On our recent Tokyo return trip we were delayed with the departure and were expected to miss our connection in Los Angeles to Miami. Already a long flight, options were limited and we tried to work with the telephone agents to reroute us. We eventually settled on a 9-hour layover in LAX and the red-eye home, of course this sounds better when you’re making the arrangement than after you’re getting off a 12-hour transpacific flight.
As luck would have it, the original flight we were supposed to connect to was also delayed so we thought we would give it a try and we ran over to the gate to ask the agent there if there was room. We had our doubts since we already saw a long standby list but despite low expectations we waited in line. They were already boarding group 2 and 3 when we got to tell her that while we had originally been booked on this flight, the airline had rescheduled us due to our delay out of Tokyo. Fingers crossed we waited a few minutes and heard her ask if two middle seats would be ok.
Yes indeed!! We we’re so happy to get on we jumped at the chance.
I doubt that trying to do that over the phone or on any website would have worked, so I have to conclude that those gate agents have a lot of power once the flight is turned over into their hands and it’s best to be nice to these hard working folks, that generally have to put up with a lot of irate customers and unexpected issues.
Arriving home, we saw that the redeye we were booked on was delayed by over an hour too. If we had her name we’d send her a thank you card but THANK YOU to that wonderful gate agent for flight 1024 from LAX to MIA!!
