December 26 - 27, 2016
Washington D.C. Dulles, USA (IAD) to Vienna, Austria (VIE) - Austrian
Airlines (26 - 27 Dec), 1 night in Vienna December 28 - 29, 2016
Vienna, Austria (VIE) to Cairo, Egypt (CAI) - Austrian Airlines
Cairo, Egypt (CAI) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) - Qatar
Airways
Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Phuket, Thailand (HKT) - Thai Airways
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
25
December 2016
26
Charleston -->
Dulles -->
27
Vienna
28
Vienna --> Cairo
-->
29
Doha --> Bankok
--> Phuket,
Thailand
30
Phuket
31
Phuket
1
January 2017
Phuket
2
Phuket --> Krabi,
Thailand
3
Krabi
4
Krabi
5
Krabi
6
Krabi -->
Bangkok
7
Bangkok --> Doha
--> Cairo
8
Cairo
9
Cairo
10
Cairo --> Doha
11
Doha -->
Washington D.C.
--> home
12
13
14
26 – 27 December: Charleston WV to Dulles Airport, Washington, D.C. to Vienna, Austria
We had spent Christmas in Charleston WV with Tami's family.
We rented a car in Charleston and drove to Dulles Airport outside
Washington D.C. After dropping off the car at the rental car facility at
the airport, we checked into our flight on Austrian Air. We had dinner on
December 26 at the lounge at Dulles then got on our overnight flight to Vienna,
Austria.
We arrived mid-morning in Vienna on December 27 and took the City Airport Train
into the city. It was a short walk in the cold through the Stadtpark to
our hotel, the Intercontinental Vienna. We arrived well before normal
check-in, but they had a room ready for us. We rested for a while, then went
out into the cold (and light rain) for a walk around the city. We headed
for our dinner reservations at Plachutta (on Wollzeile) but found that
we were early for our
dinner reservations, so we continued to walk,
visiting the main pedestrian-only area of the city center. We walked by
Café
Central and the Radisson Blue, where we had stayed in 2015 in our first visit to
Vienna. We also walked through the Park Hyatt Vienna to see what it was
like, and if we would ever like to stay there in the future. We returned to Plachutta and had a great
tafelspitz dinner, before heading back to our hotel
for the night of December 27.
Plachutta
Tafelspitz
Downtown Vienna
Cafe Central
28 - 29 December: Vienna, Austria to Cairo, Egypt to Doha, Qatar to Bangkok, Thailand
to Phuket, Thailand
We got up early on December 28 and got a taxi through the heavy rain to the
train station, and rode the City Airport Train back to Vienna airport. We
boarded our first of four flights, all of which would eventually get us to
Phuket, Thailand. The first flight was from Vienna to Cairo, Egypt.
The flight was uneventful, but the transfer in Cairo airport was interesting.
We arrived on Air Austria into Cairo Airport terminal 2, but our Air Qatar flight left
from terminal 1. There is no direct connection from terminal 2 to terminal
1 without going through immigration, which requires a visa. We were
prepared to get visas to aid this transit, but when we arrived at the transfer
desk, they took our passports and said we would be escorted to terminal 1 and we
would not need to get visas. We sat in a waiting area for a few minutes
along with other passengers who were also transferring to terminal 1, all
without going through immigration into Egypt. A group of about 10 of us
were asked to follow an agent (guy in a suit?) through some back doors and elevators, and
down to a van, where we were then driven around the airport tarmac to terminal
1. We were escorted into terminal 1, bypassing any immigration lines,
directly to another waiting room that seemed to be a back entrance area used by
employees and passengers making international connections. The guard here
took possession of our passports and we were told to wait. Cairo Airport
does not allow passengers into the terminal more than 3 hours before their
flights, so we had to wait about an hour more in this waiting room. There
were other passengers camped out across chairs, many asleep and obviously having
been there for a while, waiting for the 3 hour limit to arrive for their
flights.
About 3 hours before our flight, a representative of Air Qatar arrived to take
our passports from the guard. He returned a while later with our boarding
passes, at which time we could go into the actual terminal and spend the rest of
the waiting time in the business class lounge. Once the flight began
boarding at 60 minutes before the flight was to depart, we joined the single
line to get on the plane. This line was another security screening line,
and went very slowly, taking another 60+ minutes. We finally made it through
this line, only to find that business and first class passengers board the
airplane last at Cairo Airport, so we waited again for another 15 minutes before
the transfer bus showed up to take us to the airplane. Terminal 1 does not
have boarding bridges – all passengers ride buses to the plane, and then climb
the stairs onto the plane out on the tarmac. The plane eventually left
about 45 minutes late. It was about two and half hours to Doha, Qatar.
