Always Set Two Alarms

The title says it all! This business-traveler's rule is so obvious that you may think it doesn't need posting. If that were so, why do I often forget it, myself?

Numerous times (greater than mere statistical randomness would allow) I have set an alarm to wake up for an early flight, and for some surprising reason, the alarm doesn't go off.

• I've set the alarm time, but didn't turn on the alarm.
• I've set the AM/PM incorrectly.
• I've set everything correctly on a hotel clock that had its AM/PM setting reversed.
• I've set my cell alarm after a day of having the cell set to silent mode.

The most infamous occurrence of a Visit from Murphy was in Eugene, OR. I had indeed set two alarms (okay, maybe the rule should be "Two Alarms and a Wake-Up Call"). I think I had set my cell-phone alarm time, but forgot to turn the alarm on. I had also set the hotel room clock, but the clock's AM/PM setting had been reversed. I literally woke up 45 minutes before my departure time!

Knowing that there was only one flight out per day, I decided to try to get there rather than just give up and reschedule. 30 seconds to pack, a minute to check out, 15 minutes to drive to the airport (and thankful that there were no patrol cars waiting for me that early in the morning), two minutes to drop off the car... They actually let me check my bags and get on the plane...but this was Eugene, remember: Friendliest airport on the planet! I was extremely lucky.

(Many thanks to the wonderful folks at the Eugene airport that day. All eight or nine of you. :)

The real trick seems to be setting the next day's alarms while you're alert, rather than waiting until you're sleepy and crawling into bed.

During my most recent trip to Boston, I decided I trusted my very reliable cell phone alarm to wake me up. I set the alarm carefully, made sure it was on, had AM/PM set correctly (note to self: consider going to a 24-hour clock), yet it didn't go off! I usually go back and try to identify the problem, and usually I find it, but this time there was nothing. Nothing but a mental image of my phone peering back at me through it's stupid little camera, and laughing at me.

Again, I was incredibly lucky. I had scheduled a room-service breakfast (the only way to get breakfast at this hotel at 6AM), and the kitchen folks had a question about my order, so they called the room only ten minutes after my alarm time. But my heart raced until I looked at the clock, because I immediately assumed it was the front desk, calling to tell me that the taxi driver was tired of waiting, and was leaving without me.

So, I'm saying this just as much for myself as for others: Two alarms, or one alarm and a wake-up call. And, if there's only one flight per day and it's the flight home, then do all three!

Bells wake me up almost fully. It only takes one alarm to wake me up, and I usually turn on a light to keep from falling back to sleep. If this isn't enough for you, set an alarm across the room, so you have to get up to turn it off.

Get Bumped

[Insert Paul Revere pic...]

Things really fell together for my flight from Boston to San Francisco last Saturday.

When I checked in, I was asked by the kiosk if I'd be willing to take a later flight in exchange for a full-fare travel voucher. I said "No" because it didn't say how much later, and I figured they would get plenty of takers.

I got to the gate, and they were still looking for two more people to bump. It turns out that they had canceled an earlier flight, and they couldn't get a family of three onto my flight. This family needed to be on my flight in order to make their connecting flight back home to South Korea!

"Say no more!" Having had some coffee, and time to think about my schedule, I jumped at the chance, and so did one other traveler.

I couldn't believe my luck. I got a voucher for a free round-trip ticket with no black-out dates. There are some fare restrictions (only W, Q, and V, or something like that), but those sound like fairly common fare categories. I got an exit-row seat on the way home, and a food voucher that bought me dinner at SFO before driving home. And presumably there's a young family that made it back home to South Korea on-time. All parties benefit.

The part I enjoyed the most was the four free hours I had before I needed to be back at Logan airport. Prior to Saturday, my "Week in Boston" had actually been a "Week in Woburn" which meant I got to tour yet another joyless office park in the middle of nowhere, so here was a chance to see Boston!

Boston's rail system looks to be about 200 years old (exaggerating a bit, here...not everything in Boston is 200 years old). The ride was rough and I'd never seen so much rust on a subway train, but the ticket system was high-tech, and I was in the heart of Boston in less than 1/2 an hour.

I had a great time walking through the historic areas and seeing the harbor. The weather was beautiful (hot for the natives: it was in the 80s by 11AM) and the air was fresh.

So, if you have an open schedule and something to do near or at the airport, it often pays to "get bumped."