Here’s how we planned it: We would leave KCI for Newark, kill an hour and a half before our flight to London – the flight that I spend ages on the phone with the United agent getting the seat assignments right and ensuring I had a special meal ordered. Then a short time to change planes in Heathrow (my biggest worry) before landing in Hamburg before lunch giving us plenty of time to get to Kiel, wander about the town and generally feel like we were on vacation.
Here’s how it started out: Flight out of KCI leaves 2 hours late due to air traffic control in Newark. Miss the London connection and the carefully planned flight. Get rebooked on another flight to London where we will have 4 hours to kill before our British Airways (note: forshadowing) flight to Hamburg which should still arrive in time for us to get to Kiel for a late dinner. Assured by the United agent in Newark that our bags would follow us.
Here’s how it went: London flight was uneventful – we actually had seats together and they were able to cobble together something that I could actually eat since there was no special meal for me on the rebooked flight. We even managed to get an hour or two of sleep. Landed in Heathrow Terminal 2 and had to change to terminal 5. No problem – we had 4 hours to get this taken care of. Took the 10 minute bus ride (?!?) to Terminal 5, got through security, and managed to have a hot meal for the first time in 24 hours. I now consider Wetherspoons to be my savior – GF cottage pie and tea was exactly what I needed! And then we wait. And wait. And wait. Heathrow is a nightmare for travelers like me. I don’t want to shop; I want to sit quietly at the gate and read my book until it’s time to get on the plane. But here, they don’t announce the gate until about 45 minutes before departure so you have no choice but to sit in the shopping mall part of the terminal for hours on end or prowl through the Prada and Hermes shops. We sat among the masses and watched as our departure time slowly got pushed back due to late arriving aircraft: 10 minutes, 17 minutes, 25 minutes. Finally 10 minutes before we were scheduled to depart, they posted a gate number where were supposed to leave 45 minutes late.
We got in line to board and…. I was “not accepted”. WTF? She scanned my boarding pass but the system said my boarding was denied. Frank’s was fine but not me. After everyone else boarded, two British Airways gate agents made frantic phone calls, wrestled with the boarding software, and after about 15 finally managed to get me officially on the flight. Apparently, the rebooking between United and British Airways didn’t quite work right for my ticket and they needed to brute force things before I could board. We expected to have the entire plane hate us for making them late except that it wasn’t our fault: the captain had apparently announced that there was some mechanical difficulties that had to be taken care of before we could depart. So with Frank in seat 7F and me in 13B, we sat for another 45 minutes before finally departing.
We land in Hamburg 10 hours later than we had planned to find…. you guessed it, no luggage. And no clear understanding of how to find it because our luggage claim checks were United tags but we had landed on a British Airways flight – not one of United’s partner airlines. There was one other couple who had the same problem; they had come in on the exact same flights as us. But they were staying in Hamburg and we were leaving to get to Kiel for a cruise that would be leaving in less than 24 hours. The baggage agent told us he didn’t see anyway we would get the bags before we left but he *might* be able to get them to the first stop at Copenhagen if he could find them at all.
After filling out all the paperwork, we caught the bus to Kiel and driving through the rain, we tried to use the pitiful wifi to figure out how we were going to manage to last two weeks with just the items we had in our carry on luggage. And eat some cheese. Now the cheese and crackers that had gotten Frank in trouble with the TSA in KC was a Godsend! We finally got to the hotel at about 11pm, exhausted and somewhat odorous. We dumped the bags and headed out for something to eat. It turns out that this is Sommerfest in Hamburg so there were bands playing in open air music venues and lots of people out. We found a local brew pub where Frank quaffed a few of their specialties and enjoyed the daily special: currywurst! I managed to get by with a few glasses of wine since I had recently consumed the better part of a pound of Port Salud. We are on vacation dammit!
Twenty-nine hours after the Uber truck picked us up, we finally got to sleep in a bed. We hope to wake up to news of our luggage. Keep your fingers crossed!
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