[California Can Collector] Epilogue
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Charles
Dec 1, 2009, 12:24:53 PM12/1/09
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Hey all,
No, this post isn't about one of the best contemporary poems I've heard. Rather, today was the end of my long trip home from Newark to Santa Barbara:
Starting in central New Jersey, I took New Jersey Transit to Newark Airport (9:30 local) to eventually get a 12:40 plane to Chicago O'Hare (ORD), where I connected to a 3:00 flight to Denver (DIA). At DIA the 7:00 flight to Santa Barbara (SBA) was full, so I stayed the night in Denver. Waking up at 5:30 local, I took a 6:05 shuttle back to the airport so I could catch an 8:00AM flight from DIA to Los Angelas (LAX), where I connected to an 11:30AM flight from LAX to SBA. With the time zone changes, it was over 36 hours from door to door. Why am I happy?
You see, I volunteered to get bumped in Denver (the third leg of my Newark-Chicago-Denver-Santa Barbara itinerary), but there was some nice compensation. Some of the amenities I received:
-Put up in La Quinta Inn
-$15 food voucher
-Free dop kit with toothbrush, shampoo, etc. etc.
-Free round-trip flight anywhere in the contiguous 48 states
Given that my home airport (SBA) is not a big city, tickets are pretty pricey (see this excellent analysis by Nate Silver of 538.com). In fact, I often-times skip over SBA and take Amtrak two hours to Burbank (a testament to Southwest Airlines low pricing).
If you can afford the time, it's really a steal to get bumped, but I guess it's really a win-win: United doesn't piss off a customer and all they had to do was let someone take a flight. Flying, of course, is one technology that has almost zero marginal cost; although it's pretty costly to get a plane in the air, it's pretty cheap to let another person take up a free seat.
I would really encourage anyone here to take the opportunity to get bumped. In fact, I was almost able to get bumped a second time (flying from Denver to LAX to Santa Barbara, our flight from LAX to SBA was almost overbooked!). A couple of pieces of advice:
*If you have extra time before a flight, try asking the gate agent if they are going to be bumping before you go buy an overpriced T-shirt from Hudson News. Airlines take volunteers on a first-come, first-serve basis.
*Before you volunteer, make sure that you know what you're getting (free flight, credit, etc.) and when you'll be going out. Different airlines have different policies. If the flight is the next day, make sure you know if you're getting put up in a hotel or sleeping at the gate.
Anyways, now that I'm back at school, I'll be collecting sometime this week. I promise I'll cut back on the blogging about deals, and get back to the recycling (I don't even want to think about my carbon footprint after all of this flying).
-Charles
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Posted By Charles to California Can Collector at 11/30/2009 04:48:00 PM
No, this post isn't about one of the best contemporary poems I've heard. Rather, today was the end of my long trip home from Newark to Santa Barbara:
Starting in central New Jersey, I took New Jersey Transit to Newark Airport (9:30 local) to eventually get a 12:40 plane to Chicago O'Hare (ORD), where I connected to a 3:00 flight to Denver (DIA). At DIA the 7:00 flight to Santa Barbara (SBA) was full, so I stayed the night in Denver. Waking up at 5:30 local, I took a 6:05 shuttle back to the airport so I could catch an 8:00AM flight from DIA to Los Angelas (LAX), where I connected to an 11:30AM flight from LAX to SBA. With the time zone changes, it was over 36 hours from door to door. Why am I happy?
You see, I volunteered to get bumped in Denver (the third leg of my Newark-Chicago-Denver-Santa Barbara itinerary), but there was some nice compensation. Some of the amenities I received:
-Put up in La Quinta Inn
-$15 food voucher
-Free dop kit with toothbrush, shampoo, etc. etc.
-Free round-trip flight anywhere in the contiguous 48 states
Given that my home airport (SBA) is not a big city, tickets are pretty pricey (see this excellent analysis by Nate Silver of 538.com). In fact, I often-times skip over SBA and take Amtrak two hours to Burbank (a testament to Southwest Airlines low pricing).
If you can afford the time, it's really a steal to get bumped, but I guess it's really a win-win: United doesn't piss off a customer and all they had to do was let someone take a flight. Flying, of course, is one technology that has almost zero marginal cost; although it's pretty costly to get a plane in the air, it's pretty cheap to let another person take up a free seat.
I would really encourage anyone here to take the opportunity to get bumped. In fact, I was almost able to get bumped a second time (flying from Denver to LAX to Santa Barbara, our flight from LAX to SBA was almost overbooked!). A couple of pieces of advice:
*If you have extra time before a flight, try asking the gate agent if they are going to be bumping before you go buy an overpriced T-shirt from Hudson News. Airlines take volunteers on a first-come, first-serve basis.
*Before you volunteer, make sure that you know what you're getting (free flight, credit, etc.) and when you'll be going out. Different airlines have different policies. If the flight is the next day, make sure you know if you're getting put up in a hotel or sleeping at the gate.
Anyways, now that I'm back at school, I'll be collecting sometime this week. I promise I'll cut back on the blogging about deals, and get back to the recycling (I don't even want to think about my carbon footprint after all of this flying).
-Charles
--
Posted By Charles to California Can Collector at 11/30/2009 04:48:00 PM
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