86 Countries and Still Counting: United

I really appreciate that my good buddy Kyle gave me a pass to fly on United for the year. It is a very, very generous gift. But, as anyone on a Buddy Pass will tell you, there are challenges.

Here's the deal. There's a United website (which can only be accessed by employees and passholders). There, I can look at flight availability, including how many are booked on the flight, how many are standing-by and what my relative ranking is.

I booked a flight for January 31st to Veracruz. I chose Veracruz based on weather, hotel prices, types of local food and flight availability. I could have opted for Fairbanks but the weather there generally stinks in January, IMHO.

Buenos Aires has lovely hot weather in January but it's high season and the hotel rooms were pricier than I prefer. Auckland is also lovely in January but there was the issue of hotel costs and a really, really long flight. And, I've been there.

So Veracruz it is - nice hotel for less than $60 a night, weather around 80 and sunny and plentiful inexpensive seafood, Veracruz style. And, 10 open seats on the flight. That was the night before I was to leave.

I woke up early on January 31st, finished packing and did a last minute check of flight availability. And started swearing and stressing. The flight was now -6 seats. Yes, that means at least six people would have to not show up to get a seat. I figured that since flights to Houston were plentiful and there were flights to cities all over Mexico if I didn't get on the Veracruz flight, I'd get a flight to someplace warm, cheap and with good food.

During my 4.5 hour layover in Houston I contemplated where else I could go. One of the dilemmas was that my Veracruz flight didn't leave until 6:05 pm and I wouldn't know until about 6:00 pm if I had a seat. Then had to find a flight that departed later and had a gate close enough that I could get there. And had seats available. It looked like Santiago de Queretaro was the winner. It's a city in the central Mexican state of Queretaro, which I'd never heard of. But just before they called my flight to Veracruz I realized the Queretaro gate was too far. Even if I hijacked one of the little airport carts, I couldn't make it in time.

I was sweating as I patiently waited to one side while they boarded the Veracruz flight. The flight hadn't actually been oversold but seats were being held. Normally for weight issues. 15 minutes before departure time, I was given a boarding pass.

As I settled in to my exit row seat (yay! leg room!) the gate agent came on board and had a word with the captain and flight attendant. It seems two passengers had checked luggage for the flight but were nowhere to be found. For security reasons, they needed to either find the passengers (which meant I wouldn't be going to Veracruz) or take their luggage off the plane.

As I anxiously waited (yes, they would politely ask me to get off the plane for a revenue passenger and yes, I would politely and quietly do it while trying not to whimper) I considered my options. The flight at the next gate had just started boarding and was heading to Chihuahua. My sole knowledge of chihuahua is about yippy dogs, not a large city in Mexico. But I figured I'd give it a try. It was either that or spend the night in Houston and see where I could go the next day.

At 6:10 p.m. , five minutes after scheduled departure, they closed the boarding door. I was off to Veracruz.

What is it really like to fly standby? It's an adrenaline rush. Nerve racking. Challenging for us Type A control freaks. And a blast. I'm very happy to be in Veracruz. But probably would have enjoyed Santiago de Queretaro or Chihuahua, too.

Monday, January 7 2019 was going to be my last full day in Guadalajara. I didn't have big plans, which is good because I woke up with achy joints (at least I woke up), which is an issue as I get older. So I opted to stay in, catch up on some reading and just enjoy life.

It felt very lonely on Tuesday morning at 6:00 a.m. as I waited for the hotel van to take me to the airport.

It was especially nice to chill since I'd gotten very little sleep the night before. Room 211 at Hotel Morales overlooks a street with several small bars. The bars might be small but their sound systems are large. I was awake until after 3 a.m. trying to determine if the singers were doing karaoke or just really bad professionals. In either case, they seemed to be enjoying what they were doing. I think my dad would have called it caterwauling.

Luckily the gates opened when the van arrived.

Tuesday morning came early - 4:30 a.m. to be precise. I'd set the alarm for 5 but when I woke up, got up, showered and got ready to head to the airport at 6. The van for the hotel (only 250P compared to 335P in a taxi) drove through the still dark and quiet central historic district. As we headed to the outskirts of the city traffic picked up considerably as Tapatios headed to work.

