Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
YUL: Race War
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YUL: Game 7
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Friday, April 18, 2008
YUL: Just made it
I guess what goes around comes around.
That same carry-on luggage that caused me trouble earlier in the week in Zurich (and which was difficult to store on the A330) came back to help me today.
Because I was near the front of the plane when landing in YUL, I was able to get to customs quickly, with minimal queuing. And because I had no checked bags, I did not have to wait at the baggage carousel, which meant I got to the AC connections desk quickly, and before other Ottawa passengers. We landed at 1315 and I had definitely missed my original connection. So they had rebooked me on the 1600 departure. However, she said that if I hurried, and if I didn't have any checked bags, I could maybe make the 1400 flight. So I scampered up to security (where I beeped, had to open the belt, get my shoes scanned, etc, etc). Luckily, there was minimal waiting anywhere and I made it to gate A27 and they were able to squeeze me in... Literally... It's a Dash 8-300. But it'll get me home 2 hours earlier and that's the most important thing.
Soon will come the battle to reconcile all flights with the appropriate number of Aeroplan miles. I am willing to bet that several legs will not have received their mileage.
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That same carry-on luggage that caused me trouble earlier in the week in Zurich (and which was difficult to store on the A330) came back to help me today.
Because I was near the front of the plane when landing in YUL, I was able to get to customs quickly, with minimal queuing. And because I had no checked bags, I did not have to wait at the baggage carousel, which meant I got to the AC connections desk quickly, and before other Ottawa passengers. We landed at 1315 and I had definitely missed my original connection. So they had rebooked me on the 1600 departure. However, she said that if I hurried, and if I didn't have any checked bags, I could maybe make the 1400 flight. So I scampered up to security (where I beeped, had to open the belt, get my shoes scanned, etc, etc). Luckily, there was minimal waiting anywhere and I made it to gate A27 and they were able to squeeze me in... Literally... It's a Dash 8-300. But it'll get me home 2 hours earlier and that's the most important thing.
Soon will come the battle to reconcile all flights with the appropriate number of Aeroplan miles. I am willing to bet that several legs will not have received their mileage.
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Boo to the A330
The A330 does not have sufficient overhead storage space. There's no middle bin, so everyone has to cram their stuff into the outer bins. It's a mess. One of my pieces is two rows back. I guess I don't need it for a while, but if it delays me from getting through customs, I'll be less happy.
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FRA: Not so good with the efficiency
Frankfurt Airport could learn a lot from Munich in terms of how to run an efficient German airport. Although, admittedly, this was partly my own doing because I had two separate tickets today, it still was a rather unpleasant experience.
For various reasons, the overseas portion of my itinerary had to be booked separately from the intra-Germany/Switzerland portion. That meant that today I had a HAM-FRA flight on LH and then a separate FRA-YUL-YOW itinerary on AC.
HAM-FRA went well. Arrived at FRA and went to the Lufthansa transfer desk, assuming I'd get my boarding pass there. But no. They only issue LH boarding passes, not AC. I should go to the gate (not possible... no gate number on FIDS, even now... just "B"), or I should go back to the AC check in area (which would mean getting screened again by Frankfurt security, who are also not very efficient, but are very thorough... if John was getting screened and got the pat-down, he would say "I'll give you 20 minutes to stop that"). So I went back to the AC check-in. Little did I know that it would be at the exact opposite end of the terminal from LH. Huh? I arrived at an A gate, which is where most of LH's business is, but had to check in at a C counter. (And we're using a B gate!)
To make matters worse, but somewhat funnier, I discovered a new airport species. If you're like me, you're often frustrated by people who are travelling. A common species of annoying traveller is the Moving Sidewalk Blocker (sidewalkus movus blockus). You know the ones... They stand on the moving sidewalk, not even bothering to move to one side. My favourite experience with this species is in MSP, where the walkway not only has signage that says Walk Left, Stand Right, but they also have a yellow line down the middle of the walkway to help you figure out what you should be doing.
