Traveling with Blue Cat: Insights from an International Trip

Blue Cat is travelling again – this time to Toulouse, France for more work meetings. Since he’s already written about the destination, this time he’s going to write about the trip itself.

Blue Cat’s journey started with making reservations. Doesn’t sound like a real issue and it wasn’t at first. United Airlines’ site was very clear and easy to use, and Blue Cat got a little extra help because he’s a Mileage Plus Silver Premier member.

The other good news was that Blue Cat’s company allows the purchase of extra legroom seats for international flights – so Blue Cat could get exit row seats for both trans-Atlantic segments. They cost a lot – about $250 each – but 10 hours on a plane for his 6-foot, 4-inch scribe in a normal seat would be murder. So purchase he did. Or at least to try.

Here’s where things get a bit weird. That’s because Blue Cat isn’t really traveling on United – he’s traveling on United’s partner Lufthansa. Blue Cat has a lot of experience with Lufthansa – he traveled with them a lot when he lived in Germany and they are great for flying – but their website is a bit of a nightmare (especially after United’s). It took 7 tries to log into the site and add the United-booked flights, only to discover that there were no extended legroom seats on either of the international flights. Oh well – at least Blue Cat got aisle seats.

Then it got even weirder. The site asked for more information on Blue Cat – telephone number, address – and it took another 15 minutes to get the web form filled out. Apparently the site is very sensitive about how such things are entered, and when entered incorrectly the site just says “your information was not saved – please review your details” without pointing out what details were wrong. Blue Cat never got his passport information in – I guess he’ll just have to do that at the airport.

The other nice thing about being a Silver member of United’s Mileage Plus club is that when you check in you can upgrade to premium economy seats for free. But not so with Lufthansa – their Silver level only lets you have a free checked bag. But Blue Cat was able to get his passport info in online. He was ready to go!

The airport was another experience. Again – Blue Cat’s United status lets him board early, but not Lufthansa. In fact, Blue Cat was in Boarding Group 6, which is the last boarding group. He really needed to have overhead space for his bag so his scribe would have some legroom on the 10-hour flight, but the chances of that were looking slim…

Yes – very slim indeed. (Scribe Note: Blue Cat did get overhead space for his bag on all his flights, so his worry was just a bit of catastrophizing.)

On the plane? The fabulous Lufthansa experience took over. While it was still “airplane food,” right after takeoff Blue Cat had a great meal. He chose the “beef” instead of the “vegetarian” meal – and it tasted great.

There was even a quinoa salad and a fruit crisp for dessert. Very tasty.

The seat was another matter. It was on the aisle in the middle section, and Blue Cat was lucky to not have anyone in the center seat next to him. But the fellow in front really wanted to sleep, and when he fully reclined the seat he was a bit “vigorous.” Not much room for the poor scribe.

And then another great thing happened (Blue Cat thinks it’s the magic that happens on Lufthansa). He met some nice folks who were flying to Germany for a river cruise, and they both wanted to sit closer together and took pity on Blue Cat’s scribe. One of them had a seat without a seat in front of it – so they traded and Blue Cat’s scribe spent the rest of the flight in extended legroom bliss. Here they are on the flight:

(Not sure who that young lady was in the aisle, but she sure thought we were a silly group.)

Not much else to say about the trip to France – another (smaller) meal before landing. Maybe breakfast – with the 8 hour time change Blue Cat really didn’t know what time it was although the sun was up. Then a few hours in Munich followed by a (delayed) flight to Toulouse.

Blue Cat’s stay in Toulouse will be the subject of another blog – suffice it to say that it was a great week.

The return was less memorable but also easier (usually is for Blue Cat as he can go from Central European Time to Mountain Daylight Time better than the other way around). An Uber to the airport, a really easy check-in, and a 2-hour flight back to Munich.

Going through customs there was a little interesting – the customs official wanted to know where Blue Cat had been, the reason for his trip, and if he was actually made of yarn (well, not the last one). It was more questioning than he had gotten arriving in Germany and a bit confusing, but he got his passport stamped and made it to his gate on time.

The return flight was about the same. This time a fellow asked if Blue Cat could trade seats with his wife so they could sit together – both aisle seats so no real difference. However, Blue Cat got to sit with a dad and his delightful 5-year-old daughter which made the flight a lot less boring. Another example of Lufthansa magic.

Lufthansa also has cameras on the outside of the aircraft so you could see what you were flying over. Blue Cat missed Iceland (maybe next time) but got a great view of Greenland. Yes – Greenland! A first in all his years. Here are some shots:

(Blue Cat apologizes for the fuzziness of the images – he was taking photos of the seat back screen.)

The rest of the trip was similar – some nice food, a chance for a rest, and this time watching 2 movies. Then customs in Denver (really easy with Global Entry), waiting for his bag (not so easy as it took foreeeeeeeeeeeveeeeeeeeeeeeer) and a ride home with family.

Blue Cat’s traveling wasn’t really “fun” but it had some really nice parts. It’s not often you get to meet interesting people (and then spend 10 hours with them) and see Greenland (even from 30 thousand feet), and the Lufthansa experience on the plane was great. (They need work on their website though.) Blue Cat looks forward to his next travel adventure!

Let Blue Cat know about your travel experience in the comments below. And he reminds you to have fun in whatever you do!

© William P Doyle Jr, 2024