Flights | Jason Around the World

Washington to Kona in United First and flyGo! economy

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 No Responses »

Feb 222014

I keep asking myself: why do you book morning flights? I don’t function well before 10am, and getting up – not to mention trekking the 30 miles out to Dulles Airport – in time for an 8am flight…well, I think the Geneva Convention prevents that. Throw in packing and doing laundry until 1am the night before, and I’m not likely to be a happy camper.

This leads to me not being able to tolerate a taxi, and Uber it is. Abdullah showed up in just a few minutes, and fortunately had bottled water in the car and was a quick and pleasant drive to Dulles. I’d checked in online and had the mobile boarding pass, TSA pre-check went without a hitch, and I was curbside to gate in maybe 15 minutes at Dulles. Not bad at all considering how much the airport sprawls.

United flight 1632
Washington, Dulles (IAD) to San Francisco, California (SFO)
Depart 8:17, Arrive 11:05, Flight Time 5:48
Boeing 757-300, Registration N57864, Manufactured 2001, Seat 2F

Honestly, there’s not too much to say about this flight. The crew was super friendly and pleasant, and we had a good long chat in the galley after the meal service. I find I can relate to post-merger crews pretty well – my mother original started in reservations with North Central Airlines, which eventually became Republic Airlines, which was eventually merged into Northwest Orient and then NWA Airlines. She couldn’t deal with yet another merger, and retired the day before Delta acquired Northwest…so, I understand what crews are going through and have a great deal of sympathy about how management has treated them.

Breakfast was a bit unusual….a disc of eggs, and a hockey puck…I mean round mystery meat passed off as sausage. I think I nibbled on about half of it, limited myself to one bloody mary, and then watched episode after episode of Homeland trying to get caught up.

Arrived in San Francisco right on time, and enjoyed my favourite little guilty pleasure in the food court, the Fung Lum Chinese restaurant, and their quite tasty Dim Sum. It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered, but tasty enough to hold me over for a two hour connection. The gate area for our next flight was absolutely packed, so we played gate lice and queued up well in advance.

United flight 1001
San Francisco, California (SFO) to Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL)
Depart 13:08, Arrive 16:56, Flight Time 5:48
Boeing 737-800, Registration N12221, Manufactured 1998, Seat 2E

I still think it’s a bit of a crime to fly 737s to Hawaii, but after taking many many in the last two years, I’ve gotten a bit used to it I guess. We had another really good crew on this flight, so that also made it go by quite quickly and comfortably. Lunch was…well, adequate and actually MILDLY healthy. Chicken and beans, with a mediocre salad and a heap of carbs. And wine, good wine, malbec….and much more drinkable that the usual Chateau le Jeff:

The sundae, as always, was delicious:

…and that’s about all there is to say about a rather generic flight with United. We arrived on time, I changed into shorts, and we attempted to go find our next flight. We had two hours, so plenty of time, but I’d never been to the “commuter terminal” before, so this would be a new adventure. Took the escalator upstairs to the Wiki Wiki Shuttle, which took us over to the domestic terminal. The driver was helpful, and she told us to just walk the length of the domestic terminal, go down the stairs at the end, walk through the passageway, and you’d be in the commuter terminal.

Her instructions were flawless, and soon we found ourselves in what looked like a small gate area with 5 or 6 people sitting around. Plus one very bored looking security guard. So, I asked her, what next? “You wait.” Um, we don’t have boarding passes, we’re not checked in…and there’s nobody here! “They will come get you. If you leave this area, you will have to go through more security and it is hard. The flyGo! people will come get you right before your flight. No problem.”

Ok, so we waited. The area increasingly filled up, and the Island Air rep did come through and grab people for their flight, so this at least had me thinking the agent was right. Soon it was 20 minutes before our flight, and no sign of anyone from flyGo…but there was a boarding announcement….and people started walking toward the plane from what was obviously the other part of the commuter terminal. Finally, after they’d all boarded, a rep did come to our area, and start boarding us. She called our names over the walky talky to her coworker, who verified we should be on the flight. All’s well that ends well!

No trouble checking my rolling bag planeside, but as the last to board, and it was open seating, we were all the way at the back of my least favourite plane of all time – the dreaded CRJ-200.

flyGo! flight 1007
Honolulu, Hawaii (HNL) to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii (KOA)
Depart 19:30, Arrive 20:15, Flight Time 45 minutes
Canadair CRJ-200, Registration N27318, Manufactured 1999, Seat 11A

The upside to being in the back, of the 3 empty seats on the plane they were 11B and 11C so we both got a whole row to ourselves…score for that?

