Planes, Trains & Automobiles

When one works for an airline one gets good travel benefits, but one must always be flexible and quick thinking!

I had planned to head back home today and had standby tickets on KLM to Amsterdam, connecting to London. KLM is the only airline that serves Linköping. I checked the flights yesterday and decided to leave on a lunchtime flight as my preferred evening flight was full. And then when I got up this morning I checked again and discovered that the noon flight was now also full. Maybe I would have still got on, and maybe I wouldn’t have. That’s the gamble. And the connecting flights out of Amsterdam to London also looked very bad for standby.

So I quickly made the decision before breakfast that I would change my plans entirely. I quickly bought a staff ticket on SAS from Stockholm to London. And by lunchtime I was on a train from Linköping to Stockholm, with a connecting train to Arlanda Airport. I then got on a late afternoon SAS flight to Heathrow. Other than an hours delay for the flight, everything went very smoothly. Getting a train ticket so last minute made it a bit pricy, but it was worth knowing that I wasn’t going to go though standby angst today.

I was sad to leave my dear friends in Sweden. I went on one last walk with them before leaving for the train station. See the Extra photo for the world champion rock climbing poodle. She got extra treats today for her rock climbing since I was soon leaving. Missing them already.

I made it home by 9pm and now I am very ready for my bed!

Read Alice's blip here.