The Realities of Stand-By Travel

Flying standby. 

Most people think of it in regards to missing a flight or trying to jump on an earlier one. We think of it as obsessively tracking flight loads, never EVER checking a bag, staring at the customer service agent until they (hopefully) call your names, being the last to board the plane, frantically booking hotel/car when you get on the plane...well, you get the point. It's now our normal.

Standby is easy when there is no place you have to be - it's actually quite liberating. "Oh hey, we're not busy this weekend, want to go to Seattle?" "Oh, the weather looks bad in Seattle? Let's go to Key West instead!" We get that not many people can do that. 

On the other hand, if you DO have to be somewhere, it can be a nightmare. Any one thing can set off a chain reaction that results in you missing your flight. Bad weather here? Bad weather where the flight came from? Business travelers get to the airport early and want to catch your flight instead? Crew needs to get to their home base? Any of these things can really mess you up. Making plans with other people is virtually impossible.

People see the fun of it all - and it is. It's awesome. But there is the other side as well. We've had to adopt the attitude that everything will work out - but it usually does! 
Overall, its luck, planning and dealing with a little stress that allow us to travel like we do. 

At the end of the day though, traveling for free is amazing. We've had the opportunity to see places it would have taken us so many years to see. Jason will be with Southwest for a long time and we are definitely cherishing each new memory we can make during this time.

Now, for the numbers.

Traveling on Southwest is 100% free domestically. When we fly internationally on Southwest, we do have to pay departure taxes like everyone else. For example, those taxes from Mexico City were about $90 for both of us RT.

International on other airlines is a little different and is based on deals that Southwest has with those airlines. It's also based on mileage. Just to give you an idea, for the two of us, we typically pay around $500 RT for Europe and Asia and even less to Central America and the Caribbean. 

So, moral of this story? Get a job at an airline. Then become our travel buddies!

*All the above pictures are from our stand-by travels to SE Asia last year - our most stressful and AWESOME trip to date.

Bangkok, Thailand {Part 1}

It's been a few days since we've gotten back and it's really taken a while to get readjusted for both of us. SE Asia is a full 12 hours ahead of Dallas, so it was a complete flip flop! It's even worse for Jason who is currently in Las Vegas for a work conference. Luckily, we didn't hit the jet lag on the way there.

We started our trip flying to SFO where we caught a Delta plane to Tokyo and then Bangkok. All I have to say is - THANK YOU DELTA! We got upgraded to Economy Comfort - which is essentially their business class. It was such a nice treat. We slept as much as possible on both flights and 21 hours later (eep!), we arrived!

We honestly had such a stroke of luck for our trip. It was unconsciously planned right during the middle of SE Asia's New Year's festival - Songkran. It definitely made some of the trips to their Wats (temples) crazy, but it ALSO gave us the experience of the biggest water fight in the world. No joke. Jason and I literally got soaked every day we were there. This was a blessing really since it was so hot - Houston in August hot.

Our first day began at the Grand Palace. This used to be the residence of the royal family until the 1920s. There are many different buildings, halls, and pavilions set around open lawns, gardens and courtyards. We spent a large part of the morning just exploring. It was so beautiful and ornate - really unlike anything we'd ever seen before. At one point, we were SO hot that Jason agreed to go into a museum about textiles, haha. Also, one little side note: since this is a functioning Wat, men and women must be covered at the shoulders and knees. For some reason, I was deemed acceptable, but Jason had to "rent" (via deposit) a pair of very stylish pants.

Next up, we went to Wat Pho which houses the famous Temple of the Reclining Buddha. This is the birthplace of the traditional Thai massage. Unfortunately/fortunately for us, it was Songkran, so it was packed with vendors selling food/crafts, so no massages for us! One really interesting thing we saw people doing was placing coins into bowls. 108 bowls to be exact. This was supposed to signify the 108 vices the Buddha had to overcome to reach enlightenment.

 

 

We tried Jason's favorite food here as well - roti. We really haven't found a way to describe this yet. If a banana crepe and pancake had a baby, it would somewhat close to this. We even came back to this exact temple the next day to get more :) It was only $1.25, so we might have gotten 3...

We took a tuk tuk back to our hotel which was super fun mainly because we got drenched! Kids would take up stations along the sides of the road with super soakers, buckets of water and HOSES and spray anyone that passed. It is supposed to be a blessing, but honestly, I think it's more just about getting people soaked. We were prepared by our hotel and only had our water camera and photocopies of our passports, so all was good!

