On Wednesday, we flew from Mexico City to Cleveland via Houston... a route that I have taken countless times. (So, these photos are nothing that you have not seen before.) As I mentioned previously, we snagged an excellent first / business class fare, so our flights were very comfortable.
We pulled away from the gate in Mexico City a few minutes early.
The heavy rains of this summer appear to have revived Lake Texcoco, the lake which once covered most of the Valley of Mexico.
It's a short flight to Houston... just over two hours... and before long we were flying over the Texas Gulf coast with its barrier islands.
Soon after we were descending over the Houston metropolitan area, and we landed at the airport ahead of schedule.
We had a layover of more than three hours in Houston. However, more than an hour of that time was eaten up waiting in line at immigration, reclaiming our luggage, rechecking it for the flight to Cleveland, passing through security again. and walking to our gate.
The line at immigration was very long and at first was moving painfully slowly. There were only two windows open with immigration agents. Thankfully, after a while, several more windows were opened, and the line started moving at a steady pace. No questions were asked of me. I showed my passport, had my photo taken, and that was it. By the time I got to luggage claim, our suitcases had been taken off the carrousel and were sitting to the side. We then walked straight through customs... a rather superfluous step... and then rechecked the luggage. Then we had to go through security once again... another long line, although it moved at a fairly good pace. We were not required to take off our shoes. (Going through security in Mexico City, you have never had to take off your shoes.)
Because we were traveling first class on an international flight, we were granted admission to the United Club. There was a United Club not far from the gate for our flight to Cleveland. By that time we had about an hour to kill in the club, and we took advantage of the free food.
Once again, our flight left a few minutes early.
There must have been a good tailwind behind us, because we arrived at Cleveland International Airport at 9:38 P.M., more than a half hour early. After claiming our luggage, we took the shuttle from the terminal to the car rental center. We picked up our vehicle, and by about 11 we were getting settled into our hotel. Although everything went smoothly, it was still a very long and tiring day.
Glad your flights went smoothy and arrived early.
ReplyDeleteI must confess, I used to love travel, and airports - the bigger, the better. I relished layovers at places like IAH and ORD, and got to know them like the back of my hand.
More recently, though, the thought of airline travel fills me with dread. Maybe it's because my last few flights featured really tight connections, or maybe it's because my health scares over the past 13 months have left me reevaluating how I manage my time? Who can say? Am I saying that I prefer driving over flying? Again, who can say?
(That being said, although that long drive from, say, Knoxville to Cleveland in October 2023 seemed to take forever, it was nice to be able to stop off whenever and wherever I wanted to along the way...granted not an option when traveling internationally or starting as far south as CDMX...)
Save travels around Ohio...and may the layover gods smile upon you for your return flights as well.
-Scott
Thank you, Scott. I am always paranoid about missing connections, so I always schedule a layover of at least 2 hours, preferably 3 hours or even more. I would rather spend a few hours waiting, than missing a flight. And since I am often able to use the United Club, it's a more comfortable way to while away the time... not to mention the free food.
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