Posted by Seth on December 31, 2009 under Trip Reports | 
Arriving in to Barcelona right at sunset was a beautiful sight. The skyline was lit up and the water was beautiful. Getting through immigration and customs was a piece of cake and we figured out how to store our larger bags at the airport quite quickly. A simple train ride into town, connecting to the metro and then a couple hundred yards to the hotel through quiet neighborhood streets. Checked in to the hotel and the out to wander a bit for dinner. Incredibly easy and pleasant and quite picturesque. Love at first sight.
We chose a small tapas restaurant, Cata 1.81, for dinner – only 6 tables inside plus the bar area – and sat in the bar for a couple hours drinking and snacking on some ridiculously delicious food. Salt cod ravioli, squid & Iberico ham with mushrooms & miso sauce, dried sausage and several other small plates. Plus several glasses of Spanish cava and red wine. Love at first bite.
Off to explore more now and to steel ourselves for the New Years celebration here tonight!
Posted by Seth on December 30, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I should be in the air over the Atlantic Ocean right now, curled up in a First Class suite on Turkish Air. Instead I’m on an Airbus A321 over the Mediterranean on a non-stop flight to Barcelona. Indeed, the trip has taken a much more direct routing and quite substantial turn. In the end, I still get to celebrate New Years in Barcelona with the splendiferous missus and we even get to sleep in a real bed tonight rather than in coach on a Delta 767-300ER. Still, the scene today in Istanbul’s airport can only be described as frustrating and trying, with a bit of misery thrown in as well as a reasonably successful tactical retreat.
Last night, while waiting in Luxor for the departure of the flight to Cairo, I learned that the Istanbul-JFK flight for that day had been delayed pretty badly. Over three hours, in fact. That plane was turning around to come back to Istanbul and then would be used for the flight that we were scheduled to be on. Except at the time I didn’t know that it would be that plane, and there was no one in Luxor I could ask. There wasn’t really anyone to ask in Cairo, either. So I went into the flight to Istanbul hopeful and optimistic, as well as truly exhausted.
As first class passengers we were greeted at the end of the jetway with a sign and a golf cart to whisk us away to the security checkpoint and then the lounge. It took them a while to round up the necessary supplies for us to shower but we managed to get that done and settled in for breakfast. Everything seemed OK.
Failure
And then the bottom fell out. The lounge agent came over to me and handed me the house phone. An agent on the other end of the line was explaining that the flight would be rather delayed and that she had arranged for a day room at the hotel in the terminal for us. Ruh roh. Just how delayed would the flight be? At least 3 hours (it turned into 5 by the time we left the airport). That completely ruined our 3 hour connection in JFK. Time to scramble.
There was a flight to Frankfurt leaving in 40 minutes that would get us to the early Frankfurt-JFK flight by the woman could not (or would not) make the change for us. While I tried desperately to negotiate through the language barrier and explain my predicament the minutes ticked away and the flight was closed. That was our last chance to make it to JFK in time for the Delta outbound flight. Game over.
It is also worth mentioning that at this point my laptop decided it didn’t want to power on and my BlackBerry went into a reboot cycle every 5-10 minutes. Ouch.
Recovery, Part 1
The Delta tickets we had were bottom of the barrel priced sale seats. The change fees for them were more than the actual tickets cost. That money was now gone. Poof. Still, I had a mind to celebrate New Years in Barcelona more than I cared about getting the Istanbul – New York flight in Turkish Air first class (a five day vacation is always worth more than an eleven hour flight) so it was time to start making things happen. The lounge had no phones available for customers and there was no means for me to reasonably call the United States to get in touch with Continental, the carrier that issued our tickets. Things were getting worse, not better.
There was a flight leaving for Barcelona in 45 minutes and the agent was willing to put us on that flight, right up until she realized it was a reward ticket. Then she was quite willing to sell us a walk-up full fare ticket and let us deal with our “travel agency” to handle the flights that were missed. Not gonna work. Still, I managed to revive my laptop and get the Skype client working and continental.com’s reward search inventory up on screen. Even more amazing, I actually found two seats available from Barcelona to New York in business class on the date we were scheduled to go home. A glimmer of hope.
