Irene Is Causing Us Problems

Weather seems to be our new nemesis this season. If it isn't one thing like the heat, it is another thing like storms. Now, we are getting cancellations from people who cannot leave the US due to their flights being cancelled by the airlines. Where are all of you Europeans who don't need to worry about hurricanes. Come to Budapest!!

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....Tomorrow and Thereafter

Checking the Lufthansa website, our flight out of Budapest has been delayed by forty minutes. The shuttle is picking us up three hours before our flight, so we will test the Diners Club Lounge. We have a close call in Munich, but both flights are Lufthansa. I will be posting along the way as WiFi is available.



In the meanwhile, 


English: Happy Holidays!
French: Joyeuses Fêtes!
Spanish: Felices Fiestas!
Swedish: Trevlig Helg!
Portuguese: Boas Festas!
Turkish: Mutlu Bayramlar!
Romanian: Sarbatori Fericite!
Mandarin: Jie Ri Yu Kuai
Catalan: Bones Festes!
Japanese: Tanoshii kurisumasu wo! (Have a happy Christmas)
Italian: Buone Feste!
South African (Xhose): Ii holide eximnandi
German: Forhe Feiertage
Dutch: Prettige feestdagen
Hawaiian: Hau'oli Lanui (pronounced how-oh-lay la-new-ee)
Gaelic: Beannachtaí na Féile
Slovenian: Vesele Praznike
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Raya!
Croatian: Sretni praznici!
Hungarian: Kellemes unnepeket!

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Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow....Tomorrow and Thereafter

Checking the Lufthansa website, our flight out of Budapest has been delayed by forty minutes. The shuttle is picking us up three hours before our flight, so we will test the Diners Club Lounge. We have a close call in Munich, but both flights are Lufthansa. I will be posting along the way as WiFi is available.


In the meanwhile, 


English: Happy Holidays!
French: Joyeuses Fêtes!
Spanish: Felices Fiestas!
Swedish: Trevlig Helg!
Portuguese: Boas Festas!
Turkish: Mutlu Bayramlar!
Romanian: Sarbatori Fericite!
Mandarin: Jie Ri Yu Kuai
Catalan: Bones Festes!
Japanese: Tanoshii kurisumasu wo! (Have a happy Christmas)
Italian: Buone Feste!
South African (Xhose): Ii holide eximnandi
German: Forhe Feiertage
Dutch: Prettige feestdagen
Hawaiian: Hau'oli Lanui (pronounced how-oh-lay la-new-ee)
Gaelic: Beannachtaí na Féile
Slovenian: Vesele Praznike
Indonesian: Selamat Hari Raya!
Croatian: Sretni praznici!


Hungarian: Kellemes unnepeket!

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United Doesn't TAP to the Star Alliance

Ron had to go from Newark to Lisbon to Frankfurt to Budapest and arrived home at 8:30 PM last night. When he went to check in at Newark, it seems that United had him booked on a TAP flight that was discontinued in May. However, he did not find this out at the check-in desk until they had checked his luggage and sent it off on the belt. They had re-booked him on a flight that now had him over nighting in Lisbon, but no one had forewarned him about this. Needless to say, no one offered to pay or supply a hotel voucher either. This scheduled plane was six hours later than his originally planned flight.

When he told TAP he was never informed of these changes and due to EU rules, he knew he was entitled to be put on a different flight if there were an earlier one out of Lisbon, they said he would have to deal with United. Because this was a frequent flyer ticket, TAP was not able to make the changes. He had the good sense to ask if they were all part of the Star Alliance, why they could not do it themselves, but the TAP rep tap danced around the question, saying they could not.

He went to the United desk in a different terminal, spoke with a rep there, who said she would make the changes, but that TAP should have done this themselves since they are part of the Star Alliance, confirming Ron's thoughts. She then suggested he go back to TAP to retrieve his luggage and recheck it with United.

After returning the the original terminal where TAP is located, he asked for his luggage to be searched for, but the young man who had originally took it gave him the run-around about getting it back. After Ron pressed the issue, the young man supposedly went looking for it, but came back empty handed. Ron claims he was a bit surly about the request, so chances are the man disappeared just to say he did it when he return, but really having done nothing at all.

Ron arrived in Lisbon, had a wait and then had to fly to Frankfurt, before continuing on to Budapest.

The irony of the whole situation is that I had convinced him to bring me home some Italian sausage. I had him deep freeze it, wrap the package in aluminum foil and then in plastic bags, thinking that in the cargo hold, it would make it back partially frozen or ready to cook immediately. Also in the luggage were bagels.

In his carry-on suitcase is a new Windows Home Server, which I paid $700 for, but all of the peripherals, the cords, software, etc are in the big suitcase, along with the ten books on how to teach online and how to be a life coach. Is this a message from the universe?

Needless to say, Ron's luggage did not arrive home with him. There was another flight in last night at midnight, but the luggage was not on it. The next flight is today at 2:00.

