African Safari-Day 4: Emirates to South Africa

Wake up, list and check in for the emirates flight. Whoa! Once we are listed we can see the loads!! The flight to DXB has 50 seats open, and it's on an a380 (the full length double decker plane). 6 Hours to DXB. Head to the airport, where we check in (as economy, emirates will upgrade paying passengers to get nonrevs ono but never upgrade standbys). And he clears us! We have seats so we are atleast getting out of london and heading to a new country Dubai! Of course both our bags get pulled to have them look at our liquids (which i have jam packed bc we have a lot of sunscreen and bug spray in little bottles) But alas, we are in and I decide to grab chocolates from duty free for the flight crew. An a380 can have as many as 26 FA and i know i dont have that many FA treat boxes with me. We then each grab a quick bite from the coffee shops and wait for the gate to be announced. Gate announced, we head there, and clear the gate and wait. There is some delay due to the aircraft arriving late. But it gives me time to list us for DXB to CPT which leaves 3 hours after we land in Dubai. (At 355AM). We finally get to board, and carry on all of our suitcases. We have the window and middle in a row right infront of the bathrooms and someone on our aisle. BUT! The a380 is surprisingly spacious in coach (the lower level). The lead fa notices we are crew and offers us anything we want (within reason— i did ask if we could see upstairs and were politely told no, but whatever it was worth the ask). 6 hours to DXB and we land, at midnight Dubai time (but6p London time and 11a CST). We easily get through the transfer line which includes security (but leave everything in your bags). Then we look to find the capetown flight. (That was the first flight to leave at 355a, JBurg had a 455a departure and a 955a departure, so may as well try the first). We pass a McDonalds (have to try the local specials!) and check in with the gate agent— as we didn't have boarding passes and had just checked in online. He says the flight is full but check back later (i see there are 4 seats open and 4 standbys listed). I pick up matt a McArabia chicken sandwich and i have their beef and mushroom burger. They were okay. Boarding starts, and we still arent cleared. Check back 20 minutes before departure. Okay. So we wait and wait and wait. But then we check in and we have seats! And they re together!! This aircraft was a 777 and a 2 seat, 4 seat 2 seat configuration. We have an aisle and a middle in the 4 seat section. We board and ooooofda, this planes interior is old, and outdated. We squeeze into our seats and try to get comfortable for the 10 hour flight to capetown. We get amenity kits (very basic with eye mask and tooth brush). I am exhausted as is matt, so we try our best to sleep. It's a long flight, we get both dinner and breakfast. But it was a means to the end. I had our server one of my FA boxes (there's so many FAs and we didn't get much for handing out chocolates on the other emirates flights so may as well save the other boxes i have for other flights. After a long long fight crammed into our seats we finally arrive in Capetown SouthAfrica! 2 days later than we had anticipated but! We are in South AFrica!

AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

 

 

 

African Safari Day 3- London

En route, I realized, we should get a hotel with early check in, and shower, nap, relax a bit before we fly through the night a second time. I found a budget Ibis for 60$ which allowed early check in. Best 60$ We have spent! The hotel was on the Piccadilly line which connects direct to LHR (London-Heathrow). We easily clear customs (after I had to wait for an actual person as my smart-card is broken on my passport and the automatic control woudlnt' work for me). Then we were off on our long walk carrying our heavy Tom Bihn Backpack bags. Make it to the hotel, check in, shower and we decide to push through. Back to the Piccadilly line and its an hour and a half with 2 transfers to the maritime museum. Make it there, and it is not what matt was expecting, and he was slightly disappointed, however, we did it! Our zed fare loads get updated, and capetown is 2 seats open and 4 people listed. As it's a zed fare, we would be the last ones to board. Johannesburg went from 70 open to 10 open. 6 people on the list. Capetown leaves at 5p and JBurg at 10p, so we decide JBurg still looks the best, and we head back to the hotel on the hour and a half journey. We arrive at four thirty and take a 2 hour nap. Wake up around 7p and the loads have been updated again— negative 1 with 6 people listed. Okay, it's a 787 that carries 250 people, we definitely have a chance. Nothing else we can do but try,. Before we leave the hotel, we let the staff know… we might be back (And we technically have the room until tomorrow anyway) but we left the keys and said hopefully we wont be back but atleast we have a room already if we dont make it. So we head back to the airport check in, grab an English dinner at the same restaurant we ate at on the way home in September (this time we had bangers and mash and a steak pot pie— both very very good). And then we head to the gate. We check in with the agent, and they let us know they dont have seats for us yet but there are a few people that hadn't checked in. So we hangout inside the gate area waiting. And waiting. And waiting. With 2 other couples of non-revs. Well, all 250 passengers showed up. There was not a single seat available. The gate agent kindly checks the flights for the next day and lets us know South Africa is a very popular route this time of year from London. Capetown had 11 open but 19 standbys already and Johannesburg had 10 seats and 2 people listed, but the numbers change very last minute. So we do the walk of shame and try and find the exit. We had to re-clear customs into London which took some doing as it's not a common thing to happen.And then head back to our hotel carrying our heavy bags. We decide to stop at the pub next to the underground station by our hotel. They close at 1130 and it's now11, we ask if we could have a quick pint and they agreed. We have our pint and then do the half mile walk to the hotel. With the time change, we were pretty wide awake at this time,so we stop at the pub next to our hotel and see if they are open late, they were pretty dead inside but were open for another hour. We get new keys made and then drop our bags, grab a notepad and head back to the pub to research what to do next. After having the Virgin flight fill up so last minute, we decide to look at other options. Etihad and Emirates both fly out of London, and both have flights to South Africa. I post on Staff traveler and also on some facebook groups. There is a noon flight to Dubai that 'looks really good' and then flights from Dubai to capetown and 2 flights to Johannesburg "look okay". So, we decide to try emirates. We head back and set an alarm for 10a feeling a little optimistic. 

AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

 

 

 

African Safari Day 2– Try again: Get to London

Wake up around 10a, and check the London flight, and all the zed fare route options that got updated over night. London still looked like the best bet, we are still 12/13 with 25 open and Virgin has 2 flights direct to Johannesburg AND Capetown, the JBurg flight has 70 open and capetown had 5, so we decide to wait it out and go on the delta flight. Stop at our favorite brunch spot (Ideal Diner in NE) and then get our workouts in before dad picks us up again, for us to try again. But now the flight is 22 open D1 seats, and we are 17/18 on the list with 3 hours to go. We had washed our non rev clothes so we go back to the airport in the same attire we had on the night before. Get a pint at HiLo Diner right next to our gate, and we wait. Tim Calamari just landed and came to have a pint with us before he heads home. D1 down to 19 seats open, we are 18/19….. oh man, 20 minutes before the gate closes. One Hour prior there's 18 open we are 18/19. And they haven't cleared any standbys. So we wait, and with 20 minutes to go they finally call my name. I get D1, I ask the agent if she can also clear Matt (he was next on the list.) and she goes yep! And were out! Matt and I got the last two delta one seats and we are sitting next to each other. Yay!!! Get into our seats, and it's the same FA as the day before. Hand out my FA Treats and we wait for push back. The plane takes off just fine and we were on our way to London! The goal to sleep most the way so we could land refreshed. Plan is to do the JBurg flight that's wide open and spend the day at the Maritime museum that we missed in September the last time we were in London. 

AGENCY RELATIONSHIPS IN REAL ESTATE TRANSACTIONS

 

 

 

African Safari— Day 1: Get to LHR

 Took a half day off of work and hurried home to get the last of my things packed up. Dad picked us up, and brought us to the airport! Used a buddy pass for matt, as there were 20 Delta1 seats open and 10 people on standby. I forgot my bag of FA treats, on the dining room table. Ugh! But anyway— we Got to our gate (thank goodness matt finally has global entry so he can get pre-check too). Waited patiently at the HiLo Diner right next door and Bjorn came to say hi! With an hour prior to take off, all standbys were cleared into Delta one! Wahoooo! Matt and I even had seats together. Only problem— their third pilot was stranded in MSN due to the snow storm. But the remaining two pilots opted to waive the need for a third pilot and we were going to be taking off! We board, have our welcome drinks and then wait for push back. With only 2 pilots they have an 8 hour block limit (push back to park) and it is a 7 hour flight to London. They had 4 de-ice trucks ready for us and we go to push back. Matt says the captain didnt take off the parking break because the tug busted the shear pin, so then they needed to get a new tug bar, and try again, but the clock was already ticking. Finally we get pushed back, the captain starts up the engines, and pulls right back into the gate (he’s gotta get paid). Maintenance comes on board and talks to the pilots, but they dont have enough block time so they time out, and they dont have any spare crew sitting around to fly the plane. So EVERYONE has to get off, and wait in the gate area for more details (delta is very good at not cancelling flights, just delaying for long periods of times… gotta keep that completion rate high). Delay , delay , delay then the FAs and pilots get off…. And if the FAs get off we know we aren’t going anywhere tonight. Plane delayed until 630p Thursday. Which means we miss our planned connection to S.Africa and have to figure out what to do. Daddies comes back to pick us up, I’m almost in tears (never did we think we would get matt back into D1… ever again… and we had it! Seats together even.) but now ANYONE can list for the flight tomorrow. 25 Seats open, We cleared at 15/16 on the list Wednesday night, so hopefully not too many people notice the new time for this flight. I have the service counter help rebook us both on the Thursday flight, and we head home to replan EVERYTHING. Submit new staff traveler requests to see what our Zed Options look like. And go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day. 

