27 January 2007
This is standard fare in Belgian Politics
For those who work and travel in Belgium, this story is not quirky but standard Belgium Forbids 18 and 88 | The Brussels Journal
26 January 2007
Disaster at Marseilles airport again !
Air France & Marseilles airport strike again – tricky flights to make happen Marseilles Lyon followed by Lyon Dusseldorf with an hour to change. Boarding the Lyon flight called to the gate on time then disaster:
17:30: boarded to Bus
17:40: Bus arrives at Plane – ground agent seeks permission to Board us no response from stewardess.
17:50: ground agent announces problem with aircraft steps – should be fixable unquote !
17:55: hassled engineer appears from plane – new announcement from plane it’s not the steps it’s an electrical fault in cockpit. Bus returns to terminal.
18:05 more info at 18:15 whether they can fix.
18:15 an honest ground agent – no info next update at 18:30 but he is pessimistic. Everyone leaps forward because they all have tight connections at Lyon.
18:20 Manage to get early in queue – connection to dusseldorf blown, no other way there tonight via Paris etc. Bail will have to try and reclaim 50% of large sum of money via internet sales.
18:22: Plan B – no other options via Frankfurt or Munich with Lufthansa so it’s Ryan air to Eindhoven from terminal 2.
18:30 find my way to terminal 2 – used to be the old freight sheds @ Marseilles airport now with it’s a minimalist conversion to a terminal “MP2”. Wow that man Ryan is clever – a bit of internal steel girdering, lots of chipboard and corrugated thick plastic and you have a terminal.
18:32: arrive at Ryan air ticket desk to buy 1930 flight ticket to Eindhoven. Don’t take amex or maestro, so it’s cash.
1837: no cashpoint that works in MP2 so back to terminal 1.
1845: back to ticket desk – a ticket is fine but no change for my cash. Argument then follows if my ticket is 194.40€ the how much change from 200€? 3 ticket sellers cannot work it out and don’t have the change.
18:50: still arguing about change.
18;54: finally check in
1900: thru security to join the “cattle herding” for boarding.
1910: officially boarded but no plane yet – in cattle queue No 2
19:12 Plane arrives it’s a Ryan air legendary turnaround.
1925: Boarding – otherwise known as a “sprint for seat”. Manage elbow my way to get an emergency exit seat (without paying more) so better legroom. Interesting use for Sick bags – double as postal envelopes for film developing – I wonder how many bags of sick the developers have received instead of film. That man Ryan is brilliant at cost saving !
19:45 taxi past broken down Lyon plane.
1952: take off behind the BA flight.
20:30 – Final straw did you know a Ryan Air sandwiches are made from 3 slices of bread not 4 – what a rip off (and more expensive than BA Connect and that is saying something !)
17:30: boarded to Bus
17:40: Bus arrives at Plane – ground agent seeks permission to Board us no response from stewardess.
17:50: ground agent announces problem with aircraft steps – should be fixable unquote !
17:55: hassled engineer appears from plane – new announcement from plane it’s not the steps it’s an electrical fault in cockpit. Bus returns to terminal.
18:05 more info at 18:15 whether they can fix.
18:15 an honest ground agent – no info next update at 18:30 but he is pessimistic. Everyone leaps forward because they all have tight connections at Lyon.
18:20 Manage to get early in queue – connection to dusseldorf blown, no other way there tonight via Paris etc. Bail will have to try and reclaim 50% of large sum of money via internet sales.
18:22: Plan B – no other options via Frankfurt or Munich with Lufthansa so it’s Ryan air to Eindhoven from terminal 2.
18:30 find my way to terminal 2 – used to be the old freight sheds @ Marseilles airport now with it’s a minimalist conversion to a terminal “MP2”. Wow that man Ryan is clever – a bit of internal steel girdering, lots of chipboard and corrugated thick plastic and you have a terminal.
18:32: arrive at Ryan air ticket desk to buy 1930 flight ticket to Eindhoven. Don’t take amex or maestro, so it’s cash.
1837: no cashpoint that works in MP2 so back to terminal 1.
1845: back to ticket desk – a ticket is fine but no change for my cash. Argument then follows if my ticket is 194.40€ the how much change from 200€? 3 ticket sellers cannot work it out and don’t have the change.
18:50: still arguing about change.
18;54: finally check in
1900: thru security to join the “cattle herding” for boarding.
