Au revoir, Bordeaux, et le retour

 On Friday night there was a show at the Bassin des Lumières, a World War II German submarine base whose massive space is used for light projections with music.  These involved Dalí art and Gaudí architecture, something overwhelming to see in a large space.

In the morning, the tour of Bordeaux involved getting from the dock to the city center by tram. The guides distributed tickets to us.  It was a different way of looking around the area where we’d been at the start of the trip.  The Grand Théatre opera house is an emblem of the city.

On our return to the ship and after lunch, we could see interesting streets in the Chartrons area where we were docked.  Here is rue Notre-Dame.

For the morning, we had instructions to leave our bags outside the room at 5.15 for a 6 a.m. bus.  We put the bags out, and the ship had a croissant breakfast available.  We went to the airport in Uniworld's full-sized bus, even though there weren't that many people going at that time.  We got to the airport way early for our 9.15 flight, and were in a grumpy mood while waiting for the counter to open, unclear if the main marked line required us to have our baggage tags printed, and the kiosks for printing them weren't accepting our documents.  Eventually the counter opened and we were checked in.  At this airport it was a short distance to our gate for the short flight to Paris, still not much shorter than the time of the train, which would be preferred if just going to Paris.

It was nice that the short flight included a shortbread cookie.  Anyway, we landed, we had the involved connection at CDG between Terminal 2F and 2E, this time Hall K, which gave a better impression of this airport than I've had before.

On the flight, we weren't able to get the bulkhead seats this time, and were cramped in a row with three on the side.  I'd been feeling congested, had strained breathing, and put on a mask, worrying about the situation, but when we got home I tested negative for COVID and have felt better since then.  On the ship, other passengers had alerted us to severe weather warnings along the East Coast; we did a bit of holding to arrive a few minutes after schedule.  Anyway, on arrival of the flight we had Global Entry, where the kiosks now recognize our faces without our needing to put the passports down, and don't print a receipt; we just flashed our passports to the agent afterwards.  We were just in time for the bus to our home area.

We were home from a good trip.  It was nice to pick up the French scene: fashionable dressing, people out in crowds.  The cruise was enjoyable for the food and drink, giving a mixed impression for being nice to see different places while based in the same room (no need to pack up) while also making for a rushed experience at the stops.

Gettting to Paris

 It was nice interesting that for an Air France departure from the U,S. check-in opened 30 hours before departure. Even if a Business Class upgrade offer was out of our reach, we could manage to pay a little for seats in the front row of the main cabin, and we took that offer that showed up at check-in. 

We got the bus to Boston Logan Airport, check-in was normal, and we found that, at Terminal E, used almost only for international flights, a domestic flight on Sun Country Airlines was at our gate, delayed over four hours.  There was no alternative gate for our flight, so the inbound aircraft needed to wait, delaying the cleanup for our flight and everything after that.  

We boarded and found it nice to have the front row economy seats. Even if it was billed as standard legroom, it felt better to have the wall in front rather than a row of seats, and the third person in the aisle had infinite legroom.  I heard not to have great expectations of AF’s food, and the chicken rice pilaf was ok. I pretty much didn’t sleep, but the flight was short enough and it was nice to have the A350’s big windows. The screen also had a camera view of the takeoff and landing. 

We arrived about an hour late.  We were at Hall M of  Paris CDG Airport Terminal 2E.  It took several turns and descents to get to the underground train to Hall K to start our way out.  There was the odd setup where we needed to start one way to turn around and choose which lane to take based on passport nationality.  For those that qualified, including the U.S., we went through e-gates, putting the passport on a reader while our faces are read to determine a match.  Then there was a hall with signs to the different baggage carousels (our bags were ready).  It was about an hour after arrival that we got into the taxi line; there were many people but it moved quickly.  We noted the chill in the air after we came from a hot spell in Vermont. We got into a taxi and it took over an hour in rush hour traffic to get to our hotel in Montparnasse.  

The desk agent said the room would be ready shortly, but I reminded her that I’d booked the previous night.  We got what was called an upgraded room, maybe slightly bigger than the basic.  Even this modern hotel had the traditional French practice of a toilet room separate from the bathroom. The neighborhood has a lot of modern buildings, with the Tour Montparnasse and other high-rises nearby.

After some rest, we took some walks around the neighborhood, including the historic theatre street Rue de la Gaîté.  

