Since our honeymoon almost thirty years ago, we have worked hard to avoid an international itinerary with two connections and three flights. All of our overseas trips have been nonstop or one connection and two flights. Viking Air booked this trip with three flights: Sacramento to Chicago to Frankfurt to Oslo.
Up at 3:30 am, we left the house at 4:30 am. When we got to the airport to check in, we got a rude surprise. United had cancelled our 7 am flight to Chicago due to insufficient crew rest. We spent about 30 minutes with an agent working to rebook all three flights. The agent gave us boarding passes for the first leg, but couldn't issue boarding passes for the second and third legs on Lufthansa.
We ended up on a 10:50 am flight to Denver. It landed in Denver on time. After switching from the B to the A concourse, We wandered around trying to figure out where we could get boarding passes. Eventually, I just camped at the desk for our 5:35 pm flight to Frankfurt. Whenn the agent finally showed up, we got our second rude surprise of the day. We were standby on the flight!?! We thought that we had Premium Economy seats, but were told that United had booked us as standby and they couldn't guarantee anything.
We sweated for over an hour and a half. They loaded the whole plane. As they were getting ready to close the gate, they called us up and gave us boarding passes for the Frankfurt and Oslo flights.
Boarding the plane, we realized that we did have Premium Economy seats. Initially, the seats were not together, but the guy sitting next to me offered to switch with Sharon. After all the drama of the last eleven hours, we were sitting together in some very comfortable seats for the nine hour flight to Frankfurt.
Sharon called it the most harrowing experience we have had flying...
Unfortunately, the drama may not be over. The pilot announced that the luggage is not being loaded on the plane. He said that it would meet us at our final destination?!?
I am writing after dinner on the flight to Frankfurt somewhere over Canada. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.
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