Middle East Day 3: Dead Sea

Woke up around 10 or 11. Whoops. Checkout is noon. Packed up our bags, checked out of the hotel, dropped our bags in the car and headed down the street for some pizza. Had a fantastic meat pizza before heading back to the hotel where the front desk staff recommended a day pass to holiday inn which provides access to the Dead Sea , pools , showers, amenities.

Hit the road for our 3 hour drive to the resorts of the Dead Sea. Not sure which way google brought ya but to get out of Petra we were going up some pretty steep hills with sharp corners (and matt killed the car a couple times too— the clutch was crap). But before long we were high up on the mountains overlooking the beginning of the Dead Sea. The lowest place on earth. 480 meters below sea level. We kept driving and decided to stop at the Dead Sea spa (day pass was 20JOD vs 45JOD at the holiday inn). We got changed and set out for the private beach at the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea has been evaporating quickly, it had retreated a solid quarter mile or more. But we claimed a bench and walked carefully over rock and pebbles to enter the Dead Sea. They weren't joking about the buoyancy. You could relax on your back without a fuss. Had our pictures taken together. Enjoyed rubbing mud all over ourselves and getting in to rinse off. Then we went up too to the pool to relax, then hopped out to shower just in time to see sunset. Absolutley beautiful. Then happy hour started. We had 2 for 1 white Jordanian wine and ordered some nachos and a meat plate. All of the food was very tasty. Met a PA that works the emergency room at Abbott with Dave Gurda. And before long it was 8pm and time to start the 1 hour drive to Amman in hopes of catching the 1130pm flight direct to Cairo. Dropped the car off no problem and went to check in to find out the plane was wide open. Got exit row, bags checked with priority and we waited the hour to begging boarding. We did hit up the duty free shop as alcohol in egypt is rather difficult to find and we learned we could bring our own onboard the Nile cruise. Grabbed a bottle of stoli gold and Johnny Walker black. Boarded the plane and thanked the flight crew with USA M&Ms enjoyed our inflight snack box and was thanked by the crew with a bottle of champagne and nuts to take away.

Landed in Cairo after one hour, booked a hotel at the airport as it was almost midnight. Bought our 25$ visa and walked 20minuyes out of the way in a loop to get to the hotel. Checked in and they agreed to a late check out of 2pm (next day was simply arrive to Cairo day) enjoyed a stella bier from the fridge and oir champagne. Repacked our bags and passed out. Get to Cairo hotel and hang out with Alaa's friends the next day.

Middle East Day 2

Woke up around 1130am. Whoops. But we were tired. Matt was ready first so he set out to find us breakfast and lunch to bring with into Petra, and some waters. I met him about 20 minutes later at a small shawarma shop where they were making the tortilla to go with our chicken kabob breakfast. At lunch and got dinner for 15JOD (~20$). Then we set out for Petra. 150$ for the two of us to enter. (Woulda been 200 but we were staying overnight in the town). And started to hike the long 45 minute walk weaving through the ancient riverbed to the Siq (Iconic Petra photo). Meanwhile we had to mind the horse carriages bringing those unable to walk.

The siq was filled with tourists and young kids trying to sell postcards and small crafts. Then we continued onwards for about 10 minutes to a bigger opening. The royal tombs were high in the mountains on the right. And there were dwellings on the left. Walked towards the start of the montestary path and had an ice cold Coca Cola light. A donkey owner then explained what was so cool at the end of the path— gorgeous views, tents with things for sale, less people. And for a good price you could take his donkey up the 980 steps in 20 minutes instead of walking for 1hour. Knowing matt doesn't like to ride animals due to discomfort we opted to hike. Wowza. Atleast we were not at 13000 feet like Wayne Picchu. There were cats, and many tents to buy things along the way. We took a few stops to catch our breath and were passed by a few donkeys with riders. But we were to the Montestary in 40 minutes. Way better than riding a donkey. We took our pictures (and there were few people there which was nice) and hiked up one of the three identified local hills entitled "best view". We got a pretty incredible view from up top and then resorted down to enjoy our shawarma for lunch. And cold fries. Then we decided to head down. We stopped at the church and had a look around which included original mosaic floors and then hiked up to the royal tombs. We watched sunset there and then about 6pm we started the hour hike out of Petra. But not without stopping for a sunset lighting picture infront of the siq with very few people in the background. As we were walking out, the crews with dropping and lighting candlelight bags for the evening tour. We spent about 5 hours there which was a perfect amount of time. We then stopped at "my mommas recipe" for some great jordanian food before grabbing a pint at the Irish pub and calling it a night. Next day we stop at the Dead Sea en route back to Amman to catch our flight hopefully to Cairo.

