Rome to Frankfurt to Singapore to Auckland to Wellington. It was going to take some time. It has ended up taking an extra 24 hours.

Firstly the flight from Rome to Frankfurt we delayed by a good 90 minutes (departure time kept slipping back 15 minutes at a time) because of weather related issues. Not that we were told this. Guess we were lucky to get away as flights to Munich and other places were cancelled. But we only had 90 minutes in Frankfurt to connect with flight to Singapore. Concern expressed to desk who assured it would be alright. Concern expressed on flight – we were told that all rebookings etc would be announced before arriving in Frankfurt. They were. Ours wasn’t mentioned. When we landed we were parked on the Tarmac with buses to take us to the terminal so had to wait for entire plane to empty out. Some of those people were in no hurry at all. Asked the question again and were told just to get too gate. So we scurried across Frankfurt airport to Z62, saw the plane was at the gate being de-iced. Only to be greeted my the least charming German man I’ve ever come across who informed us that the gate was closed and that was it. All done with that “I don’t give a fuck” look that you sometimes get from truculent teenagers. The word sorry was clearly not in his vocabulary.

So it was a hike across the airport to a helpful young man who sorted our hotel and food vouchers. Then upstairs to the ticket office to try and reschedule. Off course trying to get premium economy fights etc was difficult. The woman on duty was great and worked at it beyond the airports (lufthansa’s) shut down timeof 11:00 p.m. Finally it was all sorted with tickets the next night to Hong Kong and then onto NZ with Air NZ. Waitlisted for business.

Of course we were too late for the shuttle to the hotel so had to call a cab. The hotel was in a warehousing type estate. A one stage I did start to wonder if we would end up did in a neglected warehouse somewhere but eventually got deposited. Exorbitant fare but, too their credit Lufthansa did refund.

Got checked in. The restaurant closed at midnight so it was too late for dinner so were given lunch packs. Discovered these main item in these were tuna fish sandwiches. I ask you, tune fish!!?? Fortunately the bar stayed open until 1:00 a.m. So could get a drink. Were also able to swap sandwiches for something more palatable. Then to sleep. The beds comfortable, the room quiet.

We had been given a 2:00 p.m. Check out so spent the morning lolling around, having a post breakfast nap (me) then off to airport for a number of hours. We could have gone into the linge but baulked at the 25 euro each charge. We’d been issued with a summary voucher the night before by the ticket people who said we just had t present it at he gate as soon as it opened and they’d issues the boarding passes. But we double checked this on arrival and were assured that we were booked and yes that was all we had to do. And the flight details had appeared on my AirNZ app.

Seats at the gate were comfortable, we could plug in phones and iPads so we whiled a number of hours away there. I was able to help a Croatian woman get connected to airport wifi. Usually a straight forward task but unfamiliar phone, her broken English and my total inability to read Croatian increased the challenge, but we got there and I had a new friend. Elizabeth a was her name. She was going to have a holiday with her brother who lives in Hong Kong.

Lufthansa staff appeared at 9:00 so Ju wandered over to get seats confirmed only to be told that we had no booking, were just waitlisted and that flight was overbooked anyway!!! After a little push back from us gate clerk contacted the manager of the ticket office who had fortunately been there the previous night so knew the bookings had been made. I had discovered that the booking had disappeared from my App. Clearly someone had stuffed up big time and things started to happen. Within 15 minutes we were booked into business class on the flight to Singapore (same as we’d been meant to be on the night before) we were set to that gate while they worked to retrieve our luggage (did they? Who knows?). Got documented and onto the plane. Sculled the complimentary glass off bubbles. But did truly relax until plane was off the ground.

Reasonable amount of sleep though it was quite rough in places. Had to abort first approach to Singapore because of wind. Did start to wonder where we might end up but landed on second go. Next step to find out where we were going next as they were still working on that when we left Frankfurt. So rocked up to Singapore ticketing and confirmed we were booked business class to Wellington via Canberra. Again, hope the luggage knows this. And of course we get access to the lovely Silver Kris lounge. Once settled I decided to grab my wallet and pop down to duty free. No wallet. Panic. Started to retrace steps. First stop the ticketing desk. Had left it there.Phew. Not moving from the linge until boarding. No more dramas needed. Just a shower.

Have to say all the Lufthansa people we dealt with were really good – expecting of course the mega-arse (sorry for the language mother but I have moderated it) we met first at Frankfurt. And when the realised they had stuffed up they certainly worked to put it right with style.

Yesterday was our Coral Wedding Anniversary. Memorable.