The next day, our main outing was to the Musée Marmottan-Monet; in many visits to Paris, often focusing on museums, I don’t remember having been there, and we liked the good collection with several Monets.  We went there with a Bolt rideshare and returned on the métro, having bought Navigo Easy cards that can be loaded with tickets.  At La Muette station, the turnstiles were taped off and people went around them, so no fare was taken from the cards; I don’t know if we missed some procedure that we needed to follow.

As we sometimes like to do even if it’s against local custom, we had one main meal in the mid-afternoon, Chez Papa near our hotel.

Pissarro painting; I hesitate to take pictures in museums.

Maui report is mostly about air travel

Well, as thrilling as it was to get to Hawaii, for various reasons, mainly around Margaret's health, we didn't cover very much of Maui.  We found satisfaction staying in Kihei and relaxing at the condo.  The volcanoes on the Big Island were not an issue for us.  One remaining highlight is that we went out to dinner, at Matteo's in Wailea, with Kelly and Charlie, whom we'd met at one airport connection and Margaret became a regular customer of Kelly's cosmetics sales, and we happened to wind up being on Maui at the same time.

So I wind up having the most to say about air travel on the return.  Early in our stay, when I happened to look at the American Airlines app, I think to see if the miles had posted, I found that my confirmation code had changed, while Margaret still had the old one that was originally for both of us; perhaps the change was because we wound up in separate cabins on the LAX-Maui leg.  Anyway, Margaret's record no longer showed her as being on the waiting list for an upgrade.  I went to the airline both on Twitter and by phone to get our records linked again, so Margaret too was on record as requesting an upgrade.

At the 72-hour mark, we found ourselves confirmed in First for the second segment, the red-eye LAX-Boston flight.  There were still six seats open (according to the seat map) in First, but the airline likely expected from experience that a fair number of people pay for First on short notice on Hawaii routes, and in those remaining days the cabin filled up without our getting upgraded.

On the morning of our flight, we returned the rental car before 11 and got to the terminal.  Because there was some question whether we would actually return as scheduled, and there are warnings that upgrade "stickers" purchased online are late in posting, I held off buying the upgrade until we got to the airport.  After putting our checked bags through an agricultural x-ray required for Hawaii departures, I was first in the Priority line, ready to check in and holding the credit card to buy the upgrade.  The agent, whom I'd have expected to be used to processing these, fumbled for a long time, made a couple of phone calls, and finally went back to a supervisor for advice on how to get it done.  The deal was that the upgrades needed to be added to my AAdvantage account before they could be applied to Margaret's check-in, and apparently this agent wasn't used to handling that, which happened at my status level.  It's more common to have passengers at lower status levels who need to buy upgrades for themselves, or for the group to be on the same confirmation.

We got our boarding passes printed after 11.30.  The TSA inspection area there is open to the outside, and there was a high number of electric fans for cooling.  Then it was a long way to our gate, including an agricultural inspection (x-ray) of our carry-ons.  We were getting close to our boarding time of 12.10.  Margaret sent me to Starbucks to get some things, and I was able to get back just in time to board together.  No upgrade on this flight, but our Main Cabin Extra seats were quite satisfactory.  The person initially assigned to the aisle seat in our row was, I think, a deadheading flight attendant, and when the doors closed she moved to another row.  There was pretty good room on this flight, I bought a fruit and cheese plate, on a credit card where 25% is rebated, and they didn't ask for payment for the sparkling wine that was mostly frozen when served.

The eastbound flight, with tailwinds, went pretty fast, with us going into darkness quickly before arrival at LAX.  We had a three-hour connection, in fact using the same gate although it was not the same plane; the best sit-down eating opportunity in that terminal appeared to be Sammy's Woodfired Pizza.  We got through a meal, seeing the terminal bustling through the wait to red-eye departures, there and back to our gate, and eventually to our Row 1 seats, with departure just before midnight.

I'd understood that there would be no meal service at all in First on this red-eye flight, but in fact they offered a fruit and cheese plate, in addition to drinks.  We tried to get a little sleep, and at the end they offered a breakfast with a cinnamon roll and yogurt.

With a scheduled arrival time of 8.41, we had hoped that a flight this long would be early and we could get the 8.55 shuttle bus back to our area.  Because of storms in the midsection of the country, the flight needed to go due east to the Dallas area before turning northeast, and we weren't early.  Even with priority baggage tags, we were just too late to catch that shuttle, and needed to wait another two hours.  When we were on the shuttle bus, we fell asleep often, and we eventually got to our destination for my father to meet us.

