Flying Back to Japan -- 8/5 & 6

Well, we're on the plane in Birmingham, but we're grounded because of bad weather near Chicago. We arrived at the Birmingham airport before 5 AM, but did not take off until 9. So much for our comfortable 4.5-hour layover in Chicago . . . BTW -- when we finally did arrive in Chicago, the weather was beautiful . .


Whoa -- look at the difference here! Although we had to run through O'Hare airport in Chicago, we JUST made our flight to Tokyo as it was boarding! And -- this is the best part -- we had enough miles to upgrade to BUSINESS CLASS (kinda like first class on domestic flights), so that made up for our long wait in Birmingham . . .