Breakfast was included with our room (thanks Tracy for getting us the room on points). Our flight on SAS wasn't until 12:20 p.m. so we just dawdled getting up and getting down to breakfast.
We must have hit a lull at the airport because there was nobody checking in at the SAS counters when we got there. We were checked in all the way to New Orleans and were very lucky we were flying Business Class since both our bags were overweight! And since we were flying Business Class, we were able to hang out in the SAS lounge until it was time to head to our gate. That was sure nice because we got quite a shock when we left the lounge. The airport was like a HUGE mall. I've never seen anything like that in an airport before. Carts are provided so you don't have to carry all your stuff when shopping (pic. 3). Jim was glad because he was having to carry my duffle bag since I had to be careful of my shoulder. And of course there's a Starbucks (pic. 4)!
I really appreciated our Customs agent, too. He took the time to flip to page 1 in our Passports to place his stamp instead of stamping it like the Ireland Customs agent on page 19.
The flight to Washington, D.C. was almost 9 hours. It was a very comfortable flight with hardly any choppy air. We flew a monstrous Airbus and as it was lumbering down the runway, we were wondering if it was going to get airborne! After we landed, I saw several people in Customs that we'd been cruising with . They must have been in coach (wow, that sounded snobby but I'd been saving my miles for this trip)!
We had almost 3 hours in Washington, D.C. before catching our connection to Charlotte, N.C. We had to walk about a mile to our gate. The next time I have to fly internationally, I will try my hardest to not fly into Washington, D.C. I was particularly perturbed that after going through Immigration, then collecting our checked luggage to clear Customs, there was just one belt to return your luggage to instead of individual belts for different airlines (more on that later). Then, we had to go through security again. We hadn't left any secure area and we were all carrying liquid from the airplanes we had just gotten off of and had to throw it all away. GRRR
Both of the flights to Charlotte and New Orleans were uneventful with both planes only about half full. The problem began after we landed in New Orleans and my bag didn't show up. Jim saw both of our bags on the cart waiting to be loaded onto the plane in D.C. I filed a lost bag report at 9:07 p.m. after the U.S. Airways man said my bag had never been logged into the system after it entered the country, and did we actually see the bag once we landed in the country (REALLY, I had to physically present it to Customs)? He said when it was found it wouldn't get to New Orleans until the next day since there were no other flights coming in from D.C. (actually there is no direct flight from D.C. to New Orleans) and that there was no flights coming in from Charlotte either. We went home and went to bed - after a long day of flying (in which neither of us slept) we were pretty tired. When I checked my email the next morning, a notification had come through at 9:47 p.m. that my bag had been found and would be out for delivery the next morning. I knew that bag was in the back of the New Orleans airport somewhere overlooked. When the bag was delivered the next morning, there were a dozen or so bags in the van. Jim said to the driver that there sure were a lot of lost bags yesterday. The driver said it was a slow day compared to most. The driver only delivered bags from U.S. Airways. Fortunately since we fly United Airlines, they no longer are affiliated with U.S. Airways so we won't get stuck with them as a flying partner again.
And my last picture of our vacation was the sunset (pic. 5) Jim took out the window of our final flight from Charlotte to New Orleans. A beautiful sunset to end a beautiful trip! Can't wait for the next one!