I wish the time in Hawaii had been longer, and there were some frustrations, but it was an amazing time.

Trip to Maui

American Airlines gave me Platinum Pro status as a promotion; I’ve never had elite status with a legacy airline.  I was thinking it might be nice to go, say, to Chicago, and somehow it came together to go to Hawaii.  I learned of Maui being best for a first visit, and the fare was impressively low.

We were ready to go when Margaret took ill and was hospitalized.  Just as she was taking ill, three days before the flight, we got word of an upgrade to First on the LAX to Maui segment.  It was sad to lose that opportunity, but Margaret’s health was most important.

Once the hospitalization was over, she was on the upturn.  We missed out on the really good fare, but the fare for May, even on short notice, was better than for June or July, and in May I still had the Platinum Pro benefits.   Instead of going on Margaret’s birthday as we planned, we could go to Boston on our anniversary, the night before our flight.   With this status, on this airline that charges for seat assignments for so many of their seats, at a minimum we could get extra legroom seats at no charge, and we were on the upgrade list for First Class.

Three days before departure, we got our upgrades cleared, this time for the Boston-LAX segment.  Mine was free, and I needed to buy distance-based “stickers” for Margaret.  We went to Boston, had a nice North End meal, and a night on points at the airport Hyatt.  In the morning, we had an easy check-in and were at the gate early.

We’d been assigned opposite window seats in row 1, and the person in the aisle seat agreed to  trade so I could be with Margaret.  We were on a transcontinental flight, something nice to experience now that we live on the East Coast.  I’m writing now in a nice wide First Class seat on the A321S.  We had pre-departure beverages, and when we were in flight our pre-ordered breakfast of a cheese omelette.  I’m not sure if I’m doing the right procedure to get Wi-Fi, but it’s spotty.  I had the AA app working just long enough to improve our seat assignments for the second segment.

We had friendly enough service through the flight, and it arrived at LAX over 30 minutes early.  I had found that our connecting flight was actually the same plane using the same gate,  but we needed to deplane for the 2-hour layover.  As the boards started to show our flight, I noticed my name at the top of the upgrade list.  This gets rather technical: American’s rule had been that, if I had not paid for the upgrade virtual coupons before checking in, we would be out of the running for the upgrade.  If I had paid and the two of us were at the top of the list but there was only one open seat, as is often the case when upgrades are assigned at the gate, we’d have been passed over for a person traveling alone.  I didn’t want to buy the “stickers” without the upgrade being confirmed, because they’d be useless after my status expires.  There was a policy change this past weekend that made it possible for me to be confirmed without Margaret, once the upgrades were under airport control.

So I noticed my name at the top of the upgrade list, and Margaret had in mind to go on her own to ask if she could buy an upgrade of her own if I was upgraded, which I don’t think was really a possibility.  The customer service agent said there was only one seat left but, if I got it, we could “share” it.  Just before boarding I got confirmed in the upgrade, and Margaret and I made plans to split the time in First Class.  

We were back on the same plane, but it was set up differently for the over-the-ocean trip, although shorter than the transcon.  There were pillows and blankets.

There was some confusion over whether we were to switch before or after the meal.  I had a surf and turf dinner.  Margaret was impatient to make the switch, we did, and then she back saying they wouldn’t allow it.  The flight attendants brought me to the front saying a change of First passengers couldn’t happen, at least without word from the ground crew. I was sorry to leave Margaret with a bad feeling.

Anyway, we had the excitement of landing at Maui Kahului Airport, and  had our bags quickly delivered in an area open to the Hawaiian air.

And the return: Arrivederci

I'm running into trouble adding text after the pictures in the last post, so I'll start a new one here.  The day continued casually around our old neighborhood, with Margaret buying shoes, and finally eating casually standing up at a neighborhood bar, and it went on to night at the nice hotel room.

We were up around 6 in the hope of getting a cappuccino, but the bars weren't open yet.  At 7, in the hotel lobby they were pushing the expensive breakfast, and we just wanted cappuccini sitting down.  We were afraid of a high price for those, but they were comped, and we were certainly pleased with our free night at the Indigo.  Margaret looked at her email and found notice that our flight to Chicago, scheduled for departure at 11.20, was delayed until 13.45.  Although we'd have liked to stay in central Rome a little longer, we had a car reserved with a driver there.

