The Best of Chicken Crate Seating

Was training to Munich a money saver? This has not been proven yet, but time will tell. We initially decided to book our flights to Panama from Munich since the difference in fare between there and Budapest as a departure point was significant. MÁV the Hungarian train company offers a special for €29 Euros each person to travel between the 2 cities. Reservations cost another €5 more according to the site, but we were charged €58 total with assigned seating. Way to go! 

At 6:50 am we were at Keleti station and so was our train. Boarding according to the car, we found our seats without issue. This train did not have the cozy compartments shared by 6-8 others in second class. They were spread throughout the car, some two-seat configurations on each side of the aisle and some foursomes with two by two facing each other separated by a narrow table. This is where we were placed, a foursome with two seats opposite two other seats. Unfortunately, the train was filled beyond capacity. Not only was every seat filled, but hordes were standing in the aisles and by the restrooms creating a wish list with a place to sit as the number one priority. That said, we were squeezed into this foursome with less mobility than a chicken being raised by Perdue. Adding to the misery was the cold. The air conditioner was blasting out of the vents with an outdoor temperature of 31 degrees Fahrenheit. It seemed like the Hungarians were torturing the traveling masses as a punishment for emigrating. Truncated and freezing, we had dreams of warmer and roomier times ahead. 

By Vienna, three hours later, the train emptied out. Oxygen returned to the cars; you could feel the contracted sides of the cars expanding once again as they were filled like expanding lungs. Three hours down and three more to go, but we could move our legs, once the cramping pain subsided. Austrian conductors are less immune to complaints. Once we were in Vienna, the A/C went off and the heat came on.

Finally after arriving in Munich, we had to hunt down the tourism office for directions to our hotel. We specifically chose an airport hotel due to our early morning flight. The assumption was they would have shuttle transportation to get us to the terminal on time. Ron booked a Mövenpick hotel using Priceline.com, starting his bids at $45. He scored at $65 for the one night. To get there was a hassle, which we did not realize. First, we took the S-Bahn for umpteen stops after paying €10.20 each for a one way, one use ticket. Once we reached our stop, we had to wait for a bus. This was included in the ticket, but a freezing rain had started. After a ten minute wait, the bus arrived. This bus stopped at significantly more stops than the schedule showed, but luckily, there were display signs showing the stops. Almost directly across from the stop we were told to get off at, was the hotel, set back a football field distance from the road.

Settled in the room, which was more than adequate, we realized we were held hostage here. There was nothing the area, so a car or bus ride were required to escape. Dinner was at the hotel, expensive, but delicious. Shuttle rides to the airport are €8 per person. Breakfast is extra, but we chose to bypass it.

When we ventured to the lobby at 6:30 am on Sunday, there was a coffee machine and croissants set out. Once we had our coffee and took a croissant, the machine was turned off and the pastries were removed. No distractions from buying breakfast, I guess.

After arriving at the airport and having checked in, we looked for the Diner’s Club lounge. It was not to be found. This was a dedicated Lufthansa and United terminal, so the only lounge was Lufthansa. The DC lounges were in the other two terminals, but not one we could access. A minimal breakfast ran us €27. 

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Munich - Like Munch's The Scream

With surprising efficiency, there were four Lufthansa employees waiting for our arrival. Each held a destination sign: Tokyo, San Francisco, Chicago, Newark. Once they collected their respective group, they escorted us directly to passport control. My intuition was correct about the Asians on our flight. The passport officers must have been called in especially for this, since only the people from our flight filled the two lines. The controllers were slow, browsing through everyone’s passport.

Our escort kept trying to move people from one line to another depending on the current speed of any given line at the moment. When she pulled three Japanese women to the other line, she had second thoughts and put them back in our line. They were originally right in front of us, so I let them back in their place.  It was those ahead of us who complained and tried verbally forcing them to the back of the line. Of course, they were Americans. I had overheard their conversation earlier. They were loud and verbal. When the women were about to move to the end of the line, I spoke up and told them to stay where they were, verbally sparring with the loudmouths. Their flight to San Francisco was scheduled for ten minutes later than ours was after all. Our needs were more urgent. On the other side of passport control, our escort reappeared rushing us all to the appropriate gate. The plane was boarded already, so only those of us later arrivals were the hold-up.

