On a December day in 2012 – roughly the same as today I awoke excited ready to go to the airport and head to France. It was our “Babymoon” – the last real vacation before having a child (in this case, Sennen for anyone who doesn’t know the math). As I looked at my iPhone before even getting out of bed, I discovered to my horror that our Air France flight was delayed – by 24 hours! In all my years of travel, I had never had a 24-hour delay. Because we were all ready to go and I had taken time off work, I wanted to do something – get Air France to fix it. Only it was done. It was one of the most anticlimactic moments of my life made bearable only by Emily and I getting massages that afternoon so it felt a little like the beginning of a vacation.
Today, a similar set of events unfolded, only our 3pm flight was delayed by five and a half hours. I realized it didn’t affect too much except for three things:
- I could pickup the kids from school a little later (although we still needed to go to the airport roughly midday because that’s when Alex could give us a ride and the kids had gone to school with no lunches, expecting their Star Alliance Lounge buffet.
- We would now land in Frankfurt too late to make our connecting flight to Venice and Lufthansa hadn’t automatically rebooked us for the second leg.
- We were planning to use a standard water-bus line (Vaporetto) from the airport to our Airbnb apartment. Now we would likely need a private water taxi which I would both need to figure out how to book relatively last-minute and a MUCH higher cost.
The first item didn’t take much figuring out and I was able to let Emily know to tell the kids I’d come get them an hour later than planned. The second issue required a long hold for a Lufthansa agent because their AI chatbot that was supposed to help malfunctioned. All the same, there was a flight to Venice a few hours later – getting us in at 11:05pm instead on 2:30pm. We can live with that.
The third issue was trickier. The vaporettos stop at 10pm this time of year.. Water taxi companies advertised all kinds of crazy prices for airport service from 150 euros to almost 300! Fortunately, I remembered our Airbnb host had offered to book us a water taxi and I decided to message him to see if I could still take him up on it. Stefano was responsive and helpful. It’s still 150 euros – but that was the lowest quoted price and now the water taxi knows exactly where to take us. I plan to see if I can get travel insurance to cover it since the cost is a result of a travel delay. Either way, we can buy our way out of the situation and we have the peace of mind of knowing someone will be waiting for us at the airport.
Once the unexpected issues of the morning were resolved, and my work calls completed, I was left with surprisingly little time to get ready, handle last minute packing items and get the car loaded. Both kids were happy to be picked up from school and to see Alex in the car. Sennen spent much of the way to the airport talking about going to college abroad one day and what a course on cheese science at an Italian university might be like.
Amazingly, we encounter little traffic heading to the airport. Our check-in was quick. Lufthansa is very limiting about check-in luggage, but since the flight is full, they allowed us to check in our carry-on – something I had wanted – giving us less to manage along the journey. And my Clear membership allowed us to cut through the security line. It was less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Without Lufthansa terminal vouchers – $20 each as an apology for the flight delay – we bought our favorite cookies from Vanilla Bake Shop to take on the plane. Then we proceeded to what for the kids has become the Happiest Place On Earth – the Star Alliance Lounge in the Bradley Terminal.
After visiting the ramen bar, pouring sparkling water on tap and sampling the highlights of the buffet, both kids have settled into their iPads – comfortably lounging on a banquette. If anything, the extra airport time was welcome by the kids who really value Star Alliance Lounge time. So, what might have been a bitter delay for some was a welcome victory for my kids. Certainly, they didn’t feel the giant letdown I did that fateful day at the end of 2012….
All that remains today is to take off on a very rare 747-800. Lufthansa still runs a few of the final version Boeing made. I’ve been told by an airline captain friend at the 747-800’s are a great plane still fit to fly – so this will most likely be the kids’ one experience with it in their lives. Even if the 747 wasn’t old, it’s incredibly fuel inefficient compared to newer models like the B-787 and A-350 – the planes were most used to these days. There’s a reason most airlines have switched.
Eleven hours to Frankfurt, four-and-a-half on the ground, an hour and ten to Venice and we’re done. Honestly, compared to Bali or Patmos, we can do this standing on our heads. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.