Total flight time was actually 28 minutes from takeoff to touchdown, and water was offered. All things considered, for a CRJ flight, it was pretty good. Until the announcement ten minutes from landing: “some of you may have noticed snow and ice falling from the roof. This is perfectly normal, as a result of condensation in the plane.” Ummmm, ok? I guess we landed ok, so there’s something to be said for that.

Overall impression of flyGo? Well, their instructions for connecting passengers in Honolulu need some major improvement, but other than that they were a perfectly acceptable and comfortable option…as well as the only one that fit our schedule. I’d have no hesitation taking them again. Then it was off to get the car, and begin the adventure!

How I went to Hawaii for 9 days, and flew there first class….for FREE!

Airports, Flights, Hawaii February 2014 3 Responses »

Feb 212014

So when I found the $0 fare on United last fall, valid not just to California as I’d assumed but to anywhere in the United States, I booked as many as I could as quickly as I could, knowing I’d always have 24 hours to cancel and that it would likely go away very quickly. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any banked leave time, so I made most of the trips two and three day weekends. My second DCA-HNL trip was to go out on a Friday, and then return Sunday night.

Regional upgrades cleared the whole way on the outbound, routing DCA-ORD-HNL. We boarded on time in DCA and then….there was a mechanical. Or, as the pilot informed us, “something technical needs to be looked at.” This creeped to 15 minutes, and then 30, and soon an hour. Before we knew it, it was two hours and we still hadn’t pushed back from the gate at DCA. With a connection of under two hours in Chicago, we were pretty much screwed….along with several people connecting on to China, etc.

So, knowing our connections were hosed, we asked to get off the plane to rebook. No can do. Because the door was closed, they weren’t able to reopen it and wouldn’t let anyone off. Eventually, about 2:30 after scheduled departure the problem was fixed and we pushed back. We already knew we’d missed our connection, and there were no others that day. We wanted to just cancel and go another time, but United insisted we go to Chicago…so go we did.

When we landed, our outbound had already left for HNL 15 minutes prior, so I tried calling the 1K line…long wait, and eventually they told us to “just go to customer service at the airport, they’re the only ones who can do anything other than rebook you on the next flight.” The 1K line did offer the only other connection, a late afternoon via SFO arriving around midnight…in middle economy seats. Ugh, no thanks. Hawaii is a long way to go for a few days, but to go for 24 hours in middle seats in economy when you’re 6’5 and 6’3 isn’t really an option.

Walked to the Terminal C customer service line…and was informed “there is no special priority line – you wait with everyone else.” “Everyone else” was at least 50 people, and it would be hours. UGH.

Trekked to Terminal B to try our luck, and the priority line was staffed there, with only one person in front of us. Unfortunately, that one person took nearly 30 minutes to help…but soon, we had a very helpful and friendly agent. Started out explaining to her what had happened, and why going that night via SFO wasn’t an option. She totally got it.

“So, you want me to send you back to DC as a trip in vain, and allow you to rebook later?” “Yes.” “ok, but the next flight to DC isn’t until 8pm.” We’d found a flight leaving in 2 hours, that had two F seats available…but would she give them to us? She spent 30 minutes on hold with various help desks…and eventually came back with. “Welllllll….there’s not really a policy. They tell me it’s my discretion.”

“And because we’ve been SO nice to you and you like us SO much you’re going to authorize it…right?”

That’s how we ended up on ORD-IAD on an international 767-400 in 1A and 1B…seats next to each other on top of it! BONUS!

Now…I decided to push a bit. “I’m sure you could also give us a couple of lunch vouchers as well since we’re stuck here?” She had no trouble printing them out…but told us not to laugh at the amount. Yes, as two 1Ks, we got something like $8 each for lunch, lol. At least it paid for margaritas at Chilis.

Flight back to IAD was pretty much a nonevent, and nothing special, so won’t go into details on that here. The details came a few hours later when I’d relaxed enough to try and call in to rebook.

“These are free tickets. They’re worthless. You’re out of luck.”

They maintained that line for over an hour of arguing. Finally, I told them I’d send them tweets and posts from United stating they’d decided to honour this fare. Back and forth, back and forth, and finally, they relented. “Fine. Find other flights with K space and you can rebook.”

I pushed my luck….went for a Saturday to Sunday 9 day period in February that I found K space and R space for an upgrade on….and it worked! Upgrades confirmed and all! Total time elapsed was about two hours on the phone, and about 8 hours wasted on the nonsense roundtrip to ORD, but my free 2 day trip had morphed into 8 days on the ground in a couple months!

