Greetings from over the Atlantic Ocean. I’m writing this blog post from KLM Flight 0605 from Amsterdam to San Francisco in Business class! But, before I write about my business class experience, I should explain my tweet about “missing my flight”.
It all started with me booking a one-way award ticket in business class from Tel Aviv to San Francisco via Amsterdam. The ticket was booked for April 16th at 5:05 am local time. Those with a keen eye will notice that that’s exactly when I posted my tweet about missing the flight. I did not make the flight for the simple reason I was sure I was booked on the April 17th flight, the one I’m on board right now.
The mix-up occurred due to an “off by one” error in copying the ticket information into Google Calendar. Since I was in the Pacific time zone I had to enter all time information in PDT, which is 10 hours earlier than Tel Aviv time, and 9 hours earlier than Amsterdam time. I did the math correctly, but neglected to adjust the date, thus adding the flight on Apr 16th at 7:05pm PDT instead of Apr 15th.
From that point onward, I did not look at my ticket until I was about to check in, what I believed was 26 hours before departure. I went to KLM’s check-in site, selected the flight path and the date and was surprised to see my ticket was not found. After looking up the ticket itself I realized that my booked flight is departing in two hours, while I’m at least a two hour drive from the airport, and my bags are not packed.
I called KLM Platinum reservations and they said that I’d have to book a new ticket, but they could cancel my existing ticket (and hopefully refund the miles and taxes paid). They recommended I call Flying Blue the next morning when they are available.
I didn’t want to wait till the next morning and tried calling the local airport, which was checking in my flight at that time. I got no answer. Then, I decided to try to call the US Flying Blue line, but it was already after 8pm on the east coast, so they too were not available. 5 am passed, and I didn’t have a ticket.
Then I came across the idea to call the Flying Blue center in a different timezone. I called Flying Blue Japan and they were happy to assist me. It turns out there was one award ticket left, in Business class, for the flight on the 17th. I booked that ticket.
Fast forward to the next day, and I boarded the first flight (TLV-AMS). It seems I would have been upgraded if I had an economy ticket as economy was full (as usual). The flight had a slight delay but my connection was fine. At Amsterdam, I went to the new lounge, took a shower, went online, and made a few phone calls.
About an hour later, I got tricked again by the flight information screens displaying my flight as “Boarding”. I went to the gate, quickly passed security and realized no one has yet boarded the aircraft. After nervously waiting for about 20 minutes, a delay was announced, then another one, and we finally started boarding 30 minutes after the scheduled departure time, and departed over an hour late. We should make up for some of the lost time in the air.
Now, for the business class experience. I’m seated at row 77, which is the upper deck exit row on the 747. It’s about 4 hours into the flight and I haven’t yet left the upper deck, and rarely left my seat, which turns into an almost flat bed that’s pretty comfy and sleepable. I spent the beginning of the flight sleeping (and eating the pretty good food) and then watched some shows on the IFE system, which is kinda old, but reasonable. I’m writing this on my laptop connected to the in-flight AC power.
Arrived safely at SFO, and posting this from the airport hotel. That’s all for now. Sorry for not blogging more, but you can always follow me on Twitter!
April 18th, 2009 at 01:17
Posted by
epsalon |
US Travel, Frequent Flyer |
3 comments
That’s what I got offered, I accepted. They took back their offer. I’m talking obviously about Atlanta, GA, and the offer was by Delta due to overbooking in my flight back to San Francisco. The offer was revoked due to the fact they didn’t need volunteers after all. Too bad, I was looking forward to a day in Atlanta.
September 9th, 2008 at 01:02
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer |
no comments
Today I have boarded a flight to Chicago, Illinois on my way to the AAAI-08 conference. As usual, instead of flying direct, I have connected through Minneapolis in order to fly Northwest and get a First-Class upgrade. This time I left my passport home intentionally, as this is a purely domestic itinerary.
Some of you may recall my car accident. That led to me leaving my car at a garage for repair and renting a replacement car a few days ago. I have returned the rental car at the airport and thus saved the time and hassle of an airport shuttle.
As this is a short trip and the weather is warm, I packed almost nothing and did not check any bags, so I could proceed directly to the gate with my pre-printed boarding pass (as this is a domestic flight, I get no lounge access). My first class flight went smoothly, arriving on time at Minneapolis.
