May 12, 2011
If you have never been to FRA terminal 1 B section, that’s because flight from industrial country such as USA or Canada land in A section, where you can hardly find one custom officer.
B section is a totally different story, that’s where all flights from developing or third world countries land. several custom officer wait to find something from you. Did they ever ask or search Caucasians? maybe, I never saw one. Today, I was the first Asian to get off plane and passed immigration, but custom officer already stopped several African for question and search. I knew I would be stopped again, not first time, actually nearly every time.
” Do you have any cigarettes and liquor in your bag?”
“Yes, I do, 10 packs of cigarettes,”
Then he took my bag for X Ray to make sure I don’t have liquor. I thought it was done and I could go, but instead, he opened every single pocket of my bag to find cigarettes. After he emptied every pocket, he scanned my bag again to make sure I did not have any secret compartment. He looked a little disappointed when he could not find more than 10 packs.
Then he asked me to empty my pocket to see if I had any in my cloth, Aha, he got me. I had one opened box with only 7 cigarettes left. He finally could put some fine on me and explained to me how much will be, 200 cigarettes for free, but need to pay these extra 7 cigarettes with 0.38 euro each including fine, total 2.66. Unbelievable. Again, while they were searching me, I did not seen a single Caucasian was stopped, well, that’s FRA. I am used to it already!
I understand racial profiling is happening everywhere, It’s the world we live in. It’s not I have never been searched or questioned in US or Canada before, but every time people are nice and reasonable.
I don’t believe coincidence, so what’s the chance I got searched every time and seen at least 8 officers at FRA B section but rarely seen a single officer in A section?
Posted by Troy under 2011 Trip, Airports, Europe |
August 17, 2010
Many readers had already told me that MH may impose fuel surcharge for miles ticket issued by Delta, especially for flights originate from KUL because if delta charges them, they will keep them, so MH just collect themselves at the airport instead .In my case, the flight originated from Beijing, then connected on China Airline from KUL-TPE, then from TPE-LAX. I was not asked for anything at PEK, then nothing from KUL-TPE obviously, I thought I could just get away with it because I doubt MH had the way to collect them in TPE.
MH flight check in was processed by China airline employee at connection desk, as soon as they typed my name in the system, they told me I was due $66 USD for fuel surcharge. I had no problem paying that, but the wait was long. They had to run out of terminal to MH office to charge my credit card, at least 20 mins. The fee was charged in Taiwan dollar, but I used my Fidelity AMEX to pay, the actual total is just a little over $66 including foregin transaction fee.
TPE airport is the worst major city airport I have ever been to, T1 has 4 sections, but only one restaurant in each section and most food have been sold out already. They are currently doing the expansion work, hopefully, it can become better.
As for Malaysia airline long haul flight, I was not impressed at all, service was good, food was good, but nothing special and the food portion was small, I felt pretty hungry even after the dinner service.
Anyway, despite nothing special from MH, it’s still a good option to burn your Delta miles on, because it’s fairly easy to score 2 Business class seats for trans Pacific flight, then you can connect to many places in Asia.
Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Airports, Award redemption, Delta |
June 30, 2010
Today is my first time buying something at airport DFS other than cigarettes because I always travel UA or AA and their international departure terminals don’t carry the cosmetic brand my wife uses. When I pay for the cosmetic, I notice the amount is not a whole number, the sales person told me Hawaii state adds 4% sales tax on cosmetic even in DFS store for international departure. This is really funny, I ended up paying more than what I paid in the US mainland because if online purchase, I have cashback, if in store purchase, I can get lots lots of samples.
hard to understand why the charge taxes in Duty free shop for international departure.
Posted by Troy under 2010 Trip, Airports |
December 20, 2009
I took the flight from Cozumel to Cancun yesterday, which was the shortest flight I ever took with commercial airlines.
The flight was 4:00pm today, so I arrived the CZM airport one and half hours prior to departure as usual. Since the flight number is AM9720 operated by Mayair, I assume this is just like some kind of United Express flight and proceed to the AM check in desk.
Once I told agent the flight time, she advised me the flight is on MAYAir and it is not in the main terminal building, it’s in the small building outside of arrival hall. I walked into the building, there was no one at check in counter, in fact, there was no check in counter at all. I confirmed with the only person at security, I was in the right place.
Around 3:10pm, few more passenger arrived, a man came out with binder and asked everyone for ID to matched name with his “list”, that was check in process, no boarding pass, no luggague tag, nothing. At same time, the inbound flight from Cancun arrived, Only 2 passangers came out of aircraft. I wonder how the airline still make money with $140 revenue for the flight.
Around 3:45pm, we started clearing security and board the plance, the plane was a Shorts 360 with 19 passanger seats and flying time to Cancun was only 15 minutes with 1500 feet attitude. No flight Attendant, no lavatory on the plane. To be honestly, the flying expereince was a lot of better than those Turbo Prop used by United Express.
The Flight left CZM on time and arrived CUN on time at 4:20pm, that’s when the problem began. I did not know the plane was landed in FBO terminal, which for Private jet and choppers.
After I got my luggage, Mayair employee told us there will be a shuttle take us to terminal 2, where we can connect our flight or go to rental car. We waited, waited, waited until 5:00pm, the shuttle finally arrived. I thought terminal 2 or rental car facility must be very far, it turned out the Avis rental car only 5 minutes walking distance from FBO terminal parking. The shuttle dropped us off at T2 and Avis rental location already insight, it’s pretty much same distance from T2 to Avis compare to FBO Terminal to Avis. Finally, at 5:45pm, I got my car.
If you ever need to take flight from Cozumel to Cancun, here is few suggestions.
1 No need to arrive CZM early, 30 minutes prior to departure is more than enough.
2 don’t worry about luggege weight, no weights scales.
3 Either have pre arrange transportation at CUN airport or
4 For rental car, don’t wait for shuttle, take a walk, once u exit the FBO parking lot, you will see rental car company.
PS, I booked my tickets from Orbitz.com for $74 each.
Posted by Troy under 2009Trip, Airports |
May 25, 2009
For many years, I always thought taking the transfer bus from gate to aircraft only exist in some developing countries, I was wrong. In Europe, almost every flight I took need to use bus even in airlines’ hub and they are not budget airlines. I am so sick of it!!!
Posted by Troy under Airports |
June 9, 2008
ORD(chicago) airport always experience bad weather and air traffic control delays. Yesterday, it had mass cancellations and delays just because of 2 hours of thuderstorm. I got home 4:00 in the morning instead of schedule 10:xx pm. I just don ‘t understand why 2 airlines built hub in there!!!
Posted by Troy under Airports |
May 5, 2008
I always use LGA because it’s close to my home, but for the past 8 months, I couldn’t remember any ontime departure flight. Damn, I hope I can move out NYC area ASAP!!!
Posted by Troy under Airports |
