The elusive airline voucher finally attained.

I have been a heavy traveler now for about seven years. In all of that time, and all of those flights, I have never successfully attained a voucher from an airline. And, believe me, I have tried. These past two weeks, however, my luck has finally turned. I hit the jackpot!

Last weekend, on my way back from Grand Rapids, my flight from Detroit to Pittsburgh was oversold on Northwest. They announced a need for volunteers to give up their seat for a $300 voucher. Problem was, they wanted the volunteers to fly into Latrobe, which is a tiny little airport about 60 miles south of Pittsburgh. My car, not surprisingly, was parked in Pittsburgh, so I needed to end up there. I also needed that $300 voucher. (Okay, well, "wanted" is a better word. I did not really need it.) Anyway, I jumped on the web and got a quote to rent a car from the ONE rental agency in the Latrobe airport. $92 to rent one way. So, armed with this knowledge, I approached the counter agents again, as they were getting frantic. It was the end of boarding and many people were standing around trying to get in on the flight... I told them what it would cost me to rent a car and I asked for a $400 voucher. "No problem," she said, so quickly that I thought maybe I could have bargained for even more. But I was satisfied, and I took my $400 voucher and my flight to the beautiful Latrobe airport, where they have two gates and one TSA agent. I had a lovely drive back to the Pittsburgh, and was about two hours late arriving home. I considered myself lucky.

And then, the unprecedented happened. On my very next flight, I lucked out again! This was on Thursday, my flight to San Jose through Dallas on American. My first flight was overbooked, and they were offering $200 vouchers. I was planning on trying the negotiating thing again, so I went up to the desk to ask how much later I would be getting into San Jose if they could get me on another flight. And, to my surprise, rerouted, I would arrive two hours earlier than originally scheduled. Having no bargaining leg to stand on, and still feeling quite lucky, I took the buy out and headed over to my other flight, $200 voucher in hand.

On the tarmac, I called my husband and left a message, "Hey, honey, check your vacation days, we're going to Florida!" Of course, I will be flying American with one kid and he will be flying Northwest with the other kid, but, by golly, we are going to Disneyland!