Alon’s Blog

Punalu’u black sand beach

Here is a photo I took at Punalu’u black sand beach, where I met Shira (this photo also courtesy of my camera phone, click to enlarge):

June 28th, 2007 at 06:50 Posted by epsalon | Hawaii, Travel | no comments

Air France Replies

In a previous post I wrote about the disservice I had on board an Air France flight. I have recently received the following letter in reply (Scanned image of the letter):

Dear Mr ALTMAN,

Your letter was transmitted to us by the by the Flying Blue Service. Thank you for having taken the time to write to us, thus giving us the occasion to communicate with you. We welcome feedback from our passengers, as we realize that this is our best means to maintain, and whenever necessary, improve the quality of our service.

We are sorry to learn that you were dissatisfied with the conditions during your flight from Paris to Tel Aviv, on 22/05/07. l fully understand your displeasure, and wish to apologize on behalf of Air France. We try to satisfy the passenger’s seat requests. but we cannot guarantee them. l regret the Exit seat couldn’t be assigned to you for safety reasons.

Furthermore, we do our utmost to insure the all-round professionalism of Air France cabin crews throughout their career. Your cabin crew is required to speak three languages, including English and french. We are generally proud of the professionalism af Air france personnel. I am sorry that on this occasion the service you received was not up to standard.

I do hope that you will afford us another opportunity to serve you to your entire satisfaction.

Yours sincerely,

LISE LEVY
Customer Relations Officer

No miles were credited to my account. I’m not sure if I’m going to take this futher.

June 16th, 2007 at 16:00 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Hawaii, Travel | no comments

Boarding Passes

This is how 8 flights look like. Boarding pass slips for my entire journey.

May 23rd, 2007 at 10:11 Posted by epsalon | Frequent Flyer, Hawaii, Travel | no comments

Home Sweet Home

Hi All! I’m back!

In the HNL-EWR post I forgot to tell you about the fact that my plane (a 767) was full. All 11 empty seats on the plane, including the one I cleverly left free between me and Itai were filled with nonrevenue passengers on standby. So, no free space for us.

Shortly after posting my previous post, Itai managed to get us admitted to the Delta Crown Room lounge at Newark. The lounge featured more comfortable seating and free drinks, although Dan lounge in Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport is better.

Anyway, our Air France flight to Paris was slightly late, and for some strange reason the flight attendants insisted on counting and recounting the number of passengers on board with a clicker. The Air France Airbus A330-200 was full to capacity, and even though the flight was overbooked, we could not get rerouting and compensation.

The plane featured personal video touch screens, however most of the interactive system did not work due to some malfunction. So, there remained very few films to watch, one of which I already saw on a previous flight (Music and Lyrics). I decided to use my laptop and watch The 4400 instead. I did however enjoy tracking the flight in real time, and the option to see the view from a camera mounted below the plane. The food service on board was surprisingly good, and I enjoyed the lunch served after takeoff, although I had nothing edible for breakfast.

Upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle International Airport, our plane taxied for about 20 minutes, until we came to a stop at a parking space. It turns out that at CDG some jets are still de-boarded by bus, so we had to take airstairs and board a bus to the terminal. The terminal itself was not a pleasant place either. The ground staff refused to change our seats for the next flight, even though I’m entitled to priority seating and will not give an emergency exit row to anyone who’s not fluent in French.

Upon reaching the departure gate (after passing security yet again), I was stunned to see that the boarding is again by bus. I further noticed that the flight would be at least 10 minutes late. There were no reasonable restaurants in the boarding area and everything was overpriced (and in Euro!). I boarded the plane quite early, but there were still more delays. It took more than an hour for the plane to start taxiing and a lot more than that until takeoff. I decided to read a book during all this time in order not to get too annoyed. However, one flight attendant managed to annoy me anyway when she insisted on addressing me in French twice, as if all Air France passengers are French. All in all, the service aboard the A320 was terrible, and was anxious to land, after more than 40 hours since checkout from the hotel.

We arrived 1:10 late. At Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, I whizzed through passport control, and arrived to the baggage hall just as the baggage from our flight started to appear. For some unknown reason, Itai’s bag arrived before mine, even though mine was clearly labeled “Priority”. Anyway, my bag did arrive quite early.

However, it turns out I just missed the shuttle cab to Haifa (Itai took the last place on the previous shuttle). I spent most of the shuttle ride sleeping. I finally arrived at home only at around 21:00, showered and went directly to sleep. Upon waking up, I immediately updated my blog for your reading pleasure.

May 23rd, 2007 at 05:21 Posted by epsalon | Hawaii, Travel | 2 comments

Sleepless in Newark

Well, another update from Newark…

Here I am, still in Newark Liberty International Airport, waiting for my flight to Paris. I spent my hours here mostly sleeping on the terminal floor and chatting online using Internet connections from airline lounges that I sit outside of.

I need to emphasize here that Newark is not New York. This is not a typo. Newark, New Jersey is $14 away from Manhattan, each way! So, no, we are not going to New York.

I’m bored, so if you see me online, please chat with me!

May 22nd, 2007 at 00:57 Posted by epsalon | Hawaii, Travel | no comments