On Our Way to Spain! - Our first adventure using flight benefits

I left school around lunchtime, and hurried home to find Tim waiting.  We threw our luggage in the car and headed to RDU with Tony as our chauffeur.  Caroline had come home the night before, so she was with us to walk us through our first adventure flying "stand by".   First minor glitch...Tim and I made it on the plane, but Caroline didn't. She stayed behind at RDU and waited for the next flight.  Second minor glitch...Because Tim and I were the last two on the plane, and because it was a really small plane, there was no more room in the overhead compartments, and we had to "gate check" our luggage "to final destination".  I told the attendant who was waiting to whisk my suitcase away that we couldn't do that, because there was no guarantee we would get to our destination since we were flying standby, and he assured me that our luggage would be waiting for us whenever we made it to Lisbon.  Famous last words.

Our plane sat on the runway for awhile because of mechanical problems (inspires confidence, doesn't it?) so Caroline made it to Philadelphia not that long after we arrived.  Tim didn't know at this point that she was flying to Lisbon with us!  He thought she was simply flying from RDU home to Philadelphia.  We told her goodbye at the gate, and boarded the plane for the second leg of our journey, and then she boarded after us.  He still didn't know that she was on board!  Caroline was in the front, Tim was in the middle, and I was further towards the back.  Pretty soon a flight attendant came and got Tim and me, and as it turns out, there were three empty seats in the very first row after first class, and we were able to fly to Lisbon all together.   What a perfect surprise!