It was an adventure getting back to California using some generous buddy / standby passes from a sailing friend who is a pilot. This was our first time to try and use free flights and it took about 13 hours of getting on a set of flights to go from Atlanta thru Chicago.
We could write a book now on strategies for standby flying that we learned with several almost available flights and then having to find new ones. This is a game of strategy and luck and many conversations with agents.
Adventures of Scott and sailor 