Although red-eye flights are tough in general, ours to Edinburgh was better than most. That’s because Gary had used his United frequent flier miles to get us premium economy seats, and we also got lucky. Our flight was due to leave Dulles at 10:35 p.m. About an hour beforehand, we were messaged that our plane was going to be delayed 10 minutes due to some type of technical problem. Then we learned we would be moved to another gate, presumably for a new plane. At the new gate, we heard an announcement that a São Paulo-bound flight was delayed until the next morning and our flight would be using that jet instead. That was the lucky part: it wasn’t our flight that would be delayed until the next day.
We got on the plane and found ourselves in nearly luxurious conditions in premium economy: just 2 seats in our part of the row, one on the window and the next on the aisle. And footrests, free headphones, a blanket and pillow, plus a little packet we could keep that contained an eye mask, socks, hand lotion, ear plugs, toothbrush…many things to make the night more comfortable. Dinner with real silverware was brought soon after we took off, with our rows being served first. Free movies and TV shows in the seat backs kept us entertained when we weren’t sleeping. A hot breakfast was served 90 minutes from the end of the 6.5 hour flight. I even managed to sleep a little. It was a darn good red-eye.
We arrived on time at Edinburgh and quickly went through immigration. But then we and all the others passengers on our flight had to wait an hour at baggage claim for our luggage. Don’t know what the problem was there. After finally picking up our bags about noon, we went outside into the overcast, windy, 60-degree Sunday and got an Uber ride to our hotel, the downtown Hilton Edinburgh Carlton. Two very nice rooms were waiting for us there.
We dropped off the bags and went out to walk up the Royal Mile a bit with lots of other tourists, and to find a place to eat lunch. That place was the Deacon Brodie House Cafe, where we had quiches, “toastie” sandwiches, and tomato soup. I enjoyed a ginger beer while the others had coffee. We spent the afternoon after lunch napping and then in the bar and executive lounge of the Hilton for evening drinks and snacks. That’s all we could manage after the flight.
Lori's Travels 