Hi, all. We're here and survived.
Moving day started with four hours of sleep (me) and two hours (Dan). Everything ran late the day of, as seems to be typical of us...but packing up the last minute stuff has always been hard, and apparently it's even harder when you add the kids' last minute stuff. Also, Austrian Airways let me check my two kids, ages 2.5 and 7 months, in online, but for some reason wouldn't let Dan or myself check in. When I called them to see what was going on, I was told that children weren't allowed to check in without a guardian...sigh. No kidding? And yet, there it was.
Oh, and I was also told, rather snippily, that if I had just booked on Austrian instead of United, then I wouldn't be having this problem. Right. I'll let the government know about that and I'm sure they'll end the Fly America Act immediately and act in a sensible manner. Get right on that. Great reintroduction to European customer service, however!
We had planned on getting to the airport by 3 for a 5:30 flight, with Katie bringing the kids about a half-hour later. That way, they wouldn't have to stand in line with us to check luggage and argue about seats. However, due to lateness and taxi issues, we didn't leave for the airport until almost 3:30. We figured we'd still be fine, since Dulles is pretty close to us. And THEN, we hit the worst accident I've ever seen on the toll road. The airport access road was completely blocked off, with traffic funneled on to the already-jammed toll road. It ended up taking us something like an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, and yes, we missed out flight.
So. The frighteningly efficient (or is it frightening and efficient?) people at Lufthansa let us chose whether to go thru Frankfurt, or wait till tomorrow's flight. Since Dan and I were already a little traumatized by the work it took to get to the airport (and getting 6 suitcases to with +/- 1lb of 50lbs), we decided to just go. Even though I've heard the foreign service rumor that even God transits Frankfurt to get to heaven.
The kids are with Katie, and running even later. I finished up at the ticket counter while Dan waited outside, getting evil looks from a Lufthansa manager who looked a little like an attractive version of Frau Farbissina from Austin Powers. We finally get the kids and end up on a mad sprint through the airport, complete with carseats, terrified and pissed off cats, and Phoebe having a breakdown when TSA tried to get her to separate from Dan to go through security when I was stuck on the other side, holding a cat who was trying to climb my neck. It was fun times.
We had so many carry-ons that the flight purser kept trying to get me to check something, so we didn't have to deal with it at the other end. Given how tired I was, I finally gave in and let him take the suitcase with a change of clothes and the girls' blankets (being a European carrier, they had actually provided them for us). Then I sat down and got settled, and Dan asked me where the passports were. Instead of being in his briefcase, as I had though, he had put them in...say it with me now...the suitcase I had just checked.
Yeah.
Thank God the flight was delayed because of weather. I have no idea if they would have held it to get our passports back or not, nor do I have any idea what we would have done on arrival in Frankfurt, where you have to go thru customs to enter the EU. The bag, of course, was checked through to Vienna. In the end, they did get them back. And it says something about the level of stress I was under to not even fully realize what a big deal this could have been until, oh, today.
While we were waiting to take off, I looked out the window, and noticed the Austrian Airlines direct flight that we had missed sitting right next to us. We left before they did.
Moving day started with four hours of sleep (me) and two hours (Dan). Everything ran late the day of, as seems to be typical of us...but packing up the last minute stuff has always been hard, and apparently it's even harder when you add the kids' last minute stuff. Also, Austrian Airways let me check my two kids, ages 2.5 and 7 months, in online, but for some reason wouldn't let Dan or myself check in. When I called them to see what was going on, I was told that children weren't allowed to check in without a guardian...sigh. No kidding? And yet, there it was.
Oh, and I was also told, rather snippily, that if I had just booked on Austrian instead of United, then I wouldn't be having this problem. Right. I'll let the government know about that and I'm sure they'll end the Fly America Act immediately and act in a sensible manner. Get right on that. Great reintroduction to European customer service, however!
We had planned on getting to the airport by 3 for a 5:30 flight, with Katie bringing the kids about a half-hour later. That way, they wouldn't have to stand in line with us to check luggage and argue about seats. However, due to lateness and taxi issues, we didn't leave for the airport until almost 3:30. We figured we'd still be fine, since Dulles is pretty close to us. And THEN, we hit the worst accident I've ever seen on the toll road. The airport access road was completely blocked off, with traffic funneled on to the already-jammed toll road. It ended up taking us something like an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the airport, and yes, we missed out flight.
So. The frighteningly efficient (or is it frightening and efficient?) people at Lufthansa let us chose whether to go thru Frankfurt, or wait till tomorrow's flight. Since Dan and I were already a little traumatized by the work it took to get to the airport (and getting 6 suitcases to with +/- 1lb of 50lbs), we decided to just go. Even though I've heard the foreign service rumor that even God transits Frankfurt to get to heaven.
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| Cats, kids, and car seats not pictured. |
We had so many carry-ons that the flight purser kept trying to get me to check something, so we didn't have to deal with it at the other end. Given how tired I was, I finally gave in and let him take the suitcase with a change of clothes and the girls' blankets (being a European carrier, they had actually provided them for us). Then I sat down and got settled, and Dan asked me where the passports were. Instead of being in his briefcase, as I had though, he had put them in...say it with me now...the suitcase I had just checked.
Yeah.
Thank God the flight was delayed because of weather. I have no idea if they would have held it to get our passports back or not, nor do I have any idea what we would have done on arrival in Frankfurt, where you have to go thru customs to enter the EU. The bag, of course, was checked through to Vienna. In the end, they did get them back. And it says something about the level of stress I was under to not even fully realize what a big deal this could have been until, oh, today.
While we were waiting to take off, I looked out the window, and noticed the Austrian Airlines direct flight that we had missed sitting right next to us. We left before they did.
To be continued....
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