The airport in Doha is incredible, and the business class lounge is even more
fantastic. It is beautiful, with every amenity you could want.
There are individual shower rooms, which we both took advantage of to clean up.
The restaurant has champagne, wine, and great food. We spent a couple
hours relaxing, before getting on our flight to Bangkok. This flight
lasted overnight, and was our first flight on an Airbus A380. Qatar Airways'
A380s are configured with a separate bar area, which we enjoyed - perhaps
a bit too much.
At some point during this flight, Tami got her foot twisted in her seatbelt as
she got up out of her seat and fell down, twisting her left knee in the process.
This twist to her knee caused damage that took a few days to set it.
We arrived into Bangkok the next morning, on December 29.
Qatar Airways Business Class lounge in Doha, Qatar
Bar on Qatar Airways A380 upper deck
We walked across the airport, finding our transfer flight on Air Thailand for
Phuket. We went through immigration into Thailand, and waited for a while
in the lounge near our gate. This flight was about an hour, and we arrived
in the early evening at Phuket Airport; what a crazy place! We
walked out of the terminal into a mad-house, looking for our hotel shuttle which
was supposed to be waiting for us. We could not find it in the huge mass
of people looking for their hotel shuttles and taxis, and dozens of taxi drivers
aggressively selling their services. However, they were not as aggressive as
the taxi drivers in Cairo - that
story comes later. We called the hotel to
make sure the shuttle was waiting for us, and they connected us to the hotel rep who
was waiting at the airport. We managed to find each other within a few
minutes; Chris, on the phone: “I am standing outside the door, wearing a black shirt, waving my hands
over my head.”, hotel rep on the phone: “I see you… stay where you are.” He showed us to the van for our
hotel, and we then got to experience the incredible roads of Thailand on the
ride.
Thailand is rated as having the second most dangerous roads in the world. In the week of New Year’s 2016 – 2017, when we were there, 478
people died on Thailand’s roads.http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38660283
After a rather interesting one hour drive to our hotel on the southeast tip of
Phuket Island on the Panwa peninsula, we arrived to our hotel, Sri Panwa.
We made it to our room, and ordered room service
for a late, light dinner before crashing from
the big time difference. Thailand is 12 hours
ahead of the US east coast, so our internal
clocks were ½ day off. Our room was great
and we had our own small private pool.
30 December: Phuket, Thailand
We went downstairs for breakfast, to find that the breakfast buffet was very
good.
It had a US-style breakfast made to order, also with lots of choices from the
buffet for Thai food, all of it delicious. We spent the rest of the day at the
pool and exploring the resort. We made it up to the deck at Boba Nest, at
the very top of the hill at the resort. We had dinner at one
of the restaurants in the resort, and relaxed in our private pool attached
to our room.
Boba Nest, Sri Panwa
31 December: Phuket, Thailand - New Years Eve
We started with the great breakfast buffet again, then more relaxing in the main
pool and our private pool, before getting a
tuk-tuk ride down the hill to just outside the
resort, where we both got massages at a massage parlor. We returned to our
room and got ready for the New Year’s party on the resort. It was
expensive, but how often are you in Thailand for New Years? The party went
on for many hours, with performances by two famous Thai female impersonators, fire jugglers,
a band, and several DJs. We had a bunch of champagne and
wine, before finally making it back to our room sometime on morning of January 1.
1 January: Phuket, Thailand
We slept in, finally getting up just in time for a late breakfast. We
spent a few more hours at the main pool, the caught a tuk-tuk to outside the
gates where we rented mopeds. We rode all over the southern end of the
island, experiencing the incredible Thailand roads and traffic we had seen from
the van. It was scary and fun, but we survived and made it back to the
hotel in time for our dinner reservations at Boba Nest. Sunset was beautiful,
and we spent a couple hours on top of the world with great views of all of
Phuket.
We got up for breakfast again (we were not going to miss the great breakfast
buffet), before heading to our mopeds which we had parked in the scooter lot.
