My flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg is a direct flight through Delta. But one of my best friends let me use her parents' airline benefits to fly standby on the flight for a reduced cost. It is an incredible blessing, and it made other parts of the trip possible with less financial constraint.
HOWEVER.
Standby flights mean you only get to fly if there is a vacant seat on the plane. When we initally booked my flight for Thursday at 7:33 PM, there were 48 seats vacant on the plane. When we checked it again yesterday, there was only 1 vacant seat left! And I was the third priority standby passenger!! There are some cancellations typically, so I might have been able to get on the flight still, but it is a risk that could have cost me over $1000 in re-booking flights.
My friend figured out an incredible alternate plan! She looked and saw that if I got the same flight, but on Wednesday (a day earlier!), there were still 40 seats available on the plane! That means that I had a really great chance of getting on that flight.
It took some serious hustle to get all my errands done yesterday that I was planning on splitting over two days. But I did it! Even more treacherous- my mother and step-father just got in from working for a year in southeast asia, and we had planned on them driving me up to Atlanta on Thursday so they could see me more in the car. Well now, after flying in at 6 PM, running errands with me, and then sleeping only a few hours, they are still about to drive with me up to Atlanta!! So ridiculous! They are unreal.
So I stayed up all night packing, and now am getting ready to meet up with them for the long haul up to the ATL! Here's to hoping I didn't forget any crucial items on my to-do list that will prevent me from being able to get on the plane!
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