Knowing the Golden Rules is Half the Battle

On our way home from Portland, Chris, our friend (at the moment, he has no nickname) and I could have encountered major major trouble. However, I remember the basic rules of frequent travel and refused us to get caught in a trap.

It all started, when I heard commotion in the bed room between Chris and our friend. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, downtown, and got a large room with two beds and a sleeper couch. I took the sleeper couch. They were talking about times, airplanes and Denver, Seattle, and Chicago, I was half asleep, so it did not make sense.

Shortly thereafter, Chris comes out and tells me that our flight is delayed by 45 minutes out of Portland (PDX) to San Fransisco, due to the aircraft arriving delay. I asked Chris, if he had called to change our flights. He said he tried, but they said out turnaround in San Fran was sufficient (45 minutes now).  I asked, if he called back, and he said no.

I am going to cut-in here to talk about, what I think are the three most important rules of frequent traveling/mileage running:

1) Be Proactive! Always speak to a telephone/twitter/email agent vs. going to the airport with a delay. If you have advanced notification, do everything in your power to change your flight for the delay. Doing it before getting the airport opens more options for you.

2) Never accept no. If the first phone agent says "no," hang-up and try again. There are very nice agents out there at every airline, maybe your next call will get you one.

3) You are your only advocate. Don't wait for the airline to bail you out. Call them and do research on the flights available before you make the call.

In the end, I forced Chris to call United back and plead our case. Our friend had to be back at work at 6am and the red eye would put us in to late (8:30am). Luckily, we got a sympathetic attendant that rebooked our flights through Denver.

Luck must have been on our side, because the San Francisco flight ended up being delayed 2 hours. About 80 people missed their connecting flights and the remaining options out of PDX were slim. We ended getting home 15 minutes after our originally scheduled flight.

Knowing these three simple rules are half the battle. The harder part is putting them into action when you need them. Chris knew these rules, but in the heat of the moment, your judgement can be clouded. Never accept the first "No," maybe the 3rd or 4th or when they say, "Sir, my 8 previous colleagues all have said the same thing to you."

In the end, the trip was great and we got home at a reasonable hour ie 2am.
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