The flight left LAX at 1:45 and because my son-in-law offered to drive us to the airport we arrived early and had plenty of time to chill in the United lounge. Ah, the benefits of flying Business Class. Or in the case of a 737, First Class. It was an easy flight, but with sorta tired and overworked flight attendants. Arrived Houston early and had several hours to kill.
United must’ve spent a ton of money in the Houston airport upgrading the facilities, or perhaps did a deal with someone because there were tablets at just about every seat, whether a table top, or a sofa or lounge chair. Great lighting and lots of places to sit and plug in. The tablets allowed you to order food from various restaurants, which would deliver to your seat, or play games, or read the news. It was crazy. We walked and took a tram to the terminal where our next flight was leaving from and found the United lounge. Which was lovely, but with limited food offerings. After chilling for a bit we headed out to find some food. Ate something light and then when to the gate and found our flight was delayed. So, had a drink and played with those tablets and waited. And waited. Original 9:50 became 10:30 and then 11:30. Probably didn’t take off until midnight. Polaris class with flat beds were lovely — had the express meal and went to sleep. Probably got about 6 hours, but of course it never feels like it on a plane. Once we landed we couldn’t get to our gate, so sat on the runway for awhile. And then immigration had a long line. Got to hotel at 1:30, about 2 1/2 hours later than anticipated.
Luckily there was a room ready, so we could get settled, and then walked to a local mall with lots of food options. After eating, came back to hotel and chilled, sitting on the roof deck and reading up on the history of Chile and various other bits of information we should’ve looked into before we arrived!
Arranged to meet Bob and Katherine at 7 and walked back to the mall and ate at the same restaurant we’d eaten at for lunch. Different food and it was quite good and a very enjoyable evening. They are such laid back and unassuming people, and Liz really seemed to like them as well. We had a wide ranging conversation about anything and everything, came back, took an Advil PM and crashed until 9AM the next morning. I guess we were tired.