We made it

After our lovely trip in first class on the way to Germany, my friend asked me if I could go back to reality and fly in regular seats again. I said of course! It was really nice, but the cost is just too much. I would be back in the back the next time I flew. When we waltzed into the sky priority check-in this morning and were on our way to security in about 2 minutes, I looked at the hundreds of people waiting in the regular people line to check-in and was really, really happy we had splurged.

We visited the lounge (the check-in lady told us to go – we didn’t know we had access because neither Delta nor Air France have a lounge in Zurich). It was quite small, but there were very few people there. We each had a coke in a bottle – lots of glass bottles of soda in Europe. We’d gotten breakfast croissants yesterday at Lidl, so we weren’t hungry. I just looked at the picture and remembered I had some corn flakes. Corn flakes in Europe are very much like paste. Just say no.

I fell asleep, because there was beautiful air conditioning and my whole body just relaxed. Keith said the lounge lady came over and whispered to him so as to not wake me up. I like being special people. Wow is it cool. I did wake up and we were literally picking up our backpacks to go to the gate when the lounge lady came and told us our plane was delayed. I went back to sleep. Our 10:30 flight was now at 11:30. Our connecting flight from Paris to Minneapolis wasn’t until 3:30, so we had time to spare. When the flight was delayed until 12:45, she came and told us to go to the gate to ask them to put us on an earlier flight. We zoomed. I had been sleeping, and then I was zooming. I have been wearing my phone on a cord around my neck most of the trip, because I have been using it as my camera and I needed immediate access. I love it so much because I don’t have to check my bag to make sure I haven’t left it somewhere, and I never set it down, so I never leave it somewhere. As we zoomed, I was happy to know I hadn’t left it behind.

There was no earlier flight, but there was a gate change. It took 15 minutes of fast walking to get there. The weird part was that the gate agent told us about the gate change, but it wasn’t listed on the flight information board. We got to the new gate and a gazillion people were boarding a flight to Amsterdam. After they left, we thought the gate would change the info to our flight. Nope. It still didn’t give any gate for our flight. We checked. Yep, Still at the new gate, but now at 12:55. Mmmm. That was going to be tight catching our next flight.

I just wasn’t worried. If we missed our connect, we would be in Paris and they would find us a way home. If they couldn’t find us a way home today, I was going to Disneyland Paris. Either way, it was going to be okay.

We weren’t very high up for our flight to Paris and I really enjoyed looking at the French countryside. There were several houses with pools, so I thought I would live there. As we left Switzerland, some snowy Alps were poking up about the clouds. I have pictures, but real life was so better (as always).

Even though it was a short flight, we had a meal. It was grainy and veggie and good. Keith even ordered champagne! What?! Oh, people at the gate noticed Keith had on the appropriate shirt to wear in Paris. Good eye, people!!

We had been zooming with a family from the lounge (who were going home to Cancun). Their flight was also at 3:30. We chatted with them at the gate and on our first flight. Our plane was loaded and pulled away from the gate by 1:05…but just sat until 1:35…then we took off. We landed at 2:30 and raced to the shuttle to the right terminal. It drove away as we got there. Obviously, another would come, but those minutes are hard.

We got to the right terminal, then got in a loooooong line for passport control. I relaxed. No way were we getting through 100 people and making our flight. It was 2:50. Suddenly, the Cancun family was pulling us out of line and putting us in a very short line – special for those of us with flights very soon. 2:55 and we are racing to the next shuttle. The Cancun family was ahead of us, and they were running much faster than we were (including the gramma. I am not kidding). When we needed to take an elevator down a level, they were running straight and I waved at their backs! I hoped they would make their flight. We were on the elevator and two wheelchairs were loaded in. One of them was electric and had a place for the pusher person to stand. He needed three tries to get the chair in the elevator. I was weirdly not frantic. When he couldn’t get the chair out of the elevator (the lady in it commented to the other person in a wheelchair that he was going to kill her) (he did not), I did want to just vault over them and get going. We eventually got out of the elevator and raced to the next shuttle. There were two of our Cancun family members. The others were lost! The ones running straight were not supposed to run straight! Oh no! They had a different shuttle, so we don’t know if they made it. I’m afraid with lost family, they are still in Paris. I hope they are at Disneyland.

The shuttle seemed to go very slowly. There were multiple stops. We got off. We raced twenty gates, then we had to escalator up. We came up into a vast airport space full of just about no one. No one at any gates. What was going on? We just kept moving. It was 3:11 – our gate would have closed at 3:10. Run run run. Gasping, we got there and showed a guy our boarding pass. He was the only one around. He said, “try scanning your boarding pass. They might not have closed the door.” We scanned. It went green. We ran. Of course, there was a long ramp down, then back, then onto the jetway. A lady with a clipboard was coming from the plane. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson? Yes! Enjoy your flight.

And we made it! WhooooooHoooooo! Such fun. I feel incredibly special to be in first class. Air France was laid out a little bit differently than Delta, but not very different.

I had been thinking that I didn’t even really need first class on a westbound flight. West is best – East is a beast. All you have to do on a westbound flight is watch movies. But oh my, oh my, oh my, it was nice to sit in my comfy seat. I had braised beef cheek and some french word that means mashed potatoes. Keith had ordered the chicken. I wanted the chicken but was afraid it would be dark meat and I don’t like dark meat. It was chicken breast with amazing risotto, so darn. But mine was good, too. I gave Keith my smoked salmon appetizer, because fish.

My seat was hilarious. The buttons were not inherently understandable (to me) and seemed to work intermittently. I scooted myself forward little bits at a time until I got close enough to put my feet up. I think if I went all the way forward, it would just send me back to start. I would just straighten up and go back. Unfortunately, the controls were right where my right arm wanted to be, so this happened more than once (5? 6? 7 times? Keith would laugh and laugh as I just went back to start.

We watched three good movies. Just enjoyed them all so much! (Uncharted, The Bad Guys, Marry Me) Maybe because I haven’t seen a screen in 18 days, maybe because I was feeling very special in my special seat, maybe because I WAS NOT HOT, but I was soooo happy.

We were almost the first ones off the plane and the first ones through Customs. Then we waited for the luggage. There was a Delta lady saying that Air France had let them know that 85 suitcases were left behind. I was suuuuuuuuure one of them was ours. No way the suitcase worked as hard to make that second plane as we had. We had to wait about 40 minutes for all the luggage to get off the plane to make sure ours wasn’t there, then go downstairs and file a report. Alexander was circling the airport (five times around) in the absolutely crazy baggage claim area. He wasn’t the least bit crabby when we finally made it. Thanks, Alexander.

He took us to McDonald’s, because nothing says Welcome to America like McDonald’s.