The last two months have been great—only two airplane trips in early June and most of the time spent at home in Los Angeles with family and friends. Still, I have not been in Germany since March and boy do I miss it. Now the time has come to return to Frankfurt and I am very excited about it.
I’ll be flying on a bmi Diamond Club cash + points redemption with the transatlantic flight on US Airways (primarily to avoid a costly fuel surcharge on the award but also because US now has one of the leading business class seats in the skies and I have never tried it!). My routing will take me through Chicago and Philadelphia on United, then across the pond on US Airways to Munich, and finally a Lufthansa flight up to Frankfurt.
Sleep on the night before an award trip does not come easy—in fact, it rarely comes and last night was no exception. I procrastinate packing my bags and even with all the flights confirmed, there is always a lingering apprehension that something will go wrong.
Sure enough, though United never notified me (oh how I miss EasyUpdate…) I noticed just a short while ago (3am) that my 6:17a flight to Chicago was delayed 1.5 hrs, meaning I would misconnect in Chicago. I looked at various options, thinking about trying to get re-routed in full-fare business and upgrade to first class, but ultimately decided to play it safe. There was a 6:01a flight to Chicago with one first class seat open and I figured I did not want to risk getting to Germany a day later. With bmi now out of Star Alliance, had United sent me back to bmi to deal with the problem (which sadly isn’t far-fetched in the post-merger world), I would not have many options (“oh yes sir, we can get you on Virgin or BA—but it will cost you…”).
So I’m on my way to the airport, ready for a day of flying and maybe some bumps along the way, both figurative and literal. My flight to Chicago is now zeroed out.
That’s not the best way to start of on your trip. Have a great time. I was lucky enough to swing a first class r/t to Frankfurt next week from LAX on LH to try the 747-8 and the first class terminal too. Should be an exciting trip.