Tuesday, March 6/Wednesday, March 7: Kansas City to London

I’d worked myself into a frenzy of worry over this trip.  Ordinarily I DO worry about all the stuff I can’t control on my trips, which is understandable given the number of times airlines have pulled the rug out from under me- late flights, cancelled flights, diverted flights, missed connections- and just when I think I’ve seen everything they surprise me- and not in a good way.  This time it was complicated:  because I had enough miles to fly only 3 segments in Business and had to go from London to home in Coach, the only way I could book it was in two pieces- the KC-London round trip and the London-Delhi round trip.  This meant that, in theory, the airline had no obligation to get me to London in time to make the flight to Delhi.  What would happen if I got delayed going into London?  I had a 24-hour layover but my last flight to London (also on American) had been cancelled and I’d been sent out on the same flight- the next day.

I needed Xanax and all I had were some crummy anti-malaria pills.  A gym workout, followed by the distraction of a morning Garden Club meeting, helped a little.

I got to the airport 3 hours before flight time and-yes, thank You, God!- was able to get on an earlier flight.  They stuck me in Coach but I had a row to myself and was happy to make that trade-off in order to get into Chicago over an hour earlier.  More time to swill free wine and enjoy the munchies in the airline Club.

The BA flight to London took off pretty much on time after a de-icing.  I was in one of the middle section of “pods” since I didn’t ante up the money to choose my seat, but the flight was mostly in darkness anyway.

Breakfast selection in BA's Arrivals Lounge.  Sorry, I left my statins at home.

They call this "black pudding" to fool the tourists.  It's also known as "blood pudding"- made from cow's blood.   I'd tried it before years ago in Scotland- not thrilled with it- and was already getting into Vegetarian Mode so I passed it up.