I'd reserved a car  through the Rome Shuttle Limousine service, and a minivan was there for us in advance of our booked 7.30 time.  As much as possible through the sometimes terrifying traffic, it was a nice ride to the airport, Terminal 5 for American Airlines.

We got to the counter before there were too many passengers (and we'd printed our boarding passes at the hotel, space in name problem resolved), but had to wait because of an apparent system problem printing our luggage tags.  The agent added a note that we could get a free snack such as a sandwich at the Ciao bar in the gate area, because of the flight delay.  Margaret asked for a wheelchair; from past experience we figured we could have breakfast at the less crowded T5 snack bar while waiting for the chair.

In fact it seems a chair turned up quickly when we weren't looking.  We waited and were told a chair was coming until people decided that we'd missed one.  I could also observe that the check-in counter had a considerably longer line at 9 than when were there shortly after 8.  Contrary to the previous time, after clearing exit controls and security I could be on the same bus as Margaret to the gate satellite.

We got to the gate with lots of time to see go by; we did some of our separate runs while saving a seat for each other and seeing the previous scheduled flight for that gate board.  We each got our own panino from the Ciao bar, when we saw a different flight show at our gate, and we heard an announcement that our gate had changed.

We went to that gate, and eventually it was time to board.  They paged Margaret as one of a group getting wheelchair assistance, and there was a group of friendly attendants.  We boarded, and were told that some of the delay would be made up.

We took off, and after Margaret first got up she noticed her seat cushion was wet.  The best conclusion we could reach is that, in the quick turnaround of the flight, delayed because of being late coming over from Chicago, they didn't have a chance to do a very thorough cleaning.  There were several empty seats--perhaps people were booked on other transatlantic flights because they were going to miss their connection on this one?--and we could move forward a row.  It appears that this meant we were in a Main Cabin Extra row, with a few inches more legroom, so this was nice enough.  We had our special meal, I ordered a cognac, and they waived the charge, the flight attendant not knowing the charge since hard drinks are ordered so rarely in the main cabin with wine and beer being free.  Then there was ice cream mid-flight, and a warm snack, as the hours moved on.

Our revised arrival time was showing as 4.15, after the scheduled 3.05 and first-announced with the delay 5.30.  There were clouds in the area and we needed to fly over and approach O'Hare from the west instead of the usual east.  Our arrival was around 4.30, and we docked in a slightly closer-in than usual gate at the international arrivals terminal.

We had a wheelchair attendant there.  He took us to the customs area.  I pointed out that we had used the Mobile Passport app and had completed our information there.  He said to hold onto that, but he took us to the regular clearance area, where we took our pictures at kiosks.  We were in the regular line, and it appeared that it spent long periods at a standstill, with the agents at the booth not doing anything.  Our best conclusion was that their computers were having problems, and I don't know if going through the Mobile App lanes would have been faster.  The delivery to baggage claim had been completed, and our bags were in a handful taken off the belt still to claim.

We were clear, and at around 5.30 were delivered to the area represented as where we would wait for the shuttle to the Embassy Suites, although we would need to call because it didn't regularly go the international terminal.  With our calls, there was confusion about going through the phone menu correctly.  We got someone who promised a prompt shuttle.  We waited long enough with nothing showing; I called again and was told to go up to the departures level because of construction (there but not causing major problems then) at arrivals.  We went up, with Margaret feeling a major burden, and the bus showed up.

The bus, also stopping at other hotels, got us to the Embassy Suites.  It was nice to have this night on points rather than a tight flight connection that we would have missed, or extend the day much longer with another flight.  The hotel was a little worn but it was nice to have a suite, with Margaret ready to go right to sleep.  There was a "manager's reception" with a drink for a nightcap, not much to eat but we weren't much in need.

We had plenty of sleep and were up early for the hotel's full breakfast.  With a noon flight, we went ahead and took the shuttle at 9.20.  We checked bags and had wheelchair assistance and Pre-Check to clear security promptly; I didn't notice long regular lines.  Since we didn't have the lounge access that I'd hoped before the start of the trip, we had ourselves taken to our gate in concourse L.  I had in mind that I'd like to try one of the best-rated airport concessions, Tortas Frontera, in concourse K.  Margaret agreed to go, putting up with the vastness of the walks at O'Hare.  Although it was crowded and confusing, we got counter space and had nice breakfast sandwiches.

Our flight to Kansas City had a long standby and they were looking for bump volunteers; we weren't ready for that.  Many passengers on the flight had just connected from India.  Then that flight and the trip were concluded.