We then rode around the southern end of the island again, visiting new places,
including going through old-town Phuket. We did not hit the same very
high-traffic places we had visited the day
before, but went to more relaxed areas. We
then headed back to the resort,
dropping off our mopeds on the way. Total
cost: about $10 each for 24 hours. Tami's
knee had begun to hurt from the fall she took on
the plane, and by the end of this ride, she was
feeling a lot of pain.
We had the hotel get us a car to our next hotel, which was in Krabi.
It was about a 3 hour ride, which went smoothly. After arriving at the
pier in Krabi, we rode the hotel boat to our hotel, Centara Grande, which can only be
reached via boat or trail through the jungle. That trail is called the
Monkey Trail, as it is through a national park full of monkeys.
The room was
advertised as “ocean-facing”, but we found out that does not mean you can actually see the
ocean. It was also way up on the side of the hill, requiring quite a climb
up some very steep paths. We were very disappointed with our room, when it
suddenly became even worse. As we were deciding if we were going to
ask for a new room, the water drain in the bathroom gurgled and overflowed.
Chris went into the bathroom to see what the sound was, to find that drain had
overflowed from another room with sewage. At the same time, Chris saw a hotel
technician going under the building, presumably to fix whatever was going on.
We immediately called to move, and the staff was very apologetic and helpful.
Someone arrived to drive us in a golf cart to another room, which turned out to
have a view of the ocean and was down at the lowest level, so there was no
climbing up steep paths. They had even taken our bags to that room ahead
of us, as our bags had never made it to our first room, so it all worked out
well. The only problem with the move was that the golf cart battery died
on the way down the hill, and Chris had to get out and push a couple times over
bumps in the pathway. The first photo shows the view from our first room. The
next two photos show the second room, which has a much better view and was
nicer.
View from our first room towards
the ocean.
Look - the back of someone's room!
Our new room;
there is a timelapse of sunset from our balcony
below - the view was much nicer!
Jacuzzi in our new room. We
tried to fill it one night, but found that the very
slow water supply would have taken hours to fill
it.
Resort beach at night.
Resort pool at night.
3 January: Krabi, Thailand
Tami had paid for lounge access with our room, and it ended up being a great deal.
Breakfast, snacks, drinks in the afternoon – they were all included with the
lounge. We had breakfast this morning, and then spent the day on the beach at the
resort. Chris hiked the Monkey Trail through the jungle to Au Nang Beach,
exploring Au Nang for a little bit before returning for more swimming at the
beach resort. We had drinks in the lounge, before having dinner at the
Thai restaurant at the resort. The food was excellent, and we returned for
dinner there again a few nights later.
Centara Grand Krabi
4 January: Krabi, Thailand
Today consisted of breakfast at the lounge, some time on the beach, then we checked out a couple
kayaks and paddled around the rock formations off-shore, before starting to head
over to Railay Beach. The wind became very strong as we rounded the coastline,
and we were not making much progress. We finally headed back out of the
wind, and back to our resort. We cleaned up and then caught a long-tail boat ride
over to Railay Beach. We walked around Railay Beach – east and west
sections, exploring all over, eventually relaxing and swimming at a beach near
the Penis Cave. We had dinner watching sunset at Railay Beach - west, then
caught one of the last boats back to our resort that evening.
We had made reservations for a boat tour to several islands on this day.
We had to catch the boat early at the resort dock, and then spent the rest of
the day going to different islands in the Andaman Sea. The highlight was Maya
Beach at Ko Phi Phi Lee Island, where the movie “The Beach” was filmed. We
went snorkeling at Ko Phi Phi Lee off the boat with tropical fish, and had lunch
on Ko Phi Phi Don, a bigger island nearby. The boat dropped us off back at
the resort at about 5 PM. On the way back to our room, we were surrounded by
monkeys for at least 30 minutes, as they played on the path and outside our room.
At one point, a monkey ran between Tami's legs. We showered and headed to
the lounge for drinks, then over to the resort's Thai restaurant for dinner.
That evening, Chris hiked the Monkey Trail again and walked to the end of Ao
Nang beach for some exercise. The trail is well lit, but it is steep in places.
January 6 - 7, 2017
Krabi, Thailand (KBV) to Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) - Thai Airways,
one night in
Bangkok
Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Cairo, Egypt (CAI) - Qatar
Airways
We had to catch an early boat into Krabi, then a taxi to Krabi Airport for our
flight to Bangkok. We had specifically been asked at the time of check-in
if we needed a ride to the airport when we checked out, and we confirmed then
the hotel would have a car waiting for us at the dock. Nope. We
showed up at the dock on this morning, and there was no ride waiting for us.