Karla answered the phone for Continental and was incredibly patient with me as I explained my needs and desires over a rather questionable voice quality connection. I was able to feed her the flight numbers and she saw the inventory available. She just wasn’t sure if she could change the flight as I had already started the return trip. She had to call a supervisor and in the mean time the 45 minutes to the Barcelona departure were ticking away with great speed. Karla made the necessary changes, inserting an open jaw into the ticket and leaving the Istanbul – Barcelona segment open for us to fill. She was still working on confirming it but we had to go immediately to catch our flight. I gave her my credit card number without knowing the charges and hung up to hop on the plane to Barcelona that was now 30 minutes away from departure.
No can do. The agent was reasonably polite about the situation but it was quite clear. We weren’t getting on that plane. Rebooking the Continental tickets took a bit too long and that flight was closed for sales, even with 30 minutes remaining. I had made the changes that she agreed to and now I was still stuck in Istanbul.
Recovery, Part 2
At this point we had some time to play with. Continental was already reissuing the return ticket so we just had to find a way to get to Barcelona at a reasonable price. There were a number of options, including overnight connections in Amsterdam, Riga and Athens. All were slightly cheaper than the non-stop afternoon flight to Barcelona. In the end, however, we settled on the non-stop flight. Better to go for a relatively sure thing. Besides, we don’t have winter coats with us so Amsterdam or Latvia would be pretty unpleasant tonight.
We booked the flight through Travelocity because is was half the price that the agent wanted in the lounge. Such transactions are normally completed pretty quickly but after 20 minutes we still only had a reservation, not a ticket. Time to make another call. The Travelocity agent initially just wanted me to wait it out. Only when I explained that the flight was 4 hours away did it get properly escalated. Apparently they were worried about fraud for a last minute, one-way ticket purchased from Istanbul to Barcelona. I can’t say that I really blame them. Another 10 minutes on the phone assuring them that I really was me and that I really was buying walk-up tickets and the ticket was finally issued.
The agent had also previously offered us that hotel room for our wait. I now called that one in, asking that we be able to still use it. She agreed and we soon were laying down for a couple hours’ nap time that was much, much needed. Everything seemed OK at this point. We had our flights to Barcelona and the onward flights from Barcelona to NYC, albeit on a somewhat circuitous routing. And we had a bed for the first time in 30 hours. Not all bad. Except one little thing.
Recovery, Part 3
For some reason, Continental couldn’t actually make the change to our reward ticket. The agents I spoke with (and there were several of them) all insisted that we were still checked in for the Turkish Air flight from Istanbul to JFK. As long as we were on that flight they couldn’t remove it from the itinerary and substitute in the three segments to get us home from Barcelona. Time and time again I approached the agents at the counter and asked them to confirm that we were not checked in anymore on that flight. Each time they said we weren’t but the folks at Continental said we were. My worst nightmare at this point was getting to Barcelona and having Turkish reporting us as a no-show for the flight, canceling out the remaining value of our tickets. The price for Istanbul-Barcelona was bad enough. Shelling out for Barcelona-NYC on top of that probably would have driven me over the edge.
I finally had our Turkish Air “handler” from the morning back at the counter so I called Continental one more time with the plan of having the two of them talk it out so I didn’t have to stay in the middle. By coincidence I managed to get Karla on the phone again.
“Karla with a ‘K’?” I inquired. Yes, she said, somewhat befuddled. “I talked to you earlier with the crazy re-route from Barcelona to New York via Brussels and London; remember me?”
I’d like to think that she has fond memories of me now, if for no other reason than I’m pretty sure I was the most entertaining customer she had today. In reality, I’m just really happy that I didn’t have to explain my story one more time. The minutes were now starting to tick away on the afternoon departure to Barcelona and I had already paid for those tickets and I wasn’t about to lose them, too. Fortunately Karla proactively got another supervisor on the phone while I was talking to the agent at the desk. The supervisor apparently has some magic “refresh” button (Karla’s words, not mine) that made the reservation sync up again and show that we were no longer checked in for the flight.
Finally.
