I am now back home in Ohio... back to the cold of the northern winter.
My flights yesterday went exceptionally well. With all the traveling that I did last year, I have attained Premier Silver Status with United Airlines. I doubt if I will still have that status in 2016 (I have no trips to Europe scheduled for this year), but I am certainly enjoying the perks while I have them.
On my flight from Oaxaca to Houston, I was given a complimentary upgrade to business class. On the flight from Houston to Cleveland there were no first class seats available, but I was given an upgrade to Economy Plus (economy seats with more leg room). Given the fact that there was no one else seated in my section of three seats, I was just as comfortable as I would have been in first class. The flights all left and arrived on time.
When I went through security in Mexico City, I was asked to open the carry-on bag in which I had my Oaxacan pottery, all bundled in bubble-wrap and newspaper. I thought, "Oh, no, I hope I don't have to unwrap all those pieces of pottery." But the security fellow only asked me what was in the packages. When I went through security in Houston no one asked me to open my carry-on luggage. There was virtually no wait at all to go through customs. Houston used to have very long lines. I don't know if Houston has improved their system, or if it was because of the day of the week that I was travelling, but I was through customs in no time at all. I didn't even have to wait long at the carousel for my checked luggage.
It was one of the most pleasant hassle-free days of flying that I have experienced!
Houston improved their customs and entry areas about a year ago. It's absolutely amazing! Last time I went in was prior to the gall bladder surgery so was in a wheel chair. I swear it didn't take 5 minutes. I was speechless....and happy.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a big improvement over the long lines I used to encounter there!
DeleteI have to laugh about your hassle-free travel (lucky you!), because my husband and I were scheduled to fly home from Puerto Rico the same day you were traveling, but our transportation that day ended up being the MOST hassle-filled ever! (We were even supposed to connect in Houston, so maybe we would have run into you, had we ever made it there.)
ReplyDeleteFirst, a plane skidded off the runway at the tiny airport in Vieques, so our flight to San Juan was canceled, causing us to miss the rest of our connections. Then we spent a few frantic hours trying to re-book our flights home on our own because the airline in Vieques was too small and incapacitated by the accident to provide any assistance to us. (Some travelers got so desperate that they were getting together to charter planes.) Thankfully, we had purchased trip insurance, so the only additional cost we incurred was 2 tickets on another carrier to get us from Vieques to San Juan. We ended up with an extra night in PR (which was brief, but nice: we booked a nice hotel in Old San Juan, and we got to see el Morro just as the sun was setting), which certainly wasn't the worst place we could have been "stuck."
But then, as we were checking in the next morning for our re-booked flights home, we learned that United didn't "actuate the VCR" on my tickets when they were transferred to American Airlines, so while I had a reservation, I couldn't get boarding passes for my flights (my husband could get his). And United didn't have any flights leaving San Juan for about 4 hours, so they had no staff at their ticket counter to help us. We ended up spending most of the 2 hours before our flight on the phone with United trying to get them to punch a few buttons to release my tickets. Finally, with literally 5 minutes to spare before our flight was to board, they got everything fixed.
Aaaand then Chuck was selected for random security screening. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that American Airlines destroyed Chuck's gate-checked carry-on bag at the beginning of our trip when we flew from Milwaukee to O'Hare (in a tiny place like Vieques, we were lucky to find a cheap duffel bag at a consignment shop to get his stuff home).
Thank goodness our vacation itself was amazing, because these were undoubtedly our worst air travel experiences ever! We're laughing about it all now, but it was really stressful at the time.
Well, I'm glad the stress was on the flight home... if it had been on the way there, you would not have enjoyed your vacation. That definitely is one of the worst flying experiences that I have heard. It's almost as bad as the year that I decided take Delta to Merida instead of Continental. That comedy of errors ended with me seeing my suitcase on the runway in Atlanta in the pouring rain. I haven't flown on Delta since.
DeleteDid you get to see the Bioluminescent Bay?
Yes, we did a kayak tour. It was incredible!
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