Coming home should not be an ordeal

 I was looking forward- well that might not be quite right- to going home.  I was NOT looking forward to the almost 11 hour flight, but figured we would have window seats and it should be a nice relaxing day.

There is a saying "if you want God to laugh, tell him your plans"  God was really cracking up

We left the hotel at 5:30 to get to Stuttgart by 6:30 to turn in the car.  They had a sign in the lobby that there was coffee anytime you wanted it, BUT they locked the lobby, so no coffee.  No problem, I figured we would get it at the airport- after all we had a 9:30 flight and PLENTY of time.  My plan was to get to Munich and buy my daughter a stein.  After all Munich IS the birthplace of Oktoberfest.  I did not get to buy chocolate in Switzerland, but I figured I could pick up a box or two in Munich.

God was rolling on the floor at this point.

When we got to the Lufthansa baggage counter, we were told they could not find us on the flight, neither with our confirmation number nor our names from our passports.  and sorry, the plane is oversold so the ONLY way to get to your connector flight is to rent a car and drive two hours to Munich. The counter people also told us to contact our travel agency but as it was ONE A.M. in Los Angeles I sincerely doubted they would answer.  

We told the counter people that we would rent a car and drive to Munich  This is important.

Hertz had us over a barrel and when we got a look at the bill, they had charged us almost 800 Euros to rent the car.  They CLAIM they told us that but if they did , they took advantage of two distraught people who were just trying to get home.

Chris drove and we made it- just.  They told us the electric car "should" have enough charge to make it and after figuring out economy mode, we had 40kilometers left in the "tank" when we dropped it off.

The line was long so we tried to sign in on the App.  It told us we had "voluntarily cancelled" our tickets.  We. Flipped. out

We looked for help and after a bit Chris found a woman at the Lufthansa counter who looked like a supervisor. By this time, I was sobbing hysterically and trying not to sob hysterically.  She took our passports and left us for an agonizing five minutes.  She told us she got us on the flight, but we would not be seated together,  She arranged for transport ( remember my foot is broken) and they brought one wheelchair.  Chris is also disabled and he struggled to keep up as they whisked us through passport check, TSA and whatever other gates we needed to cross.  We took twists and turns and elevators and the monorail across to the second terminal.  We were put in a golf cart and raced across the tarmac where the plane stood.  We were placed in a scissor lift and raised up to the side of the plane- the door was shut tight.  The driver banged on the door and it opened. One of the crew said "welcome aboard"  We were on!

Turns out the lighting storm had grounded the planes for a bit ( so maybe God wasn't really playing with my plans after all, or maybe, seeing my distress decided to help me)  We were seated across the aisle from one another, but after a few minutes we were moved to three seat in the bulkhead ( did I mention we had THREE seats?  I think that plays into what actually happened in Stuttgart- more on that in a bit)

The food on Lufthansa is inedible.  I reacted badly to the "pasta" a grease-bomb of mac and cheese and the "snack" they provided toward the end of the flight can only be described as a wet cardboard sandwich with acid sauce.  

Lufthansa DID arrange for us to be transported through LAX, which was a blessing.  I will always be thankful that my husband found that angel in the airport who got us home. I had a concert to go to the next day. I DID have an alternate plan.  Since the flights only went out once a day, I was going to be on the plane the next day, have my fellow concert-goer pick us up- luggage and all and take us there.  Before you get TOO mad at me, please know that the concert was at SoFi which is near the airport and I know my friend would have been there for me (I'd do the same for her in a heartbeat)

At the Concert, my favorite band in the world announced an "indefinite hiatus" I knew this which is why this show- which was amazing BTW- was so important to me.

We are in the process of trying to recoup any losses caused by the:

missing luggage

missed plane

emergency car rental.

We bought out tickets and insurance through AAA  I remain hopeful.

I think what happened in Stuttgart was they oversold the plane, and saw that we had three seats for two people and bumped us off without telling us.  Once they saw we had a connector flight it got hairy and someone had to cover their tushy.  We NEVER cancelled anything.  When Chris got home his phone, which did not work for messaging had a message from United, giving us the "new" code for the flight from Stuttgart.  I call BS.  They could not find us by name.   I think it was a case of oops we fouled up and trying to cover their tracks.

I don't care.  I want to be reimbursed for things that we did not cause.  I am still not sleeping properly, 

Our trip was "the best of times, the worst of times"  Now that we know what to do, next time- and we are planning to go back in two years-will be different!