At first I was so thankful to get a ‘free’ ticket that I did not care if I had to wait to get on the plane, because in this horrible economy, if I can save a buck, I will. I should have realized though that flying Alaska from Los Angeles to Seattle would be packed.

When I flew out from Los Angeles, I left super early on a Thursday morning and I really did not have any problems getting on a flight to Seattle (although I had to wake up at the butt crack of down in order to make that happen).  My annoyance though, came when I had to fly back home to Los Angeles from Seattle and I could not get on a flight.

I tried to fly out of Seattle on a Monday; apparently that was my first mistake.  I had no clue that flights would be crazy booked with everyone trying to get home (or go on vacation) on a Monday – I guess that makes Monday’s bad any way you look at them.  After standing in line for twenty minutes at the customer service counter a representative finally helped me, telling me that with the seniority of the person who gave me this standby ticket, I was still about 100 people back in standby from getting on a flight.  The funny thing is, the person who I got the standby ticket from has worked for Alaska for twenty years, yet the people who were on standby in front of me (yes, that 100 people to get out to Los Angeles on MONDAY) all had friends/family with seniority way higher than mine, with most having worked at Alaska for forty or more years. Apparently Alaska really knows how to keep their employees happy.

After realizing there was no chance in hell that I could get out Monday, I finally gave in and stayed another night in Seattle, hoping to catch the first flight out Tuesday morning (the representative told me that there were forty seats open as of that Monday morning). So, I woke up, once again at the butt crack of dawn in order to get to the airport and hopefully catch the first flight back to Los Angeles.

As I get to the terminal (which in Seattle is the FURTHEST terminal away, why?  Did they not realize my body was sore from go, go, go all weekend long?) I realize that the friendly, helpful staff is not behind their little desk yet with about a half hour before boarding.  Of course, as soon as they arrive, everyone bombards them before they get a chance to breathe (including myself, but I was at least further back in the line, which I am not sure was a good thing or not).  They print out the standby list and I am about 9^th down, doesn’t seem so bad.  I talk with the “friendly” (yea, biatch is more like it) Alaska representative and ask her if my friend and I can sit together, she tells me she’ll see what she can do (in her most annoyed and irritated voice).

They finally start to board the plane and no seat number yet.  The “friendly” representative has now called up over twenty names on standby (that were not there when they first printed the list) and now I may not even get on this flight at all.  She finally calls my name, just as they are starting to close the gate and tells me (in almost an excited voice) that she could not get my friend and I seats together (wow, really?! BIATCH).  We board the flight, both middle seats one in front of the other and ask the flight attendants if we can move to an open row that has two seats next to each other.  They kindly (they were actually kind) tell us to wait to see if anyone else boards before we shuffle seats.

As soon as we hear them say they are closing the doors, my friend quickly jumps up two rows to the open two seats and I quickly follow.  The man sitting at the window is pissed that he does not get an open seat to himself (wtf – you are the 2^nd seat from the front, I bet if we did not take it someone else would have), he mumbles and grumbles as he moves off his jacket and bag from the middle seat.

As we sit and wait for the plane to finally take off, I realize I have to go pee and if we are just sitting there I am going to go, so I stand up and start walking towards the bathroom.  One flight attendant sees me coming and freaks out, screaming, “Sit down, you have to sit down NOW!”, which then prompts the guy sitting next to the window to also yell at me and tell me I need to sit back in my seat.  Really?  Who the hell are you?  And why is everyone so cranky and jumpy this early in the morning?  Afraid that Mr. Window man is going to stab me for getting up just as the plane started to move, I feel like I can no longer fall asleep or I’ll be like that kid on the greyhound bus coming from Canada where some dude just randomly cut off his head.

Just as we take off, he purposely closes the windows so that we do not look in his direction, asshole!  Since when did people become so rude?