The last word says it all: PATIENCE! And perseverance and an ability to shrug off all the BS that has been dealt to all of us during the past year-and-a-half. Add to that the fact that since last summer, when an overzealous member of the German General Consulate in Houston confiscated my German passport, I have been stuck in the German court system trying to regain my citizenship of birth. As a non-EU passport holder I have been thrown into the same travel restrictions as all other US citizens.
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| AA counter agents simply went on break and told everyone to wait for half an hour |
What all this meant was checking on updates to COVID-19 travel restrictions and trying to adapt. I had planned several times in late 2020 to fly to Europe (and simply use up many of my miles) but every time I ended up cancelling my flights because of the craziness and new regulations and restrictions.
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| Dropping the ball, AA style |
When I finally flew over to Munich about three weeks ago I had to get a negative COVID-19 test result to board even my first flight out of Lubbock. This test was not required for Germany, which just about 10 days before my travel had eased restrictions on vaccinated visitors from abroad but rather to transit through London's Heathrow—mind you, that's an airside stop-through for a few hours. I had been able to get a self-administered test at Walgreens two days before my departure (the results had been e-mailed within 45 minutes, and the test was free), with enough of a time buffer to meet the UK's 72-hour time requirement. (Germany, until it had lifted its test requirement, had stipulated no more than 48 hours from the time of taking the test to actual arrival in Germany, which in a best-case scenario would have given me a two-and-a-half hour safety margin!)
In addition to the proof of a negative test I also had to register for both the UK as well as Germany on various government portals, saving QR codes to my smartphone as well as printing out all kind of documentation, just in case. In Lubbock, I was given my boarding passes for the flights to DFW and LHR, but nothing for my connecting flight to Munich, even though this was an AA flight but operated by BA. So, that meant that I would have to deal with that in London, which shouldn't have been too much of an issues since I had a multi-hour layover at Heathrow.
Of course, things never work out as scheduled (as I'm finding out at this very moment while I am standing with hundreds of passengers on the Nürnberg train station platform since we have to switch from our originally delayed ICE super train to a replacement because of a "Technische Störung"!) After the almost-to-be-expected 45-minute delay getting out of Lubbock, flight AA50 to London was first delayed by about an hour, and then we had to return to the gate because a replacement crew member had not packed his mandatory Emergency Manual. Seriously, we had to return to the gate to pick up an extra paper copy or tablet because each crew member has to have this document according to FAA rules.
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| Three windows to yourself means First Class |
I had upgraded my Business Class flight to First Class as American Airlines hadn't announced yet that soon-expiring systemwide elite upgrades would be extended. But let me tell you, thanks to COVID First Class is anything but! Not even a pre-take-off champagne? All beverages out of cheap plastic cups, not even the crystal clear ones that Lufthansa has been using forever even in their Economy? The same meal choices (that are plastic wrapped and don't even have warmed-up bread) as in Business? Come on. It's all about saving money ad using COVID as an excuse.
Once in London, about three, close to four hours late, I went through the process of getting my boarding pass to Europe. Since my travel was deemed non-essential and, once again, I am not a German passport holder I had to meet the EU's requirements under which "unmarried partners" of EU and non-EU countries may get together. I had copies of a hand-written invitation letter from Sabine, a copy of her passport, blogpost printouts showing photos of us together, and copies of boarding passes where we flew together that "proved" that we had met at least once. Seriously! All this was meeting the regulations—the only problem was that the BA agent who was to issue the boarding pass didn't speak German and thus could not understand Sabine's letter! So, it took them about 20minutes to find somebody who could authenticate the content of the invitation. Good thing I don't have a relationship with somebody in Hungary!
Eventually I received my boarding pass, passed through UK security and into the airside transit area, and enjoyed the Heathrow T5 lounge. As a First Class passenger, I would have been admitted to the super-exclusive Concorde Room, but just like AA's Flagship Lounge in DFW it was closed, thanks to COVID. However, unlike in AA's Admiral's Club where international First Class passengers don't even get a decent beer for free, the BA lounge really does an outstanding job providing service and amenities to its passengers: Order a drink (what about a Bloody Mary menu with six different approaches?) or à la carte food, and within less than 5 minutes a server will appear with your delectables at you table. Kudos to BA on figuring out how
not to treat your so-called best passengers. American Airlines on this flight failed more miserably than they ever have in my experience, and the token 8,000 miles that were deposited into my account are nothing but a band aid. (I didn't even write about the check-in experience in Lubbock, even though there are some photos of the 30-minure "break.")
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| Deserted Heathrow |
After something like 28 hours of traveling I finally made it to Munich, where the Grenzpolizei or Bundespolizei (I can't remember what they're calling themselves now) strictly inspected all my paperwork for unmarried partners as if I was an asylum seeker. And of course they wanted to see my proof of vaccination. Fortunately, I had remembered to go to the Lubbock Health Department with one of my 25-year-old yellow international vaccination passes (last entry: a cholera shot) and had my COVID vaccination record transferred into it. Who knows whether they would have accepted my little white CDC card, the one without an official-looking sticker or stamp. I'd probably still be standing there in front of the officers.
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| Approach into Munich |
After all the shit that had come with my travel, the uncertainties, the fact that I am still recovering from the replaced hip, the sheer emotional weight of entering the country that I was born in but that has renounced my birthright, all that was almost too much. But I didn't melt down, coming just awfully close to it.
My patience and preparation paid off, and I finally made it to Munich to see Sabine for the first time since last March, when we had to flee Mallorca. But I can't say that the entire travel experience was as much fun as it should have been. It'll be interesting to see how the return trip will pan out. Before then, I'll post about my initial time in Freising, our just-completed trip to Austria, and my current weekend-hop to see my brother in Berlin.
Jürgen
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