Since I hadn't traveled since before the summer, a friend that I work with and I agreed to take a big trip this Labor Day.  I typically wait until a few days before my planned departure date to look at where the open seats are, since things can chance so quickly.  This time, though, I got on top of things about two weeks ago...big mistake!  My plan was to head to Hong Kong on Thursday, stay a couple of nights, and then turn back on Monday.  Well, flights filled up rapidly this week (good for the airline, bad for the nonrev travelers!) and I was forced to scramble for a new destination at the last minute.

Hours 0-20

My buddy might love to fly even more than I do, so it wasn't tough to sell him on the longest flight in our system...Atlanta to Johannesburg.  (As an aside, when I get business class, the flight is sometimes even more interesting to me than the actual destination!)  So we packed up on Friday morning, and headed to the airport after work for the ~16 hour flight to Africa.  The inbound aircraft was delayed for some reason, so we had a few hours to kill in the Sky Club drinking.  After a few last minute revenue upgrades were processed, we were cleared into the last two seats in business class.  To make things even better, they were window seats right next to one another.  The herringbone flat bed layout on our 777-200LRs isn't great for groups traveling together, but the flat bed makes it all worth while when it's time to sleep.  What a great flight!

Hours 20-33

When we arrived in Johannesburg, I thought it might be a good idea to go talk to the staff to make sure we could actually get out over the next couple of days.  While seats frequently leave unfilled on the JNB-ATL leg, nonrevs are sometimes left behind due to payload restrictions out of JNB (I believe it's MTOW caps given the cargo and fuel loads that we haul from there).  That turned out to be a good decision.  The open seats that we saw on the employee site were in fact blocked for the foreseeable future due to weight restrictions!  That meant no getting back for work on Tuesday...not on Delta anyway.

We had purchased backup ZED fares in Atlanta, so we ran to the BA counter to see if we could make their flight out.  As those of you who work in the industry know, it's sometimes best to get out while you can...even if that means cutting the trip short...or eliminating the trip altogether.  After struggling to communicate with the contracted BA ground staff, we were finally cleared through to the gate 45 mins before departure time.  We ran to the gate and were given the two absolute last seats in coach.  Our lucky day!

Hours 33-45

After arriving at BA's beautiful new Terminal 5 and LHR, it was then time to clear customs and transfer terminals.  Ever been to Heathrow?  It's the world's WORST airport!  T5 is awesome, but the older terminals are dumps and navigating terminal changes is a real challenge.  I couldn't imagine transferring there if I didn't speak English.  Once again we ran through customs and check in to make it to the Delta gate just before it closed.  And what luck, we got business class again!  This time, on the awesome "76D" or our Vantage flat bed equipped 767-400ER.  It was an easy flight to DTW as I slept most of the time.

Hours 45-48

Customs again.  I barely made it to the next gate before boarding started.  Cleared into coach on an old NW 757 with a dated interior, but who cares!  I was going home!  Finally!

Elapsed time: 48:01

SHOWER!!!!!!!!!

Pics:
1 - Our ride before departure
2 - The comfortable seat
3 - Descending into JNB. The colors on the horizon were accentuated by the brush fires and smoke around the city.
4 - BA T5 at LHR
5 - Finally back in the USA.