Karla then was able to issue the new ticket, collect the $40 additional in taxes and confirm the new flights for us.
Success
And there we were, six hours after the bottom initially fell out, with our flights rebooked and a new itinerary ready to go. Sure, it cost us some cash and the price actually went up as the rebooking process continued. Still, the overall goal was met. We’re going to celebrate New Years among friends in Barcelona and we’re going to experience some fun times on premium cabin flights along the way. The new return flight gives us about four hours at the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Heathrow along with our Upper Class seats across the pond. I’m sure that we’ll be exhausted on Tuesday when we get back to work but overall the adventure remains mostly alive, even if it means no Turkish Air first class. Based on their ground handling I’m not entirely sure it would be worth it.
Lessons learned from this experience:
- Betting on Turkish Air arriving within 3 hours of on-time for the NYC route is a rather large gamble. I lost.
- Creativity and flexibility can find all sorts of reward seats if desperation sets in.
- Sometimes the adventure costs a bit more than expected, but the stories are generally worth it, especially when the rest of the travels are happening on the very cheap side of the ledger.
- A good agent at the airline can really make things happen. Karla did it for me today and others have in the past. They make this whole game run just a bit more smoothly.
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Sitting on board EgyptAir flight 362 from Luxor to Cairo right now, happily ensconced in the bulkhead aisle of the “business class” cabin and laughing to myself about the scene going on across the aisle. The flight is operated by the Express arm of EgyptAir on an Embrear E170 (my first time on this type, I believe) and the business class cabin is anything but special. The bulkhead seats have plenty of knee room and typical bulkhead legroom while row two has nothing special to speak of, save for the guy in 2K (starboard window).
Boarding off the bus and up the air stairs he seemed quite shocked to discover that the business class seats were really just regular seats. So shocked that he didn’t shut up about it, grumbling to his wife in the row behind for several minutes before calling the flight attendant over to inquire about the situation. Once informed that the only difference is in the food service on board he gave up, pulled his hat over his face and passed out. A bit strange, but it definitely goes to show that there are plenty of people out there who have no idea what they are buying when it comes to travel. For what it is worth, the sandwich we had was pretty decent though I found the dessert a bit dry.
Shortly before boarding started a group of about a dozen guys showed up at the airport in dark suits. Several of them went into one of the private waiting rooms in the gate area while the rest milled about just outside the door. Not so hard to identify VVIPs in this sort of situation. And these two definitely are. They are two cabinet-level ministers in the Egyptian government – Education and Youth/Sports. They were the last two on the plane (plus their rather conspicuous security guy) and the doors were closed pretty much right after they got on board. The flight attendant told me just how special they were when I asked and the body guard poked his head out to say hi.
I didn’t ask for a photo with them – I’ll blame it on not wanting to document the crazy that is my hair right now rather than having no real reason to ask and a lack of cojones to ignore that – but it was certainly interesting. Especially the part where a security guard cam running down the stairs after us to make sure we didn’t try to board their VIP van since we followed them directly off the plane.
Good stuff.
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
I sit in the airport in Luxor, Egypt pondering the absolute insanity of the trip I’m beginning. Nothing quite like a 36+ hour adventure to travel from Luxor to Barcelona, Spain. It is just across the Mediterranean. It really isn’t that far. But I’m crossing the Atlantic Ocean twice – three hours apart – to make the trip. Yeah, it is crazy.
versus
Back over the summer Delta offered up a sale for flights to Spain so we bought a couple for the weekend over New Years. Celebrating in Barcelona seemed like a good idea. A few months later, we learned that my wife got a few extra vacation days for the time between Christmas and New Years. Use ‘em or lose ‘em, so we used them. A quick search of various reward inventory showed Egypt as a destination with premium cabin seats available and a destination where the country doesn’t shutdown over the Christmas period. Plus, it is a pretty soft introduction to travel in Africa. We were sold, and the trip was phenomenal.
But we still had to be back in New York City in time for our flight to Spain. No need to spend any extra time there. Three hours should be more than enough for an international to international connection. So we’re off.