So today, the new species ... Everyones in a hurry in FRA, so the moving sidewalks help you get where you're going a little faster. So I'm truckin along, following another guy in front of me, trying to catch the 9:15 to Ljubljana, and suddenly the pace slows to a crawl. There's a large group all bunched up, so I can't see who the problem is. Hmm, I think, must have been a "stander". It happens. I'll pass him between this sidewalk and the next one.
So I try. But between walkways, everyone is moving at a quick pace. Getting back on the walkway, it slows down again. There's a group of three guys (clearly wide enough to block the whole walkway) who actually slow down, but keep moving on the walkway. They're not "standers".. They're slowpokes. I observed their (and thus, my) moving walkway speed compared with people who were just walking without mechanical aids. No noticeable difference, thus defeating the purpose of the system. I still need a good name for this new species.
(I also saw a good Worrier today. She was more than an hour away from her departure time and she was starting to panic at Passport Control. But I digress.)
And then, in the LH Business Lounge, there were no seats available. All seats were full so I joined the small group of pinstriped nomads wandering the lounge, looking for a place to settle. Found one eventually, and that is where I now sit waiting for my delayed flight. Which means I'll miss my connection in Montreal.
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HAM: needs a traffic engineer
On the way to the airport at 0530 this morning, I discovered some new things about Hamburg. One, they don't have a traffic engineer equipped with software that times red and green lights to enable traffic to flow. Two, they must not have in-road sensors to detect when a car approaches an intersection. My taxi must have hit every red light on the way to the airport with almost no other traffic on the road.
I wish I could describe Hamburg a little better, but again, I didn't see much beyond the hotel, the airport, and our kitchen for our event last night. Germans from other cities are very complimentary about HAM, and it comes across as a nice and fairly well-to-do city.
Very much looking forward to getting home... For a couple of days.
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
HAM: Not much to report yet
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Wednesday, April 16, 2008
A former Frankfurter in Frankfurt
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FRA: >ZRH
My least favourite thing about Zurich was my BlackBerry's behaviour. It kinda stopped working properly. Seemed to be deleting all emails older than a couple of hours. Hope that stops now that we're back in Germany.
What does work properly is the hotel key card here in Frankfurt. It's a proximity card rather than a traditional key or a traditional swipe card. As in many hotels, you need to use your key in the elevator at the Lindner in order to get it to move. Instead of swiping the card, you just need to hold it close to the reader. No big deal. But the added bonus is that it also knows what floor you're going to. That's pretty cool. Plus I somehow got a semi-suite, so that is also good.
So far, Frankfurt is winning as far as the hotel goes. We'll see if it beats Zurich in the telecom category too.
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ZRH: Breakfast of Champions
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ZRH: World's Longest Attended Airport Bar
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Farewell Zurich
It's hard to get a feel for a city when one's time in that city is limited to 24 hours. Especially when many of those 24 hours consist of either (a) sleeping or (b) working.
I saw very little of Zurich other than Fleming's Hotel and our event venue. It didn't help that it rained most of the time. What I did see in my brief foray to Bahnhofstrasse (thr main shopping street) was a lot of high end stores, a lot of banks, a lot of well dressed people, and a general feeling that this is a pretty wealthy city. I was looking for a convenience store so I could buy some water, but never saw one all day. Maybe I just didn't know what to look for. (Saw, but did not visit, two Starbucks locations.)
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Tuesday, April 15, 2008
ZRH: A Rainy Bahnhofstrasse
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ZRH: now that's just cruel
Not mine.
One bag only and the carousel stops again.
But wait... It's starting again...
There it is!
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ZRH: I wouldn't believe it if it weren't happening
Isn't this a nice bit of irony...
I planned to take this long, multi-leg journey with only carry-on luggage. I sacrificed some casual clothes and definitely some shoes in order to do so.
