The Ancient Macedonia tour ended where it began, in Sofia, Bulgaria. We ordered a taxi and made our way back to modern, easy to navigate Sofia Airport for Leg 1; a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Leg 2 would not be until the next morning, Frankfurt to Chicago on my favorite United Airlines flight which departs around 8:00a and lands in Chicago at 10:15a local time leaving an entire day to settle in back home.
It takes less than 30 minutes from downtown Sofia to the airport when traffic is light which it was today. Tipping advice for taxis in Sofia was to round up the meter difference. We added more than that but our driver was not at all happy with his tip and made that obvious. You win some, you lose some… An easy check-in with Lufthansa, zoomed through passport control and into a Duty Free souvenir shop to spend what little Bulgarian Lev was left.
TIP: Convert currencies only as needed! You do not want to get stuck with lots of Lev or Denar.
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Sofia Airport ATM
Sofia, Bulgaria Airport
control tower at Sofia Airport
The Vitosha Lounge is open to Business Class and Star Alliance Gold status flyers. It may be small but it is mighty in service, food, take-away snacks (chips, candy bars) and drinks. We stoked up before boarding a short, two-hour flight to Frankfurt which managed to leave on time, serve a sandwich, drinks, and land right on schedule.
Vitosha Lounge, Sofia Airport
Vitosha Lounge, Sofia Airport
Vitosha Lounge, Sofia Airport
gooey Panini served in Lufthansa Economy Class
Standing around the baggage carousel in Frankfurt, only three suitcases came off, none of which were ours. I then looked at the baggage tags for the first time. Duh… For the first time ever, Lufthansa checked our bags all the way through to Chicago. Did personnel ask if we wanted them checked all the way through? No. Does Lufthansa ever check bags all the way through when a passenger is connecting onto an American carrier the next day? No. Were we stupid not to look at the baggage tags at check in? A b-i-g Yes
There we stood, with no luggage, and all necessities packed inside including medications; a big no-no in the travel world. You would think two people who fly over 100,000 miles a year would know to carry necessary medications (fortunately, not a life or death situation), and to check luggage tags, wouldn’t you? Bad us…
A long conversation with Lufthansa who said it was complicated to get luggage back and would take hours, definitely not worth the hassle. They gave us two amenities kits, we picked up backpacks and took the shuttle bus over to Holiday Inn Express, Moerfelden for one night, frustrated at our stupidity.
Holiday Inn Express shuttle charges are: 5 EUR per person, per stay. We used IHG Points (formerly Priority Club) for a free night stay and still upset over the luggage debacle, made ourselves “happier” by telephoning United Airlines for space available Global Upgrades to Business Class on the next day’s flight.
Travels With Sheila believes in full disclosure and that includes my ridiculously stupid travel boners. Let’s see…2013:
- Two flights were cancelled resulting in overnight stays – neither of those were our fault but still aggravating;
- I left my Indian visa at home in an expired passport – that was the Mother of All Stupidity;
- Packed necessary medications in a suitcase; and now
- Neglected to look at luggage tags while checking in to make sure they were tagged to the correct destination. What’s next?
