LH1845 FCO FRA 1520 1655 320 12A
LH2162 FRA NUE 1845 1920 CR9 7D
was
LX1737 FCO ZRH 1455 1635 320
and
LX1192 ZRH NUE 1725 1820 ARJ


Back to the real world. Having checked in ahead of time, I
got considerably better seats. There is no longer a Star
lounge at the airport, owing to that fire, so I was issued
an E10 voucher for "refreshments." Strangely, I was hungry
for pig parts again after a few days away from such and was
happy to find Porchetta Colosseum in Terminal 1 (you check
in at Terminal 3, and nobody tells you you have to go to
Terminal 1 to find the planes). When I ordered the set meal
#2 (E10 even) mit viel Fett a less jolly and less German
version of the Sau im Weckla guy behind the counter took
one of the premade panini, opened it up, and tossed in a
few extra bits of fat and crackling, most satisfactory. The
sandwich was actually pretty good, though salty; to go with,
a cup of vino molto ordinario and one of "tiramisu" made
with an abundance of artificial rum flavoring (I should have
gotten the chocolate mousse instead). So I was fed better
than I would have been at Sala Mosaici, though the booze
was, er, even more dubious.

The flight from Rome was delayed an hour, so I tried to sit
in the handicapped seats, to which some officious guy tried
to evict me, whereupon he got an earful in a mixture of
bad Italian, bad German, and okay English to the effect that
I'm a senior citizen who's had a heart attack, and he could
stuff that in his pipe and smoke it. He gave the classic
shrug and gave up.

We didn't make up any time on the flight, so there was no
chance to revisit the lounge or get anything to eat or drink.
Luckily, we pulled in to A9 I think it was, and I was
scheduled out of A8 - which turns out to be a bus gate. We
loaded up a little early (there was a second bus) and took
off expeditiously. Landed at a bus gate as well at NUE, but
at least we were reasonably on time, and I was back at the
Hilton by 2100 via the U2 and S2, which worked perfectly.

Even though I was on an Expedia or similar rate and not
technically entitled to anything, I was offered late
checkout and breakfast (both refused with thanks) and
drink coupons (accepted with thanks).

The room was almost exactly the same as I'd received before
under my Diamond credentials.

LH 147 NUE FRA 1115 1205 733 5F

Used my cleverly saved last strip of my 4-Streifenticket
to get back to the airport, where I was greeted with the
news that my upgrades hadn't and probably wouldn't clear,
despite my having paid almost twice the cheapest fare for
a higher spot on the upgrade ladder, so I drowned my
sorrows in Dici Otto Lune, part of a carefully orchestrated
plan to minimize my level of consciousness during what were
to be my sixth and seventh consecutive flights in coach.

I slept through this flight, which came in a bit early, so
there was time to hit the Senator lounge for a few pops of
various Bartelshof fruit schnappses and a final Dici Otto
and a banana, to ensure adequate slumber across the water.
Oh, yes, some kind of vegetarian pasta in tomato sauce,
which went well with the Wiener frankfurters or Frankfurter
wieners; a sour, seedy Rote Gruetze for dessert.

UA 902 FRA SFO 1355 1615 744 20D

I was 7 on the waitlist, so my sharp ears noting, via
indiscreet conversation with the cabin staff, that the
person in 10A being a United employee was less painful than
if I had been number 1 or 2.

To give United credit, the E+ section was pretty open, with
many of us getting an empty next to us, whereas E- was full
to bursting.

I thought I recognized two of the SFO-based FAs. I greeted
one of them, a guy with a salt-and-pepper beard, who turned
out not to be the person I thought he was, but he did know
that person, oddly enough.

There were choices for dinner; I said I didn't care and was
issued the vegetarian. I forget what the other(s) was or
were. On my plate - some more barley stuff in the guise of a
salad, slightly sour and mildly unpleasant, and an adequate
dish of three-cheese pasta (ricotta-filled manicotti with
a bit of mozz and parm on top); this was okay except that
the red sauce had a couple of pieces of zucchini in among
the onions and things. Wine, from a tetrapak, was about as
good as what business class was getting out of a bottle.

Loseley ice cream for dessert; it was okay.

I took a Benadryl and got maybe 5 hours of sleep total, not
much less than I would have gotten in a lie-flat, though I
ended up more sore than I would have been in biz.

There was a ton of time between flights; I tried to get on
another, either earlier or later-in-F, but everything to the
NYC airports was zeroed out, including the connectings,
except for one that had one seat in F, but they wouldn't
give me it. So three hours and change of aimless wandering
punctuated with an occasional swill of that newfound elixir
McCormick's American whiskey.

UA704 SFO JFK 2100 0532 752 21C

I ended up 3 on the waitlist.

This may be the worst E+ there is. Despite being in the
aisle of the second wing exit row, I felt cramped, and the
air was dank and unpleasant for the whole flight.

The FAs didn't care that the two guys next to me didn't
understand English (proof: when asked to open the window
shades they tried to do something else that plausibly
might be associated with the exit row, such as put their
already up seat into the full upright and locked position);
they did however care about the three girls in front who
didn't want to put their handbags away - after some
protestations, the girls parted with the bags but only if
they could see where they were put.

I slept a bit, though fitfully, during the flight despite
having got a bunch on the previous. McCormick has its uses
after all. There were several water services, about hourly
at a guess.

We landed a tad early.