Prog Blog- Pre-departure

One Suitcase and a Carry-On

It's Friday morning and the journey to Prague begins!
Plan A is to take the flight from CVG (Cincinnati) to JFK, then JFK to PRG (Prague).  Sounds like a good plan...except the four of us are traveling standby using our Employee Travel Benefits. Plan B is CVG to CDG (Paris), CDG to PRG. Plan C is I'll be at the shop later today.

Airline Employee travel benefits are a real perk for airline employees...at least they used to be. These days, the flights are sooo full that it has become more difficult to use the free travel privileges. Getting out of Cincinnati is the toughest part. When you fly "standby" you can go to the gate and after all the ticketed passengers board, you get to board if there are seats available. You can always tell the standbys...we're the ones with our eyeballs glued to the overhead screens watching for our names to appear on the "cleared" list.

When Delta and Northwest Airlines merged, Comair employees took a big hit when it came to standby travel. We used to have seating priority based on our hire dates. After the merger, our priority status plunged as all Delta and former Northwest employees are placed ahead of Comair employees (except on Comair flights). In other words, a Delta employee who was hired yesterday has a higher priority than a Comair employee with 32 years of service like Captain John. That hurts!

The Comair flight to JFK looks fair. There are 7 or 8 seats available and 9 people on the standby list. We are listed 1-4 so it looks good for us to get on! There are 16 seats available (15 in Business Class) for the Prague flight and 11 standbys listed. Wouldn't Business Class to Prague be a great Birthday present?

Thank you all for the birthday wishes and Bon Voyages!
I've packed plenty of yarn! I have Schaeffer Nicole for John's socks, Mochi Plus for an entrelac scarf and my Alchemy Silken Straw Color Affection. That should do me until we return.