A Unique Flying Experience

After thoughtfully packing my carry on, I discovered that my trusty Eagle Creek, which had happily fit into MANY overhead compartments, mysteriously grew. It no longer fit into that silver box by the boarding gate door.

According to United’s website, the approved size is 9″ by 14″ by 22 “. Did these dimensions change? When I get home, the measuring tape is coming out.

I’m thinking a small duffel might be the way to go when I absolutely MUST do carry on.

It actually was no big deal. I would have had to gate check from Denver to Jackson Hole anyway. But I AM going to see if I can get the bag on for our flight home.

But THAT certainly was not my unique flying experience. You ready?

Once on board our flight from Denver to Jackson Hole, we learned that there would be a delay because of thunder storms in Wyoming. After about a half an hour wait, the crew told us the plane would have to be lightened. It seems that the Jackson Hole runway is “short”. Short, plus wet, plus heavy equals danger because, we learned, the pilot might not be able to get the plane to stop when it should. Oh dear.

How much weight? The equivalent of 18 passengers (about 20%) would need to disembark before the plane could take off. What? How will they decide who has to get off? Will they bring in a scale and have each of us step on? In all my years of flying, I never had anything quite like this happen.

Turns out, the crew had a better idea. Volunteers would be compensated with a $500 voucher for a future flight, plus a meal voucher (no value mentioned).

Well, we did a quick analysis of the situation. Although we were meeting our son at the airport, HIS flight might also be delayed, and even if it wasn’t, I could email him our confirmation for the car and the hotel, so he wouldn’t be stuck waiting at a tiny airport with nothing to do. We didn’t have any pressing work or family obligations, so why not help out those who did? And hell ya, that $500 voucher put a smile on our faces as we walked out of the plane, as did all the “thank you’s” from the passengers and crew.

So how did it all work out for us? Amazingly well. There was no weigh in, but enough tall and well proportioned men volunteered so that the 16 of us who DID, were deemed heavy enough. And we were a very congenial group, smiling as we waited in line to get all of the paperwork sorted out.

We were truly impressed by the professionalism of the United team in Denver. They were able to locate a plane with crew and get them to Denver amazingly fast…within two and a half hours. Wow! The 16 of us had the plane to ourselves. And because Mike and I were the last volunteers to get our paperwork processed, we were made the solo passengers in first class because we were so patient (or brain dead… I forget which).

Anyway, kudos to United for treating us so well for a weather related problem. And yes, my checked bag was waiting for me when we arrived.

Additional positives: we were pretty hungry, so getting off the plane allowed us to get something to eat. Okay, it was airport food, it was expensive, the $10 voucher per person covered less than half the cost of our burgers and beverage, but if you are hungry enough, you don’t care.

As for our son, he arrived on time, picked up the car, checked in to our hotel and returned to fetch us when we landed.

One more plus (?). Enterprise upgraded us from the Toyota Camry to the biggest SUV I have EVER seen. This Prius driver would definitely have refused the upgrade, but turns out it WAS good to have on some of the park roads.

This Nissan Armada Platinum was well named. It FELT like we were riding in a warship!

Off to a great start for our visit with our son.