I’m with some ol guy - I check virtually every time I fly… and, just to level set, I flew roughly 80 segments and 100,000+ miles ( 175K PQM) last year on United and never had a lost or delayed bag. I’ve been doing this for literally two decades and have had delayed luggage less than 10 times. Perhaps I’m lucky but I also think that the lost luggage problem is grossly overstated.
That happened to me once. I went to the gate of the next flight to my destination and asked if they had a seat. They did and let me on. Again, not too hard to figure out. I suppose if it was the last flight of the night that you missed that’s different, but it’s still not too hard to figure out “go ask somebody.”
Vladenschlutte, with all due respect, it’s likely been a while since you did that - many airlines don’t let you fly standby for free any more unless you are a high-status passenger. Moreover, many flights are overbooked these days, so assuming the next flight will have a seat for you is a bad assumption. Still worth checking out, of course, but a bad assumption.
Since I rarely get direct flights, the ease of not checking bags has to be considered in light of how quickly I will be able to get across the airport to make a connection while lugging my bag.
It was like a year and a half ago.
Yes, it was somewhere around a year ago when both American and United changed their standby policy, IIRC. Elite members can still sweet-talk it at times.
Don’t get me started on United. Continental was good until the merger.
My D had an interview for a coop job at a large company which was 5 hours away driving with some large cities along the route. The travel contact at the company suggested she drive there. When my daughter asked about other possibilities, he suggested she carpool with kids coming from another school in her state, which was not on the way and over an hour out of the way. Equally crazy. Eventually the company flew all the kids in (six total) and put them up the night before and had them share cabs to the facility. I had her push back on the unreasonable initial suggestions. The travel person was not the HR person so I felt it would not impact her success with the interview. The reimbursement form they gave her to complete also ended up not being the correct form.
She didn’t get an offer.
OP- I’m glad your D found people to stay with. Another option is the shuttle which goes from ATL to campus. When different D was going for visit to that campus she took that transportation, this visit had a set amount covered for travel expenses.
jackief - i had to chuckle your Ds fight over travel arrangements. I had the opposite experience a few years ago for a job interview. The company kept insisting I should fly and rent a car for the few days I would be in town. It took me a while to convince them that the flight was two legs of about 1.5 hours each plus layover and all the other stuff that goes into air travel, but it was only a 4.5 hour drive. I ended up driving.
One of my kids drove 3 hours to an internship interview although they offered to fly him. He would have had to drive almost an hour to even get to the airport plus as all the other airport hassles so it really was easier to drive. Probably depends on the particular situation.
Most college kids can’t rent a car, which is something the 22 year old travel coordinator may not know. Even if they are old enough to rent a car, they may not have a credit card and if they use a debit card, the rental company might try to put a $500 hold on it.
My own daughter is very young, and will probably only be 19 when she interviews for her first summer (engineering) jobs. She will not be renting a car. My other daughter is the world’s worst driver and only has a license because the State of florida gives them to anyone with $54. She also will not be renting any cars or driving to interviews.
D2 can’t drive, even though she has a license. I think we will need to teach her this life skill this summer.
It is very expensive for people under 25 to rent a car.
Some companies, like USAA, don’t charge extra for renting to a driver under 25. They have contracts with Hertz, Avis and a few others.
When my kids interviewed for jobs, they had employers who rented cars for them. They were both under 25 at the time. They didn’t have any money or credit cards at the time and they didn’t ask for any. I’m assuming that the prospective employers picked up the tab for hotel rooms and the car rental.
When the kids were flown to job interviews, they wanted to miss as little time from classes as they could. So the flights were not convenient and the days were long. Now that they are employed and travel occasionally for work, the travel is not always great either. When you are traveling from one small city to a remote job site, sometimes travel accommodations are inconvenient.
Was at a client"a site (about 1 hr from Newark airport) yesterday for a 9-5 meeting. Was on an 8:55 pm flight back landing at home airport at 10:20 pm. Had hoped to jump on a 7:00 but client meeting ended 20 mins late. Client doesn’t GAS that I landed late at night in my home territory. Nor should they.
I think your client should care. If they can do something to help you out (and perhaps save themselves some money because I assume you bill them for your time), they should. Someday you may have the choice of whether to keep Client A or B, and if B has shown you the respect of caring about the little things like your getting home several hours earlier, I’ll bet you’ll pick B.
I bill on a daily rate basis, not per hour. And they are not going to “accept” my leaving at 2 pm so I can make a 4 pm so I get home at 6 pm because I turn into a pumpkin after dark falls.
I have international clients. If I’m trying to coordinate a phone call with the UK and India, maybe it’s at 4 am my time. That’s how it goes.
And my clients are just as hardworking as I am. We all check email and do work on evenings and weekends. That’s how it goes.
I was cleaning up the drafts in my account and noticed this thread and thought I would add an update. Interview day started at 3am and ended 1:30 am. Then DD had to get up at 8am to start her 24 hour dance marathon. During the previous dance marathons she stood the entire time. This year she went to her car and took a nap 
She got the job and will be doing medical/pharma IT project management this summer. Thank you all for your input and advice.
Congratulations.
congrats and thanks for the update!