Back from a valentine getaway in Rome, and oh were we LUCKY!
It started with the fact that this was our first non-direct flight with a transfer, at Frankfurt. All seemed well until we noticed a sign on the boards at LHR – ‘Delayed’. Hmm, we thought, usually this wouldn’t bother us, but we had a transfer to catch. So off we went, to stand in the Lufthansa queues in T1 – a MARE! Between conflicting messages of ‘go to the gate’ to ‘return to the lounge’ we finally got airborne and towards Frankfurt about 2 hours later than scheduled.
Once there, we had a bit of a shock. They’ve had snow at Frankfurt for four days, so they are backlogged. They are also not very good at organizing passengers in this scenario. We eventually got to a person at a desk, after much queuing, and Icy was ‘booked’ onto a flight the next morning, whilst I was put on standby for the next flight. Hmmm I thought. Off we ran towards my gate, in the hope both of us could get on, or both of us could be put on the next flight back to LHR!
Luckily at the gate, a lady of good fortune was manning the counter. A wonderful lady. She put Icy on standby and told me that I was #16 on standby, but since I was fully checked in all the way to Rome, I would be higher on the list than those who were not. And lo and behold 5 names were called, for 5 seats, and mine was one. But not Icy! I went to the desk, willing to give it up and not leave her alone, when the lady at the desk asked a man ‘would you take this ticket?’ – the chap was with a group of 5. He didn’t take the ticket as he didn’t want to leave them, so she immediately pointed at another on the desk to her colleague. He was not sure, but I saw her mouth it. Yes, she picked Icy!
I got to the desk, and she handed me two tickets – I told her I could hug her. I ran and hugged Icy – frankly we’d been up since 4am, it was now 3pm and we were finally about to leave Frankfurt towards Rome! I rang the hotel, told them we were on route but late, and then we thought ‘the bag?’ Luckily it made it too, and all was saved. Rome was fabulous, and a great weekend in all.
Rule is – we’re not transferring again – the hassle was too much.
Another new for us this time was a ‘one bag’ philosophy. We tried to pack light. Alas, I’m not known to pack light, in fact I am the perpetual worrier who packs far more than needed for any trip. However, I am trying to go lean this year. So how to start? I decided to figure out what I do from a morning to evening basis and here’s my pack list for the trips this year, just in case anyone cares or has better options for me to consider:
Toiletries
- toothbrush, toothpaste
- disposable razor, shave stick
- Instead of the usual headlube moisturiser I decided to use Icy’s Aveda stuff.
- small pair of scissors
- Issey travel EDT
Layers
- Just simple long sleeve layer tops, and an extra pair of jeans
It worked – we managed to sneak both our toiletries into a single hanging bag and everything into a standard duffle. Though I am now considering standard ‘luggage trackers‘ for the suitcases, especially after this trip.
As for Rome – it was a great Valentine weekend. More on that later – a ‘magnificent’ city imho.
One Comment
I vaguely remember taking transfer flights to India once upon a time and we got stuck there too. Same issue; the connecting flight’s ground crew had no idea what was going on and stuffed us about – waiting 6 hours for *any* information is just horrible…
Since then I have only had non-direct flights with the same airline – in this case, flying to Australia with Singapore Airlines.
The last time I flew, in September, I was late getting back to Singapore from Heathrow, and was very worried that I would be staying in Singapore Airport until the next morning.
But lo and behold, I got off one flight, meet ground crew and quickly rushed all the way through the airport – literally from one side to the other – and put onto the connecting flight.