I seek to avoid flying on Mondays and Fridays, but as a business traveler, sometimes our wants are not what we get. A late week business trip forced me to fly on a Friday. Not just Friday, but Friday afternoon at 6PM. Prime hours departing DCA. I had an exit row on the aisle, and life was good. I checked in via Delta’s iPhone app the day before and I was #4 for 2 seats, a place I remained well into Friday. Not just well into Friday, but while I was in the cab heading to the airport. I arrived early enough to catch the 5PM departure, but I elected to sit tight, grab an early dinner, and camp out.
Between the front door and passing security, my 6PM departure became a 6:35PM departure. I had my bag with me, and really just didn’t care about the delay. As I enjoyed a gourmet dinner of chicken fingers and fries, I decided to check the Fly Delta iPhone app. My flight was still delayed, but suddenly, I was #4 for 6 seats. I didn’t get my hopes up as I knew the later flight folks could start arriving and working their way onto my flight. Dinner, a glass of wine, and what do you know, I was #4 for 7 seats. And then, I was here –
The bottom line – never give up on the upgrade, even on a Friday night.
-MJ, August 22, 2014
Noise restrictions would not seem to be the problem since cargo flights operate mostly at night and cargo aircraft are much louder than passenger aircraft. That is from personal knowledge from someone who lived about about five miles from IND a FedEx hub.
Noise restrictions perhaps
Nice that you scored that upgrade. Off topic but why do airlines everywhere avoid using airports in the middle of the night? This became painfully obvious a couple of months ago while camping in ICN on an over-night connection. This great, world-class airport was totally, I mean totally, shut down from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. I don’t think cross-country trains refused to stop in cities because they arrived at 2 a.m. A 2 a.m. flight would not be a first choice; still they could improve equipment utilization and airport congestion.
@John,
I really can’t say why, but I can’t help but think it’s a demand thing. On the other hand, I’m a big enough nerd to remember when Eastern operated a “night hub” in Houston that was specifically for cargo…but since they were flying passenger planes, they sold special fares to take the flights. They were sold as “Moonlight Special” flights or something like that. And I believe America West’s hub at LAS had origins in just such a late night operation.