My brother dropped us off for the start of our world trip at the airport in plenty of time. It felt like our suitcases were bursting at the seams and were overweight, but each piece of luggage was around 17 kg, and our carry-on backpacks were around 5 kg. At our age, this was still hard on our bodies and proved to be more so as our journeys continued.
The place seemed empty, and the check-in went smoothly. Good for us, but terrible for the travellers going to Florida: at least five flights had been cancelled due to hurricane Ian.
We had a coffee and waited for our flight, which ended up half an hour late. This caused a little consternation since we had a short time to catch a plane in Chicago.
We had every reason to worry. We practically ran through the airport to try to make our flight, knowing that our luggage probably would not follow us on time. When we arrived, they had given our seats away, but there were two left, so we took them.
Flight One Of Our Around The World Trip
I had not realized until three flights later that the airlines had dropped my frequent flyer number, which ended up being a nightmare claiming the points later.
Unfortunately, they were not together. The person beside Louise offered her seat to exchange with me, but she immediately fell asleep. The person next to me said she didn’t feel like moving. So we were stuck there for the next 3.5 hours on our own.
Of course, as suspected, our luggage did not arrive with us. However, they were kind enough to agree to send it to Camp Verde. They promised it would be arriving the following day before 11.
Then off to pick up the car. I had waited until the last minute to activate our roaming package and could not communicate via my phone data. I ended up using the computer inside the parking garage to contact the car owner. There was a communication mix-up; we were walking around the parking lot for 20 minutes and 37 °C weather before we found it.
All this meant that we were late leaving Phoenix and hit rush hour. When we arrived at the motel, it was 2 1/2 hours later in the dark.
The Motel was certainly nothing to write home about, but we arrived just before the reception closed, and they were very nice to us.
Lessons Learned
- If you are worried about making your connection, don’t rush. The airlines will sort it out, and your luggage is more likely to arrive simultaneously.
- Check each boarding pass for your air miles number. I know it is a pain to remember, but it will save you a lot of headaches later.
- Activate your phone roaming package a day earlier than needed.