We flew United Airlines to Scotland because their route and timing worked best for us. We boarded in Jacksonville Florida, had a 4 hour layover in Newark NJ and arrived in Glasgow Scotland at 7 am. When returning home, we flew from Edinburgh to Jacksonville with a 4 hour layover in Chicago.
Jacksonville Check-In: Although we completed the on-line pre-check-in, we were required to check-in at the airport because it was an international flight. The check-in process was not intuitive and not easy for people who are not familiar with the machines and for people who have a visual impairment. One person at the United counter was very nice and helped us to complete check-in at the kiosk, her name was Charmika. I am not sure why there are kiosks when every person checking in required assistance with the kiosks. Perhaps the kiosks need to be re-worked so they are easier to use.
Newark: After arriving in Newark, we moved to concourse C from A by bus – it was very easy to determine what we needed to do and where we needed to go based on the signage in the terminal. The buses waited until there was no room available before they would move, even if there was another bus waiting for passengers. In my opinion, this was unnecessary and it did cause several people on the bus (including some flight crew members) a bit of anxiety in their hurry to reach their destination.
Concourse C is United’s concourse in Newark. The United Club in this section does not allow day passes so we did not check it out. All tables on the concourse have 4 ipads where you can play games and order food. These are pretty cool but there are no flat tables available for you to use your laptop, play cards, etc.
We walked down to the Global Bazaar to eat. This is a large area in the middle with several restaurants and grocery story type coolers. You walk around and choose what you would like to eat then you go to self-checkouts and pay for your food. Sounds easy enough but many people are wandering around with no idea of what to do. Step 1: locate and walk up the the restaurant counter and order food on an ipad in front of the restaurant. Step 2: the worker at the restaurant tells you to take the printout to a self-checkout lane to pay for your food and Step 3: return to the restaurant to pick it up. This designed is flawed. Why do you need to leave the restaurant to pay? Why can’t the ipad in front of the restaurant accept payment? If you stumble across a check-out that looks different from the others cash payment is accepted – there is no signage to tell you that cash is/is-not accepted. After finally getting food, leave the Global Market and return to one of the tables with ipads to eat — there really is not space to eat your food or talk to the people at the because the ipads are bolted to the table and are in the way. Ordering from the ipads will be easier but not sure about the variety of food available or the wait time.
Flying to Scotland from Newark was interesting. Our overnight flight was less than 6 hours. We ate dinner (which surprised me because we didn’t leave until 7:30pm) and breakfast. There was not much time to sleep between the meals. This flight included free beer and wine because it was an international flight.
Glassgow: The arrival area is beautiful and the customs people were very nice. It was easy to find our luggage and depart the airport.
Edinburgh: We arrived at the airport 3 hours early for our international flight, as requested. The Edinburgh airport has lots of counters but people were very nice and pointed us in the correct direction. There was a nice young man at the checkin area to ask us the standard questions and send us to the counter, no unfriendly kiosks here. We found our terminal and waited for our flight – there is a larger waiting area with more comfortable seating in the center of the airport but we did not utilize that space, we stayed at the terminal.
This flight was 8 hours long and included lunch and a snack – less food than the overnight flight – and free beer and wine were also included because it was an international flight.
Chicago: Although there were some bright spots, this was overall a horrible experience. We left the airplane and walked a very long way to customs. We had utilized the mobile customs app and were able to skip some of the line. A very nice customs agent welcomed us back to the USA and we went to retrieve our luggage. When we finally figured out which way to leave the luggage area (no easy to see signs, we just saw a long line and figured it out), we stood in a long line where another customs agent looked at the app/form and sent us to drop off our bags for the connecting flight. Here is were it gets crazy. The United people scanned our luggage and told us to take it to the other side and drop it off, I imagine they said Terminal 2 but it meant nothing to me. The guy taking our luggage gave us the gate number to find. Then we were directed into the main Chicago airport. Having never been to the main Chicago airport and not knowing there were multiple terminals, we struggled to figure out where we were going and how to get there. They have a train that arrives and departs frequently but it is so crowded with people that getting on and off is a challenge. I imagine there are you-tube videos showing the craziness of this. After arriving at your terminal, you join the standard TSA security line which requires you to take off your shoes, belt, etc. From previous international flights, I knew we were going to have to pass through TSA security again but I did not expect the lines to be moving so slowly. If we had a 2 hour layover, we would have missed our connection.
The Jacksonville airport is very quiet and all of the stores were closed when we arrived at 10pm. Made it so easy to find our luggage.
Praise God – we made it there and back with turbulence on each flight but no physical illness or mishaps. These really long travel days are not desirable and I will be looking into better ways to make this part of the trip less horrible.
What do you suggest?
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