Category Archives: flying

February 4, 2026 · 5:26 am

Flying economy overseas – win some, lose some; how to fix a global entry cock-up; and thoughts on the new passport biometrics, new required UK ETA visa for US citizens, and global entry pros and cons.

Our flight on United from Chicago to London on a January Monday was surprisingly pleasant. The plane had tons of empty seats so we could stretch out. (I had three seats to myself. I may have even slept for an hour or so.)

San Vincente de La Barquera

Not so lucky on this return flight from Munich to Chicago on Lufthansa today, on a February Sunday. The plane has harder seats and is packed. The big guy in front of me reclined his seat, leaving me cramped and claustrophobic, even when I reluctantly reclined my seat, inflicting crampness on the guy behind me. It felt like the big guy’s seat was in my lap.

Long ancient bridge in San V

When I complained to the big guy, he didn’t budge. He argued that he was reclining because the person in front of him had reclined her seat. She created a chain (reclining) reaction, as the sympathetic flight attendant called it, when I sought her help. Reclining is bad enough but when the recliner is big, there’s even less space for the unfortunate passenger behind him/her. I knocked his seat whenever I got up, by accident of course. Oopsy.

And I got the flight attendant to request that he raise his seat during the meals so I could plausibly maneuver eating. (Truth is I didn’t eat. The food was awful. Except for Lindt chocolates served at the start and end of the flight.)

One more complaint: we had to check our luggage before we got on the flight to Munich, allegedly because our bags were “too big” which is bullshit. Our bags are regulation-small. The real issue was that the plane was full so it was presumably running out of luggage space by the time we boarded in the last group. But there was room in the luggage compartment above us!

I couldn’t find a direct Barcelona-Chicago flight, which explains our connecting flight in Munich. Next time I’ll try harder to avoid this. The first flight was about 2 hours, followed by a confusing transfer in Munich that involved going through passport control, complete with fingerprinting and photographing by a bored agent who blew a bubble with her gum (really) while she was scrutinizing my passport and tapping whatever on her computer. Why is this necessary for a one hour layover in the airport? On the plus side, this 8.5 hour flight is arriving an hour early. Amen!

Baluard bakery, Barcelona

Another good thing: Although D. couldn’t use his global entry on our departing flight to go through expedited TSA pre-select because of a government cock-up (his global entry lists his middle initial while his passport lists his middle name — the two need to be the same to use TSA preselect), he was able to use the global entry line when arriving back in the US. But, as with our October 2025 Italy trip, global entry didnt save much time. The regular line wasn’t long and moved quickly.

Building detail, Barcelona (on “block of discord”)

To correct/fix the global entry name, it’s fastest to go to the office at O’Hare or downtown— no appointment necessary. We learned this only after finding a real human to talk to, which took some time. We couldn’t get a real human on the phone at the two state of Illinois offices. I kept pressing the AI chatbot until I got a 202 number that led to a real human providing real help.

With my English pal!

We’re still getting use to the new biometrics passport control, which means you no longer show your passport or deal with a human when returning to the US. You just wait for your photo to be taken and then get a flimsy piece of paper saying global entry (or regular entry) that you give to an agent quickly and move on. I also miss having my passport stamped when arriving in the UK. Instead it’s all computer and biometrics. We did get a passport stamp when entering Spain and even when entering Germany as we were transferring planes in Munich with a brief layover.

Still another good thing: the newly required ETA (“electronic travel authorization”) Visa to enter the UK for US citizens worked without a hitch. (I brought a paper copy of my proof of Visa, just in case.) Getting the ETA online also was quick and easy, which is as it should be, this new requirement appears to be more about tit-for-tat (if the US requires Brits to get a visa to enter then the UK now requires the same of yanks) and a fees shakedown than about security or immigration control.

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January 20, 2026 · 10:03 pm

Global entry continues to disappoint

The latest issue: global entry gave Dirck a name that differs from his passport name so he cannot use it on this first attempt for a trip to Europe. grrrr. Homeland security put his middle initial instead of his full middle name on his global entry. His middle name is on his passport and his ticket. Everything needs to match, especially for international travel.