I will be in mourning as I throw the sausage into the trash.

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No TAP Dancing for Ron

Originally, Ron was supposed to leave Newark, NJ yesterday afternoon on a TAP flight, the Portuguese airline, but the Continental Airliner with the dead pilot were given priority at the airport causing flights out to be delayed. Major storms all down the NJ coast had further impact on delaying flights.

The last time I had checked last night on his flight, it was delayed for four hours out of Newark. Fortunately, I had reminded him of the EU rules. His change in Lisbon from TAP to TAP was only 2 hours, so I knew he would not make the transfer in time.

This morning, I received a message from my sister-in-law. He called her to say he was rerouted via Lufthansa going to Frankfurt and then back here.

He was originally scheduled back at 2:30 PM. Now he will not get back until about 6:30 PM. I had made dinner reservations, but will need to change them. I am sure it will take him a few days to recover. He does not do well with jet lag when he returns from the States.

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We Are Sorry to Say, Your Pilot Has Died

I just spoke with Ron. He will be leaving for the airport in a couple of hours. I don't know how he found this out, but he told me that a Continental Airlines jet coming in from Brussels has priority landing at Newark Airport in NJ, because the pilot died during the flight. Yikes!! I cannot even imagine that crew announcement. Fortunately, overseas flights have three crew members in the cockpit.

His other joyful news included the weather report that Newark and the Jersey coast are experiencing storms causing flights outbound to be delayed. If you read this, keep your fingers, toes, and eyes crossed for a safe journey. I hope he is able to make his connections in Lisbon without any issues, but I would rather he have an overnighter in Lisbon and get home safely. For those flying to any EU country, even from North America, the EU rules for passenger rights are in effect.

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Getting Closer

My classes are over, the grades are calculated, they have been entered into the university computer system, and all that is left is getting ready to leave on Monday. So here is the agenda. Monday, we will train to Vienna for an overnight stay at Pension Wild www.pensionwild.com. It is a great place with reasonable rates and wonderful beds. Tuesday at 3:00 pm starts the real journey. First we fly to Amsterdam, a 2 hour flight. From Amsterdam we continue to Kuala Lumpur with a whopping flight time of 11 hours and 40 minutes. From Kuala Lumpur, it is another 7 hours to Adelaide. Scrambling along the way, we are getting last minute things done, hoping not to forget a thing. We cannot wait for the sunshine and warm weather. It is cold and dreary here now, but with the sky dark at 4:30, it makes for really long evenings. Stay tuned. With my 2 pound computer, I will be blogging along the way.

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Wizz Air to Launch New Routes from Budapest

"Discount airline Wizz Air will launch new flights from Budapest from April 2009, CEO József Váradi has announced. According to napi.hu, four weekly flights will be operated to Madrid, three to Barcelona, and two to Naples and Oslo. The new flights were made possible by an agreement between Wizz Air and Ferihegy airport operator Budapest Airport, which resulted in considerably lower expenses for the airline. One change which is a consequence of lowered expenses is that passengers are no longer transported between the terminal and the aircraft by buses, but they have to walk the distance."

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Go SkyEurope

I was so paranoid about not making the flight in time, we opted for the earlier airport bus. We were up at 4:15 am and at the station at 5:00, only to find the next bus was not until 5:35. We were at the airport by 6:30 am, but SkyEurope did not open for check in until 7:00 am. We were checked in and through security within minutes. I sat at the gate and wrote yesterday's blog entry. Boarding time was 8:10, but by 8:20, there still was no plane. It was late arriving from Prague and eventually did by 8:40. Amazingly, we still landed in Budapest on time at 10:00 am. Go SkyEurope!

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Fly International, But Pack Your Own Lunch

This was posted on the Budget Travel Newsletter that appeared in my mailbox today. Can it get any more ridiculous? Christopher Elliot, the travel ombudsman jokes that they will start charging for using the toilets, making them coin-operated. As Freud said "Many truths are said in jest." I hope the airlines do not read Christopher's blog. United will cut free meals on many overseas flights

Posted by: Sean O'Neill, Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008, 9:48 AM

Starting Oct. 1, United Airlines will stop serving free meals to coach-class passengers on transatlantic flights between Washington D.C. (Dulles airport) and destinations in Europe. It's the first U.S. Airline to stop distributing free meals on transatlantic flights. The airline will offer salads and sandwiches for $9, says The Washington Post.

Meals in first and business classes will remain free for transatlantic flights. But for most domestic flights, business class will no longer get free meals. And the price of meals for flights within the U.S. Will also rise. (See United's pricing chart for details.)

No word yet on whether flight attendants will be able to handle all the cash payments. The game of "does anyone have small bills?" will get very old on a long transatlantic flight. I hope they'll give hand-held, credit-card reading machines to them, like US Airways is giving some of its flight attendants on domestic flights. (Virgin Atlantic has credit-card swipe readers on each seatback.)

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