I had to ditch my friends, but it was worth it. (Part 1 of 2)

Today we have to leave beautiful Hilton Head, South Carolina. We started the day off early in order to watch the 6:35 AM sunrise.

We then had to drive to Columbia, SC for a late afternoon flight.  On the way we entered “BBQ food” into the GPS and were on our way to “Dukes.” This restaurant is only open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. You walk in and feel like you are in a high school cafeteria, with those same tables and chairs.  Like Mrs. Wilke’s this place was also “family style.”  For $9.00 you got all you could eat fried chicken, BBQ chicken and pulled pork.  There were only 4-5 side dishes, unlike Mrs. Wilke’s 22 side dishes.  There was Wonder bread at the end of the serve your self line and sweet tea on the table.  With our bellies full we headed to the airport.

When we got to the airport we had 7 pieces of luggage (two beach chairs had been added to our haul).  As I mentioned in a previous post, I have Platinum status with American Airlines but did not have status with United, at least not until now.  When I left for the outbound flight I had sent an email to United telling them I was Platinum with American and asked them if they would do a “status match.”  A status match is done when you have elite status with one airline (or hotel) and you want a competing airline (or hotel) to grant you elite status with their airline.  I got an email from United that they would give me Gold status for three months and if I flew 17,500 miles within that three months they would give me gold status for the remainder of the year.  This is not as good as Platinum but hey I didn’t have any status to begin with and it was FREE, my favorite word.  Gold status allowed me, and anyone traveling on my reservation, three free pieces of luggage.  With AA I only get two free pieces of luggage, per person.  Thus, I was able to check in six pieces of our luggage for free.

I haven’t said too much about Pete this trip and don’t want him to get off easy without a mention in the blog.  While I could save my friends $25 for their one piece of larger than carry-on luggage, I can’t help when your bag weighs 58 pounds and there is a 50 pound limit.  When told his bag was overweight, Pete, at first, said, “We will just pay the difference.” When he was told the price was $100 dollars he realized some weight re-distribution needed to be done.

The first half of the flight from Columbia, SC to Houston, TX. was uneventful.   The problems began after we landed and were told that our plane was at the terminal but the pilot was in Mexico.  There was flooding at the Mexico City airport and our 9:37 PM flight was now estimated to take off at 12:10 AM.  Just like in a hospital when they say “Code Blue” and you know there is an emergency, when the gate agent said, “delayed” to me that was code for ”This flight isn’t going to take off at all folks.”  It was the last flight of the night and my travel experience told me would be spending the night in Houston…UGH.

 (Part 2 tomorrow)


Lesson: Don't be afraid to ask for a status match, you have nothing to lose.