Glitches Happen

     Getting to Frankfort was a bit more complicated than we imagined. Christmas Eve found us near Chicago with family. After Christmas 8 out of the 10 were ill with everything from Covid to RSV to an ear infection. The 2 old ones, that would be Dennis and I were fine. Because of our age we have been vaccinated with every possible prevention—5 Covid vaccinations, RSV, pneumonia , flu, and Typhoid.  Plans for Matilda after Christmas were canceled and we went about packing. I went on Lufthansa’s mobile app to check-in, a ten minute task. Two hours later, we were checked in and had seats for all of our Lufthansa flights to and from Chicago via Frankfort. It took two phone calls. The first agent said I couldn’t check in for 72 hours which would have meant we would miss our flight. Then he hung up on me. Can you imagine anyone hanging up on a sweet old lady? The second agent helped me by explaining what I needed to do. I couldn’t check-in with the confirmation number. I had to check-in with the ticket numbers. There were ticket numbers listed in a cluster but not with the ticket to which they belonged. So thinking the first number would go with the first ticket, I put it in. She explained the first ticket went with the third number so finally, we were all checked in.

    The day before our flight we started for Chicago. I got a call from my son, Nick explaining that he and his family were all sick so we shouldn’t stay with them for fear of our getting sick. On our way to Chicago we got a call from Elana, my daughter where our cat Lucky was to stay. All of her family was sick. They were also worried that we would arrive in Namibia, ill. She suggested that as our flight didn’t leave until 10:00 PM, we turn around and stay home for the night, dropping off the cat the next day with everyone masked. That was good advice and we took it. Finally we made it to O’Hare.

      We were eventually on the plane in comfortable seats and after a bit of dinner, and reading, I had 30 pages left in a Horowitz mystery, we slept. 

    Somehow in the hustle I misplaced two of our 4 vouchers from United for lounge access. It appears it doesn’t matter because Lufthansa, a part of United’s Star Alliance won’t honor them. Ah well, we found a comfortable  place to sit, read, blog, send a WhatsApp or two while we wait for about 5 more hours until our gate for Windhoek is announced. For someone who advocates independent travel for as long as possible, I must accept glitches without whining. 😉

Life according to Dennis:

    So, here we are in Frankfurt. We left Chicago around 10:30 PM on 2/2/2024 and arrived in Germany at 1:00 PM their time on January 3. Germany is 7 hours ahead of us. Now we wait. Our connection leaves here at 10:00 PM so we have about an 8 hour layover. I slept most of the first leg which was just fine with me. We thought we had access to the Lufthansa lounge but…nope. We were wrong so we’re sitting here reading, writing, and watching planes come and go. Windhoek, Namibia beckons. 😐