1910: officially boarded but no plane yet – in cattle queue No 2
19:12 Plane arrives it’s a Ryan air legendary turnaround.
1925: Boarding – otherwise known as a “sprint for seat”. Manage elbow my way to get an emergency exit seat (without paying more) so better legroom. Interesting use for Sick bags – double as postal envelopes for film developing – I wonder how many bags of sick the developers have received instead of film. That man Ryan is brilliant at cost saving !
19:45 taxi past broken down Lyon plane.
1952: take off behind the BA flight.
20:30 – Final straw did you know a Ryan Air sandwiches are made from 3 slices of bread not 4 – what a rip off (and more expensive than BA Connect and that is saying something !)
24 January 2007
Paris CDG
Travelled through the World's worse airport tonight - Paris CDG. It's such a maze with no space for actual departure gates and the world's only airport where tannoy announcements talk across eachother instead of being sequential. At one stage I suspect there were no less than 4 simultaneous announcements for leaving flights - combined withe its maze features I am amazed they get any passengers to the right gate.
20 January 2007
Air France Website
Booking my travel for next week 6 flights + 1 ferry journey - took 1 hour to book 4 flights on Air France. Could not crack it.......to book flights from Germany to France and back, it would only allow me to do it on the German website of Air France, which not being fluent in German was really tricky. Could not find a way to do it English ..unless one of you bloggers knows best.
It also offered me a great connection with 45 mins to get from Paris CDG to Paris Orly ...mmmh.....you have been warned of Air France's sense of humour
And the cost for the price of Dusseldorf Paris Marseilles 24 hour return - I can fly 2 people to Australia and back....sacre bleu!
It also offered me a great connection with 45 mins to get from Paris CDG to Paris Orly ...mmmh.....you have been warned of Air France's sense of humour
And the cost for the price of Dusseldorf Paris Marseilles 24 hour return - I can fly 2 people to Australia and back....sacre bleu!
13 January 2007
What happened to the British stiff upper lip ?!?
Travelled back on a Jet2.com flight from Dusseldorf to leeds tonight. very windy as we crabbed our way on the runway @ Leeds, which being on hill is well exposed to crosswinds.
As we finally landed and straightened up the runway, people started cheering & clapping - this is a new behaviour for me in Europe as I have only encountered before in the Far East on Korean or Japanese planes - the first time I was on Jumbo with 400 japananese tourists + me, who clapped and cheered when we took off form Singapore and landed at Djarkarta. It was very unnerving that
A) they all started and stopped clapping at the same time
B) What happens when the Captain doesn't make a text book landing - perhaps another Blogger will tell me
Any way I digress What happened to the British stiff upper lip ?!? a bit of a breeze off the port wing....pass the G&Ts and leave me to read my paper quietly !
As we finally landed and straightened up the runway, people started cheering & clapping - this is a new behaviour for me in Europe as I have only encountered before in the Far East on Korean or Japanese planes - the first time I was on Jumbo with 400 japananese tourists + me, who clapped and cheered when we took off form Singapore and landed at Djarkarta. It was very unnerving that
A) they all started and stopped clapping at the same time
B) What happens when the Captain doesn't make a text book landing - perhaps another Blogger will tell me
Any way I digress What happened to the British stiff upper lip ?!? a bit of a breeze off the port wing....pass the G&Ts and leave me to read my paper quietly !
11 January 2007
Low pay ?
2 flights so far this week, second of which was Southampton to Amsterdam. The flight nearly didn't go because of no crew. In the end a Hostess had been volunteered by the company. She was due to finish at 1400, on her flight into southampton from edinburgh arrival 13;30, she had been told she was on the 1400 Amsterdam. As she has a monthly salary she only receives an extra 1.70 an hour she is the air. There was a possibly an extra £30 payment but when she left Southamptoin the Captain of her previous Edinburgh plane was still arguing with Fly BE HQ about whether she was elligble for payment.
mmmh I wonder what BA Connect staff are thinking - my impression is they are voting with their feet.....
mmmh I wonder what BA Connect staff are thinking - my impression is they are voting with their feet.....
6 January 2007
Bristol Airport
Took the family through Bristol Airport. Travelling AirSouthWest on Dash 8 no real trouble with runway, but it was very rainy & a very bad crosswind. Easyjet + continental planes were parked and everything seemed fine. very surprised by all the whoop-la that causing all the cancellations.
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