Trip Index
- Preparations for Paris honeymoon, heading to PHL, BA Galleries First lounge
- BA First, Concorde Room, BA Club Europe, Hotel Le Grand, Bonne Annee!
- Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, cruising on the Seine, Louvre
- Hotel Indigo, Musee de l'Armee, Arc de Triomphe, Versailles
- In the midst of Charlie Hebdo: Louvre, Louis Vuitton flagship store, Musee d'Orsay
- Crazy journey home - United flight cancellation, compensation, Global Entry, surprise upgrades
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Our return flight was at 9:10am Friday morning, so we got up way before sunrise and checked out of the
Hotel Indigo. It was so early that the doorman needed to find the front desk agent to assist us. (who looked like he woke up from a deep sleep) Since I used
IHG Rewards points for the stay, there were no additional charges and it was nice of the agent to let us know he would remove the "incidental charge" hold on my credit card. (they didn't do this at
Hotel Le Grand, so it took a week or so for the hold to disappear from my account)
The first
RoissyBus of the day to Charles de Gaulle (CDG) airport picked up at 5:15am from the Opera bus stop, the
same place where we got off at the beginning of our trip, next to an American Express travel agency. There were several others waiting there; we weren't the only ones up at such an early hour. We purchased our tickets with a credit card at the vending machine by the stop.
It is usually recommended that you get to the airport at least 3 hours before an international flight departure, maybe even earlier if you plan to get a
VAT refund. The RoissyBus ride took a little over an hour, putting us at the airport around 6:30am. Our flight was nonstop CDG to SFO on United Airlines in economy, purchased with award miles. (didn't have enough for business class) I still had
Premier Silver status on United until February so we were able to select seats in
Economy Plus and use the Premier check-in line. After we checked our luggage and received our boarding passes, I went to find the VAT refund office located on the other side of the terminal (follow signs that say "Tax Refund"). Since it was so early in the morning, there was hardly a line. Note that you have to have the goods you bought with you so the VAT refund agent can inspect it if needed, so don't check the items in your luggage until afterwards. I wasn't going to put my Louis Vuitton purchases in baggage so that was why we checked in first. After my forms were validated by the office, since I requested a refund directly back to my credit card, I put them into the provided envelope and dropped it in the special mailbox.
If you have a
Priority Pass card (free membership for
AMEX Platinum Card holders), there are a few
lounges you can enter in CDG. We didn't go in because due to a mix-up at AMEX a while back, they ended up canceling Kaleb's Priority Pass membership and we weren't able to get a new card sent in time. We waited at the gate, but it was very comfortable as we managed to snag one of the few small tables in the area that had outlets to plug in our electronic devices.
Then the announcements came...our flight was going to be delayed a little bit due to maintenance. Then another announcement, and so forth, pushing our departure time 30 minutes, another 30 minutes. Eventually, the flight was cancelled as they were unable to procure a replacement part. United staff directed everyone to exit out a specific door to get to baggage claim to pick up our checked bags, which took forever. Then we headed to the ticketing level to get a new flight booked. At this point, it helps to be knowledgeable about what can be done in a cancellation situation. CDG had free wi-fi, so I got on the United app on my iPhone to access our reservation and selected the option to re-book our flights while standing in a very long and slow-moving line at the customer service desk. There were no more seats on the nonstop CDG-SFO flight the next day (there may have been if I had thought to use the app immediately after the cancellation announcement), but one of the available options was a CDG-EWR-LAX-SMF flight, which I gladly took so we wouldn't need a rental car to get home. The tickets still needed to be printed out by the customer service desk, but at least I snagged seats before availability was taken by the people in line ahead of us. When I did a dummy flight search afterwards, the option we reserved was no longer available, so we must have taken the last 2 seats on one of the flights.
It took several hours to reach the front of the line; we had been at the airport for almost 8 hours by now! The lady helping us looked exasperated from assisting all of the previous passengers; even though we were tired from waiting in line for so long, I kept a smile on my face. I told her I had already re-booked our return flight online. She looked surprised and wasn't sure if what I did would work (changing final destination to SMF, which made me panic) but she typed on her keyboard and was able to ticket the reservation and get us Economy Plus seats on all the flights. Whew! The agent printed out all of our boarding passes (three flights' worth!) as well as two vouchers worth 12 euros each for lunch at the food court and a voucher worth 182.08 euros for the
Relais Spa hotel. Though somehow, she ended up printing two sets of these vouchers. After thanking her for all her help and leaving the customer service desk for the
food court (3pm now...starving!), I checked the food vouchers and all of them had individual codes so I assumed they could all be used. So instead of eating at McDonalds, we went to the sit-down restaurant
Hippopotamus and enjoyed a leisurely late lunch for 48 euros. The food wasn't spectacular, but it was freshly cooked and the beer was cold. I had seen a Hippopotamus location near our hotel in Opera but hadn't had a chance to try it, and now I have.
