V-Flyer

Blast off - another jaunt to the sunny climes of the US West Coast and the high desert indeed of Palm Springs. This year complicated by a side trip to Phoenix for a conference, and tail-ended by a weekend in New Orleans for a friend's birthday celebrations.

So, the itinerary is LHR-LAX-chauffered to Palm Springs-PSP-PHX-PSP-DFW-MSY-IAD-LHR, phew ... I think I booked all the flights and organized cars etc.

But, we had to get there first, and it was a bit of a long day to say the least ... with lovely US internal flights out came the luggage scales for once (never usually bother with VS's generous 70 lbs in UC, and both main bags came in at 49 lbs (a bit tricky with shopping to be done ).

Mr Tristar smack on time, traffic kind, up the ramp, agent waiting with BPs and luggage tags, straight in and through the ever changing DF to the Clubhouse in a shade under 7 minutes (ace ), and nicely sat behind the bar in 10 with a champagne quickly in hand.

Using a little perk of status I had booked a treatment to tidy up the feet for a couple of weeks of pool side relaxing, returned to the seating, another champagne, #1 went off to DF and then, as we had sort of planned, the Dear Lady Dragon found me. What a delight to meat Julie (and later her husband who begin his stay in the Clubhouse watching Wales v. France (shame, so close) ... learning about DL's job, wayward DL the junior, and general chatting and catching up. Enjoyed so much I missed the announcement that our flight was delayed to 12.15, so another champagne for me and delighted to confirm that DL was imbibing champagnes mojitos (after an alcohol free four weeks of dieting, the thought of licquor in the a.m. was a little much for me!).

Alas we were finally called and bade farewell to the DLs (little did I know that we'd meet again later ...) and trudged the very long distance to gate 36.

I seem to recall we were on Varga Girl, an 11+ hr flight time notified, and once on board we were quickly away.

The flight itself was great, I can't honestly say a lot about it, ticked all the boxes, crew were great, spent some good time chatting at the bar, full throughout (as was the VS23 with the DLs on board). The #1 and I ate together, I had the usual starter of the risotto followed by the salmon, which was pretty good actually. Watched Midnight in Paris which is mostly charming, snoozed a bit. Then we were heading in to LAX.

Ahh, this is where it all unravelled, fairly quickly to the front of the queue but something amiss ... lots of clicking on the computer and looking through my passport ... unusual travel patterns he says, what was I doing in Canada, am I a courier, etc. and then yup, secondary inspection. Weirdly no interrogation, no nothing really, just left in a side room for 4 hrs until another officer asks me what I am doing and where am I staying ... stamps me papers, and I'm free. Of course I have visions of deportation ... and probably in economy too ... the #1 was waiting (managed to sneak a couple of text messages to him, but couldn't really say anything, because no one was saying anything to me) ... needless to say we got out to find that our CDC had departed, called the Au line who were frankly useless and basically said that nothing could be done, and by this time we're been up for 22 hrs and did not fancy getting a rental car to drive down to Palm Springs ... all our best laid plans gone awry too (meeting friends for dinner etc.) ...

Thankfully we finally find 'A', the LAX Virgin duty manager and she was a star, got us connected to the limo greeter, 'G', and had a little further wait while a car was found. While waiting we kept ourselves amused by the paparazzi chasing first Seth Rogan as he arrived from somewhere, then Dita von Teese, and then Halle Berry. Then being so delayed, the VS23 arrived and out walked the DLs would you believe it (sadly not to much camera flashing!). Strange to have met again ... thank you US immigration!

Finally we do arrive in PS, about 10.30 pm local time, so about a 24 hr day, quite shattered, but friends are waiting with comforting libations and some late evening chatter before crashing.

Now fearful that the same is going to happen next time I travel, I think it's time to pay the US embassy a visit ...

Everyone's nightmare! The dreaded secondary inspection with the omnipresent fear that the sound of the snapping latex glove will be heard! But what on earth were they doing in those 4 hours? It really beggars belief! And to think I fretted about 40 minutes interrogation in Tel Aviv!

Enjoy the rest of your stay. You've more than earned it

What a nightmare! I hope the rest of your trip will be better.

A pleasure to meet you both too, although it was a bit of a shock to see you again kerbside at LAX given you'd left hours before us !! The secondary screening incident sounds exactly like my ordeal at MIA 4 years ago (albeit mine was only a couple of hours wait) when I was told very little and then had my passport flung at me and told I could leave .
Hope you're having a chilled out time in PS .
DL

Thanks for the TR Slinky -

Its worrying about the secondary inspection. I have Canadian stamps in my passport too and I often go in/out of Toronto via the USA. If they ask I'll deny I have ever heard of you .

Have a great time in PS and the rest of your travels - you can forget the diet now and get back on the cocktails

suddenly my 2 hour wait at LAX immigration just 9 days earlier seems not so bad after all.

The drive to PS after such a journey is no fun either.

Mmmm secondary inspection A poor way to spend 4 hours with no explanation, just silence and attitude
Really hope the rest of your trip improves...you never know your luck, you bump into DL again

Thanks for posting

Thanks Slinky for sharing, from a perfect meet up with DL at the CH and a "tick all boxes" flight experience to 4hrs of secondary screening with little or no info..... downright appalling.

Hope you are chilling and relaxing.

Jon

Petmadness wrote:A poor way to spend 4 hours with no explanation, just silence and attitude

Reminds me of some mornings when my offspring were teenagers.

Is some secondary screening just random - kind of like winning the lottery, only not?

Thanks for putting the TR together. Always good to get the feedback of one of the most frequent flyers.

Paul

My sister got stuck at immigration like this a few weeks back. Just stuck in a room, with her other half stuck in another. No reason, no explanations, no nothing. And then they were just told to go. Sorry, but it isn't good enough - I understand (I think) that they're doing their jobs, but is it really necessary to be so surly, so downright rude???

My sister's surname is Brown, so she thinks it might be cos it's a common name. But I don't know if that should really make a difference - surely profiling looks at that before you land????

I felt sorry for you being stuck in that room not knowing whats next, economy travel back home would be too awful to think off.

Atleast you had Palm Springs to eventually look forward too.

cheers

alex