July 7th: Half checked in

I had hoped to get a last training ride in today but showery weather put paid to that and left me more than enough time to make sure all the electronic kit is charged up and that all items are packed according to airline regulations. That left the online check-in to be done and that presented the next problem. After acknowledging all the warnings about having the correct covid docs and US entry authorisations, I was finally able to download the boarding passes. The LH system informed me that I was only getting the boarding pass for the train from Duesseldorf and that I should get my flight boarding pass from a LH check-in desk before 7:09 tomorrow. As the train isn’t scheduled to get me to the airport until 8:50 I’ve no idea how they expect me to pick up a boarding pass before 7:09. There is a phone number for the LH Service Centre on my ticket but when I called, the recorded message told me they are all very busy and to use the online system then hung up on me. I have an extra rail ticket to get me to the airport more than an hour earlier than the LH rail/fly ticket. I bought it a few weeks ago because Deutsche Bahn timekeeping isn’t what it was and I estimated being at the airport three hours before flight time would be enough of a safety margin. Unfortunately, it still doesn’t get me there before 7:09 so I can only hope that all goes well.