Babie & the Terrible Lizard

After I got up at 5am to attend recurrent training that day, I tried three flights before making it home to LAX. Thankfully there was enough time to go home & relax. When I checked the loads everything looked perfect. I wasn't worried at all since there were plenty of business class seats available for the redeye to HND. I had a nice dinner at home and checked in online. I was still in business class when  I left home.
As soon as I got to my gate I saw I was number 8 on the list with 8 seats in business. That was close! But I was still set.. As I waited to board my flight I saw a straggler run up to the counter. It was a Delta gate agent. With his arrival I watched my name drop to  number 9. So much for a pod & a delicious meal, I was getting stuck in economy with a reheated excuse for food. Dashed were my plans of red wine & port. I would have to settle for boxed wine & an ice cream sandwich.

 My only consolation was the fact that the agent promised to keep the seat next to me empty. As you can see, even the Terrible Lizard was cramped. The underseat storage was nonexistent because of the box that housed the IFE (In flight entertainment). At least we had the seat next to us to stow our bag.

I was just getting comfortable when someone in the last row decided to break the headrest & knock both of those seats out of commission. I looked up from settling in to see the gate agent looming over me. "Sorry," he said, "broken seats. Someone is sitting with you now. Which seat do you want." Both seats, just like you promised me. Not one teeny little economy class seat in the back of the plane. I looked over to see my seatmate and she was also unhappy.

Was I upset? Definitely. I didn't get business class and NOW I was getting a seatmate? I couldn't even stretch my legs out under the seat and I'm only 5'1! Talk about crushed hopes. I didn't get much sleep on the flight. My seatmate decided to watch movies with her screen as bright as possible for the first half of the flight & spend the second half kicking me under the armrest. Needless to say I did NOT arrive well rested or refreshed.

But, we had safely arrived in Haneda and the flight attendants had been sympathetic. Their generosity in sharing a crew meal was the only reason I didn't starve. They were the reminder of me why I love to nonrev on Delta. As we were on final descent into Haneda it was amazing to see all of the fishing boats with their lights on headed into Tsukiji to drop off their fresh fish. Now that's an amazing fish market! But today I had different plans. We were off to the domestic airport. The looks that the Terrible Lizard and I got as we went through Customs & Immigration were hilarious. There was a little bit of pointing and a lot of giggling about the crazy flight attendant and her plastic dinosaur, but we took it all in stride. After all, we were on a deadline & we had a flight to catch.

The ANA counter agents told me that all the flights were full today and the first flight was overfull. All I could think was that I was going to be stuck in Tokyo. Maybe I should have gone to the fish market. But I went through security and headed to the first gate. When they pulled out a board announcing that they were offering compensation for people who wanted to take the next flight I knew I wasn't going to be in one of those seats.

I went to the standby counter and waited. For these standby flights you are assigned a letter and a number and that is your standby priority. They start calling out letters and numbers and you have to answer immediately or you lose your seat. I'm sure it's a very orderly and easy system to follow, if you speak Japanese.

I know how to count to three, I can be polite, and I can even say, "Bag Under". But I don't speak enough to know if they were calling out my number. The gate agents were nice even though I continued to bother them. My 'lucky number' was C11 and when they got to C they used their fingers to show what number they were calling. They called C4 and  the woman who had it turned down her seat because she was traveling with two small children. Very quickly they called the other numbers C5, C6, C7, C8, C9. As they called out C10 a lady ran up and took the final seat on the plane. I was SO close!

"We're sorry, this flight is full. Please go to next gate." With those words we watched the first flight to Okinawa pull away from the gate. Maybe I would end up in Tokyo for the night.

As I stood there feeling rejected I heard someone speaking English, "Excuse me, do you speak Japanese?" I looked up to see another American. He looked vaguely familiar. "Sorry, I don't speak Japanese. But most of the agents speak English."At that moment I realized who it was. The gate agent who took my business class seat with his last minute check in! He wanted to know if I had ever flown standby on ANA before and how it worked. I told him it was my first time and how I was able to get the gate agents to tell me which number they were calling. I mentioned how I was barely left behind and asked what his number was. He was C8, so he did get called and left behind. I'll admit it, I felt a twinge of smugness. After all, he took my seat and now he didn't make his flight. Karma, eh? This was quickly followed by a little Catholic guilt. Being a standby sucks and getting left behind is much worse than making the flight in economy. Okay, maybe it isn't.

Either way we started chatting and went over to the next gate. I'll admit that I called him out on taking my seat and he said he didn't realize what had happened. Oh well, life goes on, right? We waited around for the next fliugh to depart and got to chatting. He was headed down to Okinawa to see his sister as well. Thankfully the agents were aware of the language barrier and waved us over when they got to our number. The gate agent was nice enough to tell me that if he got on the flight and I didn't I could have his seat. There were enough seats for everyone and we were finally on our way to Okinawa.

We chatted during the flight and planned on getting in touch later. The ANA crew was fabulous and the flight went smoothly. I was especially impressed by the camera they have mounted under the nose.It was very cool to see the view from that perspective throughout the entire flight.

I was super excited to finally deliver the Terrible Lizard to his new home with my nephew Lisandro.

This was an adventurous trip for both of us...