We’ve got an 11:10pm flight from Luxor to Cairo followed by a 3:30am flight from Cairo to Istanbul and then a 10:30am flight from Istanbul to New York’s JFK airport. All in premium seats including the first class suites of the Turkish Air 777-300 wet-leased from Jet Airways. That should be quite nice. We follow that up with coach seats on a Delta 767-300ER. Probably one of the worst long-haul products out there today that crosses the Atlantic (likely still better than a Lufthansa 747-400 in the back), but the price was right. And there is plenty of potential fun and crazy along the way. Just the way I like to travel.
Images from Great Circle Mapper
Posted by Seth on December 29, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Walking down the street in Luxor, Egypt is, to say the least, an interesting experience. It is hard to pass much more than 15 seconds without being offered at least one taxi and one carriage ride. Usually there are many, many more. What was particularly interesting about our walk yesterday was that every cabbie who passed us – often in 70s era station wagons that were much less comfortable than they looked – had already set their price. Only 5 Egyptian Pounds. And that was before they knew where we were headed. I was tempted to hop in and say, “OK, 5 Pounds to Cairo,” and see just how quickly they threw me out on the curb. I restrained myself.
During this particular walk, however, my splendiferous wife and I were were laughing about the fares as we passed another couple walking the same general direction. Our conversation caught their attention and soon we were chatting with Christine and Mohammed. After a stint working for the mouse in Florida she up and moved from her home in the UK to Luxor in search of work. Apparently her customer service training spills over from the day job into random conversations on the street.
Next thing we knew we were in a cab with her – Mohammed had to run a quick errand – on our way to a market. Better than the typical bazaars, the market was low stress and no haggling. That was quite pleasant. And the product quality was rather better, too. Or at least it seemed to be. So we did some shopping and chatted with new friends and learning about Luxor the way I prefer to discover new places: from locals.
On the way out there was a discussion between Mohammed and one of the cabbies hanging out on the stoop of the store. He had a collection of Euro coins that he couldn’t really do anything with. Some visitors had paid with them but the bank wouldn’t convert them. We’re on our way to Spain next so a deal was struck. But I was out of Egyptian Pounds (a recurring theme throughout the trip). So Mohammed fronted the money to the cabbie and gave me the Euros. He then took me to an ATM. The whole thing was rather surreal, and also at a very reasonable exchange rate.
And then we were back on our own, hunting down dinner and trying to figure out what had just happened. Fun, entertaining and completely random, all at the same time. Just one more awesome travel experience to add to the long list.
Posted by Seth on December 28, 2009 under Trip Reports |
A few more photos here from diving in Hurghada, Egypt. Day two of the diving was much better than day one. The folks on the boat were more friendly and generally better divers so we had a much better time both in the water and during the boat rides and surface intervals. No pedicure service on the boat – that was rather disgusting – and a smaller and more friendly crowd.
There were a whole bunch of interesting animals to be seen on day two, including an octopus, several blue spotted rays, some tiny blue banded shrimp and plenty of clown fish.
And then there were the dolphins. Wow. Just plain wow. We saw them on the surface and knew that there was a chance we’d see them underwater. We headed in and didn’t see them right away but they showed up about 5 minutes into the dive heading away from us. OK, fine. We saw them. I can’t really complain. And then, about 45 minutes later, as we were wrapping up the dive, the dolphins came back. This time they were swimming towards us and they were not shy at all. I was able to get pretty darn close – enough that i couldn’t get a wide enough shot with my camera – and swim right with them. At least for a few seconds, anyways.
That was a TON of fun.
Lots more underwater photos (and the rest of the shots from Egypt when I get around to posting them later) in the gallery here.
Posted by Seth on December 28, 2009 under News, TSA |
Of course the TSA decides to change the rules on me when I’m thousands of miles from home. Just like last time. I was quite happily enjoying my honeymoon, diving off the coast of Palau in August 2006 when the liquids ban went into effect. It was a mess, to be certain, but we survived. That “temporary” measure has had legs so news of this new “temporary” set of rules so soon on its heels was certainly worrisome. And all that much more confusing since there are tons of rumors floating around, very few hard facts and I’m quite far from home with a slew of flights coming up in the next week.
