Reagan Fact of the Day: My dad works for American Airlines. This is great, because we fly standby and we have been able to go to many different places over the years, such as Hawaii. Some
people will say, “You have it so good” or “Must be nice” And yes, while it
there are definitely more positives than negatives, there is a slight downside
to the whole standby process. When you fly standby, you’re not guaranteed a
seat. You only get a seat if the flight isn’t full!
Well, my mom flew to Richmond for our last game before Christmas Break, because
we were playing at VCU, and we were going to fly out after the game. The game
was at 2pm, so it gave us a little more time than a later game might have. After the game I put on my nice clothes, which is another thing you have to do
in order to fly standby, and we headed to the airport. We took Jasmine, Emily,
and Katelyn as well, because they were flying home too.
When we had gotten to the
airport, I called my dad to see what the flights were looking like and if there was an availability for us to get on a flight. He is
able to watch on the computer and help us know if we will get on the plane or not. Well,
that call didn’t turn out as I had hoped, because he said the flight was completely full
and it didn’t look like we were going to get on. But, having done this several
times, my mom and decided to wait it out just to see if someone
wouldn't show up. It ended up being that exactly two people didn’t show up and my
mom and I got the last two tickets! We were so glad, and my three teammates
that were there shared in our excitement as the rest of the airport just
watched! Haha.
Now, to make it back to Lynchburg...After enjoying
my time at home, it was time to head back to school. This
time I actually bought a ticket, so I was guaranteed a seat. We had practice that night and Coach Green wouldn't be happy if flying standby made me miss practice! It was a
little bit of a relief to know that I would get on the flight for sure.
I left my house
that morning around 7:00am. My parents dropped me off and I got on the plane to
Charlotte. I arrived in Charlotte about 1:15pm and headed over to the gate where
I would fly into Lynchburg. My flight out of Charlotte wasn’t until 5:30pm so I
had a little time. About an hour or so later I got a text from Emily, asking if we were on the same flight. A little bit later she and John Caleb Sanders form
the men’s basketball team joined me. Then, a few minutes later Jasmine and Tolu
did as well.
We all visited while waiting, only to hear that our flight was
cancelled due to plane difficulties. So we all went to the counter and got
tickets for the next flight. When we got to the next gate, we met up with
Katelyn and Sadalia. The flight we were supposed to get on had already been delayed. So we all started to
play cards and enjoy the time while we had it. But the next thing we knew, that
flight was cancelled too!
The agent asked us to go down a couple gates where
they had another flight that would be going out. We did and all got in line. Jasmine
and Tolu were first, and they both got tickets. Then Sadalia walked up and was turned away. It turned out that Jas and Tolu got the last two tickets for that flight!
The
rest of us went back to the counter again. We were told the last flight to Lynchburg was originally leaving at 10:00pm, but was already delayed to 11:00pm. We had some time and decided to go get a snack; while making our way through the airport, we ran into our Director of Operations, Sarah
Boruta. She was on our new flight, with the only difference being that that was her original flight!
We eventually made our way back to the gate, and since we had quite a while until our
flight would leave, we played some more cards. Sarah had bananagrams with her, so
we played a little of that too. But, as we sat waiting for our flight, we could hear
the gate agent talking about something going wrong with this flight as well. So
we were all planning on getting a hotel and flying out the next
morning. However, as we waited a little longer, the gate agent finally began boarding the flight. We were all so tired, yet excited to finally be getting on the plane.
Meanwhile, basketball practice in Lynchburg had come and gone while every single one of Coach Green's point guards were sitting on the floor of the Charlotte airport playing bananagrams!
We arrived
in Lynchburg about 12:15 am. It had been a long day, especially with the time difference for us Texas girls! But although it was
exhausting, I wouldn’t trade it for anything because we made so many memories
and will always remember that Christmas break when we got stuck in Charlotte!
Go Flames!
-Reagan Miller, #5
