IRELAND - DAY ONE - Getting There

Day 1 Getting There | Day 2 Northern Island | Day 3 Londonderry to Galway | Day 4 Dingle | Day 5 Tralee to Tramore | Tramore to Dublin

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We are now in our hotel in the town of Drogheda just North of Dublin. However, getting here turned out to be a little more complicated that we expected.

We booked our own flights from Tampa using points to get to JFK. Had an hour delay but no big issue. When we got to JFK things got complicated. The tour company had booked us with British Airways - according to our documents, anyways. But when we tried to check in online, our info was not recognized. Figured we would sort it out in New York.

No sign of British Airways at the terminal we were told to to go so we stopped at American Airlines where we were only to be told we were actually on American airlines as they had a code share with BA.

So because we were on the wrong website trying to check in we now became the stone last people on the flight to check in which meant we had MISERABLE seats. We asked about paying for an upgrade we were told it's $7000.

However once on the plane in our awful seats we saw that this Boeing 777-200 (on left) had an Economy Extra class was almost empty and I KNOW that is not a $7000 upgrade. It's basically the same seats but with more leg and side room. Maybe only $100-$200 more typically. What was the check in clerk thinking?

So after take off, Wendy called the head flight attendant over and used my bad foot and walking stick combined with a couple tears about how injured I am and how their check in people did not offer us an upgrade when we asked to pay for it and thereby instantly got us moved to perfect seats in the Economy Extra class free of charge!

6 hours later we arrived at Heathrow, and found our way to Aer Lingus for our one hour flight (back the same way we had just come) to Dublin.

Cool and rainy (big surprise for Ireland) we picked up our rental car and drove for an hour to where we are now.

Our hotel room, comfortable enough to get over the jet lag. Tomorrow we hit the road to see stuff.