This is incredibly frustrating especially since it took months to given get an application interview after applying. We applied on the same day and mine took maybe a month.

Meanwhile, one perk of having global access/tsa preselect is gone. You no longer have to take your shoes off going thru regular check-in. And we’ve seen little difference in the time it takes me to go thru tsa or global entry vs. dirck going through regular.

Also, Dirck automatically received a global entry card, which turned out to be useless in this situation and not needed in general. And I never received a card, although I requested one several months ago after it didn’t automatically arrive.

So my advice based on our experience to date: skip the hassle and expense of global entry and maybe also tsa preselect.

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May 30, 2025 · 10:39 pm

Getting Global Entry – piece of cake, to my surprise

I admit to having a somewhat irrational fear of government bureaucracy, especially now, during Trump 2.0, when people have been detained during seemingly routine bureaucratic visits and whisked away without due process. Granted I am a white, older, American-born, middle class woman so much less of a target in Trump’s America than an immigrant and/or person of color. I’ve also been wary of bureaucratic ineptitude, a perception stoked sadly by the Trump administration’s distain for government AND its decimation of government, with mass firings of federal workers.

So I was surprised that getting Global Entry – which will allow me to bypass long lines when re-entering the country after an international flight – was a piece of cake. Not that this is necessarily typical. I got lucky. My husband applied at the same time that I did and is still awaiting word that he’s jumped through the first hoop (“conditional approval.”) In my case, conditional approval arrived via email a day after I applied. I’m told this is the luck of the draw. Sometimes three members of a family will get conditional approval swiftly while a fourth member has to wait awhile.

Even the next step went well for me: a face-to-face appointment with immigration folks, either in downtown Chicago or at O’Hare. I picked O’Hare and today I made it to the airport and back in two hours, with a bonus: a surprise email received on the Blue Line train notifying me that my Global Entry was approved! It helped that everything went unexpectedly well with transportation – no horrific traffic jams on the drive to the Western stop of the Blue Line at 8:30 a.m.; the O’Hare El train came just as I arrived and took about 35 minutes; the 25 minute trek to the Global Entry office, a drab office tucked behind a baggage carousel (#12) in faraway Terminal 5 (international flights) was easy. I arrived 35 minutes before my 10:20 appointment and hunkered down in the sterile waiting room, but was called within five minutes.

Although I’d been warned that the immigration interviewer would be taciturn, mine couldn’t have been more pleasant. (Apparently my early arrival worked well for him.) He verified some application information and corrected one error that listed Chicago as my birthplace. (It’s Detroit). I piped up that I forgot to list one country (among others) that I visited during the past 5 years on my application. No problemo. He asked if I had a criminal record or immigration violations and then took my fingerprints (using a scanner to get images of my thumb and four fingers of each hand…my first experience fingerprinting). Then he patiently answered my questions (several about why my husband’s application process wasn’t as swift). And away I went after about 10 minutes. He told me I should hear back later today or on Sunday – after my fingerprints were screened by the FBI (or some such).

The Global Entry is good for five years and also includes TSA Precheck, so I can avoid the longer lines at security when arriving for a flight. I’ve rarely found the lines that awful but friends urged me to get global entry since we travel internationally a lot. But I probably won’t use mine until my husband’s goes through so hoping that happens soon! And now, if only, there was a way to avoid the sometimes long lines at customs/immigration when arriving at Heathrow and other international airports.

Here’s the official spiel: Global Entry is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler Program that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States. The application fee is $120, and membership lasts for five years. All applicants must undergo a background check.
 

Available to use at land borders

Global Entry Benefits

Available at major U.S. Airports

Reduced wait times in expedited processing lines

TSA Precheck access

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September 12, 2023 · 5:35 am

Yes! We made our connecting flight in Dublin to Rome

Time to write something complimentary about Aer Lingus for a change. When we left rainy Chicago an hour late from Ohare, we were not likely to make our one hour connection in Dublin for Rome.

