I flew from Louis Armstrong New Orleans (MSY) to Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß (MUC) to meet Allan and travel down to the Venediger alps of Tirol, Austria.
I checked in at the British Airways counter for passport check, then headed over to the lounge, which was underwhelming – small, a little dingy, and few choices for food. I tried the andouille slider with creole mustard. I found a small buffet with hummus and “pita” (not sure what that was), and cheese cubes. They announced rather forcefully that they were closing at 9pm, so I grabbed a banana and left. Allan texted that his flight was delayed, and he would miss his connecting flight.
British Airways (callsign “Speedbird”) flight 224 is an eight and a half hour flight spanning 4,692 miles from New Orleans to London. This particular Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner (B78X) – “if it’s not Boeing, I’m not going” – has the new seats for Club World (business class) and World Traveler Plus (premium economy). WT+ on this 78X is roughly comparable to domestic first class, with extended seat room and footrest, plus recliner support for your legs. The additional cost for Club World with miles has become too expensive after the pandemic, so I “rough it” now back in WT+.
For dinner I had the cheese ravioli with mushrooms and an odd salad (topped with a mixture of what appeared to be rice and corn with a trace of dressing) and a chocolate swirl cheesecake for desert.
I took melatonin after dinner and a half hour later after the lights went out I slept – for 2.5 to 3 hours! Not a deep restful sleep and uncomfortable at times on my legs or back, but enough to feel at least somewhat refreshed. Plus I dozed for another 45 minutes until 2:25 before landing.
I skipped the “bacon roll” breakfast (smelled like a lot of salt and fat) and ate the banana I poached from the lounge last night instead. Also had a cup of brisk British tea.
We were delayed on the taxiway waiting for a gate on arrival at LHR, eventually taxiing in to the B concourse of terminal 5. I took the train to the A concourse for the ritual showcasing of liquids in plastic baggies – had fun digging those out from deep in my backpack. Proceeded fairly quickly through security screening, and went to British Airways Galleries South Lounge to hang out for a couple hours while waiting for the Munich flight. The Microsoft IT outage was affecting carriers with ground stops in the US, but I didn’t know if the LHR departure and MUC arrival delays were related. Allan informed me that he won’t arrive until tomorrow afternoon now, which means we won’t get into Austria until late in the evening before the first hiking day.
Outside the Galleries South lounge are a few exhibits, one of which is a model of a Lockheed L1011 TriStar airliner in British Airways livery. I sent this snapshot to my friend Angelo who used to fly on the L1011. He looked up the registration number (G-BHBP) and found that he had flown on this particular aircraft! (years after BA retired it and his airline acquired it)
Grazed on sandwiches and a little hummus and pita chips in the lounge. My gate for MUC departure had not yet been announced at about a half hour from departure so I headed out into the main terminal. The next reader board showed an assigned gate which was nearby. Queued up for a long wait just to enter another line by boarding groups (I was in group 2). After all that came an announcement that the inbound crew was “done for the day”, they needed to find a new crew, and didn’t know how long that would take. So more standing and waiting. The new crew showed up about 15 minutes later (thankfully), followed by more waiting, and then finally we started boarding the aircraft. Once we were all on board, along comes another delay announcement: due to earlier IT problems, ATC was running behind and we would be delayed up to an hour before departing. We pushed back, taxied out to a low traffic area and shut down the engines for maybe a half hour – I dozed a little and lost track of time. Engines started again and we joined the queue of aircraft waiting to take off. After a little more waiting it was finally our turn and we hurtled down the runway and up into the air.
BA flight 960 is an hour and 45 minute flight from London to München, flying 615 miles. I enjoyed another brisk cup of tea, but Apple Pay didn’t work so I couldn’t try the afternoon tea box (scone, jam, clotted cream).
Landed at Flughafen München (MUC) under a brilliant red sunset reflected off the terminal buildings. I breezed through passport control and out into the ticketing area. Walked underground through shopping center, past the train station, and over to the Hilton. I had forgotten that I had ordered hiking poles and a pocket knife online and had shipped to the hotel (can’t carry on aircraft); I was getting annoyed that the front desk girl at the Hilton had disappeared into the back somewhere – but then was delighted when she came back with my package.
My room was nice and not atypical of a US Hilton. After unpacking a little, I walked back down to the restaurant and had the ham and cheese plate for a late dinner.
Back in my room, I got on a call with Allan to determine our options for tomorrow and we agreed to meet at the München Ost bahnhof (Munich train station) in the afternoon.