Arriving 8 hours late at 17:30 in Munich on our UA 194 SFO flight meant needing a hotel overnight in Germany before flying on to Venice the following day. Lufthansa took care of us in a way that makes me wish we had flown a European airline to Europe. After less than 10 minutes with a Lufthansa Customer Service agent in the airport we were rebooked for an 8:25am flight on Air Dolomiti for Munich to Venice with boarding passes in hand. We also had a hotel free night voucher for Hotel NH München Airport in Oberding, two dinner vouchers for the hotel and free shuttle.
Outside the airport was bitter cold at -1C/30F with a 10 to 15 mph wind. The shuttle ran every 30 minutes and we waited about 15 to 20 minutes for the bus to arrive. After spending 13 hours at SFO wearing a mask, Germany seemed odd with many people maskless in the airport and most people maskless waiting for airport shuttles. Germany dropped their mask mandates for airports at the beginning of April.
Hotel NH München Airport
Kelley wanted dinner straight away. We went downstairs to find a dinner buffet in the restaurant and an active bar. I ordered two large Lowenbrau at €5.00 each and we filled our plates. There was nothing much to brag about dinner wise, but at least it was hot food and salad offerings. I had not eaten much since we left San Francisco.
Back in the room we passed out quickly, but when I woke up at 2:15 I started thinking about that damn EU Passenger Locator form. A check of the rules stated we needed to submit new forms since we left the airport in Munich. I spent another hour filling out and resubmitting our forms. Most of the information had been saved so I only needed to fill out about half the sections again. The flights section seemed important since our original forms had us arriving in Venice on a flight the day before.
We had a 6:30am shuttle reservation and we were down at the breakfast dining room at 6:00.
There were hot food dishes with eggs, bacon, pork meat, sausages, plenty of yogurts, breads, fruits, sliced meats and cheeses. And salad too.
Back on the shuttle at 6:30am and to the airport by 6:45. I figured we could hang out at the Lufthansa lounge for about an hour before our flight.
Surprise at the Lufthansa lounge when I was informed that since our flight was on Air Dolomiti that we do not have Star Alliance lounge access when flying one of the Star Alliance Cooperation Partner airlines: Air Baltic, Air Dolomiti, Air Malta and LuxAir. That was news to me. Turns out I had never flown any of these Star Alliance Cooperation Partner airlines before.
Even worse, about 20 minutes after we arrived at the gate for our Air Dolomiti flight I realized I no longer was in possession of my boarding pass I had shown to the agent in the Lufthansa lounge. Unsure how long it would take to go back to the lounge to see if they had my boarding pass and get back to our gate with only 35 minutes before scheduled flight departure. And still no gate agent yet. I decided to wait for the gate agent.
Turns out that my lost boarding pass likely saved our trip to Venice that day.
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