Flew with my two buddies one of which worked for the airline. We were flying “standby” when that was still a thing (90’s). We flew the red eye from Denver to Vancouver Canada through a thunderstorm on a plane that was practically empty. Lightning actually hit the plane, I had no idea it happened until a stewardess told my airline buddy. On the way back we were at the airport in Seattle and were about to get bumped (again standby) when they gave us first class seats