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My free almost-trip to San Francisco, or, how I spent Friday night in an airplane, sitting on the runway, not moving.

There are some things that never happen to me.

Things like winning the lottery, or finding $100 on the street, or something.

Although, one time I did win a shopping spree at a shoe store. 35 pairs of shoes went home with me without any monies being exchanged. It was AWESOME!

This is kind of like that.

Last week, on Wednesday to be exact, I had a sort-of-friend text me at 11:00 pm asking me if I wanted a free plane ticket to anywhere in the continental United States.

Um…..hell yeah!

The catch was that I had to complete all travel by Sunday. Which meant I had 4 days to choose a city, plane a trip, complete the trip and be back home in Salt Lake. That’s a lot of stuff! So, I quickly decided that with the condensed timing I should stay somewhere in the Western half of the country. San Francisco! I miss my adopted home town and I have a lovely friend, Steph, who has volunteered her couch any time I feel the urge to jump on a plane.

So, I booked my ticket, made some arrangements, and schlepped myself out to the airport to wait.

And wait.

And wait, and wait.

And for the first time in Salt Lake history the airport was closed down due to fog.  Fog, people.  In the middle of the friggin’ desert.  So we sat on the runway, and sat and sat and sat.  (I realize I am sounding like a Dr. Seuss book here, stay with me.)

After sitting in the airport for a couple of hours, and on the airplane for a couple of hours, I knew two things.

1–I was tired of sitting.

2–My knitting is getting quite good!  (#1 on The List!)

So when the Customer Service guy came over on the plane and said that in order for the plane to be able to take off, or land, or something fuzzy like that, 19 people needed to get off the plane.  Nineteen.  On a flight of 50.  That’s a lotta people!  However, when United offered to rebook my flight to San Francisco and throw in another, round-trip ticket for FREE.

[This means that in two days I have been offered two round-trip tickets for FREE.  Yeah, I just thought you should take a minute and let that settle.]

My hand popped up, I grabbed my carry-on, walked off the plane, called Steph to let her know the situation, re-booked my ticket to San Francisco for next weekend and pocketed my voucher for another free flight and went my merry little way.  And I haven’t stopped smiling since.  Who knew spending 6 hours delayed in the airport/on an airplane would make me smile for three days straight.

So, the real question is where should I go with my other free ticket?  Florida?  Chicago?  New York?  Boston?  D.C.?  (Yes, most of these are East Coast…I want to get the biggest bang for my free-buck, people.)  Thoughts?

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