July 1, 2024
Philadelphia PA - Back to the USA!
I decided the best place for me to wait out the delay was back in Philadelphia. I made reservations to fly from Hamburg to Frankford and then onto Philly on Lufthansa Airlines on Thursday, but while in taxi to airport, I got notice that my flights were canceled, and I was rebooked on British Airways to Heathrow with a connecting flight on United to Washington DC and then another United commuter airline to get from DC to Philly. The changes took me from getting into Philly at 4pm to after midnight. I didn't know the reason for Lufthansa cancelations, but all seemed fine. I met some nice Scottish soccer fans in the British Airways line. Gotta love how committed they were for their team, who had been knocked out of the tournament after game 3, but they were still celebrating & excited because they said their small country had never made it that far before! It's all relative, right!
Our flight from Hamburg was delayed over 2 hours and I found out the reason was massive thunderstorms over most of Germany. When I finally arrived at Heathrow, I had just missed the United flight to Washington, which had been delayed also, but not by enough. Heathrow was full of lots of stranded passengers because Lufthansa had major cancelations across all of Germany. There was only one agent working the rebooking desk with nearly a hundred people waiting in line. I had to talk to them since my flights originated with them. I found there were no flights heading to USA left that night and resigned myself to sorting things out in the morning. I didn't have my luggage, as it was supposed to be checked through to Washington. I walked out of the airport terminal and saw there was a Hilton Gardens across the parking lot and walked there. I got the last of 2 rooms for the night, at an exorbitant rate, but Lufthansa is supposed to reimburse me. I ordered some dinner and went to bed. On Friday, I walked back to airport and was at United ticket counter by 6 a.m.
All was calm and quiet, and a very nice agent worked with me to get me booked on a flight to Chicago leaving around 730 and another connection onto Philly with a 2.5-hour layover, to clear customs and change terminals. He also notified British airways where to send my luggage and I was off again. I was delighted to see my luggage waiting for me in Chicago after I cleared customs! Small miracle there, I do so believe in the power of prayer! I rechecked my bag to Philly and made my connection fine but had gotten the last seat which was a middle seat in the second to last row of the plane. Luckily the ride to Philly was just under 1.5 hours and I arrived to a gorgeous night in Philly and again my luggage made it!! I got a cab to Kennedy House, did a load of laundry and got a great night sleep.
Saturday morning, I surprised all my aquacise buddies and joined them in a fun class and caught up on all the gossip from Kennedy House. It's always fun to come home to such a nice group of people.
