Princeton and London, Tuesday, November 14, 2023
We generally like the morning flight to London: hotel by 10, stay up a bit late…and no jet lag.
But that entails pulling out of the driveway at 5:30 AM. Which we did, and were at the gate well before our 7:40 boarding time for our 8:30 flight. At this point, United reentered the race for world’s worst airline.
7:40 “Your plane is being pulled to the gate; it is cleaned and ready.’
7:45 “We are unable to identify a plane for your flight; we will update you when we have found one.”
8:00 “Cancel the last announcement; your plane is on the way to the gate.”
8:20 “There is a mechanical issue with your plane; the flight is delayed until 9:30”
9:00 “This flight is cancelled.”
And so United nosed ahead of SwissAir.
We were very tempted to cancel the whole trip, but before I swallowed our first night’s lodging and a penalty, Sue remembered that we would also swallow the cost of our not inexpensive tickets to King Lear.
So, after nearly an hour at the United service counter and several calls to our London hotel and American Express, through which we had booked it, we were rebooked on a flight at 10 PM tonight, and rebooked to return on Monday, a day later than planned.
The rest of the day was pleasant if a bit strenuous after our early rising and stressful airport experience: we trained it into Manhattan to see our grandsons. And, as a special bonus, we were also able to visit the superb Degas / Manet show at the Met.
The boys were a delight and, before we knew it, we were heading back to Penn Station for our train to EWR. Sue checked the United app to be sure that everything was in order. We indeed had boarding passes for tonight, but our return flight had not been rebooked! We were still scheduled to fly back on Sunday. The guy claimed he had made the change, but it had never happened.
So, back at the airport, we dragged ourselves to one end of Terminal C to revisit our friends at the service counter. The first agent was friendly but minimally competent: she got us on the Monday flight but didn’t want to be bothered with getting us seats. Luckily her colleague in the next chair intervened and booked our seats.
Thus fortified, we dragged ourselves to the far end of the terminal toward our gate. Rather than subject ourselves to the slop on the plane, we shared a sandwich, an order of fries, and two drinks. Before applying United’s vouchers and some other discounts, the bill was an eye watering $96!
The flight was, mercifully, straightforward. We were both asleep before the dinner service and slept fitfully through the night.
We arrived at 10 AM UK time, i.e. 5 AM EST. So it was a quick 24-hour hop to London. We’ve had faster trips to Burma!