Just as I handed the woman my boarding pass, she said “We would like to offer you a seat in business class today.” Rather than say thank you and turning to tell Ron that I hoped he enjoyed his flight too and I would see him in Tokyo, the words slipped from my mouth “We are traveling together.” She responded with “Let’s see what we can do. Ah, here is one for both of you.”

Business class seat! Score one for us. The only time I had ever been upgraded was a flight from Houston to Dallas, barely enough time to enjoy the advantages. Ironically, the last time we flew through Tokyo, Ron had a kidney stone attack on the plane. They upgraded him only then. They would not even let me up to check on him. This being an eleven hour flight, we took were thrilled to take advantage of the services. When the meal service started, they put cloth placemats on our trays. The dinner service is 3 courses, each served individually after you select from a menu. The seats move electronically in all phases of sitting up to flat as a bed. There is so much room; there is no concern about your fellow travelers space being invaded. The service was excellent. We are now spoiled for future flights.

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Kiwi Adventures Begin Here

Checking with the Lufthansa website, our flight was going to be forty minutes late. There was no sense in sitting at the airport longer than needed, so we called the shuttle service to ask if we could delay our pick-up. They gave us an additional thirty minute grace period to sit around and wait at home. Now that we had the extra unplanned time, we weren’t sure what to do with it. Now, I have to brag. We are leaving for 33 days and our luggage consists of one carry-on suitcase each, and one backpack each. My backpack holds my netbook computer, my camera, the extra telephoto lens, my phone, and all of the cords needed to maintain the electric and charge the batteries of the above. 

When they came for us, there was only a single rider in the van. Yet, it took them over an hour to get us to the airport. The last pick-up was on the border of Slovakia or so it seemed. We drove forever.  Once we arrived, we then had to wait twenty minutes for her to get to the van; this made me reconsider our decision to take this later shuttle. Once full, our first stop was Ferihegy I to drop off two people. We were no sooner on the road again, when suddenly the driver turned around and returned back to Ferhegy I to pick up another passenger. My stomach knots were telling my headache, this is punishment for changing the shuttle times.

Once at the airport, all thoughts of tons of time for hanging around flew out faster than any jet or the line we were in. The airport was so crowded, it looked like the entire city was evacuating. We were able to get our boarding passes from the self-check in machines for Budapest to Munich and Munich to Tokyo, but not beyond. Lufthansa only had three desks open: one only for 1st and Business class. Even when she was not busy, she refused to take any other travelers. With the flight delayed by forty minutes, it was still a dubious situation whether we were going to make it or not. Both Lufthansa and Air New Zealand have strict policies on carry-on luggage. We could take on the carry-on suitcase or the backpacks, but not both. Needless to say, the carry-ons were checked. As luck would have it it turned out we did with a bit of time to spare. The Duna Lounge has just been added to the Diners Club list of lounges, but we have been rejected in lounges in the past since our, cards are American Diners Club, not international ones. We tested the waters and received warm welcomes and free drinks with snacks.

Almost everyone on the plane had reason for concern since we left Budapest late. Still we were lucky. The flights to London, Paris and Frankfurt were all completely cancelled; at least we made it out. About 1/3 of us were going on to Tokyo and another 1/3 was headed to San Francisco. It did not seem to be many stopping in Munich. Both groups were fearful of missing our connections. There was no time to spare. We waited longer on the runway than usual once we landed, only to have our gate changed when we arrived. They had to bus us to the terminal; our late arrival caused our plane to lose its gate. I mentioned to Ron that the bus was filled with Asians, so perhaps they were going to Tokyo also, which may make Lufthansa hold the plane.

Related articles

• Harsh Weather Snarls European Travelers (online.wsj.com)
• Frankfurt airport back in service (thehimalayantimes.com)

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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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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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The Sky is Shrinking

More mergers + possibly more options = higher airfares? Well, perhaps not more options as these mergers may produce a tighter schedule. This is the latest news on airline consolidation wishes. Posted here are snippets of the full article on of all places China Daily athttp://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-06/01/content_7958949.htm Lufthansa's next targets are Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

The German carrier made a public offer to purchase the stock held by all free-float shareholders of Austrian Airlines AG in February. More than 85 percent of the shareholders of Austrian Airlines had accepted the offer by last month.