So we changed to a later flight that had us contemplating a quick trip to Dublin to help kill 7 hours wait time. But thanks to tail winds, we made it to Dublin close to the scheduled time, rushed to our original flight gate where a lovely gate agent got us back on this flight. Thank you Tara. I do intend to revisit Ireland sometime just not under today’s circumstances. Onward!

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April 17, 2023 · 12:44 pm

Much better Aer Lingus but mystified by the Dublin airport

What a difference a modern aircraft and entertainment system can make on a trans Atlantic flight. My outbound flight had a near-nonfunctional entertainment system. Today’s aircraft has touch screens! Oh joy.

In flight entertainment recommendation

I stumbled upon some surprisingly good viewing options. First up, a two part documentary picturing the Obamas (about the two dazzling Obama portraits) that had me teary at times. I remember going to see them at the National Portrait Gallery and spending most of my time watching people looking at them, taking photos of themselves beside them, crying. It was profoundly moving.

This doc followed the portraits as they went on tour in five cities (including my new home in Chicago). It was fascinating to see how the five different museums created educational , cultural and marketing efforts around the portraits visit, coming up with so many interesting ways to entice people who often don’t feel welcome in high art institutions to visit and better yet, to feel comfortable and connect with the place and its art. I particularly loved watching the kids look at the portraits.

There were also illuminating interviews with Amy sherod and Kehinde Wiley, the two portrait painters whose work I have sought out ever since seeing those portraits. And of course there were fond images and footage from the hope and change Obama years.

All I saw of Ireland this trip 😕

I also found a good Austin city lights type show, I guess the Irish version called Other Voices and watched one episode filmed in a tiny church in isolated dingle peninsula with St. Vincent doing acoustic and in Austin with Margo Price. Both excellent. Another episode had a very young amy winehouse in 2006 singing to maybe 30 people. Cannot imagine!Even the food was a step up from the previous flight. Not stellar but edible.

I was confused by the layover in the Dublin airport because it seemed like a completely different place from the airport I passed though on my outbound trip and in January when I connected thru Dublin en route to Paris and Madrid. This time I had 4 hours to kill. And we had to go though security twice (pulling out our toiletries and electronics again) when we arrived and when we left, which seemed odd. We’d already sent our stuff through the conveyor belt in Frankfurt. Why did we need to do it before entering the Dublin airport and before leaving it? I don’t remember that from our previous trip and considering how tight those connecting flights were we might have been in trouble making our next flight. I talked with the security guys at the second check point snd they said something about this being new and a trial run for two months. I don’t get the thinking.

I did understand this time, unlike the past trip, that we were going though u.s. immigration/customs in Dublin, which is fabulous because it means when we land in Chicago, no long lines. (And there was NO line in Dublin.) It’s like leaving the airport after a domestic flight. Apparently Ireland is one of the few airports with this (ore- clearance, I think it’s called) and I’m I curious how it came about.

Stocking up for next flight

During the layover, I also was in one of those shopping mall/food hall type spaces to wait which was completely different from the previous trips where we were in a relatively bare bones gate area with few amenities (shops, restaurants). So it was confusing. Not the airport I remembered from just 4 days ago, let alone two months ago.

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April 12, 2023 · 5:31 am

Weird Aer lingus

Yes, I have only myself to blame for flying this odd airline again, after a fiasco in January with lost luggage (for five days) plus long airport lines that almost caused us to miss our flights from Paris to Dublin to Chicago and led to the disappearance of my watch at the Paris security checkpoint. You get what you pay for I guess. But I arrived safely in Frankfurt (via Dublin).

Still it’s not reassuring when three flight attendants cannot figure out what appears to be an ancient entertainment system. After poking at the screen for who knows how long, I sought advice from an attendant who also had no luck with the touchscreen. Another attendant told me to use the remote hidden in the armrest, also from another era. None of the attendants could figure out how to use the thing, which is an ancient cell phone on one side and an ancient remote on the other. Neither work. I did find a barely functioning screen by switching seats. Terrible sound but at least I got a movie.

I get the impression from the attendants that this is an old plane that they don’t usually fly. Hopefully it’s just the entertainment system that’s out of date…and not working. I didn’t check my luggage.

