Flight was leaving at 3pm, so me being paranoid as I am, got my younger brother to come and help me bring the cases downstairs for 10am, the plan was, the porters would help me with my cases at the airport. Luckily, the csb driver told us that there were no porters there!!
So, this is the day of the car bomb found in London ( about 15 mins from my house actually!!).
We got to the airport and the driver helped us unload. Now, the luggage trolleys only take 2 suitcases, I had 9 plus two pieces of hand luggage.
So we decided I'd go with my son to the check in with two cases while my brother waited with the rest of the cases. So took two and went to check in. When I got there, they said I wasn't allowed to leave the cases there. So I was ok, I'll leave my son with the cases and go get my brother. They said I wasn't allowed to leave my son unaccompanied. So I stopped a passing policeman and made him watch my son watch the cases lol....
Check was a breeze, I was amazed that the check in girl said as long as all my cases were below the allowed limit, they wouldn't charge me for the extra 5!!
I could have kissed her lol!!
I took my desktop on a little trolley as hand luggage, they were a little worried about that, but then decided it was allowed (whew!). When I went through airport security, again they looked at it askance, but decided it was allowable....
The lines for airport security were HUGE, but we got to go through fast track, so that was excellent smile.gif
The airline I went with had a business lounge, was really nice, drinks, food, and best of all some PCs smile.gif
They were really nice there, they called me and my son for pre-boarding, we were the first to go to board the plane, unfortunately we got nabbed by the 'random' security check, who stole my needle (don't ask me why I had needle and thread!!) and my nail file, but left me with my tweezers and some dangerously sharp pencils whistling.gif
The cabin staff were EXCELLENT, they took both pieces of carryon luggage from me and stowed them by the entrance...
Seats were AMAZING, reclined a full 180 degrees, to be honest, they were more comfortable than my BED because I could adjust it exactly how I wanted.
Got to Dulles, was the first person in the immigration line, the office couldn't have been friendlier.
He told me whatever I did not to leave before getting married and getting AP. Also told me to get married in 90 days and go to get a social security card in two weeks or so.
I said to him how paranoid I'd been about opening the 'do not open' envelopes from the Embassy and he was really casual about it, saying as long as the contents were there it was fine. He said the security checks had a right to open them if they wished, so legally they COULD be opened!! I was like 'hmmmmmmm'.
He gave them back and he told me to go get my luggage and go to secondary inspection. Went and woke up a porter who grudgingly got my suitcases from the conveyor.
Went to secondary inspection, the guy there took my passports and forms, took the forms and gave me the passports back. Then told me "welcome to America!'. I was like 'um was that IT????'. He was like 'yup'. Took a MAXIMUM of 90 seconds!!
Then went outside, my fiance hadn't even left yet, he'd thought I would have been tied up for hours.....

Must have been one of my easiest trips EVER!!!

Congratulations! What a fantastic experience, must be a good omen for your new life home in the US!
Best wishes

Yay!!! Congrats! I am SO glad your Maxjet flight was fine -- I was worried when you posted you were flying on them to Dulles as I had such a bad experience with them last year. Your POE sounds like a breeze!

Wow. What a great experience!!! Congratulations and welcome home!

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations

Congratulations I'm glad you had a good trip home!

Dawn.

How wonderful! I'm so glad you had a good experience!

Congrats to you!!

Congrats, and welcome Home

Yay! Congrats! And welcome

Congrats & welcome to the US!!!!! Glad it all went well for you!

Congratulations, really pleased you had a good trip. Great review...

Now you can really have fun!!

Congrats and thanks for posting your experience. It was reassuring to read the positive experiences of others, whilst waiting to be the next to go through it. Welcome to America.

Thanks for the review That's fantastic!! That's where my POE will be too.

Maxjet?? Are they worth looking into then? Are the reasonable priced? I've never heard of them...

Thank you all for the continued good wishes

I had heard a few negative reviews of Maxjet, but my flight was seamless!
They are VERY competitive for one way flights, unlike many other airlines, they charge you half the flight cost.
Their baggage allowance I found very generous, two 32 kilo cases included, and extra suitcases at £30 each, they said there was no limit on how many extra you could bring.
Loved their airport lounge, they had croissants, bagels, strawberries and cream, pastries, fresh fruit, champagne, soft drinks, freshly squeezed orange juice, free newspapers, lots of seating, power outlets, wireless internet plus two PCs.
Food onboard was the best I've had, served on real plates with real cutlery, also snacks freely available for the duration of the flight.

Sounds great!! I might have to look into them myself! Only thing is it looks as though they only fly from Stanstead? That's a bit of a bugger to get to from where I am.

Hmm.. Will definitely have a look though!

Last year when i got my visa i actually found it cheaper to buy a return flight and just toss the return flight in the bin when i got to where i was going, if i remember correct, the one-way ticket was gonna cost me 657 quid to fly out of glasgow via london to charlotte in november and a return flight cost me 595 quid. obviously i chose the cheapest but looking around the websites this year for summer flights to bring my son over for a 2 week holiday i noticed a return flight was only 514 quid ...i was like wth?? I only fly with Continental or U.S Airways so i guess it pays to shop around these days for the cheapest flights hmmm