The hotel had marked that we would make our own way at checkout. Also,
because it was early morning, there were no taxis available waiting for
passengers. One of the dock workers took us to his truck and he gave us a
ride to the airport. We were lucky, as no ride to the airport would have
meant missing the flight to Bangkok.
We arrived in Bangkok and walked through the terminal to our hotel, which was at
the airport. It was a nice room and we relaxed and tried to figure
out what to do in Bangkok for the night. Tami found a
food tour that went around
Bangkok in tuk-tuks for
several hours in the evening, and signed us up for it. We took the train
into town, and walked around one section of the city for short time, stopping to
have drinks on a street bar. We then took the subway to the beginning of the
food tour and met up with the tour guide. There were 8 people on our tour;
ourselves, a couple from Minnesota, a couple from Japan, and two guys from
Australia on a youth work trip. We all rode in tuk-tuks around Bangkok,
first visiting a couple restaurants. We got to see the cooking area at the
second restaurant, which was the alley behind the place. Most of the
folks on the tour agreed that maybe they should not have shown that to us.
We then went to the largest flower market in town, which was immense and open 24
hours/day. After walking all over the flower market and down some city
streets, we met back up with the tuk-tuks, and headed for the main temple in Bangkok,
where we walked around quite a while more and laid
flowers at one of the shrines. After that, we walked to another area and climbed
up to the sixth floor
of a building on the river, and had drinks looking out over the city. We
headed back downstairs and headed to the last destination, a final restaurant
where the food was going to be all seafood, mainly shrimp and crab (which Chris
is allergic to). Chris’
stomach was in bad shape by this time; the earlier restaurants did not serve us
shell-fish, but it was obvious that everything was cooked together, and Tami’s
knee was hurting a lot. The un-advertised walking around the city and the six
story climb had hurt her knee a lot. We had booked a tuk-tuk tour, not a walking
and climbing tour. We bailed out from the last restaurant, and had our tuk-tuk
take us back to the train station for the airport. We made it back to our
room and crashed.
7 January: Bangkok, Thailand to Doha, Qatar to Cairo, Egypt
We boarded our Qatar Air flight to Doha and rested on the seven hour flight.
Tami had booked this leg of our flights (Bangkok to Cairo) in first class so we
could see the difference in seats and experience the first class lounge at Doha
Airport. That lounge was huge and elegant. We did not have as much
time to experience it as we hoped, as the flight from Bangkok left late.
Chris’ stomach was still not in good shape, so he did not eat at the lounge
either. We did have a personal escort between planes in Doha, as Qatar Air
treats its passengers well.
We boarded our flight to Cairo and
arrived in the late afternoon to terminal 1. We needed visas to enter
Egypt, which can be bought on arrival. They are $25 per person.
Terminal 2 has automated machines marked “Visa” to buy those visas (we saw them
on transit on the way to Thailand), but terminal 1 does not have those machines. There are
five
different Egyptian bank booths in the arrival area which sell visas, but they
are not labeled. After asking where to get visas, we finally figured it
out and were able to go through immigration. We had not experienced the
outside of the terminal at Cairo Airport on the way to Thailand, and the first
time out the doors was a shock. The hotel was supposed to have a
person and van waiting for us for the ride over to the hotel on the
airport grounds, but we did not connect as we were coming out of the
terminal. Dozens of taxi drivers continuously asked us if we needed a
ride; even after saying “No” they would not leave us alone. One taxi
driver followed me around for about 5 minutes while I tried to find our hotel
ride. We found out the next day from our tour guide that the best thing to do is to ignore
them like they are not there. It is not rude; it is just how things are
done. If you acknowledge their presence, even to say “No – leave me alone”, they
will never stop. At one point, after the 28thperson
asked me if I needed a ride in the first 2 minutes out the door, I laughed and
asked “Wow – is it always like this?” He laughed back and said
“Yes”. A few minutes later, we found our driver; he was holding a sign
with our name on it – we had missed him as we came out the door. We
boarded the van over to the hotel and checked in. We stayed at Le Meridien
at the airport, and cannot compliment the hotel and staff enough. They
were fantastic the whole stay, going out of their way to help us and were very
friendly. Our hotel travel status had us upgraded to a lounge room, so we
had drinks, snacks, and food in the lounge each day.
