London Jan. 4: Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

Houston-Intercontinental, Houston TX (IAH)

I arrived at the airport at about 5:21p and returned the rental car without any hitches. I went downstairs to get the bus back to the terminal, stopping at the men’s room to wash my hands. I followed the signs to the waiting bus; the signs actually direct you to go back upstairs, but not as far as where the cars are returned.

I needed to get to Terminal E, but there were only buses for Terminal C and D & Terminal A and B. I figured I’d just take the one for C and D, get off at the first stop and then walk over to E. About two others joined myself and another guy in the bus and then we left.

The first stop was terminal D, so I disembarked. There were passengers queuing for the KLM Boeing 737-700 BusinessJet with I think 44 seats to Amsterdam as well as BA2026 at 7:30p to London-Gatwick. There was also signage for the 6:01p flight to London-Heathrow via Detroit, but I did not see anyone at that counter.

I also noticed that the Emirates counter was clear and it was only 5:39p; the flight leaves at 6:25p so that means they must have had a light load; I’ve been trying to get on that flight since its third day of operation.

I headed downstairs and made my way to Terminal E, where I cleared security; there was a Nigerian family that went through extra screening at the checkpoint. They were taking forever, so I went ahead of them. They even had a TSA person to help them. It was a sight to see as they had a lot of stuff to remove before clearing security.

In the meantime, I cleared and moved ahead towards the Presidents Club. After I had my documents checked, I headed upstairs for a drink and some snacks. I plugged in my phone and my computer and finished up some stuff I had to do, in addition to checking work e-mail. I also picked up some newspaper for reading later.