more difficult than I thought it would be. Everyone kept telling me to take a bus to terminal 3 but no one seemed to be able to tell me where this magic bus was. So I ended up walking from terminal 7 to terminal 3 and going through security twice. Then I didn't get on the Frontier flight either. So right now I bored, typing up this rant, while sitting at the airport, waiting to see if I can get on the next Frontier flight to Denver. Wish me luck!
Labels: vacation
