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."