Friends don't let friends buddy pass, and other Nonrev hell.

I swear if one more person says "Oh its great you can fly anywhere you want for free" I'm going deck them, tie them up, AND sentence them to Nonreving (which means non revenue and lowest of low on the standby list though not as low as a buddy pass) and see how they like it. Clearly I am just one of those people who is at odds with universe, at least the non-rev universe. I am also convinced that bars in airports were put there for nonrevs. I often hear stories of people who can nonrev all the time, get where they are going, and hardly ever miss a flight......this is not me. I hear the word nonrev and I start to panic looking frantically for the cheapest ticket I can find and hope that having a real seat justifies the price, for those curious sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. With John being out of work this hasn't been an issue as I have only nonreved a handful of times (with permission) in the last 2 years. The last time I did this, because of the loads here in ABQ I DROVE to Amarillo in order to have any prayer of making it to IAH, which I did because of a wonderfully nice gate agent, who was probably pissed that someone showed up 10min late and after the door had closed. BTW don't kid yourself (at least at John's airline) just because the door is closed doesn't mean you are safe, I have seen them drag the jetway back out and open the door, just to throw someone else on, or yank a nonrevoff.

My first nonreving experience was not bad by my standards of luck, I missed about 5 flights before I finally got on one, which then resulted in me running through IAH to make a connection and meet up with John (boyfriend at the time) where he then had to "burn a vacation pass" to get me on the next flight with him. My next time after this was not quite as good...John (still boyfriend) promised me that I would get on the afternoon flight to IAH (as we were going to a concert that night and I had job interview the next day) after missing 2 flights I headed toward the bar, the next flight that left would get me there way to late to make the concert...What better way to drown my sorrow (especially since I had paid for the tickets) than with a margarita. I am happily drinking my strawberry margarita when John calls I answer the phone and all he says is "Run." Not so helpful to me as I was hesitant to leave my half drank margarita and I still had to pay. I did manage to throw some money at the waitress and I was off. For those of you familiar with ORD its a monster of an airport and CAL and UAL not anywhere near each other (at the time). John had apparently cashed in his miles and got me a seat on a flight that left in 10 min. This was with out a doubt the fastest I have ever run in an airport, also bear in mind this is when there was still a dress code for nonreving read = I had heels on. I run up there as they are doing "last call" fling myself on the plane only to find the guy next to me had sprawled out all over my seat. He looked at me confused and said "They said no one was sitting next to me." Yeah there wasn't till 10min ago!

After that my nonrev experiences got better...though in reality there aren't alot of people going in droves to exciting destinations such as Killeen Texas. And other than Johns folly of taking me to LAS over Superbowl weekend (in which we missed flights and I had to call in sick to work) the few trips I went on, went well.

Then there was BNA (Nashville) I should have never gotten there I only went to the airport to humor John and of course for the Margaritas. I managed to make the flight (miracle of bad weather and missed connections as it was oversold by 5). I make friends with the FA, he's super cool and has no problem with me following them to the hotel as John had been in Nashville since early afternoon. Just as I am about to board the crew van to the hotel the FO looks at me and says "If he was here earlier he is at the long overnight hotel downtown." Fantastic....its close to 7:30pm by this time the terminal is empty and by the looks of it downtown is a ways a way. I call John less than happy, he manages to get me a ride to the hotel...via every other hotel in the city. I make it to the hotel and we all (the whole crew) goes to dinner, which was the highlight of this trip!

We get up the next morning get ready to head for the airport, go downstairs to print my boarding pass......the printer eats it...shit...but not the end of the world I can get one at the airport right? WRONG the computers are down! And no one at the counter can do anything because it says I'm already checked in. At this point John is running late and bolts through security to find the rest of the crew. So.....the nice people at the ticket counter write me a ticket. Thats right...in this post 9/11 world they had write me a ticket (everyone at BNA was super helpful!) this was great of them....until I get to security can anyone guess what TSA thought of my hand written ticket?? You guessed correctly if you said "Pull her aside and seach her." So they were not so thrilled with the handwritten ticket. So back to the ticket counter I go WITH the TSA manager, finally he is convinced I am not a terrorist and I get through security in time to find out AA (American airlines) has cancelled a flight to DFW. And while I am going to IAH this may not seem like a problem, until they reroute everyone through IAH to get to DFW, and of course without the computers up this is a nightmare. I mange to see John before he takes off for EWR and with a few choice words for him he's gone. Leaving me at BNA for what turns out to be the better part of 12 hours. I manage to hook up with some other nonrevs and we sit around all day together and eat lunch. At least she was a more experienced nonrev than I (bear in mind all this is before we got married) and knew how to get an illusive (to me) id90 on Southwest, which would at least get us to Houston. We decided to wait until the last flight out in case (by some miracle) we got on. So about 20min before push I wander up to the gate agent, by this time we are good friends (no matter how bad the day ALWAYS be nice to these people!!!) to inquire on my chances of getting on. He looks and me and my new friend and says "Everything is so screwed up with computer being down, here are two tickets get on now." God bless this gate agent as I am sure he helped us out.

This is the reason my blood runs cold when it is suggested I nonrev someplace, though I am much better about it now than I was (I can also look up loads now to which is helpful) I hate the uncertainty that comes with it and the fact that bad luck seems to follow me around. So to those of you who say "fly free anywhere" I will happily give you a buddy pass (which by the way is about as expensive as a ticket now) and meet you in the bar!

So wish me luck this weekend!!