Note that in addition to the many security layers at Cairo Airport (there a
several layers– it will be detailed later), the hotel itself has its own
personal security firm protecting the hotel. We arrived at a roadblock
outside the hotel, where the driver was checked, and a dog was used to sniff the
vehicle all around before the van was allowed behind the heavy duty fence around the hotel.
Once in the hotel lobby, we had to pass through a metal detector and our luggage
passed through a x-ray machine.
8 January: Cairo, Egypt
We had booked a tour of Egypt with a travel guide this day. We had our own
personal guide and driver. Our guide was incredible; he has master’s in
Egyptian history, speaks at least five languages, and has been leading tours for
many years in English, Spanish, German, French, and Arabic. He took care
of us all day, showing us everything that we could want to see; everything you
would ever think of seeing in Cairo when you think of visiting the Pyramids. He
told us the detailed history of the Egyptian gods, the pharaohs, and the
pyramids. He was never at a loss to have something to tell us or how to
deal with the people we would meet or the places we visited.
The one thing that he and all the other tourism-related people we spoke to
during the visit to Cairo wanted to know was “Do you feel safe?”, and they
all wanted us to tell our family and friends that Egypt is safe and everyone
should come visit. It seems like a main theme for Egyptians; after the trip, Chris was searching about the pyramids
on line, and visited the website of Dr Zawi Hawass, probably one of the most
famous archeologists in the world. Check out his website; the
main page with his
photo says “Egypt is safe. We need you back.”
There is a special part of the Egyptian security forces that deal only with
tourism; they are tourist police. As we drove around town (more on the
roads later – wow), we would be stopped at checkpoints manned by the tourist
police. They verified that the guides were licensed, took down their
names, the numbers of visitors they had, where the visitors were staying, what
country they were from, and where they were going next. Our guide
explained to us that they tracked the movements of all tour buses between
checkpoints and verified that all tours made it to where they were supposed to
be. BTW, all these security checkpoints I have talked about (airport,
hotel, tourist, anything…) were manned by personnel carrying machine guns and
protected by flak and bulletproof vests.
Then we drove to Memphis, near Saqqara. Memphis was the capital of ancient
Egypt. Here we visited the open-air
museum, which has many artifacts set out, including a huge statue of Ramses,
sarcophagi, and a sphinx.
On the way from Memphis to Giza, we stopped at the first of the two “cultural”
stops on the tour. This first one was a papyrus factory, where they sold
hand-made papyrus with various prints. You could also get names spelled out in
hieroglyphics on the prints; we bought several for family members as gifts.
Hint: if you visit a papyrus factory, the prices are not set in stone. Buy
a little of what you want, and they will offer a lot more for reduced prices.
We still probably paid more than we should have, but it is most likely a
once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Then it was on to Giza, to see the famous pyramids and the Sphinx. Our tour
guide gave us the options for what we could see at and in the pyramids, and then
bought the appropriate tickets for us. We walked from the entrance station up
the hill to the Great Pyramid, while our guide explained more history as we
walked around the pyramid. The Great Pyramid itself was built in about 2560 BC,
so we were going into a structure which has been around for almost 4600 years.
He then took us to the tourist entrance, which enters the pyramid through the
Robber’s Tunnel, which was cut out in 820 AD. We entered through the level
Robber’s Tunnel, and then began the climb up the Ascending Passage into the
Grand Gallery. There were only a few other people inside with us, and we took
our time, enjoying the uniqueness of this adventure. We climbed all the way up
and into the King’s Chamber, and had it all to ourselves; there was no one else
there.
Great Pyramid Ascending Passage
Great Pyramid Grand Gallery - looking up
We climbed down and out, encountering a large tour group just inside the
entrance – our timing was very good, as the interior was going to be very busy
right after we left. We walked around outside a bit more, then our guide took us
to the van and we drove up onto the plateau above the pyramids for photos of us
with all three Giza pyramids in the background. After stopping in several places for
more photos, we drove back down to the Valley Temple of Khafre, and then walked
up and around the Great Sphinx, where we took more photos and were told more
history.