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January 25, 2023 · 6:52 pm

Luggage at Last: Lessons learned

We finally received our luggage, five days after it never showed up at O’Hare Airport following Aer Lingus flights from Dublin and before that, Paris. Lessons learned:

  • Do not check luggage.
  • Do not put valuable stuff /things you care about in your checked luggage. Carry it on! This includes items such as: prescription glasses, prescription meds, almost completed diary, gifts for family, the right-foot sneaker — the left-foot sneaker was in my carryon bag.
  • If your checked luggage gets lost, keep bugging Aer Lingus (or whatever airline) for information (i.e. be a royal pain in the ass). We also posted our complaints on Twitter and Facebook with #AerLingus. The tweet got an AL response although who knows how much it helped. The FB post helped me find another good resource: The Aer Lingus Complaints Action Group on Facebook. Yes, there is one and people were very helpful, although it was a bit discouraging to read about people who had waits longer than ours.
  • Request “priority” or “expedited service” — I didn’t know if this existed but apparently it does, or it seemed to get a response. There were “priority” tags on our returned bags, as well as “rush” tags.
  • For Chicago area folks who lose luggage at O’Hare: Our baggage was finally delivered by Alpha-Tech Aviation Services.https://alphatechaviationsvcs.com/ This is good to know because AL told us it was Alpha Delivery Services, which it was not. The poor folks at Alpha Delivery Services, based in Kalamazoo, MI, were very kind – and sounded weary. They have gotten previous emails/calls from frantic people seeking their lost luggage and said AL has given out their number. (This is true. AL gave it to us too.)
  • I don’t know if this helped but I did try the pathetic route – mentioning that our luggage contained prescription meds and eyeglasses.
  • Don’t put cheese in your checked luggage…although ours was vacuumed packed and seemed to survive.
  • Consider buying Apple air tags for those times when luggage must be checked. (Ex: small no frills airlines that don’t allow much in the way of carryon luggage.

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November 17, 2022 · 1:04 am

Changes at the airport and in the air – international travel

Several airport and flight procedures have changed since I last traveled overseas, pre-pandemic, in 2019. (Fortunately there are no longer Covid protocols , for now at least. ) Here’s a few I noticed as a US citizen during our recent trip to London:

No more entry stamp in our US Passport for the UK: sadly, this is no more, thanks to today’s person-less immigration procedure (aka automatic epassport) involves interacting with a computerized machine, not a human. I don’t miss the sometimes hostile questions from the old human immigration officers, (how long you’re staying? when you are leaving?) But I still find it spooky to have to stand in front of a facial recognition machine, bleary-eyed after a long flight, to check while scanning my passport atop a screen — to check my identity by making sure my face matches my passport. Fingerprinting is also spooky…I watched some people, presumably not American citizens, doing this when entering the US.

King and Queen of the (Ludlow) castle (can you spot us way up top by the flag, waving?)

No more paper forms to fill out before (or after) landing: this includes the once-standard form for entering the UK, which required you to give the address where you are staying during your visit. Upon returning to the US, we actually conversed with an immigration officer in a booth who took our photos, looked at our passports and gave us a form to declare our purchases for customs, if need be. (No need.) In the past you needed to fill out a customs form and do so in the plane. Bn

Older, less perfect-looking or polished flight attendants – Not that there is anything wrong with this but our flight attendants this trip appeared to be in their 50s or 60s, and dressed more casually. One female attendant was full of good humor; another looked downright unhappy, like she hated her job…Or maybe passengers.

King and Queen of Ludlow Castle.#2

More passengers with carry-on luggage, although still plenty of overhead compartment space – We gave up a rare chance to check our bags free of charge and instead lugged our suitcases onto the plane in order to avoid our bags being lost amidst other checked luggage and/or to shorten our journey out of the airport.

We are easily spotted, mid-castle.

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October 22, 2022 · 1:50 pm

Changing plane, train, ballet tickets due to Covid (or presumably due to another illness or issue): what I learned

I am very glad I opted (uncharacteristically) to pay $100 extra per ticket for our flights to London so we’d get “changeable” tickets. When my husband tested positive for Covid this week (He’s ok. Bad cold symptoms and initial high fever) it was five days before our flight to London. I discovered it was surprisingly easy to rebook our tickets, pushing our trip back a week (in case I get Covid. So far so good.). We even got $90 per ticket in travel credits. (Never would have guessed the cost would drop.)

