Stalled on Standby

The story of my mom getting to Dallas is a pretty good one. Too good not to share. 

She was trying to fly standby for her first time and hoping to get on a flight on Wednesday last week. The unfortunate thing was that the flights were all overbooked. After not making the first flight she asked the group of people standing around if they were all standby too. One man came forward and said he was, and they started talking. Chris had been trying to get to Dallas from Hawaii where he lives with his family. His wife and 2 kids ended up catching a flight first, assuming he and their 8 year old daughter would follow soon after. They were in Hawaii for 4 days unable to catch a flight and then he decided to try Salt Lake in hopes of getting to Dallas faster. His week vacation was more than half over. What a bummer.

Cris and my mom talked while waiting for the second flight, but they missed that one as well. The flights looked terrible for the rest of the day. He mentioned that his wife wanted to drive from Dallas to Salt Lake to get him and my mom said he could rent a car and drive to Dallas in 20 hours. That put them in problem solving mode. They overheard an employee at the next gate announce, "All remaining standby passengers can now board." They looked at each other and my mom said,"I wonder where that flight is going!" She ran over and found out it was going to Austin, and Chris said his wife could pick them up there. They got their tickets changed and ran back to the gate just as the plane doors closed. Ah nuggets. 

They went back to the help line and found out that there was a flight going to Oklahoma City at 1:55.They put their names on the standby list and waited. The standby list wasn't very long which was good, but the gate attendant mentioned there were also 9 Delta employees who had requested the flight. They had 30 minutes to activate their request. Seriously!! They watched the clock and the screen that told them how many seats were available like hawks. When the half hour was up there were 4 seats available and 3 standby passengers: Chris, his daughter, and my mom. The most suspenseful part was that Chris had mentioned a flight in Hawaii that had 60 available seats and by the time the plane was boarding, all 60 seats had been filled and he missed yet another flight. Thankfully they made it on the flight to Oklahoma City! Chris called his wife and she left Dalls to pick them up, leaving at the same time the flight left.  My mom's luggage, however, was in Dallas. They landed in Okay City at 5:15 and waited an hour and a half until Chris's wife got there. Zeb planned to meet them at their hotel in Addison at 10:00 after he picked up my moms suitcase at DFW.

My mom got to listen to gospel music with this sweet family as they drove for three hours together. She loved it and sang along happily. Their family is originally from Dallas but moved to Hawaii 10 years ago. I love Texas. I love the kindness so many show that are absolute strangers. I'm not a native but I have Texas pride! I still can't believe my mom hitched a ride to Dallas. 

Having my mom here has been so wonderful. I am so grateful she was able to get here and be with our family. Saturday she went to the arboretum with Zeb and the girls. They love spending time with Gram.