Re-entry to the States

We finally got back to Portland, Oregon last night at about 22.40 - almost 12 hours later than we had originally expected. It was an experience that we do not wish to repeat anytime soon. Our flight from Basel to Frankfurt was cancelled due to mechanical issues - an issue that was not discovered until we had pushed back after loading. I don't know, something about the steering not working right. Well, whatever this issue, it required that we deplane, get our bags from baggage claim and go upstairs to re-book a new route back to Portland.

Unfortunately, there was no additional flight to Frankfurt in time to catch our direct Frankfurt - Portland flight. Let me mention that this is a primo flight: 10.5 hours to get from Frankfurt all the way to PDX. Bags are checked all the way through; once through security from Basel to PDX. It is probably the fastest way back to the west coast. The best the airline could do once we missed the first leg was to route us Basel-Dusseldorf-Chicago-Portland. The new routing would get us to Portland a little after 20.00 (8pm) and the flight to Dusseldorf left in an hour. We tried booking the Thursday flight but then found out there was no Thursday flight the next Basel-Frankfurt-Portland flight would not be until Friday, so we said okay.

Off we went to get back in line to check our bags - the line was long and not moving very quickly so Delynn jumped over to the Business class line and explained our plight to the service person who nicely let us move over (saving us 30 minutes at least!) to the Business class checkin. We dumped our bags (oh yeah, one came in at 22.9kg. 100 grams - just one candy bar - from being overweight!) went through security a 2nd time and got to the gate for boarding.

The Basel-Dusseldorf-Chicago legs went fairly well. The only concern was that we didn't have any seats assigned for the Chicago-Portland leg and the Lufthansa folks couldn't access the computer system to grant us boarding passes since all stateside travel is handled for Lufthansa by United Airlines. We got into Chicago about the time we should have been landing in Portland had our connections worked previously and then we had a 4 hour layover. We went to the ticket counter and were given a voucher to get us through security but they said that the boarding pass would have to be issued by the gate agents. Not a good sign. We went through security (3rd time if you are counting) and since we are now in America, we have to remove our shoes - they don't make you remove your shoes in Switzerland, they must have better scanners.

The security line was longer than any security line I have been in at any airport. Well, there was that security screening in Israel, but that's another story... Anyway, we got through the screening and headed off to wander the terminal for a bit. We had a bite to eat (nothing worth describing here...) and walked up and down the terminal (they had Starbucks at both ends - we must be in America!). We decided to wait at our gate when we found out that the inbound flight as delayed - first an hour, then an hour and a half, then two hours... Oy! In the mean time the departure gate changed twice so the whole plane's worth of passengers shuffled from one hopeful point of departure to another.

Did I mention that we didn't have assigned seats? Let me look back - Yes I did. So, here we are with a voucher promising us seats but not actually assigning them. When the London-Heathrow flight (the one leaving our gate prior) finally got off the ground, our boarding agent crew took over and immediately announced that the flight was overbooked and they needed volunteers to take a later flight or fly tomorrow morning - you know the drill. They offer some nice goodies (flights, hotel vouchers, etc.) which is great if you haven't been up for over 24 hours and really want to get to PDX because someone will be waiting for you and the roaming charges on your German cell phone from the states are SKY HIGH! Anyway, we came to realize that those volunteers were going to be making space for the 20 folks that had been confirmed but did not have assigned seats - which ment us! Gulp. The boarding agent was being swamped with everyone wanting to know about seats, so she made a rule: If I haven't called your name, I will not talk to you - we are trying to issue boarding cards as quickly as possible.

The last zone for boarding had been called (along with 12 or so of the names on the confirmed list) but our name had not been mentioned. The last call for boarding was being made when we heard her call "Smith". No answer. "Walz ,party of two". "Yo, right here!" as I sprang forward waving our coupon in the air. Whew! we were among the last people to board just as the door was about to close and prepare to push back from the jetway.

We were seated for our final leg - yes, we were going to make it. As we waited for the normal sort of departure activities, we noted that the air conditioning turned off and wasn't coming back on... The weather in Chicago was about 28 or so (82 degrees F) and let me just say that a small aluminium tube containing a 150 or so people warms up really quickly. I soon had beads of sweat running down the small of my back - it was less than comfortable. And I must also say that after being in the same clothes for over 24 hours, humping 85kg (200lbs) worth of suitcases around, and being in some stressful situations, I was starting to be a little stinky - and this was NOT helping.

The captain came on and acknowledged our pain and noted that the on-board engine that normally a) supplies air conditioning and b) helps start the engine was non-operational. Oy! Yes, they were bringing in an external tug to do the job if we would be patient for a couple of minutes. The tug came and we started getting some air flow (note that I didn't say air conditioning...) as the captain attempted to get the starboard engine started (note that I said attempted...). Apparently, this little tug couldn't get enough air flow through the engine to get the turbines to compress the fuel to actually get the engine started. Oh and by the way, finding another machine like this in all of O'Hare may be a bit problematic. Oy!

They finally found another tug (perhaps a nice rival airline loaned it to them - we never did find out) that had the puffing power to get the engine started so that we could finally push off for the flight to PDX an additional 3.3 hours late. By this time, Delynn and I were absolutely exhausted. Luckily, the 4.5 hour flight didn't offer meal service (well, you could pay for a box lunch) because we dropped right off into "airline sleep" (you know: that half-sleep, half-awake, nod-off-and-jerk-your-head-up kind of sleep) for most of the journey.

We arrived safely at 22.40. We got all of our luggage and arrived at Delynn's sister's home about 23.30. Yeah! We are thankful to have arrived.