Hi everyone,
Presently in the Delta Lounge at Orlando International.
Our return flight (VS 16 MCO – LGW yesterday, Tuesday 20 November) was cancelled – technical problems!!!. We are now booked on a completely new flight VS1016 today (Wednesday 21 November) at more or less the same timings – departing 1735, eta LGW 0830 – which is currently showing as being around a half hour delayed. Before we knew about yesterday’s cancellation, we had deposited three of our bags at the Disney Springs ‘bag drop’ and kept one (planning to drop it when we got to the airport) which had a few bits and pieces including our change of clothes for travelling. Just as well we did as we then had just enough stuff – sponge bags, etc - to manage the extra day/night in Florida.
VA staff were splendid. Apologised profusely and booked us into the Hyatt Regency in the airport at MCO and gave us meal vouchers – 2 x $35 for dinner, 2 x $25 for breakfast and a further 2 x $20 for lunch the following day (today). We were provided with numerous information sheets and brochures including details about the compensation we could claim. Looks like Mrs South Roma and I will each receive a total of 25,000 additional miles, 600 Euros and a ‘Sorry Voucher’??? We were told to return to the check in desk at 1330 today to book in for tonight’s flight.
Spent a reasonably good night at the Hyatt, eighth floor room overlooking the runways, and had all our meals in the McCoy and Hemisphere restaurants. Food very good. Hotel is first class and we really enjoyed our stay (despite the hassle).
This morning we used some of our time to call in at the Global Entry office, as we hadn’t had our confirmation emails following our interviews last week, and thought we might enquire if there had been a delay. More in hope than expectancy I signed in on the sheet by the door of the office and ticked the ‘question’ box, adding: ‘just a very brief question’. Astonishingly, one of the TSA officers (who I subsequently discovered to be the ‘boss’) came out, checked the sheet and called my name. I explained the situation and he actually invited us in while he very kindly checked. He confirmed that we had been approved (which we had already been told during our interviews last week) and that the emails had been sent. So where they are, who knows? The IO supervisor was very friendly and helpful and we came away reasonably pleased, but still no closer to getting our emails. I can pnly hope that the reference numbers we had for our applications/interviews are the same as those needed for the GE confirmations. I’ll endeavour to add them to our flying club details when we are back home and I will post how I get on.
As I hadn’t been able to report our GE status to VA we didn’t get TSA pre check but did manage to get ‘priority’ thanks to our UC bookings when coming through passport control earlier this afternoon. Took about 15/20 minutes – about five/ten minutes faster than the regular line, but the TSA lines were virtually empty and people were getting through in about two/three minutes tops.
MCO reasosnably busy, but not as manic as I had expected for the day before Thanksgiving.
Weather very good here in Florida, and we are not looking forward to the low temperatures we are hearing about back in the UK.
Kind regards,
John
Presently in the Delta Lounge at Orlando International.
Our return flight (VS 16 MCO – LGW yesterday, Tuesday 20 November) was cancelled – technical problems!!!. We are now booked on a completely new flight VS1016 today (Wednesday 21 November) at more or less the same timings – departing 1735, eta LGW 0830 – which is currently showing as being around a half hour delayed. Before we knew about yesterday’s cancellation, we had deposited three of our bags at the Disney Springs ‘bag drop’ and kept one (planning to drop it when we got to the airport) which had a few bits and pieces including our change of clothes for travelling. Just as well we did as we then had just enough stuff – sponge bags, etc - to manage the extra day/night in Florida.
VA staff were splendid. Apologised profusely and booked us into the Hyatt Regency in the airport at MCO and gave us meal vouchers – 2 x $35 for dinner, 2 x $25 for breakfast and a further 2 x $20 for lunch the following day (today). We were provided with numerous information sheets and brochures including details about the compensation we could claim. Looks like Mrs South Roma and I will each receive a total of 25,000 additional miles, 600 Euros and a ‘Sorry Voucher’??? We were told to return to the check in desk at 1330 today to book in for tonight’s flight.
Spent a reasonably good night at the Hyatt, eighth floor room overlooking the runways, and had all our meals in the McCoy and Hemisphere restaurants. Food very good. Hotel is first class and we really enjoyed our stay (despite the hassle).
This morning we used some of our time to call in at the Global Entry office, as we hadn’t had our confirmation emails following our interviews last week, and thought we might enquire if there had been a delay. More in hope than expectancy I signed in on the sheet by the door of the office and ticked the ‘question’ box, adding: ‘just a very brief question’. Astonishingly, one of the TSA officers (who I subsequently discovered to be the ‘boss’) came out, checked the sheet and called my name. I explained the situation and he actually invited us in while he very kindly checked. He confirmed that we had been approved (which we had already been told during our interviews last week) and that the emails had been sent. So where they are, who knows? The IO supervisor was very friendly and helpful and we came away reasonably pleased, but still no closer to getting our emails. I can pnly hope that the reference numbers we had for our applications/interviews are the same as those needed for the GE confirmations. I’ll endeavour to add them to our flying club details when we are back home and I will post how I get on.
As I hadn’t been able to report our GE status to VA we didn’t get TSA pre check but did manage to get ‘priority’ thanks to our UC bookings when coming through passport control earlier this afternoon. Took about 15/20 minutes – about five/ten minutes faster than the regular line, but the TSA lines were virtually empty and people were getting through in about two/three minutes tops.
MCO reasosnably busy, but not as manic as I had expected for the day before Thanksgiving.
Weather very good here in Florida, and we are not looking forward to the low temperatures we are hearing about back in the UK.
Kind regards,
John