Lufthansa also plans to take a 45 percent stake in Brussels Airlines, which may later be increased to 100 percent.

Lufthansa's major European rivals such as Air France-KLM and British Airways have also showed great interest in consolidation.

Air France-KLM, Europe's largest airline by revenue, finalized a deal on May 20 with Delta to operate as one airline over the North Atlantic. Air France and KLM merged in 2004 and Delta bought Northwest Airlines last year, which paved the way for a four-way partnership. The pact between the two largest airlines on each side of the ocean involved sharing revenues and costs on more than 200 trans-Atlantic flights.

Air France-KLM completed its purchase of a 25 percent stake in Alitalia earlier this year. It has also submitted a non-binding offer for Czech Airlines, while British Airways said last year that it planned to merge with Iberia, the Spanish flag carrier.

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Say Addis Ababa Three Times Fast

After getting off of the phone with United Airlines in the UK, just now, I peacefully and without any hair pulling booked tickets. We are using my United frequent flier miles for our winter vacation. We will travel from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa from December 14th to January 14th. The cost was only 120,000 miles via their partner Lufthansa Airlines. When so many complain about being able to use their miles, I think the secret may be to call an out of the way call center. Each time I have redeemed miles on United or Delta, by calling the UK office, the closest English speaking office, I have hit gold the first go. Oh, if you are wondering where Addis Ababa is, it is in Ethiopia.

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Lufthansa launches new Lufthansa Italia brand

Press releases: Lufthansa launches new Lufthansa Italia brand New Italian airline to be established - Lufthansa Italia to offer direct connections from northern Italy to European destinations - Flights already available for booking from 99 euros 26.11.08 Lufthansa is launching its new 'Lufthansa Italia' brand in Italy tomorrow. The new airline blends traditional Lufthansa values, notably reliability and high quality, with Italian flair. With an initial fleet of six aircraft, Lufthansa will be offering the best of connections from northern Italy to major European destinations from February 2009. Lufthansa is to found its own Italian airline under the new brand early next year and apply for an Italian Air Operator Certificate (AOC). 'Lufthansa Italia will position us in an important market characterised by strong demand, which also holds out opportunities for buoyant growth in the future. We will be offering our Italian customers an extensive route network from northern Italy to attractive destinations in Europe,' said Lufthansa CEO and Chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber. 'Milan and Lombardy rank among Europe’s economically most important and strongest regions. A good route network connecting them with Europe’s principal cities is essential. Lufthansa Italia is making this a reality and at the same time is demonstrating a clear commitment to the region.' Flights to the first two destinations, Barcelona und Paris (Charles de Gaulle), will be operated from 2 February 2009. Flights to Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest and Madrid will be added to the timetable four weeks later. London (Heathrow) and Lisbon will be brought into the network with the start of the 2009 summer flight schedules at the end of March. The new services will provide Lufthansa customers with fast, non-stop connections. Flight bookings through the usual distribution channels with the new Lufthansa Italia airline began in mid-October. An Airbus A319, seating 138 passengers in Business and Economy Class, will be operating the flights under the Lufthansa Italia brand. The discreet cabin design betrays its Italian origins. The passengers will be served by Italian flight attendants with Italian delicacies adding a note of originality to the in-flight menu. In cooperation with the Milan Airport operator SEA, the infrastructure at Malpensa Airport will be successively upgraded to provide Lufthansa passengers with more service and comfort at the airport. Awaiting them from spring 2009 is an enhanced lounge product and fast-track passage through security. Deutsche Lufthansa AG Corporate Communications"