Chasing the 7 wonders

Surprisingly my boss agreed to work the last 3 hours of my shift so I could get home grab my bags and matt and we made it to the airport by 3pm for a 3:55pm departure to Chicago (ORD). Got seated up front and were allowed to carry our bags on no problem. The captain is one of the guys that lives in matts Eagan house too.

Flight to Chicago was bumpy so the fa stayed in their jump seats. Landed, said good bye and went to check on the Royal Jordanian flight direct to Amman departing 3 hours later. Since we landed in the international terminal we went to the advertised gate but there was no sign of RJ anywhere. So we left security and went into the ticketing area.

Waited in line to be told with a scrunched up face— it doesn't look good come back 2 hours prior to departure. We check with information and the only 2 eateries outside of security at the international terminal are McDonald, or a pre-made well warm it up for you spot. We went with the later and shared a gyro pizza and had a beverage each. Went back to the ticket counter and were told again —— flight is full, we can't give you seats until right before departure if some people don't show up. So we check in with Emirates (adds 5 hours of flight time) and they say they should have seats available.

Get to security line which is long and not moving. 45 minutes later (and boarding start time to Amman) we make it through security and check in with the gate—- still no seats we'll call your name. So we go down to emirates flight and they say they have seats. I take the boarding pass (no seats assigned yet) and head back to the RJ flight where matt was waiting. He went to the bathroom and they called our name, we had two seats together in the very last row (before crew rest) and had one seat open next to us too. I hook our rollarboards together and head to the emirates flight to let them know we aren't flying them and head back to RJ. We wait to be some of the last people to board. Barely find room for our bags — had to rearrange a few bins to make it happen, then I started handing out the treats I brought for the crew and let them know matt is a pilot. The fa loves the fact we brought treats and cake and introduced themselves to pilot matt. "Anything you want you let us know!" Before too long we were taking off. We got extra wet wipes, and both the chicken and fish economy meal (which wasn't terrible) and were served first so we had both options available. Matt ordered a scotch, to which the fa replies red or black label. Obviously he went with the black label. It took awhile for the fa to return but he came with first class nuts, first class Care packages, and a coffee cup filled with JW black label. I just had a red wine.

Not too long after finishing our meal the crew set up for crew rest, one laid across a row of three and the other two shut the curtains around the jump seat of the rear exit doors on the 787 Dreamliner. And laid down on the floor. Yuck!

I headed to the back and got chatting with the crew. One drives atv/trucks through the desert and another was on holiday in the states with his wife. The guys were very excited to give us tips for our short trip to Jordan. They kept my glass full too. Wasn't too long before the crew rest gals yelled at us for being too loud. Soooo I went back to my seat and napped for about 6 hours (making it all the way to touchdown). Apparently while I was sleeping the guys brought us a wine in a bag and served breakfast (croissant and jam).

The fa wished us all farewell and we were off to buy our visa (60$/each) and waited in line to get through customs. Wasn't too long and we were through looking for our car rental location Alamo.

Got our car— a mini /manual /death trap and we were off. But there was 1/8th of a tank. So we had to find gas. Found a station. 20JOD to have it filled up by a full service location. Then we were off to try and get back on the highway..... that didn't work well; it took a very long time and many turns and u turns but alas we made it back on the highway. Utilized google to get us to Petra city about 3 hours away.

The roads turned into one lane roads with two way traffic and no street lights to illuminate where to go. Or what was around the bend. There were many random speed humps that if you don't slow down you will fly through the air. But eventually we did make it to our hotel Edom hotel, 7 minute walk to Petra visitor center. We parked the car and headed up to our room in the 3 star hotel. I showered as I was gross and we went out in search of dinner. We went to the night restaurant as they advertised they had pizza and traditional food. No alcohol and no pizza were available. Matt ordered a hummus and some beef meal and I ordered a Lebanese chicken. They were pretty good. The hummus was spectacular.

After dinner we walked to the Kilkenny bar and had a pint before calling it a night. We made it back to the hotel and I was awfully sleepy eyed. Matt showered and we fell asleep with no plans for an alarm or waking up early.