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.)
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
Sojourn Boutique Villas is apparently designed to help ameliorate some of the poverty by hiring local villagers. (Thx to my London friend Carole for recommending this place and other great suggestions in Vietnam, which I consulted frequently.) The women working at the hotel, who were incredibly sweet, are from the village and have worked at the resort for several years, we were told by a Chinese man who appeared to be the manager. Our tuk-tuk driver Bros lives in a nearby village, is 38, married and has an 11-year-old son. His wife works in a local supermarket and starts work at 5:30 a.m.
TakeBetsywithyou 