London friends I can’t wait to see!

Meanwhile, rebooking our train travel was NOT easy. I couldn’t just change the dates of travel. I had to buy new tickets, which was very easy. Then I could apply for a refund, which was ridiculously difficult. No surprise that it was easy to spend more money but not to get money back. Shame on you, Great Western Railway! This was compounded by the announced rail strike days…with no service on 3 days of our trip. Grrrr.

On another cancellation front, after failing to find someone to give my Joffrey ballet tickets, hours before the performance, I looked closer at the fine print on the Joffrey website and learned that I could exchange them for a credit to use for a performance later in the season. I called the box office and voila! Now I can go to a performance through April 2023 (the current season).

Who we don’t want to see in London

Back to the airline situation: Our “ main cabin” tickets, I learned allow us to change them —- specifically to rebook the same trip and do it several times, if need be, without charge, beyond paying more (or less, as it happened) due to the new flight possibly costing more than the original one. Good to know and handy in case I develop Covid.

Google tells me: “The main difference between main cabin and basic economy is cost. For cheaper airfare and more money in your pocket, you trade flexibility for flight changes and/or cancellations, seat selection options and the ability to earn miles at a high rate. Love them or hate them, basic economy fares are here to stay.Apr 22, 2022”

I asked the American Airlines agent what would have happened if we had the cheaper “basic economy” ticket and she said we would not have been able to change/rebook the ticket. Or that’s what I understood her to say. Surely, I said, if someone is sick, especially with Covid, you don’t want them flying and would help them stay off the plane. She then said something to the effect that they could rebook once. (Not sure about the other particulars ex: change fee? Paying the possible difference in fares? Etc.)

Last January, when I decided not to go to a gathering in Atlanta, due to a Covid spike, Delta gave me travel credits with my basic economy tix (or some such), which I am using for thanksgiving flights to NY. But that was cancellation not rebooking flights.

The fine print on the American website specifies the policy for a variety of what I loosely called “changes” and the varying options, depending on the ticket type/cost. Another variable: the airline you choose. For an American Airlines basic economy ticket for example: if you cancel a trip, you can’t exchange the ticket or get a refund. But if you need to rebook the trip, you can sort of. The process/options are more “restrictive” than higher priced tickets. (The fine print doesn’t mention the possible option of getting travel credits if you cancel.)

Moral of story: ASK what is available and politely but firmly stick up for yourself. Play the pity card if need be. Or appeal to the airline to be reasonable, although this doesn’t always work.

I still have not forgiven American for screwing up my daughter’s (expensive, albeit “basic economy”) flights to a family wedding in New Mexico in early June. They cancelled her flights (for non-mechanical, non-weather reasons! It was due to their staff shortage) and then gave her awful options for other flights. She came close to missing the wedding. And the changes added even more stress to the trip. I was particularly incensed that they would not give her an available seat that was a decent alternative because it was a much higher fare seat. She’d have to pay considerably more.

American has improved its customer service, although I don’t doubt my latest experience had to do partly with having a higher fare ticket. I braced myself for a long wait on the phone for an agent (several hours in the recent past with an airline) but got a call back in a matter of minutes and the agent was efficient and accommodating (again, perhaps in part because I had a pricier, more flexible ticket but still…)

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August 19, 2020 · 6:10 pm

More on flight refunds – don’t settle for less….

If you discover that the airline’s refund is less than you paid for your ticket — as I did, specifically $68 less for my ticket, $50 less for my husband’s ticket – here are words to the wise:  Call again and ask what’s up. I did and found out that the shortfall equaled the cost of choosing seats, which is deemed “an additional purchase.” It is also refundable but the refund must be done separately from the rest of the ticket. It’s not clear if an additional refund REQUEST is required, i.e. if I would have been refunded for this additional purchase had I NOT called the airline.

Don’t settle for less.

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