The lack of solid information is probably the worst part. The TSA managed to come up with a set of rules that can be defied by any 4 year old who has learned to read a wrist watch or look out the window to see when the land shows up again. Or, you know, listens to the flight attendants make the announcement that there is only one hour of flight left so no getting out of your seat. Yeah, that is really hard to counteract. And not only have they come up with these ridiculous rules, they seem to be changing their mind with great frequency.
There have been reports of no carry-on bags of any sort (WestJet flights from Canada), no laptops at all throughout the flight (likely just overzealous flight attendants) and just no in-flight entertainment systems if there is live TV or maps for flights headed to the United States. Glad that is so clear. Like mud.
Then, around 10 EST on the 28th, more than 48 hours before the TSA Security Directive was set to expire jetBlue reported in their twitter feed that “We’re pleased to say that our LiveTV service has resumed on JetBlue flights. Happy Channel Surfing!” Sounds like having live television and maps in flight is no longer banned.
I know that the TSA like the idea of keeping the public guessing but at some point you really have to tell folks what to expect so they know what they are getting themselves into when they travel. Changing the rules every 30 minutes doesn’t actually create a secure environment. Having reasonable rules does.
So when a guy’s father rats him out to the FBI as being a loose cannon with homicidal tendencies and extremist views, maybe he shouldn’t be getting on airplanes. Or at least he should be subject to additional screening. Instead the watch list has my neighbor’s wife on it. I’m pretty certain she’s not going to cause any trouble.
Using the Whole Body Imaging (WBI) machines on everyone isn’t the answer. There is no need to subject every passenger to a strip search simply to get on the plane. Systems exist today to detect traces of explosive residue. They are used all over the world, including at every TSA checkpoint. Remember that the goal is to find unstable people with weapons. There are plenty of ways to do that without exposing every passenger, either to undue risk or to the screeners.
But the TSA definitely needs to get its act together. They look like a bunch of amateurs running around here “reacting” to the new situation at hand. Yes, there should be a reaction, but not a knee-jerk one. If you have to change it so quickly because you realize what idiots you look like odd are you did something wrong to begin with.
Posted by Seth on December 26, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Not a ton of time to post now as we’re between diving and dinner but I wanted to share a couple photos from our first day of diving. Suffice it to say that all the hype I’ve heard about Red Sea diving seems to be entirely justified. It really is quite impressive. I wasn’t all that impressed by the dive or social skills of the other folks diving on the boat with us, save one pair, but overall it didn’t cause us too much trouble. Over two hours underwater today and looking for a repeat tomorrow. Much happiness, indeed.
Posted by Seth on December 25, 2009 under Trip Reports |
Perhaps the only true advantage of the 4+ hour layover we have in Frankfurt was that I got to go lounge hopping around the various facilities that Lufthansa has here. I’m continuing to compile data and photos for my lounge guide and this trip is a prime opportunity for gathering a ton of information. I’ve hit five lounges already and can think of about five more still on the itinerary.
So after settling in to the Senator Lounge in the B gates, taking a shower and having a beer I ventured off in search of the Tower Lounge, one of the newer and nicer lounges at the airport. I was in the transit area and so is the Tower Lounge. It really shouldn’t have been a problem at all. But the pseudo-security guard working at the entrance to the SkyLine train connecting the terminals decided it should be. Apparently only flights destined to the USA are departing out of the high A gates in the morning hours. And apparently only passengers destined for such flights are permitted in that area. At least that’s what the guard kept saying. I tried reasoning with him but was thoroughly unsuccessful in such efforts. His answer did not change: Is Not Possible.
So I was left with two choices. I could give up and head back to the B lounge or I could enter Germany, walk over to those gates and try again directly. I chose option B.
The border guard didn’t seem to understand my explanation of just wanting to “walk around on my long layover” but stamped the passport anyways. There wasn’t much he could do to deny me. And then, 15 minutes later, I was explaining to the guy checking boarding passes that I just wanted to visit the lounge. Through security and through passport control again. Two stamps in under 20 minutes. Another boarding pass check and another explanation that I was headed towards the lounge and another pair of eyes rolled.
