The alarm sounded at 5:45 AM this morning, telling us it was time to get up and time to go home. We got ready, and after taking our bags to the rental car in the hotel’s parking garage, we headed to the airport. We did have a little difficulty getting out of the garage, the spaces were small, and the garage itself was really small. After maneuvering a couple of times, we were off to the airport. The GPS guided us right to the rental car return, but the signage would have directed us there just as well once we got to the airport grounds. The rental car return was in the bottom of a parking garage, but there was an elevator and mostly adequate signage in the terminal to get us to the correct area for departures to the USA.
The Frankfurt Airport is really large, and we walked a good distance before we got to the departure gates for US Air. Of course, they were at the very end of that terminal, so once again, a little more walking. We had gotten to the airport early since they recommend at least 2.5 hours of time for checking in, immigration, security, and arrival at your actual gate. The airport is so large, if there is any issue, the time evaporates quickly, and we did not want to have a stressful departure.
Check in was nice, the line at US Air was short, so we almost walked right up to the counter, and checked our two bags. We were slightly worried about the weights of the bags, and when we put them on the scale, of course, it read in Kilograms (Kg), not pounds. We knew the limit was 50 pounds per bag, but were not sure of the exact conversion of that into Kg. It did not seem to matter, we don’t think the lady checking us in even looked at the scale readings. The bags appeared to weigh in at 21.5 Kg., for my bag, which we knew was heavier and so we placed it on the scale first, and 20 Kg. for Stephanie’s bag. We were not quite sure on Stephanie’s bag since the lady had both bags on the scale together, so we just tried to subtract what we thought was my weight from the total for the two bags. No matter, the baggage tags went on and boarding passes were issued. So much for our effort for online check-in and printing our boarding passes at the hotel yesterday, they gave us new ones anyway.
After getting the bags checked, we went to a Starbucks for some coffee, a blueberry muffin for me, and a croissant for Stephanie. We sat in a small waiting area to eat our breakfast, our seats being next to a couple and their daughter. It looked like the daughter was going off to somewhere away from home, we thought it might be college, but it seemed too late in the year for that, so maybe she was going away for a job. They had their own picnic basket including water, juices, what appeared to be an insulated coffee dispenser, and some food. We knew it was special because the father kept taking pictures.
After finishing our breakfast, we waited a little while longer, and then proceeded to go through the immigration, and get our passports stamped. We had seen the line growing longer for people checking into US Air for our flight, it was the only US Air flight going out that morning. We could have waited a little longer in the main terminal area, outside of security, with more access to stores, etc., but we also did not want to get stuck in longer lines as other passengers for our flight started the process of getting out to the gate.
The Frankfurt Airport has dedicated immigration services for just a few gates, so it is not ever that crowded, unlike some other airports where everyone from all flights goes through one large area for immigration. There was a similar set up for security, although it was dedicated specifically for our gate. Only passengers going on our flight were going through the security. They were just using one x-ray machine out of the three available when we got there, but the line was building behind us. They require that you are at your gate area one hour before the flight, and most people were in the area by that time. On the last flight we had taken from Frankfurt two years ago, once you were in the special holding area for your gate/flight, it was difficult to go to the bathroom, you had to take your boarding pass, and go past a special guard. This year, there were bathrooms right at the end of the security lines, near the area where you have to redress yourself (belts, wallets, computers, etc). We were not sure if you could come back, so Stephanie asked two policemen in the security area, and the response was “last bathroom”. She took advantage of what we thought may be the last chance to get to one because of the “holding area” constraints we experienced last time. You could tell that these bathrooms had been added to the outside of the building, they were like metal boxes placed on some steel supports, since we were on the second level.
We then walked down the hallway and entered the holding area for our flight. Once we were there, we did see signs indicating the “Toilettes” were back down the same hallway we came through from security, and we found out from experience that you could easily go back use them.
The flight started boarding about 45 minutes before departure, and we were in Zone 6, which was the last Zone called. We anticipated that the overhead bins may be full, and there was one bag in our bin when we arrived, but it still left enough room for Stephanie’s backpack, but I had to put my camera bag across the aisle, one row forward. The plane was a newer Airbus 330-300, so it had a lot more room than the older Boeing 767 we flew on to Paris, and the plane had the individual TV screens on each seat-back.
The flight left on time and was pretty uneventful, we only encountered a few areas where the seat belt sign went back on due to moderate turbulence. We were served a hot lunch, consisting of some barbecue chicken, green beans, a roll and a salad. It was similar to the meal US Air served on the flight over, but slightly different. Towards the end of the flight, they served a sandwich for a snack, which was not very good.
We caught up on our movie watching, we both watched three movies during the 9 hour 30 min flight to Charlotte.
We arrived in Charlotte a few minutes late, but we were not concerned since we had almost 3 hours of layover until our next flight. Of course, it is slow to go through Immigration, then wait on your bags to take them through Customs, go through Customs, recheck your bag for the connecting flight, and then find your gate. Our bags came out fairly late in the baggage claim process, about 20 minutes after baggage first started to appear. The flight from Frankfurt was full, and there was a lot of luggage being unloaded. Since we had arrived early at the airport for the flight from Frankfurt, we believe our luggage was some of the last that came off in Charlotte, since it had probably been some of the first to go on in Frankfurt. Both bags made it without incident, so we collected them and headed to the line for customs. We handed over our customs form, and then headed to the baggage re-check area.
Once through the Customs and Immigration, we were pleased to see we did not have to go too far to get to our next gate. Of course, you have to go back through the Airport Security area to get to your gate, so we undressed all of the normal items, and got through security without any problems.
We had about 90 minutes until our flight, so we stopped off at an airport bar for a couple of beers, and to watch some college football games on their TV’s. We thought we had been ripped off at Oktoberfest on beer prices, but the Charlotte Airport makes the Oktoberfest prices look pretty good, and you get a lot more beer at Oktoberfest. Our two “large” beers, purported to be 20 oz., were almost $18.00, and of course, $20.00 with tip, about the same price as two 1 liter beers at Oktoberfest!
We headed to our gate for the flight home, and were surprised to see it was full, even though it was a smaller regional jet. There were quite a few Chicago Bears fans going to Jacksonville for the Jaguars-Bears Game on Sunday.
The last leg of our trip was also uneventful, which is good when it comes to flying, and we actually landed about 15 minutes earlier than the posted arrival time. We headed to Baggage Claim, hoping that on this trip, all of our bags would make it from Charlotte. The last time we did the Frankfurt-Charlotte-Jacksonville flight in 2010, we somehow lost a bag between Charlotte and Jacksonville. We knew they had both made it to to Charlotte that time because we had re-checked them after Customs. We did not have to wait too long to see both bags on the conveyor for this flight, so we and our two bags had made it all the way home this trip, completing a successful adventure.
Our ride home was there to pick us up (Thanks Brandt), and by 6:00 PM, we were at the house, tired, but glad to be home.
As usual, we will post some after trip thoughts in an Epilogue, and rearrange the posts to be in normal chronological order instead of newest post first.
Thanks for reading to those who followed along.