Sometimes Just Being Polite Helps When Flying

I'm currently traveling for work and I was scheduled to head out from Washington, D.C. on Wednesday evening just as a set of bad storms was scheduled to hit the city. I was really worried that my flight would get delayed and maybe even canceled so the night before I started looking into other flights that would get me in a bit earlier and discovered that there was a 2:45 flight so I headed to the airport around 1:00 to see if I could try and standby on the flight.

I got to the airport and had a ridiculous run in with the Dulles TSA Agent working the Pre-Check line where she accosted me for trying for Pre-Check and not being a Global Entry member. According to her you had to have Global Entry to even have a chance at Pre-Check and that I will never get the three beeps. After giving a little chuckle and thanking her I headed to the regular security line which as per usual at Dulles was slow despite being empty.

I made it to the gate of the earlier flight and no one was there yet so I headed to the United Club to ask if they could put me on the earlier flight. The agent at the Club said I couldn't go standby and the only way was to pay the $75 same day change fee and be confirmed on the flight. I thought about it, but decided to just wait and see and all else failed I would be on the later flight.

Around 2:10 I went to the gate for the earlier flight and asked about going standby and was directed to the Customer Service Center down the terminal and told I would have to ask them, but she doubted it. So I went over and told the woman at the desk that I wanted to go on the earlier flight. She quickly grabbed my phone to look up my confirmation number from my mobile boarding pass and then handed me a standby ticket and told me to hurry up so I didn't miss the flight. I quickly ran back to the gate and gave the woman boarding the plane my standby pass and she gave me a nice boarding pass and I was quickly on the flight three hours early.

The downside was going from an A319 to a CRJ and from a bulkhead to a window in front of the exit row....but I managed to miss the storms and the flight was decently empty so I didn't have anyone sitting next to me.

It was nice to see that customer service is still a priority for some (I would even say most) in the airline business and as long as you are polite to them and have a request that they might not normally give...you never know....they might say yes!