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| sitting down...finally |
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| Kaleb really needed this |
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| bread basket that we didn't touch |
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| my fish and chips |
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| Kaleb's burger and fries |
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| the ice cream tasted like the freezer |
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We then took the CDGVAL airport shuttle train from Terminal 1 to Roissypole to catch a hotel courtesy shuttle. The Relais Spa hotel was one of several hotels on the "Gold Line". It was difficult to discern which was the right shuttle as not all of them were colored as expected. Eventually we boarded a non-gold-colored bus that had a "Gold Line" sign on it. Then it didn't move for another five to ten minutes; the way in and out of Roissypole was a
narrow round-about and a car was loading/unloading and blocked all traffic. Finally the road was clear and we were anxious to reach the hotel. The bus followed a set route to the hotels; whoever assigned these stops must not be very efficient as we went back and forth on the same roads, passing the same landmarks. Relais Spa was almost the last stop.
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| hotel shuttles picked up outside these doors |
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| Relais Spa was on the Gold Line |
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| the window sign was the only indication of Gold Line |
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| I'm having so much fun |
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When the bus reached Relais Spa, many of the riders got off. The hotel was really nice inside and the front desk agents were all wearing black suits. When it was our turn to check in, the agent found out we were one of the many stranded United passengers and was efficient to provide us with a room key and vouchers for dinner and breakfast, with no credit card imprint required. Wonder if he would have given us a second room for the extra hotel voucher? ;)
Our room was nice (with the name "Relais Spa", I expected it to be so) and had amenities that I wouldn't have expected.
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| nice looking bed and cabinets |
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| but it's a Murphy bed, boo! (springs creaked) |
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| key slot to turn on power |
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| large bathroom with separate tub |
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| separate rain shower |
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| separate toilet room |
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| mini-kitchenette |
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| refrigerator and what is that...? |
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| ...a mini-dishwasher! |
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| complimentary refreshments |
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| dinner and breakfast vouchers |
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Dinner was held in a large hotel conference room with many 10-top tables set up. The room was not very full and hardly anyone wanted to sit with others for chit-chat like during open seating on cruise ship dining rooms. I'm sure everyone was just as tired as us and not too happy to be delayed in getting home. A buffet was served with hot and cold selections, and all-you-can-drink wine and still/sparkling water. I must have been so tired to not even take a picture of my plate. The food was okay.
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| they even had a sign for us |
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| the hot buffet stations |
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| salads |
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| desserts |
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Our first flight to Newark was at 9:25am the next morning, so we planned to take the 6:30am shuttle back to the airport.
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| shuttle schedule from Relais Spa |
Just as we were getting ready for bed, I remembered that I had booked a massage appointment Saturday afternoon, thinking it would help me recuperate from sitting on an airplane for 11 hours. Obviously I wouldn't be able to make it. Fortunately I had my
Ooma Mobile app, which lets me call any U.S. number while overseas for free over wi-fi, and it was late in the afternoon in California, so I could reschedule my appointment during business hours. (though it had to be for the following week as my massage therapist was booked solid) I also contacted my friend Karen for a ride from the airport since we
had originally planned to rent a car in San Francisco to drive home. FYI, I replaced my land line with
Ooma and it came with Ooma Mobile. If you don't have Ooma, I'm sure you could do the same using other apps if you search around.
We watched the news that night and learned that the Charlie Hebdo suspects had been hiding out 6 miles away where we were, causing the airport to shut down two nearby runways just in case. The suspects were eventually killed by police.
The next morning, we got to breakfast right when it opened at 6am, in the
Flo brasserie. The spread was nice. I could've eaten the whole basket of mini chocolate-filled croissants. (
pain au chocolat)
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| hot items in back, cold items in front |
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| patisserie items...yum... |
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| awake enough to do a knife-and fork shot |
The 6:30am shuttle was running late. We didn't get to the airport until close to 7:30am! Our flight was boarding at 8:40am! Eek!!! The regular line to check in was so long that it switched back and forth several times. I was grateful to be able to use the much shorter Premier Access line. I don't think we would have made the flight if we had to wait in the long line. I still recommend arriving at the airport 3 hours before an international flight, especially if you don't have any status. Do as I say, not as I do. ;)
While we were waiting for our flight to Newark, our original CDG-SFO flight was boarding at an adjacent gate, and on time...of course! Our flight left on time and was uneventful.
