The carrier in the UK was TNT Shipping (Fedex in USA) and the label states that it was shipped International AIR. Based on the tracking there were several delays as it took a week to get out of the UK, sat in Germany for 2 weeks and then made its way to the US where it was in transit another week. On the day it was delivered the tracking stated it was out for delivery in Houston but I'm in US West.

Usually, I love ordering from the UK as these suppliers ship AIR and parts arrive in 2-3 days which (for me) is usually the same price or lower and faster shipping than ordering from US East suppliers.

I started this thread because I was genuinely curious if this is just a one-off experience or if I need to adjust my expectations. Sounds like my experience was unusual and the norm is now about 1 week for order fulfillment from the UK.

 

Your shipment had a routing error, and that means huge delays. No reason for a UK Air shipment to go to Germany, and once a package is in the wrong country, the shipper often has to deal with significant issues to get it out of that country.
There are many legitimate security issues when packages end up in the wrong country. That it was held in Germany for two weeks is not at all surprising. Your package was an exception and doesn't represent shipping from the UK.
I've written international shipping software that has been responsible for handling the shipping and customs of over a million packages, unusual things happen. In this case they happened to you.

 

I had ordered some parts from Rimmerbros, they shipped faster than other vendors ship from Florida. That was two year s ago, Covid takes its toll right now. Workforce is reduced due to safety protocols and quarantines. Passenger plane traffic is down 50%, which reduces capacity for air cargo.