GETTING TO SCOTLAND

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Readers, all one of you, need to understand my personality. With choices comes confusion! Always has - always will.

I began with Expedia for routes. I initially thought I should at least land in Edinburgh or Glasgow. That would place me in the location where I could catch a train. Fares were around the $700 mark, but were nonrefundable. What if something comes up like an emergency, or what if my health fails? While 5 mos out sounds unreasonable to plan a trip, no one knows what will happen during that time. AND I'm the type of individual who has to have everything planned down to the last detail. I don't leave things to chance and wanted my flight booked NOW. All carriers originating in NY which went to Scotland originated from NY, however, with a stopover in the country the airline was affiliated with, adding to the trip time. And I had to get to NY from D.C. Hum, train plane? Well almost all of the cheap-seats by air were commuter airlines (yep, those small jets subcontracted by a major airline). Unreliable and with limited baggage space. You see, coming back from Africa a very long time ago, I landed in NY, transferred to a "commuter plane" and while I made it home, my luggage didn't! So I'm no big fan of those flights.

And in-between retiring and this trip, something has happened to the airline industry. I've read a lot of bad comments from angry travelers, and in particular about United Airlines service, where there seems to be a total lack-of. I cringe every-time I read FlyersRights.org emails; you know that organization which sprang out of frustration of being held captive for 8 hours on a plane going NO WHERE! So yes, at best I'm skeptical; at worse down right scare.

And in the meantime, while agonizing over routes, prices began to soar. What the heck! I believe my PC must have been cookie'd so I couldn't get to previous flights! That takes me to my Frequent Flyer airline, United! I have racked up a lots of miles using their credit card, And since I bought the horse and with a dog, I am no longer was traveling. So I pulled up their website and through many attempts finally located the drop down for booking a flight. Well I didn't have enough to book what I wanted, which was ???? I hadn't figured that out yet. So I spent a few days of do I go to London and transfer to an Inverness flight? What time would I leave? And what if my luggage didn't make it? I would be without riding clothes and equipment!

In the end, I decided to spend a few days in London JUST IN CASE. This would allow lost luggage a catch-up time. And I initially decided to take the train up to Inverness.

Back to the flight. I settled on an evening departure with early morning arrival in London Heathrow. The departure gives me time to drop my dog at a boarding kennel enroute to the airport. The price of course went up during my "thinking" period, but hey, this is my last big trip (maybe) so I decided to cover expenses from savings. I got my S fare and while trying to use miles for upgrade, got stuck with some online glitch, and had to call the airline to bail me out. What a shocker to discover you now have to PAY a fee to upgrade plus miles. So I sucked it up and paid for both directions, only to find out my return upgrade is "stand-by". So in addition to BC upgrade, I paid for Economy Plus seat! I must own stock in UA at the rate I'm going here. But I was promised a full refund plus my miles if I don't get upgraded.

Oh and don't think I'm not checking for any "changes" that the website might make to my route and seating. And am also following that upgrade. I'm just enough of a snob to want BC but also with my legs, actually need to have them elevated. More to come on in-country planning....oh the decisions...

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