A Standby Travel Odyessy

From Seattle to Kuala Lumpur: A Standby Odyssey

With a combined 95 years of stand-by flight benefits (yes, we’re that old, or just that dedicated), this week marked a significant, slightly masochistic move from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This epic journey involved four separate flights and totaled a whopping 55 hours of travel time—proving that stand-by long-haul travel is less of a vacation perk and more of an endurance sport.

The Stand-by Route: A Tour of Airports

Our grand relocation utilized four distinct flight segments, each one a delightful game of aviation roulette. The route we played was:

• SEA-SFO: Seattle to San Francisco (The "I hope we get on" warm-up)

• SFO-DFW: San Francisco to Dallas/Fort Worth (The "This is getting real" middle leg)

• DFW-NRT: Dallas/Fort Worth to Tokyo-Narita (The "Sweet, sweet Business Class" miracle)

• NRT-KUL: Tokyo-Narita to Kuala Lumpur (The "We're almost there, please hold my legs" finale)

Travel Time Breakdown: Where Did the Time Go?

The total travel time was 55 hours, encompassing both time spent soaring through the sky and time spent intimately familiarizing ourselves with airport carpet patterns.

The Breakdown

Total Travel Time - 55 hours

Door-to-door from Seattle to Kuala Lumpur (A timeline that makes a snail look speedy)

Total Air Time - 34 hours

Actual time spent flying across the four segments (The fun part!)

Total Ground Time - 21 hours

Combined layover time at SFO, DFW, and NRT (The character-building part)

Layover Details: The Waiting Game

Successfully managing a long-haul stand-by journey requires the patience of a saint and the bladder control of a marathon runner. We spent a significant (read: painful) number of hours at three major international airports, simply waiting for our names to be called like contestants on a very exclusive, high-stakes game show. The layovers ranged from a quick sprint to a multi-day campout (figuratively speaking, mostly).

The layovers for the move were between 4 to 14 hours at the following glamorous locations:

• San Francisco International Airport (SFO) - The appetizer

• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) - The main course

• Narita International Airport (NRT) - The 16-hour dessert that wouldn't end

This move is a testament to the endurance, flexibility, and slightly deranged optimism required when using stand-by benefits for such a significant life event and geographical shift.

Lounge Access: Our Oasis in the Airport Desert

Lounge access is not a luxury; it is a vital life-support system for managing long-haul stand-by stress. We successfully utilized the lounge at SFO and DFW—a definite win for our sanity and snack consumption.

However, NRT was where the cruel hand of fate slapped us with reality. We wanted to access the glorious Sakura lounge, but the Malaysia Airlines ticket counter only opened a mere two hours before departure. For a 16-hour layover! We arrived at 5 AM and departed at 21:15 PM. Consequently, we sat f o r e v e r on those hard, unforgiving benches in the ticketing area with our entire lives (aka luggage) piled around us, waiting for that glorious counter to open. Did we starve? No, we packed like pros. Did we learn new things about repacking carry-ons? Absolutely.

Our Seats - Feast and Famine (Mostly Feast, but a little Famine)

It’s totally unfair for us to complain, really. We made every single flight we needed for this journey, and the cost was unbelievably reasonable. Stand-by travel is a benefit that the Mermaid worked 30 years to achieve, and we make excellent use of it.

But let’s talk about the seating—the best and the worst of this week’s travel lottery:

SEA-SFO
Middle seats at the back of the plane. Leaving on a Friday night, we knew we’d be lucky to get on at all, so we were mentally prepared for the nosebleed section. We got the seats! Only... the plane didn’t fly. It had a mechanical issue, so we enjoyed 90 minutes of tarmac-sitting before being told to deplane and hike to a different terminal for a replacement plane. This stuff happens, and we are always happy to deplane a damaged aircraft. But it was tough on the Mermaid—airports are big, and this move involved riding trains, finding elevators, and finally collapsing onto lobby benches. The flight that should have delivered us to SFO at 8 PM finally deposited us there at 12:15 AM. Ouch.

SFO-DFW
A night flight that went unbelievably smoothly. We were #1 and #2 on the standby list and were rewarded with great seats. All worked out well. Phew.

DFW-NRT
We scored. Being #1 and #2 on the list (out of 22 standbys) yielded Business Class (pod) seats for the 14-hour flight to Tokyo! It could not have worked out better. The seats folded down into actual beds, and we managed around 5-6 hours of glorious, flat sleep. Victory!

NRT-KUL
I already complained about spending the entire day at NRT... enough said. We were lucky to make this flight. Malaysia Airlines seats are, shall we say, cozy. With little legroom, my 5’10" frame was squeezed tight. It was an eight-hour journey of elbow wars and knee-jostling, but hey, we made it! I would like to ban reclining seats from all economy cabins. It just doesn't work.

Lessons Learned for Next Time: Don’t Skip the Homework

We were pretty well prepared for this trip. The only major oversight? We should have pre-registered for the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC). Fill out this simple form three days before arrival, and you can save yourself 15-30 minutes of soul-crushing time in the immigration line. Filling it out in the airport, standing in a long queue, being sleep-deprived and luggage-laden, is much more taxing than sitting comfortably in front of your laptop.

Here is the URL—save yourself the hassle: https://imigresen-online.imi.gov.my/mdac/main?registerMain

The ultimate lesson learned: Check out each country's immigration process before you fly so you can be prepared. It is infinitely easier than stumbling through paperwork when all you want to do is get out of the airport and find your hotel bed.