Side note: didn’t receive any mileage credit for DCA-ORD-IAD, which was kind of a bummer, but at the end of the day I wasn’t going to complain. We were going to Hawaii, for more than a week, first class, for absolutely free! Winner winner!!!

Praia, Cape Verde to Washington, DC

Airports, Cape Verde, Flights, New Years 2013-2014, Portugal 6 Responses »

Feb 072014

See, there’s a reason I didn’t give much more info in the title of this entry.

Initially, I had a placeholder booked, hoping that closer to the date of return, I could improve on my routing. The initial (admittedly terrible) plan was:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Geneva, Switzerland (GVA) in TAP Business
Geneva, Switzerland to Montreal, Canada (YUL) in Air Canada Business
Montreal, Canada to Toronto, Canada (YYZ) in Air Canada Business
Toronto, Canada to Newark, New Jersey (EWR) in United Express First
Newark, New Jersey to Washington, National (DCA) in United Express First

Yeah, I’m serious. I was mentally preparing myself to fly that just in case it came down to it. Fortunately, about a week before, award space opened up, and I switched to:

Praia, Cape Verde (RAI) to Lisbon, Portugal (LIS) in TAP Business
Lisbon, Portugal to Brussels, Belgium (BRU) in TAP Business
Brussels, Belgium to Washington, Dulles (IAD) in United First

Yes, I was using miles for United First, but it got me home nearly 8 hours earlier. Plus, my connection in Lisbon would only be an hour, and about 1:20 in Brussels, so much better connection times. Life was looking up!

Little did I know, my favourite furry friend was about to pay me a visit.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Got to Praia Airport approximately two hours before my flight, because TAP wouldn’t let me check in online and I wanted to try and get a decent seat for the 4 hour middle of the night redeye in economy seats. Blech. There were two check-in lines, one for business and one for economy. However, with no business passengers, all the economy people were filling up both lines. I walked to the front, told the check-in agent business class, and she said she’d help me next. Yeah, that went over really well with the others in line…they were on the verge of rioting. No way was the white guy going to pull the “I deserve service before you card.” Fortunately, the agent had my back, as did the rather rotund Lebanese gentleman who arrived for the business class line a minute later. Soon I was checked in, and ready to head to the lounge.

Only, there is no lounge. Just an immigration queue that was nearly 20 minutes long, and somewhere around 30C plus with no breeze in the room. And only two agents working, both of who were preoccupied with mothers with small children who lacked proof that daddy was ok with them taking the children out of the country. 20 minutes became 30 minutes, became 40 minutes, and finally we were through.

Security was next, which took 5 minutes. Well, it WOULD have taken five minutes if one of those small children hadn’t decided they would go for a stroll…right through the metal detectors…and mom ran after them. The entire terminal was emptied….nah, just kidding. Only TSA would pull that. These guys just shrugged and kept on processing people. Mom finally appeared over five minutes later, and they just waved her through. Uh, you know you never checked her…right? Ah, Africa…how I’ll miss you.

So now, we’d wait. The plane had left Lisbon 20 minutes late, meaning best case my connection would be down to 40 minutes.

Thus, I went to the lounge to wait. Ooops, no lounge, just one large room filled with TAP and TACV passengers. Nearly 500 people on delayed flights who were getting anxious. So, I did the only thing I could do, I visited the snack shop, aka “Nice Burger.” I used google translate to say “can I pay US dollars for a beer” yes, I could. It was time for a beer. 10 minutes later, it was time for another. When the crowds started getting rowdy, I opted for a third…only there were no more. This explained why people were getting increasingly agitated, and there was lots more yelling and pushing going on.

Finally, our plane arrived, and if they could turn it around in 30 minutes, we’d only be 20 minutes late. 20 minutes came and went, and we still hadn’t boarded. Then, they announced boarding would begin…but they didn’t announce if it was for the delayed TAP flight or the 3+ hour delayed TACV flight to Paris. So naturally, all 500 people swarmed the agents at once. Eventually, it was sorted. BOTH flights were boarding, from two doors less than 5 feet apart. The agents were having a hell of a time trying to sort out the passengers, but somehow…it happened. I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally got on board.

