NOLA - It Keeps You Runnin’
We all know between full loads, smaller aircraft and reduced schedules, non-revving on the best day is no walk in the park. Throw in a holiday week-end, routing through DFW and well, we knew we’d need a lot of luck - the non-rev gods would have to be smiling.
Our flight looked good a couple of days out, but by the time I checked-in it was a full flight, so were the next four and where did those 19 non-revs come from, obviously the non-rev gods were not smiling. We were rolled over twice, not bad considering we were originally numbers 9 & 10.
DFW
Again full flights and Skylink (the train that connects the terminals) was running in only one direction -“sorry about the inconvenience”, so we had to make the entire loop every time we changed terminals - we got the full tour three times.
One friendly gate agent even tells us “if only you’d gotten in a little earlier you probably would have made it out - ahh the non-rev gods are now mocking me.
I started to look for padded benches near charging stations and then…………………. *surprise* a missed connection and we’re on the last flight out.
NonRev Rule #5 Never leave the gate till wheels up
New Orleans is chicory coffee and beignets, oysters by the dozens, red beans and rice and front porch crawfish boils. It’s above-ground cemeteries, voodoo shops, hurricanes and “to go” cups.
It’s Tennessee Williams, Ann Rice, beads, bands, gumbo and jazz.
It’s a very unique place.
I’m sitting in Jackson Square listening to street musicians, eating beignets and watching birds fighting over crumbs- there aren’t a lot of crumbs I don’t waste much.
My crew is taking a swamp tour, yeah friends of mine thought it would be fun to sail into the bayou and have their boat surrounded by alligators (the guide tosses marshmallows to draw the alligators close) I chose to skip the fun.
Disappointment - Due to the federal government shutdown, parts of the swamp tour (national park) were skipped. The tour operators obey all rules, nobody wants their license pulled.
The rest of the trip was spent eating, club hopping on Frenchmen and there was a short stop at a cemetery- yeah “ the swamp hunters” wanted pictures of the little houses and street signs.
So it’s time to go home, we’ll listed on the first flight out, 9 non-revs and our DFW connection has 21 listed . On the other hand the ”swamp hunters” have a confirmed DL 5pm flight, yeah the alligator hunters can’t take the pressure of non-revving and they hate connecting.
Now one of the running jokes of the trip has been this lucky charm that the “swamp hunters” picked up in a voodoo shop - it’s guaranteed to bring good luck.
I don’t know about that, but we do make our “A” out of MSY and the connection out of DFW, we even get the MCE seats, plus Skylink is working.
“Swamp hunters” flight is oversold--they’re offered $600 and a guaranteed seat on another flight, I think they fainted.
Smiles all around.:cool:
