We were gambling on the off chance we'd get a seat on the earlier flight out of Indianapolis. There was a slim chance, but that vanished after finding out that flight was delayed until after our regularly scheduled flight. Now we were gambling that our original seats remained. They did, but we were going to press our luck. We volunteered our seats on the chance they would be needed by others, on one condition: we wouldn't end up on the now later flight through Detroit. We were offered a trip through rainy Minneapolis and compensated with a $300 voucher. We would leave a half-hour later, layover in the Twin Cities for two hours (rather than three in Detroit), and get in just about the same time as originally scheduled.
We sat through some serious confusion at the gate desk and were finally rewarded with our Northwest-bucks and two seats home via Minneapolis. Only time would tell now if our gamble would pay off. Who would win: The checked bag flying through Motor City, or the two of us through the City of Lakes?
Everything on our end went swimmingly. We were in Madison slightly early. Within twenty feet we found out we won. Seriously won. By taking the later flight, we arrived early and beat the bag. The flight into Madison from Detroit was now scheduled to land at 12:45 AM, a full two hours late. We happily left an address for the bag to be delivered, and counted ourselves lucky to have worked the system so well.
However, we did do something wrong, as pointed out by our flight attendant. In Detroit, along with the voucher, we should've asked for passes for the WorldClub. Something to file away for the next time.
