Travel - HL 140 (1)

My non-rev up-and-back:

On Friday I flew up to MI to help my folks with a doctor visit.  The flight(s) up were uneventful.  The return was interesting.  At MBS Saginaw I sat waiting for my aircraft to arrive when I noticed it was delayed by a couple of hours.  Well, I was thinking the last connection from DTW to CVG was now going to be out of the question when I heard a PA.  The announcement said they were going to limo the pax to DTW.  So me being a non-rev I thought well, what the heck, I might as well try.  They gave all the pax a voucher and so I approached the ticket agent and asked if he could help a brother out.  He took care of me and off we went for a 2 hr ride to the motor city.  Oh, the joys.  The chatty limo driver was so happy to have this big fare that he talked the whole way to DTW. 

Now at DTW I proceed to the TSA screening.  Whooops, my seat request doesn’t show DTW as my originator.  The agent tells me to get that changed.  No problem, I will just go over to the Kiosk (because the agent lines were long) and print the second leg.  “Your flight has departed” message on the kiosk and it would not let me print the second leg.  The counter agents were handling pax at a painfully slow pace and only a couple of agents were working this “major” Delta hub.  So the roving agent trying to assuage the frustrated line waiters, approached me and said can she help.  So I said I need a new seat request for the second leg of DTW-CVG printed.  She looked at my slip and said “Oh, you’re a non-rev.  I can’t print a seat number for you, those are given at the gate.” To which I realized I was dealing with complete ignorance and decided to take care of it a different way.  What did I do?  Well, I went in to Travel-Net and listed for a flight from DTW-CVG and cancelled the other listing and now the kiosk would let me get on the airport standby list and print a new proper seat request form.  Finally, off to TSA then the gate. By the way, I have noticed that some of the kiosk’s in some locations (like CVG) have had software modification and now ASK you if you wish to be placed on the airport standby list.  That was always assumed and always done automatically but now the kiosk actually asks the question.  Weird.

Waiting at the gate for the last boat to CVG there is a little problem.  A line of level 5 TRW’s between here and there.  The last time this happened for me with a young regional crew it was not a fun experience and when I heard the announcement from the Capt (in the gatehouse after our 1 hour delay) say that he was putting on more fuel so they could navigate to the east of this weather and proceed to an alternate if necessary, my mind was not made any more settled.  First, as in most lines through the Mid-West the weather was moving west to east in a long and well organized line.  It looked  like few holes were available and it was on the edge of approaching CVG.  It seemed to me to be choosing to play in the wrong sand box.  I would have felt better if he had said that we will fly on the back side of this mother in the post front air.  Well, a little un-nerved, we blast off and I’m thinking Lexington, here I come.  Fortunately, the center or the crew had a re-think, and they did eventually play in the right sand box.  We approached CVG and managed to avoid the wing twisting, filling jarring turbulence that we could have got. 

As I pulled into my driveway 2 hours after scheduled, at midnight, I was pleased at being able to walk through airports with my gimpy post-surgery knee, help my folks out a little, and make it up and back all in one day, albeit a long one.  I also looked back and mused about how things have changed in the industry, with Delta, and with non-revving.  Boy, have they changed!     Mark

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