Sao Tome e Principe to Praia, Cape Verde on TAAG

Airports, Cape Verde, Flights, New Years 2013-2014, Sao Tome e Principe 2 Responses »

Feb 042014

The front desk of the hotel said they’d called me a cab. Ten minutes later, there was no cab, I kept asking, it’s on the way. Still no cab. Ten minutes later…no cab…finally one shows up. Are you noticing a trend in Lusophone Africa? Cabs are a novelty, that take a long time to show up, even if you’re willing to pay for them. Regardless, finally it showed up, was cheap, I picked up Jordan, and we were on the way to the airport. We knew it was a small airport from our arrivals experience so planned to get there 90 minutes in advance.

Got there in plenty of time, and tried to enter the terminal, only to be told there was a tax to be paid that wasn’t included in the ticket. Seriously? That’s still a thing these days? I can count on one hand how many of my 154 countries visited do that….so congratulations Sao Tome, you’re in the company of Cameroon and others 😉

Paid my $21, and was allowed into the terminal, only to be met with this very sophisticated check-in area. For a minute I wondered how I took a picture of myself checking in, and then I realised I’d never wear cargo shorts 😉

Check-in was a manual process, no computers anywhere. There was a list with 12 names, and they crossed us off as we showed up and gave us handwritten boarding cards….without seat numbers. Basically, take any available seat! Wow, it was like flying back in time to the 1970s or something!

Security? Um, yes, it was one bored person (no metal detectors, nude-a-scopes, or similar technology here) and after 15 seconds of going through my carryons they gave up. Just couldn’t be bothered. Then, passport control was similarly lax…and literally 5 minutes from check-in to gate took 5 minutes. We really didn’t have to show up 90 minutes early. “Duty Free,” however, offered lots of treats including the suspicious Dom:

There were only four or five people in the gate area at this point, and it was not exactly interesting. This group of Chinese was soon led into the waiting area, and it appeared to be a tour of “look at how fantastic the airport you upgraded for us is!”

Complete with a Christmas Tree that makes the one in the Charley Brown Christmas special look special:

Luanda,Angola to Sao Tome, Sao Tome e Principe on TAAG

Airports, Angola, Flights, New Years 2013-2014, Sao Tome e Principe No Responses »

Jan 302014

We’d planned to leave my hotel three hours before the flight, allowing up to an hour to get to the airport, and wanting to be there two hours early since we’d already checked in online. The taxi driver from the night before told Jordan he “didn’t start work” that early, but would 2.5 hours work? Eh, it would be close, but good enough. Jordan showed up at my hotel a little in advance…and we waited…and waited. We were down to 2:15 before flight time and started to panic. The hotel doormen were completely non-phased, and called their taxi contacts. See, you can’t just flag down a taxi in Luanda, because they largely don’t exist.

Eventually, just about 1:45 until flight time, a taxi showed up that the doorman had called, and he wanted $50 to go to the airport. Sigh, no choice at this point, and we paid…and he made fast time of it, getting us there maybe 75 minutes before the flight, and 15 minutes before luggage cutoff.

The problem? The business class line was over 10 people deep once we finally found it (since it was unmarked) and we waited. Eventually I started pressing the guy manning the line to let us to the front, because we were running out of time. He spoke passable English, and told us “no no, we must process all the Havana customers first, their flight is 90 minutes before yours!” Um, we were barely an hour before flight time, so Havana was 30 minutes late and not everyone was checked in.

Knowing never to trust the first thing a semi-official person tells you in Africa, I kept pressing him. Are you SURE you are right. He points to a long line of 100+ people in the terminal. “They all go to Sao Tome too in economy, not to worry.” In the end, he was right. We checked in about 45 minutes before flight time, and no problem at all. We did get probably the most festive lounge invite I’ve ever gotten before:

Security was next, and it was a big nonevent. Well, except for nasty angry agents who made the TSA look pleasant. They were yelling at passengers who didn’t know the procedure, and being generally rude and condescending to them. Then, it was time for exit immigration. They had a bit of a hard time finding my entry stamp, then when they did they seemed surprised by Cabinda, but it was no big deal and got stamped out without a problem.

Then, on the other side of immigration is where the fun started. There was a room with a closed door, and a long line leading into it. I ignored it and tried to head up to the lounge. Nope, was told I had to stand in line. What goes on in that room? They bring people in one by one, and search their luggage for cash. Since they “forget” to remind you to declare money when you enter Angola, of course, any money you have is undeclared…and subject to confiscation. The Chinese guy in front of me told me that his first time in Angola he lost nearly $2000 this way. OUCH. The line was getting too long for the room, and the security goons were at a loss where to put the people who were clearing immigration. They picked the two big white guys and said “YOU GO” and pointed to the escalator. Score! I’d already well-hidden my cash since I’d been warned about this online, but it was nice to not be subjected to it. I guess their logic was that we were more likely to either be onto their scam, or put up a fight, so they let us go?

