For our return trip, the five of us
would not be traveling on the same routing. Barbara and Charlotte were
flying from Cairo to Zurich, where they had a substantial layover,
before continuing on to Washington Dulles. The three of us, however,
had a two-hop routing home. Our exact return routing had changed a few
times, as additional award availability became available, but in the
end, we booked a flight from Cairo to Athens, connecting to Vienna, and
then straight home from there. Even with the two stops, the routing was
one of the quickest. Our flight to Athens, however, left at 3:10am on
Saturday the 31st. Barbara and Charlotte were to leave at 2:25am, so we
elected to all ride to the airport together. Our tour company, citing
notoriously difficult to gauge traffic and airport security, picked us
up from our hotel at 11:00pm, meaning that we would have no real sleep
before leaving.
The ride to the airport took over an hour, even
at the late/early hour, and the airport was far more crowded than it
had been when we flew to Aswan almost exactly a week earlier. We even
left from the same terminal, albeit on the international vice domestic
side. Our tour director, Mahmoud, was waiting at the airport. We'd seen
him earlier in the day, around 7:00am at the train station, so he too
had had a long day. He walked us through the security and check-in
process, and expedited us as far as he could -- basically, all the way
up to passport control. Everything went smoothly. Barbara and
Charlotte were ahead of us, and we'd planned to meet up in the lounge,
but it turned out their flight was leaving from a different concourse,
so we ended up in separate lounges ahead of our respective flights.
Though in different concourses, our planes ended up being parked pretty
much back to back, so we were surprised to see their plane still sitting
there when we boarded, and still there as we pulled away from our gate a
few minutes early. A few text messages later we learned that a bag had
had to be removed from their plane, which meant their Swiss flight had
missed its window, so they were to sit for another hour on the ground
before leaving. Our flight, aboard Aegean Airlines, however, was early,
and we arrived in Athens just as the sun was rising. Though
transiting, we were technically entering the European Union, so we had
to clear both immigration and customs, which had us leave the arrivals
area completely, enter the main airport, and then go through regular
security to re-enter the departure area. It was a busy morning, but
before too long we were in the lounge, with about an hour before our
next Aegean flight, this one to Vienna.
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| Our Plane Waiting To Leave Cairo for Athens |
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| Not Bad for 3:00am!!! |
When
booked, we only had 45 minutes to make the connection between the
flight from Athens and the Austrian flight to Washington. I had been
concerned, but after checking with the airlines, I was assured that
Vienna only required a 30-minute minimum connection window. We had to
ride a bus to take us to our plane to Athens, but despite a slow
screening and boarding process, they did manage to board us all and
close the door a few minutes ahead of schedule. Only then did I look
out the window and see that the suitcases had not yet been loaded onto
the plane. I watched as several men wrestled with a conveyor belt,
trying to get it to work. They failed, and ended up loading the bags
manually, but this all meant we left about 30 minutes late, and then had
to wait in a long line of departing planes.
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| Boarding Our Connection in Athens |
We
were a full 45 minutes behind schedule by the time we took off, so I
was certain we'd miss our connecting flight. With only one flight a day
to Washington, and the following day being Easter, I already had
visions of a nightmare rebooking scenario. I asked the flight
attendants if they could contact Vienna ahead of our arrival, concerning
our tight connection, and they said they'd do what they could. After
what seemed like forever -- but in reality was only about two hours --
we arrived in Vienna. The door opened and we were the first ones off,
at exactly 10:12am -- 23 minutes before our next flight was to depart.
There was a representative from Aegean at the door of the plane to meet
us. He practically ran with us up the jet ramp and out to the gate
area, where he confirmed the connecting gate for us. He directed us
where to go and said he'd call ahead.
This started our mad dash
through the Vienna Airport. We literally ran as quickly as we could,
quickly realizing that our arrival gate and new departure gate were on
extreme ends of the airport. After descending two flights of stairs,
following signs for the "G" gates, we ended up at a door telling us that
we had to board a shuttle bus to reach the gate. There was a schedule,
saying the next shuttle would not arrive until 10:20, more than seven
minutes later. I pleaded with an airport employee, but he said there
was nothing he could do. The shuttle arrived right on time, but it
wasn't much consolation, as the ride was rather long. He deposited us
at the far side of the airport, and we had to run up two flights of
stairs, and by not it was already 10:30am. As I turned a corner, fully
expecting to find the gate, I instead saw that we had to go through
passport control. Thankfully there was no line, but then the
immigration officer couldn't find the Schengen entry stamp we'd just
received in Athens. In exacerbation I reached into his booth, grabbed
my passport, and found the Greek stamp. He looked mad, but must have
also seen our desperate we all looked, so he didn't say anything.
All
three of us were finally stamped and then released for the final
sprint. I told K and Anna that I was going to leave them and see if I
could get to the gate in time to stop the plane. As I got within sight
of the gate, I saw an agent standing in the corridor waving to me. I
raced up to her, and she addressed me by name, saying that other gate
agent had called. I also saw that the sign above the gate said "flight
closed." I walked with her to the main podium and heard her arguing
with a man I presume was her supervisor, about the need to reopen the
flight. He was arguing back as K and Anna turned the corner and entered
the gate area. I heard her say that the next day's flight was full,
and something about not being sure if Lufthansa could absorb anymore
people on Easter weekend. He obviously relented, as the women seized
all three of our boarding cards and passports, scanned them, and then
unlocked the jetway to let us in. All three of us were out of breath
and sweating by the time we collapsed into our seats, but any resentment
or anger over the situation was soon forgotten, as we realized that
we'd made it!
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| Our Plane to Washington |
The
flight was very pleasant, and all three of us made up our beds and
slept for several hours after they had served lunch. Austrian is
certainly a very nice airline. Even with our slightly delayed departure
from Vienna, thanks to us, we still arrived into Dulles early. Global
Entry had us quickly through immigration and customs. No sooner had we
lined up at our baggage carousel when my name was called over the
intercom. To no one's surprise, least of which my own, our bags had not
made the connection in Vienna. They had, however, already been sent on
to Munich, and were on a flight to Dulles, scheduled to arrive about
five hours later. None of us minded the delay. If anything, it made it
easier, not having to deal with the bags and the taxi. Having the bags
delivered to our door by someone else is not a bad proposition.
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| Austrian Air Offers a "Viennese Coffeehaus Menu" |
It
is going to take quite a while for many of the memories of this trip to
sink in, but it most certainly is one for the books. I could not be
happier that we were able to make the trip, and have the experienced
we'd just had.
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