This will be short and sweet (i hope). OK maybe not.
On my return from Luanda last week, Air France by Regional succeeded in turning my 24 trip home into a near 48 hour one!!! This is how......
First flight was the usual SAA B744 from Luanda to Johannesburg and as ever it was very good. 3 hours, left on time and business class really is very good. Food was chicken liver pate, a steak with chilli and a plate of cheese. IFE didn't work on my seat but didn't really care as the choices were the same crap as the way up! Spent the three hours on red wine, food, the Living End on my ipod and a fantastic book about Middle East conflict by Robert Fisk Highly recommended....a real eye opener. And I thought my eyes were open enough......
Transit in JNB was long - about 5 hours so I picked up my boarding passes for the AF flight at 2330 and went to the upstairs pub. The AF lounge at JNB is particularly dull, depite the nice young ladies that work in there so I tend to go to the pub and watch some sport and have a few medicinel beers. Mind the occasional cockroach in here though!!!
Boarding for the AF B772 was on time and quick. Not a full load tonight in C anyway. Not sure about Y but F was full - all four seats of it. It was the standard AF in business. Some decent food - scallops and trout to start, springbok filet, cheese and some nice sorbet to finish. Washed down with some Bordeaux and a wee brandy. Earpugs in, eye shades on, blacket covering me....that was it for 6 and a half hours. Can't have been very bumpy then! Breakfast was ok except they had no savoury option thanks to JNB packing twice as much springbok and no omelettes!! The crepes were ok though and we landed at CDG on schedule at 1020 or so.
My cousin was seeing a relative off at CDG 1 so I went quickly over there to meet her and other relatives. Had 4 hours to kill so into the city centre, quick falafel and back out to CDG for the 1530 flight to ABZ. I got the new E190 on the way down and very impressive it was too. Quiet and large comfortable cabin. Boarding was on time and everything was in order, got on board, began the taxi and then we stopped. Back to the gate and after an hour of technicians going in and out the flight is cancelled!! Back to the terminal it is then. The flight was quite busy so before i got into the terminal a disorderly queue had formed of complaining miserable Aberdonians- " ah this is bloody ridiculous, ah dinna ken how ah'm gonnae get hame the nicht now" was a phrase that seemed to confuse the AF staff who seemed to be trying, and failing, to calm various idiots down. The kings of the morons was the mother and father who decided there complaints would start at the cabin crew when we were first delayed. Honestly I would have chucked them off the plane...what a pair of as**oles.
Anyway, not wishing to be associated with these half wits, I just got in a queue and stood waiting. An hour later I am at the front of the queue and an apologetic chap hands me a boarding pass for the next days 1530 and a voucher for the Millenium Hotel at the aiport. Hold on a minute was my comment.....there are two flights to ABZ before this one!!! Both full now! I guess the lesson is here, don;t try and be polite, force your way to the front or you will be sh*t upon! I said that was a bit out of order. Surely a business class ticket and a Plat Flying Blue card should get me further up the queue? It seems not. Families come first....I said that is fair enough, I can understand that. Then it was first come first serve! That I thought, was a bit crap. Anyway, the guy took my point and said he could get me home the next day but in the morning if I went AF to AMS and then on a BMI flight from AMS to ABZ. Be home by 10am. Not bad i thought - I'll do that then. Thanked the guy, who thanked me for my patience!
So, after collecting my suitcase which by siome miracle had made it to CDG from Luanda, I got on the woefully small shuttle bus to the Millenium. Now this hotel is one of the better ones I think around CDG (my fellow passengers seem to be sent to the Campanile.....) but first impressions were not great. Reception staff were well, it seemed to me, useless. No-one seemed to know anything and one apparently didn't even know French very well!!! Ah well she spoke English and after they p*ssed about for twenty minutes answering phones and talkign to their mates I got a room key. Dinner was in the restaurant and part of the voucher, as was breakfast though I would be leaving too early to get that! The room was OK, bed too soft but it was fine. Not worth the 300 Euro it apparently costs though! Went down to the pub which was quite nice, but full of very loud Zoom cabin crew that seemed to be wasted. Can I order food in here i ask? Not til 1030!! 1030 pm??? Who the hell eats dinner then? So I go to the restaurant and have entrecote. It was pretty crap but not as crap as the service, whcih seemd to be a whole lot better if your accent was of an American variety and you weren't travelling on an AF voucher! They really were crap and maybe they don't expect tips off europeans whereas they do off americans? Either way its self defeating 'cos I do tip but not to sh*te staff! Back to the bar, where the Zoom crew are now really steaming and have got in tow with a crew from Swiss. I think. I'm away to bed.
Up at 5am to get the 530am shuttle to CDG 2F. That was the first one i was told by the geniuses at reception. Thought it would be a bit tight for the 0720 flight but ok. Turns out there was one at 515 that I could see disappear as I paid the extras on my hotel bill. Aggh. Made it in plenty time anyway and boarded the rather old A320 to AMS on schedule around 0650. Then the problems...a 40 minute weather delay thanks to thunderstorms everywhere. Took off an hour late in the end and after a donkey ride to Amsterdam, it was bumpy as hell most of the way (and a shockingly bad business class breakfast - a cold croque monsieur....good grief) we landed at a stormy Amsterdam around 0910. My BMI E135 to ABZ was supposed to be leaving at 0940. Hmm.
Didn;t even bother to run as I thought there was no chance in hell I was getting on it. As it was, it was delayed 20 minutes so made it I did! I knew the suitcase however would be missing in AMS for a bit.....
This BMI Regional flight was rather nice.The tiny E135 actually has 4 business class seats on it with marginally more legroom and yellow seat covers! i was the only one in them! Take off was quick and smooth depsite seeing lightening not too far from the plane and flight to ABZ was around 1 hr 20. At this point the cabin crew (all one of em) brought me a cooked breakfast!! Only person on the plane to get one! Very good it was too..sausage, bacon, egg, beans, mushrooms with a very good yoghurt. Everyone else got a hot panini so it seems the service is pretty decent wherever you are on this plane. Landed in ABZ only 10 mins behind schedule but it was a little rocky on the way in!
Baggage got sent to Edinburgh 2 days later!!! how that happens is beyond me but BMI sent it up the next day anyway so not all bad.
So - a mere 20 odd hours late I get back to ABZ via JNB, CDG, AMS and a 744, 772, 320 and E135! Add the E190, 773 and 744 on the way down and it was some trip.....
Next is a Ryanair 2p return from PIK to Shannon in August. Ryanair let me down last time.....here's hoping I get ma 2ps worth!
Air France Regional.....oh boy!
Re: Air France Regional.....oh boy!
Some diet after all you ate on this trip won't harm you?chunk wrote:Next is a Ryanair 2p return from PIK to Shannon in August. Ryanair let me down last time.....here's hoping I get ma 2ps worth!
That's the one?
All we got told was "technical problem". I get the feeling it was something minor but with it being a new aircraft, nobody was sure how minor a problem it was. that was explain all the scratching of heads around the plane.....sn26567 wrote:Nice and interesting report. Did you get to know why your Regional E190 was cancelled? Teething problems?
You are not wrong there!!! Food was good on most of my flights - then again it was small portions over 40 or so hours so not that bad!Some diet after all you ate on this trip won't harm you?
That's the one?