But this morning when checking in at Munich, I decided to check my bag. We're a group of 7, everyone else had checked bags, and we were on a smallish plane, an ARJ. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Not so much.
Everyone else has received their bags. The carousel has stopped. There's no one at the Swiss luggage desk. Eventually, with help from Ralf, I find the Swiss Lost and Found desk... itself ironically hard to find. Seems my bag was checked through to Frankfurt. I guess our itinerary shows tomorrow's flight too. So even though I only got one boarding pass, the Lufthansa agent figured my bag was better off going on ahead without me.
They're looking for it right now. But the rest of the party has cleared customs and is waiting for me.
20 minutes they say.
I'm not sure if this is German or Swiss efficiency.
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I planned to take this long, multi-leg journey with only carry-on luggage. I sacrificed some casual clothes and definitely some shoes in order to do so.
But this morning when checking in at Munich, I decided to check my bag. We're a group of 7, everyone else had checked bags, and we were on a smallish plane, an ARJ. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Not so much.
Everyone else has received their bags. The carousel has stopped. There's no one at the Swiss luggage desk. Eventually, with help from Ralf, I find the Swiss Lost and Found desk... itself ironically hard to find. Seems my bag was checked through to Frankfurt. I guess our itinerary shows tomorrow's flight too. So even though I only got one boarding pass, the Lufthansa agent figured my bag was better off going on ahead without me.
They're looking for it right now. But the rest of the party has cleared customs and is waiting for me.
20 minutes they say.
I'm not sure if this is German or Swiss efficiency.
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Monday, April 14, 2008
MUC: BMW Ad
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MUC: Fast Track Customs
I think this is my 4th time through Munich Airport in the past few years. It is easily one of the most efficient airports I've ever seen, especially for its size. I've heard rumours that because FRA is more constrained for growth than MUC, that MUC may eventually be the larger hub in Germany.
Although it wasn't extremely busy today when I arrived, the efficiency still showed. Clearing passport control took just a few minutes. No queue had more than 6 people in it. And I saw something I've never seen before-- or at least I've never noticed before... Two Fast Track lanes at passport control, one for Business Class and one for First Class. I wonder how a government entity makes that work?
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Einen Kleinen Village
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
Argo Bounce
Sometimes things go your way unexpectedly. When booking this itinerary, I was trying to take a flight that had been XM'd. If you fly Air Canada a lot, you know what that means. If you don't fly them a lot, then you probably don't care, and can stop reading this post.
Anyway... Because of my schedule, and because of certain fare rules, I had to take the routing I'm taking and the flights I'm taking. This meant the YYZ-MUC flight was scheduled to be on a non-XM 767-300. This would mean less entertainment choice, less personal space, and certainly no private XM pod. Still comfortable seats and more room than most, but not that sleep inducing and not that private.
So much to my pleasant surprise, what should greet me as I enter the cabin? Why, an XM aircraft that's what! Yay! Seat 4K feels pretty good.
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YYZ: Preventive Maintenance
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YOW's Old Terminal
Speaking of the new MLL... It's my first time in here as a passenger, and I think the place is growing on me. It's actually quite well laid out. There are some well-defined areas, but the whole lounge is open and flows together nicely. It's definitely not the largest nor the fanciest lounge in the AC system, but it's a good one.
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Tuesday, April 8, 2008
The Next Two Weeks
Over the next two weeks, I have a crazy travel schedule. For 4 nights in a row, I'll be in a different European city. Then home for 3 nights and then back on the road (literally to Montreal).
The Euro trip routing should result in some interesting airport related posts. YOW-YYZ-MUC-ZRH-FRA-HAM-FRA-YUL-YOW and get this... (please forgive the nerdiness of the next line) all flights are scheduled to be on different aircraft types. This may not be the exact order, but it's something like: E90-763-ARJ-735-AB6-321-333-CRJ.
Then a rental car to YUL. Keep ya posted.
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Sunday, April 6, 2008
Rue St-Catherine
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Pont Jacques Cartier
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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
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