But I didn’t mind all that much, as I was past all the gatekeepers and finally able to make my way to the lounge. And it is just as nice as I remember it from the party back in November. Hard to believe that was only six weeks ago.
Other than truly free borders like Italy/Holy See I’m not sure that I’ll ever best this for a shortest trip ever. I suppose I’ll have to keep trying though.
Posted by Seth on December 24, 2009 under Dining, Trip Reports |
It took me far too long in life to make a trip to Munich. I don’t know particularly why it was so delayed, but the planning just never worked out right. I had a layover in the train station there about 10 years ago but I never really went outside – big mistake – and so when the opportunity came up recently to add a weekend in Munich on to a scheduled trip to Germany I jumped at the opportunity.
I visited in mid-November so it was most definitely the off-peak season in town. Still, there was plenty going on, both during the day and at night. It was more than enough to keep me busy and entertained. Wandering the quiet pedestrian mall area of town was quite enjoyable, even in a light drizzle. Plus I managed to stumble into some phenomenal dining and drinking opportunities along the way.
After a rather unfortunate episode at the bar of the otherwise lovely Sofitel in the heart of the city a group of us made our way to a new bar/club in town, Eight Seasons. The night manager of the hotel was kind enough to make a call and get six of us on the list to enter which was a good thing as the place had the velvet rope and clipboard crew similar to many clubs in New York City. The scene inside was pretty much what I expected from a club with such an entrance policy but we still had a great time. I’m not entirely sure what we paid for the bottle of Bombay Sapphire that was consumed but it was delicious so I wasn’t all that worried about it. And we finished the night with a very late-night and very intoxicated amble/stumble to a street food vendor outside the train station and also to Burger King. Not the most authentic cuisine, but the strawberry shake was pretty good and the photos are pretty incriminating.
At the Bräuhaus
The following night was a dinner with the group at the Augustiner Bräuhaus, just a couple blocks from the train station. The restaurant is associated with the brewery and it isn’t completely clear which part they take more pride in, though I’m pretty sure it is the beer. Still, the food is delicious. With a group as large as ours – about 30 folks – the only reasonable option is to go with the sampler platters that they offer up. The appetizer course has various meats, cheese and spreads along with some breads and crackers. The main course was four or five different meats and some ridiculously delicious potato dumplings. Plus, the beer comes in liter-large glass mugs and it is phenomenal. After four mugs of beer I didn’t even really think it was that bad an idea to do jager shots. I know that I was wrong in that analysis and I did protest the concept a bit at the time, but ultimately the beer, exhaustion and a bit of peer pressure did me in. Jager shots for everyone. MANY of them!
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| Appetizer platter at Augustiner |
I probably shouldn’t have done the Jager shots! |
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| Large quantities of delicious beer |
We learned later that night that one of the group picked up the wrong jacket when leaving the restaurant. This was discovered when he reached into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and pulled out someone else’s passport. Whoopsie. The hotel concierge was quite helpful in resolving that situation (which is to say that I dumped it on him and assume it was eventually resolved) but it also meant that we needed to go back to the restaurant the following day to find the correct jacket. I’m very, very glad we did.
It was a Sunday afternoon and they set up a TV in the main dining room for the locals to come in and watch the local Bundesliga team play, and also to enjoy a few beers. I discovered the German version of the morning after drink – a lighter beer cut with lemonade, quite tasty and refreshing – and I got to explore the rest of the menu. Oliver was there to translate for me which helped out immensely as the English version of their menu has only a small portion of the full selection. In discussion with the waiter and after much internal debate I settled on the Braumeister Schnitzel. It is the heartiest version of schnitzel on the menu, meant for the hard working, blue-collar brew master. And it was awesome.
Piled high with bacon and potatoes, it was just the right thing to cut through the alcohol still in my system and aid the hangover recovery. We also had a dessert of some sort that was pretty much fried dough topped with powdered sugar and some fruit preserves. The fried dough thing is a dessert in pretty much every culture around the world and the German version did not disappoint. Sugary sweet doughy goodness. Yum.
