I’ll never forget the day when my dad and I were eating Harveys before our flight from Toronto to Vancouver. He looked at me and said with a pause, « this food cost more than our flight ». It’s true, our $15 meal was more than the $4.32 for each of us to fly from Toronto to Vancouver… and we flew in business class.
Hermes and I in summer 2021 visiting friends in BC
Dating every destination
Growing up and having a mom who works for an airline completely changes the travel game, and I played it to its fullest benefit. I mean all I wanted for my 12th birthday was to go on a plane by myself, which I did… in business class. I treated planes like buses, an easy and efficient way to get me where I wanted to go, all for the cost of a Starbucks latte.
Of some of the more notable trips, in the 4 flights I took from Toronto to London Heathrow while studying abroad one year, 3 out of the 4 were in business class. I also managed to travel London to Toronto to Calgary to Vancouver to Seattle in the span of 25hrs and for about $100-150. Every summer growing up in high school, I flew out to BC to visit my friend Hayley for her birthday, for a long weekend, again at only for like $20 each time. And, a favourite from my friends is the time I flew to Paris and spent about 22hrs there and then flying back. I had joined my mom on a layover flight, I commend her honestly because that trip was exhausting!!
Processed with VSCO with c1 presetRome, Argentina, Barcelona, Wales, Halifax, Copenhagen on either standby or ULCC (ultra low cost carrier)
Every love has its flaws
Now, I won’t lie, I got a taste for this good life. I mean, who doesn’t love essentially-free flights?? And having standby privileges as the dependent of an airline employee was a great one. Sure it came with its challenges – the airline dress code, which almost got me kicked off a flight because I was in running shoes (forgot to change into my flats) and yes, I was so tired from travelling overnight from Argentina that I did cry and the flight attendant didn’t know how to respond so we just moved on… or not knowing if you’ll get on a flight. Tbh it’s a weird adrenaline rush for me and I’m oddly pretty calm with it, except for the one time I was almost stranded in Chile. Lastly, waiting and waiting for a flight, my personal best aka the most time I’ve spent waiting to get on a standby flight was 16hrs trying to get back to school in Vancouver from Toronto.
Hermes and I in New Orleans, Sept. 2022
A new kind of love
So, needlessly to say when I turned 25, I could finally rent a car but I not longer got free flight privileges. Apparently, you’re not dependent on your parents at that point according the terms & conditions but I BEG TO DIFFER. Now, I can fly standby still but I’m at the bottom of the list of seniority always, so yes when I have flown standby recently I’m that awkward person to comes on dead last and everyone assumes you were running to the plane.. not the case! I don’t write all this to say woh is me, cause that’s not the point. More so, that I’ve grown accustomed to this travel-at-a-fraction lifestyle and I don’t want to stop! Airgo, at 30 years old I discovered miles & points…. Game changer.
Spent my 30th birthday in Montreal thanks to a flight credit!
Anyways, I’m about a month into what I’m calling my « miles & points » class (title to be reworked). If you’ve ever been interested in travelling on points, feel free to learn along with me! I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned in month 1 in another post soon. Standby until then!
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