When we were done, we walked just outside of the pyramid complex for
lunch at Abou Shakra, a restaurant with an incredible view, overlooking all the
pyramids and the Sphinx. After lunch, it was time for another cultural stop,
this time an oil essence factory. These oils are pressed out of flowers, and are
the base oils and scents used for most high-end perfumes and colognes. For
example, they explained that their oil #5 was the same as Chanel #5. We bought
several oils, and again, probably paid too much, but what are going to do? You
are in Egypt – you buy Egyptian stuff. We then said good-bye to our guide at
this point, and the driver took us back to our hotel across town. We got to
enjoy the unique road and traffic that is Cairo for another hour, taking in the
sights all the way back. There is no nice way to put it; Cairo is a DIRTY city;
it is filthy. It is also ancient and incredible and breathtaking -
it is something to be experienced at least once. The roads are wild, but traffic does not move that fast, so
what might be terrible accidents waiting to happen at high speeds end up being
light fender benders. The limited-access roads through and around Cairo,
which would correspond to a beltway around a city in the US, are teaming with
pedestrians crossing in the middle of traffic, and the pavement just has gaps at
random places. There are no lanes, merely masses of traffic moving
together. There were more checkpoints on the way back to the hotel, a security stop to get
into the airport grounds, the security checkpoint with a bomb-sniffing dog to
get into the hotel, and finally the metal detector and x-ray machine in the hotel lobby. We had
dinner at the hotel, and packed for the final flights home.
9 January: Cairo, Egypt
We should have boarded our flight home on this morning, flying Air France from
Cairo to Paris to New York to Washington D.C. There were problems; the
short story is that we were not on the planned flight and we ended up spending
another day at the hotel at the Cairo Airport, with several trips around the
airport to terminals 1 and 3 to buy or confirm tickets for the following day.
If you want to read the long story about
gettign stuck in Cairo, it is here. We had to buy new tickets, leaving January 10 at
7 PM on Qatar Airways. Our new Qatar Airways itinerary went from Cairo to
Doha to Washington D.C. By the time we finally had a confirmed flight out
of Cairo, it was
already late afternoon on January 9, and we were too tired to venture out
into Cairo, so we stayed at the hotel. We at least had club lounge access,
so we enjoyed snacks and wine in the evening.
January 10 - 11, 2017 Cairo, Egypt (CAI) to Doha, Qatar (DOH) to Washington D.C, USA, Dulles Airport
(IAD) - Qatar Airways
10 January: Cairo, Egypt to Doha, Qata
Chris headed over to terminal 1 in the morning to confirm with Qatar Airways we
were all set for our flight that evening. We checked out of the hotel in
the afternoon, took the hotel shuttle over to terminal 1, made it through Qatar
Airways check-in and immigration, and waited for several hours at the lounge for
our flight to be ready to board. Again, the business class portion of the
flight was the last bus to depart the terminal, so that added even more waiting.
We boarded our flight to Doha and then headed to the Qatar Airways
business class customer service desk. Since we were flying business class
and our layover in Doha was almost 7 hours, we had the option of Qatar
Airways putting us up in a hotel for a few hours. The hotel within the
international terminal was full, so the only hotels available were off-site.
This would have meant going through immigration to
enter the country, taking a 20 minute bus ride to the hotel, sleeping for almost
4 hours, then reversing everything and going through security to get back for our outbound flight the next
morning. Instead, we headed for the business class lounge restaurant for a
meal and some champagne, and then found some comfortable wrap-around chairs for
a few hours of sleep in the lounge.
11 January: Doha, Qatar to Washington D.C.
We boarded our flight for the 14 hour ride home. We relaxed, ate a couple
meals, watched movies and TV, and slept. Our internal clocks continued to
be confused. We made it home on-time, and since we had no checked baggage
and both of us have our
Global Entry with US Customs and Border Protection, we expected to move through
the terminal quickly to go pick up our rental car. That ended up being a
problem also. Tami's Global Entry electronic form sailed right through the
system and she was through the immigration and customs lines with no wait at
all. Chris' Global Entry electronic form got flagged and he had to head to
screening. It turned out that screening was because we were originally
scheduled to fly into New York on January 9 on Air France, but then we had bought
new tickets at the last minute to fly on Qatar Airways and arrived home on
January 11 instead. Because the tickets had been purchased through Chris'
Qatar Airways account, his travel was flagged. It added about a 40 minute
wait at the airport. Once Chris actually made it to the screening desk and
explained the flight changes, he was passed through immediately. We took
the shuttle over to the rental car facility at Dulles Airport, picked up our car
and drove home, arriving in the evening on January 11.
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