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| Braumeister Schnitzel and a morning-after beer |
Fried doughy goodness |
Seafood in Munich
My trip to Germany started with about 225 other folks chartering a 757 and flying around Europe on tours, so there were a decent number of folks I knew in Germany that weekend. Still, I didn’t really expect to randomly run in to two of them as I was touring about on the streets of Munich. Boy am I glad I did. They had made reservations for dinner that night and invited me to join them at Austernkeller. Austernkeller is a seafood restaurant in the French style which isn’t really what I would think of when choosing a dinner option in Munich. Fortunately these guys were making the decisions for that night, however, and it was a wonderful meal.
As is often the case the appetizers were better than the main course dishes but it was all pretty delicious. The oysters – wild Aussies – were the highlight of the meal for me, followed by the scallops and the fish. I thought the seared tuna was overcooked, but i like my tuna raw so maybe I’m not the best judge there. Still, the place has been around for over 30 years and there’s a reason for that. The food is top notch.
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| Some of the many delicious dishes at Austernkeller |
One other thing that I love eating is kebabs from the shops near train stations. No, there is no good reason for this, but I generally find that the food is pretty good and pretty cheap. That’s not so bad. On the way out to the airport for my flight to Los Angeles I stopped in at one of the many shops available and had my donner kebab gyro. Yum!
Posted by Seth on December 23, 2009 under Flying, News |
The weather last weekend from Washington, DC to Boston was pretty miserable for folks looking to fly. I had a blast watching the almost foot of snow pile up on the back deck and then wandering through Manhattan the following morning but I know that the airports, airlines and passengers didn’t fare so well. Just how badly they fared, however, is interesting to look at.
In Washington, DC, both United and Delta cancelled all of their flights in and out for the duration of the storm. They didn’t have much choice as the airports were shut down for several hours. United got back up and running pretty quickly while Delta was a bit slower to get started. It makes sense as Dulles is a major hub for United. Plus, Delta did send in a few extra planes late on Sunday to help move passengers around.
In New York City there were also a large number of flights canceled. Delta, United, jetBlue and Continental all had to cancel a number of flights. jetBlue seemed to keep operating the longest, running flights into JFK well after the others had stopped on Saturday night. Yes, it was still snowing, but the airport had their ground operations crews working hard to make sure that the runways were safe and jetBlue had just a few extra planeloads of passengers that they didn’t end up stranding. Again, it is a hub operation so it makes sense that they were focused on keeping things operating as much as possible.
JFK is also a hub for Delta, however, and they didn’t come out of the snow too well there. They canceled the vast majority of their transcontinental flights out of JFK on Sunday (only 2/11 flew) while the other carriers operated about 80% of their transcon routes. Delta didn’t send one single plane from JFK to Florida on Sunday. After the snow had stopped. They should have had crew available since those folks didn’t fly on Saturday. Ditto for aircraft. Yet they didn’t. Why not?
The icing on the cake for Delta, of course, is that with all the cancelations and the increased load factors in play right now – a function of the holiday travel season and significant capacity cuts in the industry – they aren’t able to get passengers rebooked very easily. This came to a head yesterday when police were called to handle passengers delayed 3 days trying to get back to Haiti. When the folks think that Haiti is better than the service and facilities you’re providing you know there are some serious issues. At least Delta finally stepped up and added a special flight for today to get those folks home.
Continental seemed to come out of the mess relatively unscathed. Sure, they canceled a bunch of flights just like everyone else, but they didn’t seem to have too many crises come out of the efforts. And they were able to get up and running on Sunday morning with a pretty full schedule operating.
US Airways proved true to form from a customer service perspective. They were boarding and upgrading non-revenue passengers rather than paying customers. They told standby passengers that flights were full and then sent the flights out with empty seats. Bad form.
And lest anyone think the troubles were isolated to the United States, folks over in Europe didn’t fare much better. Combining two package tour companies going out of business in the past week and some storms there and things are not good. Brussels was closed for several hours as were the London airports. Fortunately British Airways had some spare wide-body aircraft around to help cover for the cancellations but things aren’t pretty there either.
With predictions of a White Christmas in NYC this year we could be looking at a repeat performance again this weekend. I’m glad to be flying out on Thursday evening before the fun really starts.
