The much anticipated, last minute upgrade on our way to Europe

 

After booking this trip way earlier than we normally would, mostly because it’s a work trip for me and my boss told us in a staff meeting one week to “buy your tickets THIS WEEK,” we found ourselves in a very long wait to see if I would get upgraded.

Airlines are such a whip.

We booked Jason in business class to make sure he would be able to stretch out and be comfy. And then we called and bought a mileage upgrade for me. And, you would think in doing so, we would trade in the miles and dollars and then have secured the upgrade. But, no. Instead, it sat there saying requested until about 5 minutes before boarding when miraculously, they paged me. Maybe it wouldn’t have been so dramatic had the agent we spoke to not told us that UNLIKE an unpaid upgrade, this could process at any time. So you know, everyday I thought today could be the day. Sheesh! 

Now to back up - we flew overnight to Philly through Phoenix. We had a painful 6 hour layover in Phoenix and then the night flight to Philly. When we landed, we realized we could walk to the hotel from baggage claim- w00t!- and did so. But, then we had to wait a bit for our room because it was so dang early and they had been sold out. So, we had breakfast and sat in comfy chairs. We met delightful staff members - 2 of which said they’d been there for 30 years- whoa! And finally, when Jason looked just about ready to fall asleep sitting up, they waved us over to get our keys. 

So, after some sleep and a shower, we cruised back down to the bar again and man it was poppin’. Turns out when you have a hotel in the airport that you can walk to but nothing else walkable, the lobby bar is the scene! We had some wine and appetizers and headed back up. We would try to have a normal night’s rest before our next overnight flight to Zurich.

We did ok with sleeping. We walked back to the airport and checked in and then were delighted to find we could both go into the brand new Flagship lounge. I was worried that they wouldn’t let me in since the upgrade hadn’t come through. Whew!

The lounge was pretty good for a US based on but no comparison to the Heathrow lounges, as one example. But! We were happy for food, drinks, comfy seats, and places to charge all the devices. While we waited, my colleague Nick popped in for a drink. Fun to be on the same flight. 

This pop up storm entertained us while we were in the lounge. When the rain stopped this beautiful rainbow came out!

After finally clearing the upgrade, I took the very last seat in business and I was so happy to have it! I’m old enough now that sitting that uncomfortably for long periods of time will make me miserable for a few days. We were entertained by the very loud, rude, and entitled man in front of me as he attempted to demand the steak for dinner despite there not being any more steak. What a moron. I had the salmon and it was delicious. I was able to sleep for a couple of hours. Jason powered through, as always, wide awake the whole time. He became best friends with the flight attendant who reminded us of another South African friend from a cruise we took a few years ago.

Before long, boom - touchdown in Zurich! We grabbed our bag, cruised through immigration, and I figured out WiFi and grabbed us an uber. We were SO happy to find we could check in early and went right up to our awesome room at the Renaissance downtown. It was now Sunday morning, we’d been traveling since Thursday and still weren’t yet at the place we were trying to go! Craziness. 

With that, we had a slow, chill afternoon and evening and went to bed looking forward to taking the train to Freiburg and seeing Germany for the first time the next day!

Our hotel was so cute- this book shelf was probably 8 feet tall and you could walk through it. These wasabi peas nearly burned my sinus passage off- love it! And really, who knew the Swiss were spicy?