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| lunch in economy...actually tasted good |
While going through immigration in Newark airport, we got to try out
Global Entry for the first time since applying for it for free using our
AMEX Platinum Cards. We didn't have to fill out the standard blue
U.S. customs form. There was a sign designating a special line for the Global Entry kiosks, much shorter than the regular line. Only two people were in it but that was because they didn't see the vacant kiosks available behind a pillar, which we helped point out to them. Once at the kiosk, you were to scan your passport, then look into the camera (located at the top of the kiosk) to take a photo. I was busy reading the instructions on the screen and didn't look up in time, so the camera captured just the upper half of my head. You could tell from the picture that I was looking at something. There were no re-takes either! Next, fingerprints needed to be scanned (the prints were put on file during the Global Entry interview) but instead of placing my fingertips on the actual scanner located at waist level, I pressed them on the kiosk screen that was showing an example picture of the scanner. Nothing was happening! I eventually figured out I was not using the real scanner...duh! I am getting old.
The last portion was selecting the answer to the usual questions like "Are you bringing more than $10k in currency?", "Do you have any food?", "Do you have more than $800 of duty-free items?", etc. Normally when you go through customs as a family, the duty-free exemption can be combined, so technically we had $1600, which was enough to cover the Louis Vuitton purchases on the trip. But since we were doing Global Entry individually (and the purse itself was more than $800 so couldn't split up the purchases between us), I opted to be on the safe side and answered "Yes" on the duty-free question. This pretty much marked my kiosk receipt with a big X and "See a customs agent", versus "Go to the exit" that Kaleb got as he answered "No" on everything. We both went together to the customs agent, who looked at my receipt as I apologized for having a half-head photo. He asked how much I spent on duty-free. I explained that we had under $1600 so we should be okay, but I marked "Yes" just in case of technicalities. The custom agent waved us through without inspecting any of our luggage. Some of you may ask "why bother"? I read on Flyertalk that some people got their Global Entry privileges revoked permanently for answering "No" on the food question but had a
forgotten banana in their bag. Global Entry is such a time-saver so I wouldn't want to risk losing it on a small inconvenience.
We had no problems getting to the gate for our connecting flight from Newark to Los Angeles. I noticed that my name was high on the upgrade waitlist, which was a pleasant surprise. CPU's (
Complimentary Premier Upgrades) can happen on award tickets if the passenger has status, holds one of the
United Airlines credit cards (I have the Explorer card), and has no companions on the reservation. I guess during the re-booking, Kaleb and I ended up with separate reservation numbers, thus allowing the CPU opportunity. Why would a lowly Premier Silver member be high on the waiting list? The re-booking may have also tagged my fare class as full-coach; the waitlist priority is ranked by fare class, then status. I doubted that there would be enough seats open to upgrade on a popular trans-continental flight so I didn't think about it too much, but I did hope a little. That hope was dashed when we boarded the plane and I sat down in my middle seat. Boarding was pretty much complete and the flight was full. Then a gate agent got on the plane, walked over to our row and gave me a boarding pass for seat 4B, in first class. Oh wow, what luck! I grabbed my things and headed over to the front of the plane. The middle seat remained vacant, so Kaleb and the aisle seatmate were able to spread out for the 6 hour flight.
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| from Economy Plus middle seat... |
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| ...to first class aisle lay-flat seat |
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When I got to my new seat, the lady sitting in 4A turned to me and apologized for taking the window seat since she preferred it over her assigned seat. I told her that 4B was in the aisle and that she was in her rightful seat. It turned out she had misread the seat labeling on the overhead bin. I preferred the aisle anyway so win-win!
The flight was uneventful (aside from the personal entertainment system needing to reboot) and I got to catch up on some current movies. Lunch was decent, plus the ice cream cart made an appearance. I only wanted whipped cream, but all sorts of toppings and nuts were available. My seat could lay flat, but I didn't take a nap.
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| entertainment system reboot |
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| lunch served on one tray |
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| vanilla ice cream sundae for dessert |
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| Kaleb's lunch in economy |
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When we arrived in Los Angeles and went to the gate for our last flight, I saw that my name was already cleared for upgrade, so I approached the counter to receive a new boarding pass. I certainly got a lot of value for the miles that I spent on an economy award ticket!
It was a quick and uneventful flight to Sacramento and our baggage was not lost. Karen picked us up and we were finally home. We had planned to have the entire weekend to recuperate from jet lag, but at least we still had Sunday.
What a trip! We enjoyed our Paris honeymoon, despite Kaleb's food poisoning and delays getting home. I consider those hiccups as reminders that life is good and you have to have some downs to appreciate the ups. We were also safe during the Charlie Hebdo events despite our close proximity.
Where to next? Vegas! Again!?!? But for a good reason: Kaleb's younger brother is getting married! Stay tuned...
***
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In the midst of Charlie Hebdo: Louvre, Louis Vuitton flagship store, Musee d'Orsay
