Luck of the Irish: Our Dublin Standby Travel Adventure

Luck of the Irish-Our Dublin Standby Travel Adventure

Luck of the Irish: Our Dublin Standby Travel Adventure

Post author:Shanna Schultz
Post published:March 19, 2012
Post category:Europe / Ireland / Life In The Airport / Non Rev/Standby Travel
Post comments:1 Comment

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ATL? JFK? AMS? LHR? DUB? When I started out on our morning of departure at 2:00am, each of these airports existed as a possibility for the day’s travels. As it turned out, husband and brother went early to the airport, hoping for a highly coveted seat on the first flight of the day to Atlanta forfeited by someone else who had not made it out of bed in time.

Despite multiple tries and constant monitoring and rerouting by me through my computer at work, Atlanta proved to be an elusive standby destination, slipping just through their grasp at multiple junctures.

The final nail in the coffin for the Atlanta plans came when the last flight to CVG that could have gotten them to the wide open Atlanta flight in time to make the Dublin connection got indefinitely delayed due to mechanical problems. A quick decision was made and they changed their target to JFK, where they would end up meeting up with me later in the day.

After finishing my shift at the hotel, I was picked up and whisked right to the front door of the airport where I breezed through security to the gate for my anticipated flight to JFK.

Upon closer inspection, my seat upon the JFK flight was not at all assured, so I made my own last minute decision to head for the flight to LGA which I was sure had room for me. I made haste to the other end of the airport and boarded the flight to LGA minutes before departure time. Husband and brother had already gone ahead of me to JFK and this flight would at least put me in the same city and within a $13.00 and 45 minute bus ride of them.

The luck of the Irish must be with us on this trip, as we were all nicely accommodated on the airplane and are currently en route to Dublin.

The Liffey river ahd Ha'penney Bridge in Dublin — The Liffey river and Ha’penney Bridge in Dublin

For anyone who has ever been curious about standby travel, this has been a real life glimpse into a typical day of standby travel (luckily, today we won the standby travel battle. The outcome is not always so good.) Standby travel can be a challenge, and you must remain flexible or forfeit your sanity.

We are all flying together, and the trip is starting out very well. I can’t wait to get into Dublin for a look around!

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Shanna Schultz

Hello, my name is Shanna, and I am a detail obsessed travel addict on a mission to make planning your own family trips fun and easy! I offer tools, guides and resources to help you through all of the steps of planning meaningful, memorable family vacations. Come over and check out our Facebook community where I share real tools and resources to help you move the needle on your travel goals. Let's start making those travel dreams real, y'all! Life is too short to spend dreaming...let's start DOING!