Upon arrivial, I checked the screens for my connection info and noticed that there was an earlier Northwest flight to Chicago Midway* airport. I decided to head directly to that gate and try to standby for the earlier flight. The gate agent told me that he could put me on standby, but the flight is likely to be full and I am not guaranteed a seat, and even if I get one, it would probably be in economy. I told the agent I don’t mind (I prefer spending an hour and a half on the plane in economy than in the terminal), and then I had to wait and see if there would be room for me.
The flight turned out to be fully booked, and all 12 first class seats were full. However, since I had Platinum status I got one of those! The flight did depart late, but I ended up arriving more than an hour before my original schedule. Another plus is that a nice girl sat next to me on the flight and we chatted all the way. She was flying from San Jose (SJO), Costa Rica and was on her final leg back home to Wisconsin. I had fun.
After arriving I checked in at my hotel and took a taxi to dinner with my advisor and some more Stanford folk at a Chicago restaurant. I just now returned to the hotel. Updates to come.
*Midway airport (MDW), is named such not because of its location, but as a reference to the Battle of Midway.
July 15th, 2008 at 07:28
Posted by
epsalon |
Chicago, Frequent Flyer |
3 comments
… But what an eventful week it was! For those of you that don’t know, last week I have flown back from Israel, and this week I’m flying to a conference in Portugal.
Some people (ahem, ahem) have commented on the lack of personal perspective in this blog, and it being just a dry collection of facts. Hopefully this post will be an improvement in that regard.
I know I haven’t posted in a while. This is a result of a combination of two seemingly contradicting things: there was nothing to write about, and I was too busy. Well, now, from my first class seat on NW272 SFO-MEM, I can tell you all the news.
BREAKING NEWS: I was just notified by a flight attendant that I have left my passport in SFO. This is very bad since my next flight is international. I will check with the staff at Memphis about how to get it back.
Until we land, I’ll tell you about our planned German family reunion. It seems that 4 out of my 5 immediate family members will be at Saabrücken with me the coming weekend touring around and playing boardgames.
I’m now really worried about the passport issue and hope I could board the SFO-AMS flight without it and also pass the passport control at AMS, since my I-94 has already been affixed to my boarding pass.
May 13th, 2008 at 04:36
Posted by
epsalon |
Portugal, Frequent Flyer, Personal, USA, Travel |
one comment
My 11B seat in the KLM 747 was comfortable, but the flight was delayed for about an hour while they tried to fix the broken entertainment system. The entertainment system on the KLM 747 economy cabin consists basically of TVs around the cabin that play some bad movies — not a big loss. In fact, it’s easier to concentrate without those stupid TVs.
However, KLM thought this was a serious discomfort and offered all passengers compensation vouchers for 2000 miles and a 50 EUR discount on a future KL/AF/NW flight of 150 EUR or more. I already cashed in the miles voucher, and will try to sell the discount voucher on eBay.
In between the flight I had a long layover (about 11 hours). I started my layover by visiting the KLM lounge and checking my e-mails and stuff. Then, I left my bag behind and took the train to Amsterdam, where I started to walk aimlessly among the canals. At that point I decided I have to actually go somewhere, and looked up the address of the ILLC using an open wifi hotspot, and using Google Maps mobile, I got directions on how to get there.
After about half an hour of walking I arrived, uninvited, at the ILLC. I walked among the corridors looking for recognizable names, and found a former colleague and co-author of mine, Khalil Sima’an, who was meeting with an Israeli student of his. After they concluded their meeting, they came over to talk to me. We talked about my whereabouts and my current academic direction, and concluded when they both had to leave. I finished my visit by walking towards the general direction of the train station, and then back to the airport.
In the airport, I rested at the lounge and went (too early, as usual) to the gate. After a small delay, the plane was boarded and took off. However, as the plane was almost full and lots of people were religious jews, it took forever for the cabin crew to hand out all the special (mostly Kosher) meals. The problem was, that they would not start beverage service, or even give water until this was over, which means I was basically dehydrated for more than two hours. I have written a complaint to KLM.
In the flight itself, I was seated next to two young women who were flying alone. One was connecting from New York to visit family for passover, while the other was a dutch citizen coming to visit her long-distance Israeli boyfriend. The nice conversations and sleep compensated for the lack on an entertainment system on this flight (which is standard for KLM 737s).
Now I’m in my brother’s house in Hertzeliya, and will come home for the “Seder” tomorrow afternoon.
For my detailed travel plans and locations, see my travel calendar.
April 18th, 2008 at 12:40
Posted by
epsalon |
Frequent Flyer, Family, Academia, USA |
2 comments
