Flight from Milan to San Francisco

The flight from Milan to San Francisco …

begins with the bus ride from the Crown Plaza Hotel to Milan Malpensa Airport. This first step goes like clockwork. As we already have our boarding passes in our hands thanks to the helpful lady at the Lufthansa counter in Nuremberg, we can skip this step and go straight to security. We don’t need to unpack any laptops or other electronic devices or liquids separately, just place everything on the conveyor belt and that’s it.

Very relaxed, we now look forward to breakfast in the lounge, which is actually quite good. The cappuccino in particular is very good, as long as you have it prepared by a friendly member of staff. In contrast, the machine-made cappuccino tastes much worse.

With our strength thus restored, we stroll around the airport a little and notice that it is not just the usual retailers that offer their goods here, but also many smaller, but also finer stores that cannot be found at other airports.

Just like yesterday, the plane to Zurich departs very punctually today. The air is very clear during the flight over the Alps and I am delighted by the snow-covered landscape that opens up beneath the plane. Only shortly before landing do we plunge back into the gray under the clouds that we unfortunately know too well from the past few weeks.

Poor service in Zurich

Although we had booked the entire trip in Business, we had been upgraded to First Class for the long-haul flight to San Francisco. And normally you are met at the plane, escorted through passport control and taken to the lounge. This time, however, no one is waiting and we have to find our own way.

But the catering in the First Class Lounge is excellent. We enjoy our stay until we are picked up to board the plane. Here, too, we are “simply” left alone in Terminal E instead of being given the usual assistance with boarding.

On board to SFO

But luckily we are already grown ip and make it to our seats on the plane on our own. The captain greets us personally and promises us a smooth and punctual flight.

We are pampered by every trick in the book, the flight is exceptionally smooth and we land almost half an hour before the scheduled time.

Unfortunately, we are not picked up from the plane to be taken through immigration in a fast lane, but instead we stand in line with all the other passengers to receive our luggage barely an hour later. All our checked bags arrived in San Francisco intact!

Arrival in San Francisco

I had already booked a ride from the airport to our hotel in Germany, and Emanuel, our driver, arrived relatively punctually at the agreed meeting point. He takes us to the city center in just over half an hour in a very calm and relaxed manner. The Hilton Financial District is in Chinatown and therefore very central.

As always, check-in is quick and professional. Only the announcements confuse us a little: breakfast is normally a benefit of Diamond membership with Hilton. But not here: there is only a credit of $18 per person per day. And this $36 can only be used on the day in question; you can’t collect it, but the amount simply expires if you don’t use it!

An upgrade at least takes us to the 26th floor of the hotel, which the automated voice in the elevator promisingly announces as the “Executive Floor”. However, an associated executive lounge was abolished without further ado. Something like that is just too expensive for the management! This is pretty weak and makes us doubt our loyalty to the Hilton Group.

The fact that we don’t find any bathrobes or the two bottles of water in our room, which are also included as a benefit, is almost no longer surprising.

Fortunately, we are far too tired to be annoyed about anything and fall straight into our beds. At least the view out of the window of Coit Tower and Alcatraz is truly magnificent!

Good night!

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