To bump or not to bump ~ that is the question

After finally leaving the ship and heading to the airport, my flight wasn't until 6pm. What I did discover after arriving was that the flight was oversold. Now for all of my travelling adventrues, I have never taken a bump. To be honest, I can barely recall more than a handful of occassions where they even offered. Needless to say, with no where to be, a offer of a roundtrip ticket anywhere Alaska flies and putting me up in the hotel for the night, I offered.

As they started boarding the plane, I was told that things were going to work out and that they would be able to fit us all on the plane. That was until I was comfortably seated with my 3 packages and they then came to approach me to ask if I would still take the bump. Figuring it didn't matter to me, I said sure. I hauled myself off the plane, back to the podium where they started to make reservations for the hotel and book my flight for 6am the next morning. They reviewed the manifest and realized that NO in fact they had miscounted and there was still room for me on the plane. As they handed me 2 food vouchers worth $6.00 a piece and a coupon to send in for 1000 Alaska points, I headed back into the plane ~ I know Marc, I know. What I found ironic was that by the time I arrived in Seattle, everything was closed ~ where was I suppose to use these $12.00 in vouchers they had so graciously given me ~ a compared to a flight and a hotel?!?!

In the end it turns out that it was probably a good thing that I made the flight. One of the requirements for all shipboard personnel is that the undergo a marine medical to say that they are fit for duty. As it turns out, I showed up at 9:45am the next morning to discover that with the exception of the one cancellation at 10:30 that morning, they had no openings to take me for the next 4 days, which could have been a huge pain trying to find somewhere to do my medical at the last minute.