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The Fight Is On Again

Why is it necessary to fight for your rights all of the time with major corporations? The David and Goliath story over and over again gets draining. We flew to Istanbul in March purchasing our tickets on Lufthansa and giving them our frequent flier numbers for United Airlines, both being part of the Star Alliance. We flew from Budapest to Munich and from there on to Istanbul. The latter leg was a code share with Turkish Airlines, but with a Lufthansa code and flight. Our return was the same in reverse. When I checked our miles on United.com, they had given each of us 500 miles for the first leg of the journey, but nothing for the Munich to Istanbul portion. I checked the list of United's partners and sure enough Turkish Airlines was listed as a full fledged partner. Checking on the Star Alliance web site, I found that Turkish Airlines is listed there also as full fledged partner also. Thinking that both Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines both being partners, we should have received miles regardless of whose plane we flew on. I submitted the form for missing credits. A day later, I received an e-mail from United stating that our flight did not qualify for miles. No explanation was given, no apology for our misunderstanding, but best of all, no "Thank you for contacting us. We value you as a customer." I would rather nothing at all than a phony apology. I was 20,000 miles short of getting both of us tickets to Australia, but have enough for another trip to Africa assuming they don't go out of business or raise their mileage rates before December of 2009. I want those miles! I try to book flights that will garner us miles. I wrote to Christopher Elliot, the travel ombudsman about this. He suggested I write to the higher ups and gave me the addresses for various airlines. I have yet to write, but will as soon as school is out this next week. Issue two is Bank of America yet again. I keep saying I hate this bank, but the more I hear about other banks, the problems with others are similar. I was looking at our statement online. They charged us $6.50 service fees last month. We have not been charged service fees for over a year. I wrote to Customer Service an oxymoron if there ever was one. Although polite, I said there must have been a mistake and would like it rectified. They responded within 12 hours stating it was due to our "linked" accounts falling below the minimum balances for the month, but I should be happy to know that since we have direct deposits, we did save $2.00. Well I had to admit that our checking account did run with about $500. as a balance, but our regular savings account has over $5,000. in it, but if that is still not enough, we have a CD account with a hell of a lot of money in it that is well over their minimum standards. I wrote back explaining all of this, but in return received yet another emotionally inflaming e-mail stating this could not be handled over e-mail and I would have to call customer service. That would mean waiting 6 hours later than normal for their office to be open due to the time differences, then pray I reached one of their numbers that accepted collect calls, and finally found someone with enough brains to overcome their scripted training to tell me there is nothing they can do. All of their e-mails end in "We value you as a customer and appreciate your business." Well they have a hell of a way of showing it. I know, I just know that when I call, they will tell me that the CD account was never "linked" to the other accounts and therefore we incurred the charge. "Linked" is a magical way for banks to carve more fees from their customers' hard earned money. Hey, I did not send you my house keys because I could not pay my mortgage, so don't try to make up the losses by screwing with me. I know full well this "linked" trick and I made sure I had all of our accounts linked when we opened this new account. Thanks to a comment posted to this blog on a previous rant about Bank of America, I have the address for the president. Excuse me now, I have a long list of letters to write.

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Homeward Bound

Good bye park, good bye Blue Mosque.
Home again, home again, not so lickety-split. We were up at 5:00 am to get ready for the shuttle and thankful that the alarm worked since the wake up call never came. They did call to say the shuttle was there and waiting, though 15 minutes earlier than planned. We were the sole riders for the 30 minute ride, which they had told us to plan an hour for. Sleep deprivation could have been reduced.

When we arrived at the airport, the driver pointed to a line of traffic, grunted and went down a different road. He drove up the parking ramp and around and around climbing the levels of parking, with us scratching our heads. He finally pointed to a doorway that was direct access from the ramp to the entrance of the airport, thus cutting through the line of traffic if he had come the other way. Quite clever, we thought after we had realized what he was up to.

Absolutely immediately upon entering the airport, you have to go through security. All luggage and your person must be scrutinized before you can even check in at the airline counter. Once through this, we looked for our flight's ticket counter to get our boarding passes, but it only went as late as 8:30; our flight was 9:15. There are no restaurants or any diversions until after Passport Control.

We waited for over an hour for our flight to be posted, but then I realized all Turkish Airline flights were being ticketed at G/H sections. Our flight was Lufthansa, but operated by Turkish Air. We walked over there and sure enough, they were doing open check in for all flights. For some reason they could not give us our connecting flight boarding passes for Lufthansa, though Lufthansa could coming. They were able to send our baggage through to Budapest. Passport Control was relatively easy and then the long walk to the gate. That is one big airport.