So, what to say in conclusion?  It was great to go to these places that are part of us, and see great people.  I can think of how well my mother is part of these places, and how well she is remembered.  I hope that, with Margaret, we can keep seeing the part of us that is in Italy and Europe.

Getting to Italy

I was composing my account of the travel while in flight, and the file seems to be gone.  I’ll try to redo the basics of what I usually report.

First, we had a regional jet flight from Kansas City to New York LaGuardia. We’d been unable to check in online; it turned out the reason was a space in our last name on our passports, which was different from how American Airlines had it.  The flight went well, although we can see LGA’s bad reputation.  We hoped to get a Lyft ride, using a friend’s promo code, but I kept running into failures, for a weak connection or whatever, and went back to our established relation with Uber, found that car in the chaotic traffic in front of the terminal, and got a good ride.

At JFK we got in at a time of light activity for that terminal.  At a set of kiosks, a man started to help as Margaret asked for a wheelchair and we needed to recheck our bags.  There was a wait for that and, although we already had our boarding passes, we ran into the problem again of the space in our names. 

With the bags checked, the wheelchair assistant got us through security, chaotic even at that time of otherwise light activity at that terminal.  We were still six hours before departure, and planned to go to the Admirals Club, buying a 30-day membership, which would be useful also on our return.  I already knew that one of the two clubs was under renovation and we went to the other one, but precisely because of that renovation, the lounge dragon (term in common use) told us that they were not selling 30-day memberships there.

If we’d known that, that might have changed our plans not to leave the airport.  The attendant offered to have us stay in the wheelchair lounge, back in the other concourse.  He described it as comfortable, but when we got there, it had the atmosphere of a doctor’s cramped waiting room,and we were quickly out.  We found one place to sit down for lunch, stayed in that quiet concourse for a bit, then we went back to the other concourse with our gate, and the time didn’t drag on too much.

We had the excitement of boarding a transatlantic flight.  A large number of the passengers were Hasidic or other Orthodox Jews, we later learned on an extended family reunion trip to northern Italy.  We’d ordered one special meal, served quickly as there was a large number of special meals.  We got a decent amount of sleep.

We landed at Milan Malpensa and got to the gate at 8.30, 10 minutes late,and were hoping for everything to go well to make a train from the airport at 9.43.  We had a wheelchair waiting, and a big advantage was that attendant took us through passport control in the crew line, letting us bypass a long line.  Delivery of bags was being held up because the carousel was getting too full with the passengers still at passport control.  We eventually got the bags, and the attendant got us to the train station with time to spare.  He had me go to the staffed ticket window, where the agent, working for Trenord, only sold the tickets to Milano Centrale.  There was a machine for selling the tickets with seat assignments from Milan to Genoa.  I used the credit card that I had set up with a PIN, which that machine asked for.

The ride to Centrale went well, arriving at a track at the edge of the station.  With 45 minutes for the connection, we wanted to stop for a cappuccino, which appeared to call for leaving the platform area.  We got that, and re-entered the area, which now requires showing tickets.  Our train was the Thello, which continues into France.  That train went well, with a delay at the end.

We arrived at Genova Piazza Principe.  There was an elevator from the platform to the underpass, and we found our way to the via Andrea Doria exit from the station, just across from our booked apartment building.  We got the building manager, who showed us to our booked apartment, which looked fine.  The journey was complete.

Sadness, with more changes of plans

On January 10, 2016, my mother died following a stroke that she had over the Christmas period.  It is difficult to think of writing a full tribute, but it's impossible to measure the full scope of her influence on my life as a traveler.  Her interest in living in Europe meant that I spent formative years there.  My quick picking up of skills in practical matters such as navigation and transportation schedules complemented her talents in showing appreciation of the beauty of the places and picking up on local culture.  Margaret and I will look at our upcoming trip as a tribute to her as we revisit places where I lived with her.  In particular the trip to Grimaud will be interesting as I go back after so long and have conflicted views of my year there at 13.

So we've seen the consequences of making a booking so long in advance, that we continued to be notified of flight schedule changes.   Seeing where I left off in the last post on the flight changes.  In toying around with airfare sites as I often do, I found that the Kansas City-Miami flight was back on the schedule for our date of travel.  I called to see if we could get changed back to that, our original booking, regardless of SAAver award availability.  This agent was very helpful, calling another department to force a second award seat on the Miami-Milan flight, and it looked like a good booking for a comfortable trip.

