How I Saved A CEO's Holiday: My Advice For IROPS
- Konrad Tillman
- Apr 10
- 3 min read
Intro
For my whole life, my greatest strength has been thinking on the fly and problem-solving in crunch situations. Well, one time before COVID-19, my sister was working for a company in New York and was a personal assistant to the CEO. One afternoon she called me when I was hungover in London asking for my help, which she never does, and I somehow saved the day.
What Happened
The afternoon she called me I'll never forget. I had just been out clubbing in London the night prior, and my sister belled me around 3 pm London time in a frantic rambling. Apparently, the CEO had called her and said that he forgot his passport at home. Only one issue: he was at JFK and his flight was scheduled to depart in 1 hour and 20 minutes.
My sister began researching flights, but he was going to an island in the Caribbean which only has a few flights a day, and most of those leave in the morning. Looking online, no options were available for the rest of the day, and she began to panic (she is a perfectionist).
However, looking online, I decided to work back from the intended destination. I found that the latest flight departing for the intended destination was out of Miami around 6:00 pm, but that just meant I had to find a way to get this guy down to Miami in time for the flight.
I managed to secure one seat in Domestic First Class on Delta down to Miami at the last minute, followed by a seat on the local airline flying to the intended destination. Only one issue, the flight left in 2.5 hours, and traffic out to JFK was horrific. I told my sister to grab the passport and head to the Blade Lounge on the East side to get onboard to JFK.
Somehow, someway, it all worked as she got on the helicopter, dropped off the passport, and the guy somehow made his connection in Miami on separate tickets. While I didn't want any credit whatsoever, my sister was definitely in the good books after this one...
Moral Of The Story
There is a reason that I share this story, and no it is not to brag. A lot of the time IROPS occurs to regular passengers, it's just part of flying. Sometimes when you go to look for a new flight, it might not have something available, since airlines won't sell select tickets.
My advice to you is that if you need to get somewhere urgent, work backward. See what time the last flight to the country leaves (flight connections website works well), and build off of that. I have used this trick many times and will be using it soon when I visit Sudan.
As an example, a ticket from Port Sudan to Aden (Yemen) if booked on a single ticket is 31 hours of travel time. However, if I book through two separate airlines, which don't display on Google Flights, I can leave Port Sudan in the morning and be in Aden for dinner.
Final Thoughts
Even before I was running this blog, travel had been in my veins, especially the ability to think on the fly. When I helped my sister out and saved the CEO's holiday (he was only going for a long weekend), it was using the skills I had learned over time.
My advice for you if you are in a tricky situation is to not panic, but try browsing around your other options and see if you can find something that works. Work backward, as I can almost guarantee there are more options than you think...
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