We ended the day at a little local place with Green Curry, Pad Thai and some Chang beers for about $6. Oh Thailand, thank you for being so cheap!

We're Off To: Southeast Asia

Hello all. I know we've been a little back and forth on our one "big" trip. We toyed around with the idea of the Phillipines, Indonesia, and Australia/New Zealand. After much research and many conversations including the phrases "oh my gosh, we can go there for HOW little?" and "let's just make a decision already", we have once again come back to the original plan of Southeast Asia! What it really came down to was that this was our first choice. All of those other options are still definitely on our constantly increasing wishlist.

Hotels have been booked (refundable, of course), visas obtained, and air travel is standby.

Our itinerary:

3 days in Bangkok, Thailand

4 days relaxing in paradise aka Koh Samui, Thailand

2 days in Hanoi, Vietnam

2 days cruising in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

3 days in Siem Reap, Cambodia

2 days of travel (really 3 due to time differences)

= 16 days in SE Asia!

People who are used to traveling in Europe and the Caribbean, beware! Visas are a pretty common thing for most other countries. The application process to obtain a visa for Vietnam is crazy. Either you go to a city with a consulate (Houston has one) between 9am-12pm Monday - Friday (so that's out), mail your passports, money order, and form to the consulate (I've heard horror stories of passports getting lost), or get your hotel to provide you with a Visa on Arrival for the "small" fee of $25/person. That doesn't include the stamping fee of $45/person. The whole ordeal probably took about 3 weeks to obtain.

By contrast, Cambodia's application is online and costs $23/person. We got our visas in 2 days. Thailand doesn't require a visa for tourist travel less than 30 days. Call me goofy, but I always ALWAYS check country information (http://travel.state.gov/) before traveling anywhere outside of the US. We might have been in big trouble otherwise!

Other than that, I've really enjoyed the planning process. We're even getting to knock off 2 items from our bucket list. We're in San Francisco right now, hoping to catch an early morning flight. On one hand, I'm getting crazy excited...on the other, I'm preparing myself for the realistic possibility that we might get there a day or two late. I don't think I will really allow myself to get excited until we're on that second flight to Bangkok.

Well, wish us luck, and hopefully we'll see you in 2 1/2 weeks USA!

In the NEXT year...

Exciting news in the non-rev world. Jason is a rockstar and won Internal Audit employee of the quarter. Along with the title comes...2 GOLD TICKETS! (I'm feeling a little like Charlie.) Gold tickets mean that it's a guaranteed spot! What do you mean Christy? You don't have to get to the airport at 4am to catch the earliest flight? Or sit in the middle seat because you're boarding last? You get a boarding pass the NIGHT BEFORE? Madness! With our impending Euro trip and my new job, I don't have any remaining vacation this year, but we will definitely put that to good use.

So, you guys have read where we've BEEN in my last post, now look where we're (tentatively) going! As always in the world of standby, these things can change. On our list for Jason's 2nd year at SWA (mid 2012 - mid 2013):

Euro Trip with John and Mal: Tickets have been purchased and it's insane how cheap they were. Thanks to airline partnerships, they were only $240/person roundtrip! We ARE paying for some airfare around Europe, but the prices were really good (Like $40 a person good)!

France (Paris, Normandy, and Burgundy)

Switzerland (Geneva)

Hungary (Budapest)

Germany (Munich...for Oktoberfest!)

Austria (Salzburg)

Czech Republic (Prague)

Weekend Trips - still up in the air:

New Orleans, LA

Boston, MA

Portland, OR

Boise, ID

Reno/Tahoe, NV

And the part I'm jumping for joy at...2 weeks of backpacking through Southeast Asia! I convinced Jason to go with me on the condition that I plan everything. What's new? Ha. 

Places we'd like to go:

Thailand (Koh Samui, Bangkok, Chiang Mai)

Laos (Luang Prabang)

Cambodia (Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat)

Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

Singapore

We also have a 3 year plan that includes Australia/New Zealand/Bora Bora, going back to Hawaii (Big Island, Molokai), and another couple of trips back to Europe (England, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, Turkey, Croatia, Greece). Gotta get while the getting's good, right? Cheap flights can't be beat (except by free ones), and the only responsibilities we have involve our pup.

OH! And a big thanks to Southwest Airlines for providing Jason and I with over $5,500 (!!) worth of free travel so far. After our Europe and SE Asia trips, that number is sure to skyrocket.

Stay tuned for more travel adventures :)