Intro and Greensboro to Chicago
Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Toronto and Exploring Toronto
Air Canada Executive First Suite Toronto to Istanbul
14 Hours in Istanbul
Aegean Airlines Business Class Istanbul to Athens
Hotel Amalia Athens and Exploring Athens (Part 1)
Exploring Athens (Part 2)
Athens Airport Lounges and Aegean Airlines Athens to Santorini
Anamnesis Luxury Spa Hotel and Exploring Santorini (Part 1)
Exploring Santorini (Part 2)
Exploring Santorini (Part 3) and Aegean Airlines Santorini to Athens
Holiday Inn Athens Airport and Aegean Airlines Athens to Milan
UNA Hotel Cusani and Exploring Milan
United Business Class Milan to Newark to Greensboro

After our early morning flight from Greensboro to Chicago, we made our way to Gate C5 where our Chicago to Toronto flight would be leaving from.  The flight was on a CRJ-700, which is a relatively small regional jet, but United (along with several other airlines) has installed a First Class cabin on these planes.  It’s not earth-shattering, but it sure beats the cramped seats in coach on these small planes.

The First Class cabin on United’s CRJ-700 is just 2 rows, with 1 seat on one side of the aisle, and 2 seats on the other side of the aisle.  Since Row 1 is a bulkhead without any floor storage, I usually prefer Row 2.  The Mrs. Guru and I were in 2C and 2D:

The flight was pleasant enough – only about an hour and a half en route.  As I looked out the window, I was captivated at how different Canada looked compared to the US:

Ok, actually it looked pretty much exactly like the US, but considering all the places I’ve been in the world and hadn’t yet been to Canada, I was still excited.

We landed and made our way to Customs and Immigration, which only took a few minutes:

Our layover was just under 5 hours (landing at 11:30 am, departing at 4:25 pm), but with clearing Customs and wanting to be back in plenty of time before our next flight, we didn’t have a ton of time…but I researched a bit and found that we could take the Airport Rocket bus from the airport directly to Kipling Station in the suburbs.  I found that there was a Thai restaurant just about a third of a mile from the station, so it would be easy to walk to.

The Airport Rocket bus leaves every 8-10 minutes, so after a short wait, we were on board at 12:10.  About 20-25 minutes later, we pulled into Kipling Station, and made our way to Taste of Thailand:

We sat outside on the patio under an umbrella, and enjoyed the weather.  I’m not sure if they were having problems with their A/C, but it was warmer inside than it was outside with the breeze, so we were much happier outside.  The food was overall very good, and reasonably priced, especially their lunch specials.  After a relaxing lunch, we walked back to Kipling Station and hopped back on the bus.  We pulled back into the airport around 1:65, with plenty of time to spare before our connecting flight at 4:25 pm.

Back in the airport, we had a rather laughable experience trying to get through security.  When we checked in with United in Greensboro, they printed our first 3 boarding passes: Greensboro to Chicago, Chicago to Toronto, and Toronto to Istanbul.  We entered the terminal at one end…as you can see, we entered around Row 10:

There were signs near Row 10 for Priority Security, so we thought we were in luck.  We headed right up to the Security Checkpoint, and that’s when things just got silly:

Me: Hi, here are our boarding passes for our flight to Toronto.
Security Line Guard: I’m sorry, this line is for Air Canada Altitude Elite Members and Business Class customers only.
Me: Ok great, we’re in Business Class on Air Canada flight 810 to Istanbul.
Security Line Guard:  Your boarding passes are for United, this line is only for Air Canada flights.
Me:  Yes, I know.  Our incoming flight was on United, and they printed all our boarding passes, but it says right here that we’re on Air Canada flight 810 [points to flight number on boarding pass].
Security Line Guard:  I can’t accept this boarding pass, it says United on it, you’ll need to go to the Air Canada ticket counter to have it re-printed.

Ok fine, she may have her rules to follow, and I didn’t really feel like arguing, so we headed back along Row K to get new boarding passes.  We looked at the giant monitors above, and saw that Air Canada check in was at Row 5.  Ok, not too bad, I guess…but as you can see with Row 8 below, the Rows are not exactly close together:

Along the way, at Row 6, there was an Air Canada Elite check in counter.  Perfect – we’re flying Business Class, and I have Star Alliance Gold Status, so we’ll definitely be good to go here.  We approached the entrance to the Elite counter, which had a friendly woman making sure that only Elite members were using the line (which is a good thing).  I handed her our boarding passes:

Me:  Hi, we just need to have our boarding passes reprinted by Air Canada in order to get through security.
Elite Line Guard: Ok no problem, where are you off to?
Me:  Istanbul.
Elite Line Guard:  Oh, for International Flights, you’ll need to head down to Row F.

So we kept a-truckin on down to Row 5.  When we got to Row 5, it was a total zoo…the lines were crazy long, but I realized that it was for International Economy.  At that point, there were additional signs that indicated that Priority International Check In was at Row 1.  So after a nap, a granola bar, and 3 pulled hamstrings, we ceremoniously arrived at Row 1, where we finally were able to receive our glorious pieces of thermal paper proudly bearing a red maple leaf logo in the corner.

Me:  Thank you so much.  Where do we head for security?
Row 1 Glorious Thermal Paper Printing Agent:  It’s just down the way at Row 10.

Really?  Really?

We finally made it through security, and headed to the Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, where we were promptly admitted.  The lounge was better than most domestic lounges (Hooray!  See, I knew there would be something in Canada to be excited about!), with an impressive food and drink spread (looking back at my pictures, I realized that they don’t really do justice to the food offerings, since all I apparently captured were cookies and veggies, but there were plenty of other options, such as finger sandwiches, fruit, spring rolls, and a few other hot options):

The main complaint I had with the lounge was that the Wifi was very spotty, and we had trouble keeping any sort of reliable connection.  With some snacks and a drink or three, the Mrs. Guru and I finished up some last minute planning for our 14 hours in Istanbul, which unfortunately didn’t go quite as planned….