As you approach the gate, you have to go through security yet again. They asked me to turn on my laptop this time. Then they check your passport against your boarding card and stamp it one more time. I have to give kudos to Turkish Air. All of their seats are leather, we had plenty of legroom, and the meal was substantial as well as tasty. We left 15 minutes late, but arrived in Munich on time, which was not a good thing arriving at 11:00 am with a 3:10 pm connecting flight.

Munich airport is also huge, but there were few shops in the area we were in, so not wanting to leave a secured area and reenter, we sat it out. Lufthansa also gets high marks for having racks of reading material at the gates: International Herald Tribune, USA Today, and the Financial Times all English publications. Also impressive is their self-service coffee and tea kiosks which are free. Great service!

Munich has gone the way of other airports with their strict no smoking policies. Those renegades such as myself are destined to stand in a square Plexiglas well ventilated fishbowl to indulge our bad habits. My empathy for aquarium creatures and zoo animals has increased tremendously. This was the only such den of iniquity in the entire wing of gates, so I did get some exercise doing a fast walk back from our gate area for one last hit before descending to the gate itself.

One hour was productively spent on the computer writing, but the battery was about to give out. I only get an hour on this laptop and thought ahead to reserve some power for another go at having to turn it on again. Although we were in a secured area, past security and Passport Control, we had to go through yet a second security to get to our gate. The gate was on the lower level and when they called the flight, we boarded a bus. I found it interesting that the overhead announcement repeatedly stated that due to increased security measures for those going to the US, please go to your gate immediately. I cannot imagine the security being any stricter than what we passed through already.

Not being a full plane, we had the middle seat free. The 'lunch' service was exactly the same at the one we had going, only this time, no choices. It was salami or salami. So much for Muslim food restrictions; we were now out of their zone of influence. Flying time was 55 minutes, a full 15 less than going. Must have been a good tail wind that propelled us.

Having gone by the shuttle to the airport, we had our return tickets already and were called within 5 minutes. Alone in the van we thought we would get home in a hurry, it stopped at the old airport and filled every seat with tourists, so we were third to be dropped off.

All in all, it is fun to go, but for me a joy most of the time to return to familiar surroundings and comforts of home.

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The Airline War

Ron's great niece and 5 of her friends are descending on us in July. They have changed their plans 46 times in the past month and are driving their travel agent to drink. The latest from the agent this morning is that they want to arrive on July 15th and four of them leave on July 19th. I told Ron to tell her we needed confirmed dates so we could book other guests.

We finally bought our tickets to Scotland and really screwed ourselves royally. We would up paying $825 for both of us, when they were $670. last month. Yesterday, I spent 3 hours trying to book the tickets. After using all of the sites to check multiple sites, I went to KLM and Lufthansa's sites directly and found yet better deals. However, when I went to book Lufthansa's flights, I kept getting a blank page and it would not reload. I did this on three computers and the same thing happened. I tried Firefox and IE to no avail. I went to KLM and found flights for $10.00 more and booked them. However, after finding the flights we wanted, I would get a error message saying we were not on a secured web page. I tried this 5 times and Ron called KLM. If we booked over the phone, there was an additional fee, regardless of whether or not we could get their site to work. The woman said she logged on and it was fine, though we could not. After my 6th attempt, it worked and I filled out the forms and was cooking. Then I got an error message that I did not include salutations, which are required. Who give's a rat's as* is they call me Mr. Or MS? Fixed that and then there was some other error, and on and on. Finally, I got to the payment part and I put in my VISA card number. Well they have this new authorization for Visa, which I had enrolled in, but forgot my log in ID and password. It has been over a year since I used it. I hunted that down, put it in and then received an error page stating the site was down for system problems. By this point, I was a maniac and told Ron we should just screw the tickets we have for the Military Tattoo, lose the $100. and skip the trip. His long face made me try ONE MORE TIME. When I tried for the last time, our discounted fare ($825 some discount) was no longer available, so I went for the next one, yet another $100 more. I went through all of the forms, page after page, after page and then at the end, I received a message. "You have already booked a flight for these days and times. Are you sure you would like to book yet another flight?" After I had Primal Scream therapy, I called KLM. They confirmed that the first tickets did go through and they resent me the e-mails with the e-ticket numbers. It is no wonder airlines are in financial trouble.

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