Then the next day, I got an email of a new schedule change:  the flight from Miami would leave at 5.30 p.m. instead of 2.20, giving us seven hours in Miami.  We could take advantage of that with an outing to South Beach, but the later arrival in Milan would also be something of a concern in how we would get to Genoa.

Go ahead a couple of more months, and on the evening of my mother's death the airline sent a new email:  KC-Miami was off the schedule again, and they had us booked via Miami with a connection at Dallas/Fort Worth that was too short for comfort.  While trying to deal with getting back into routine things, I had to consider what effort I could make to get the least bad rebooking, which be going back to the option via Washington and the change of New York airports.  Then award availability turned up on the KC-LaGuardia flight, where service will just be starting two weeks before then.  I got that booking changed:  we'll go via New York, a change of airports but not an extra stop.

We'll have 7.5 hours to make the airport change.  We may just spend the time from getting to JFK in their Admirals Club, considering the hassle and transportation costs of leaving the airport, even for lunch within Queens.

We've also completed bookings at an apartment rental in Genoa, and a B&B in Grimaud, the limited option of staying in the village rather than the country or the faux fishing village of Port Grimaud.  The other thing that threw us for a loop was that I discovered that the Intercontinental Hotel de la Ville in Rome, where we were going to spend our last night on a program free night, would be closing down before we got there.  I was able to change that free night to the Indigo on via Giulia, in the area where Margaret and I went to school, so that should be nice.  At the time that I understand that people with reservations were notified of the closing, I couldn't have gotten that award night.  It has paid to keep looking at travel sites and boards.

Getting to Venice

We've settled in Venice and there's a lot to say; I haven't wanted to fall too far behind, but I've been ready to sleep when everything else was done.

To start:  We spent the night before our departure at an airport motel.  I thought, for our 6.55 a.m. departure, we'd need to take the motel shuttle at 5, but got persuaded to have their breakfast starting at 5, and took the shuttle at 5.30, which was fine.  Because I have US Airways' credit card, we had First Class check-in, plus we had TSA Pre-check to clear security quickly, even though the checkpoint, for only US Airways' flights, didn't technically have Pre-Check.  

We were at the gate in plenty of time, and the regional jet to Philadelphia went fine.  It had an early arrival for our 8-hour layover, where we had plans to go into Center City and see SlowTrav friends Terry and Sheri.  We got to the airport train station just in time to get the train 30 minutes earlier than the one we expected to take.  I texted Terry, who was on her way but delayed by traffic.  The Phila. airport train has an odd system where there are no ticket machines or booths at the airport; the only way of buying tickets is with cash on board.  We got off at Market East station; while Terry had planned to lead us from there to Reading Terminal Market, with neither place having a clear-cut main entrance, we went to the market on our own and texted Terry at which entrance we were, and she arrived.  It was great to see her while we took a look at the crowded historic place with a farmer's market and food stands.  We were lucky to find four spaces together at the eating tables, Sheri arrived, and we decided it would be better to find someplace else to eat without so much background noise.

We found Barbuzzo, with a nice assortment of cold cuts while I had a hamburger.  It was very nice to visit, and we went on to a gelato place across the street.  Before long, it was time to return to the airport to be there early.  We entered the train station where we'd entered before, and saw that the ticket booths were in the other side of the station.  We went there because I'd learned the system:  if we showed the recept for our  inbound ticket the same day, we'd get the surcharge for paying on board credited back to the return ticket.  The agent needed to do some paperwork, but it wound up that we spent $16 for our two inbound tickets, but $10 for the return.  Again, because of a small delay on that train, we got to the platform just in time to board the train.

We got back to the airport, and the signage was confusing as to how to get to Terminal A-West.  With our boarding passes in hand with Pre-check, however, there was a checkpoint right there for us to enter.  Another credit card benefit was a one-time entrance for the two of us to the airline club.  It was a little confusing to find, but it was there, right above our departure gate, nice for us to spend our few hours before boarding with a few drinks and munchies.  

We pre-boarded and found our seats.  There isn't a whole lot to report on the flight.  Not having slept much the previous night, I was ready to sleep before takeoff, but I was up for the meal, choosing chicken over pasta.  I got a little sleep, then the little cinnamon roll in the morning, and the flight got in early, around 8.30 instead of 9.15.  We got to baggage claim, Margaret got her bag without my noticing, and bag delivery was complete without my having seen mine; then I did spot it on the belt.