It was easy to get my boarding pass at the airport. Then through security, where I had to remember to take out my laptop. And was told to put my large purse in a bin, it could not go on the conveyor belt unless in a bin. Seems it is most countries that some employees find it necessary to be firm about the rules in kind of a snotty way.

Surprisingly, there was no immigration after leaving security. Usually, you get into another line and get your passport stamped saying you'd left the country. Nope, instead, the small entry paper that I was given upon entry was stapled to my boarding pass by the United agent when I checked in.

Next, the long walk past all the fancy duty free stores and downstairs to a relatively small and very crowded space. There were multiple "gates" with people lined up before them. One of them was mine. These were gates for planes who didn't get a jetway. Instead, when your flight was called you handed over your passport and boarding pass/entry card. They kept the entry card, handed back the rest and sent you through a doorway to a waiting bus. Presumably the bus took you to the plane where you'd climb up the stairs and be on your way. I couldn't wait to get on that bus because that would mean I had a seat on the flight to Houston. Just an aside, I always thought it would be fun to have people get on the busses and then take them on a tour instead of to the plane. Good thing I'm not CEO of an airline.

But it didn't look good. According to the United website for passholders (which I'll just call "eres" to save time), the flight was overbooked and there were 17 of us standing by. After group five was called to get on the bus, a large group of us looked at each other. I was standing next to a woman from Calgary, also flying standby. She was revenue standby, though, which means she'd bought a ticket but had overslept and missed her original flight. They called her name. She glanced back as she walked toward the bus. A sad moment. Like a scene from Titanic, she got the last seat on the lifeboat.

The gate agent announced the flight was full and us losers (he didn't actually say that but it was implied, in my mind) would be moved to the waiting list for the next flight, which left 5 1/2 hours later.

I wandered upstairs and found a quiet place to sit. It was peaceful, had a place to plug in my laptop and was freezing. I pulled a couple more clothing items out of my bag and layered up and started looking at my options.

According to Eres, the odds weren't good for the next flight. Way oversold and even more people on the standby list. My creative juices kicked in. What if I buy a ticket to Mexico City and then fly United from there? Excellent idea, except flights from Mexico City to Houston were also sold out. Aha - how about I use my Delta miles to get me to Houston? Or Orlando, for that matter?

Well, I could but for the same amount of miles I could have flown first class to Europe and back. No, thanks, Delta. Well, what if I bought a ticket to Houston? Well, no, not on United because all the flights were sold out.

I decided to just relax and see what happened after the next flight. I assumed I'd be staying in Guadalajara and started looking for a hotel. When I checked out of the Hotel Morales, I'd asked about rooms that night but they were booked. How could that be, when everyone seemed to be trying to leave the country?

As they called passengers to board the 1:35 p.m. flight to Houston, us standbys looked around at each other. Some had been standing by for several days. Others, like me, were newbies. The mood was odd, like a cross between Hunger Games and E.T. On one hand, you would do anything to be one who gets the seat on the plane. On the other hand, you felt for those who had been waiting and really needed to get home.

In any case, it didn't matter. There were no extra seats to be had. We were all losers, again. There was another flight, 3 hours later but I decided not to bother staying to watch more people get on without me. I cancelled my flight on Eres and booked a hotel. I decided that since it looked like I'd be spending a few more days in Guadalajara I'd treat myself. I'd considered staying at the Hotel NH Collection Centro but didn't want to spend the money. I not only booked a room, I upgraded to a room with a private terrace overlooking the main Cathedral and plaza. Money means nothing to me! Besides, the fancy room was still less than $70 a night.

The hallway from the hotel lobby to the parking garage.

When I first arrived at my gate, this area was packed since 3 flights were departing within minutes of each other. Now, a ghost town.

Not nearly enough seats for all the waiting passengers when the flights were preparing to depart. And Mexicans seem to take the same view as Americans. First come, first served. Young people did not offer up seats for their elders.

This is the upstairs part of the terminal where planes have access to jetways. This security guard had a big stick.

There were lots of places to sit or shop.

My new gate. I chose to sit alone for awhile since it was hours before boarding. The people sitting together were waiting for a flight to Las Vegas which left from my gate prior to my flight. And no, I couldn't get on that flight either. It wasn't a United flight.

Apparently I was so excited about seeing a Chilis that my hands were shaking. No, I didn't not go in. I did check out the menu and it was some standard Chilis stuff along with typical local food.