I wrote this a while back and discovered it. I'll post it now. I'm home now.
I have a flight coming up and this time I can't see or plan my flight because United won't let me do anything uptil 24 hours before the flight.
I won't know my seat or boarding group until then.
Needless to say, I am worried about two things. First the dreaded middle seat because it's a fairly safe bet I'll get stuck between a pair of morbidly obese stinkpots as usual and that if I board at the end there won't be room for my carry on and it will be 'pink ticketed' and I'll have to wait in the jetway for my stuff.
Waiting like this sucks.
While it IS a nonstop flight and I don't have to run all over hell's half acre to make a connection, the convenience is overcome by either the dreaded middle seat or having my stuff pink ticketed.
When I get stuck in the last boarding group I generally stuff my carry-on into the first available hole I can find if there still is one.
Funny that I found a nonstop and consider it kind of a left handed blessing. Still, I really miss Southwest because they make flying fun again.
What would be ideal is a Southwest direct flight, or even one with a 1.5 hour connection at some smaller airport like Midway. However Southwest seems to have priced themselves out of the market for some reason. With Southwest I generally pay the $25 for earlybird check in and get priority boarding. I don't backcharge the $25 to my employer because I do this for MY personal convenience.
I've actually gotten first and second row seats this way and I learned that the first row sucks because you don't get a drop-down table and have to juggle and refreshements they give you. Second row is the way to go.
Corporate travel is generally all about price and a couple of times I have gotten the company to upgrade me from basic economy to economy because in the long run it was either the same or cheaper after they added the baggage expenses some airlines charge.
It also saves paperwork because if I get charged for my carry-on I send it in as an expense and the paperwork is a nuisance for my supervisor. With United it's generally the difference between basic economy (the really cheap seats) and economy. Economy is often a $30 upgrade and you get a free carry-on. With basic economy you sometimes get hit with about $35 charge for your carry-on. Do the math.
I am not really too tech savvy and don't play the 'download the app on your phone' game. I either print my boarding pass on a printer or get it at the airport. Right now there's a piece of painter's tape on the back of my phone and it has my airline reference number on it written with a Sharpie. That way when I get to the kiosk I just whip my phone out instead of having to fish through my pockets for the printout. It makes things a bit easier.
One other thing. If they recommend I get to the airport 120 minutes before the flight I do just that. Yeah, I know. I hear stories all the time about how someone got to the airport six minutes before take-off and managed not to miss his flight. I ain't Indiana Jones. Besides my ass is sensitive and I don't like getting hit there by the door on the way in.
I had a flight once where the travel people had botched something or another and I had to go to the ticket counter and get things sorted out. It was during peak Covid so the airlines were not busy. Still, it took time and while I made my flight with some time to spare, had it been a very busy non Covid day I might have had a problem.
Anyway I am waiting and have already figured out my battle plan.
If I get stuck in the dreaded middle seat, so be it. If I get an aisle seat or even a window but stuck in the last boarding group I can live with it...kinda.
If I get stuck in the last boarding group I will stumble in with a pronounced limp and grumble about it. They'll likely board me earlier as a cripple which is at least a little more tolorable.
Protip: When boarding an airplane, don't ask the first class passengers if they have any Grey Poupon mustard. A lot of them don't have a sense of humor.
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Update.
The damned airline wouldn't let me check in and get my assigned seat until 24 hours before departure. I checked in 23:59:59 beforehand and snagged the second to last aisle seat. Fifteen bucks bought me boarding group 2. Boarding group 2 is acceptable. The $15 is money well spent because now I know there's room for my carry-on. Had this been a Southwest flight I would have cheerfully paid the extra $25 for early bird check-in. It's cheap insurance to avoid the much feared last minute pick it up on the jetway pink ticket.
I am good to go. I won't need the Ace bandage and the cane.
We shall see what we shall see come oh-dark thirty tomorrow morning.
Aftermath.
A rather non eventful flight and we got in a couple of minutes early.
One of the attendants gave me an extra bag of peanuts because I was cheerful to her when I came aboard and made her laugh. I said to her sarcastically, "Well, are you ready for another thrilling adventure in the glamorous travel industry?"
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