Up the stairs, and into the TAAG lounge to wait. They said they’d call our flight since it was (obviously) late, so we had time to relax a slight bit:

Cabinda, Angola to Luanda, Angola on TAAG

Airports, Angola, Flights, New Years 2013-2014 1 Response »

Jan 282014

Having survived the night, it was time to head to the airport to fly down to Angola’s capital, Luanda. The problem is, there are only like 40 taxis in all of Cabinda, and despite the hotel front desk guy promising over and over that one was on the way, for 30 minutes there was no sign.

Of course, there were plenty of share taxis puttering by in the street, and eventually Jordan and I made the decision to chance one. We had the front desk guy flag one down, negotiated a good price…and we were off. Until….BANG!

This wasn’t just a flat tire, it was an absolute blowout. We’d agreed on approx $5 to the airport, so after realizing this car was going nowhere fast, and the driver seemed completely unphased by it, we used him to flag down another taxi to go the rest of the way. It already had three people in the little car (think sub-compact) but in went these two large American guys, two large bags, AND smaller bags. I think we were all sitting on each other, absolutely packed in, three african women, two large american guys, a few chimpanzees, a goat or two, a flock of chicken, and a couple of elderly cattle. Hmmmm, I might be imagining the cattle…but it sure felt like it. This was no luxury sedan, but about 10 minutes later we did make it to the airport, for the princely sum of $1 each. To be fair, we did give a little money to the guy with the blown-out tire – he’d definitely need it for repairs.

Having made it to the airport, the task was to find the check-in counter. Which was way more difficult than it sounded. There were four counters that LOOKED like check-in counters, but no lines, just a swarm of people around them. We just started wildly waving our arms around and saying TAAG? Luanda? Sim? Eventually, we were pointed by different people to each of the four different counters…so I tried a new tactic. Executiva? Business Class? That seemed to work, and someone pointed us to a lady at one of the counters.

She looked at us…looked at our passports…and said in all seriousness: “Why did you not check-in LAST NIGHT.” Excuse me? We have to check in the night before, are you serious? She was, indeed, serious, and pointed to a sign on the counter, that either said “please give me a $100 bill if you want helpful service” or “please check in two hours in advance, for passengers on the first flight of the day, check-in is the night before.” I couldn’t be sure – I don’t read Portuguese.

Having decided she’d not be making any bribes off us today, she asked for our tickets. “E-tickets…in computer” – “No. I need a printed copy. Go to TAAG office OUTSIDE AIRPORT and get a printed receipt.” Seriously? You refuse to look it up, and we have to go outside and around the corner to another guy with the same computer, who will look it up, and print us a receipt? Ugh. To the office…and the same question “why didn’t you check in last night?” Um, I’ve been to over 150 countries, and have never heard this “check in the day before concept.” Angola, you’re truly unique.

He did, however, print us very nice receipts, which we took back to lady #1, and she was kind enough to check us in. Security was…a complete joke. I’m pretty sure the x-ray machine wasn’t working, and people were walking through with the body scanner beeping like R2D2 in a moment of excitement. Anyways, we made it to the waiting lounge…which was packed.

Right when we were supposed to be departing…we saw the plane come in. About 20 minutes later a TAAG person appeared, which apparently meant “every man for himself” and everyone started swarming the boarding door. We’ve had enough African experience to know that if you don’t do your share of shoving, you might as well wait until everyone has passed, so….shove we did and we managed to get out the door. We were overheard by a couple that noted it was our first time in Angola, and said they’d been there something like 10+ years. They had the missionary or NGO look to them….and I give them a lot of credit. Angola’s certainly not for the timid!

Queuing to board:

Misc military stuff on the tarmac:

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Libreville to Brazzaville, Congo on Rwandair

Airports, Congo, Flights, Gabon, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 162014

Check out of the hotel…for the third time…was easy and hopefully this time would be the charm and I’d actually get to start resuming my trip. Then the hotel informed me…there was no driver. Excuse me? I just confirmed the time last night…finally they raised him on his cell phone and he was on his way to pick me up. He drove somewhere around 200 kph down city streets, practically running people off the road, but eventually we got to the airport safely.

Only one problem when I finally arrived at the airport – there were no obvious check-in desks! After asking several people, I learned that they didn’t let you into the check-in area until 90 minutes before flight time, so you had to wait in the arrivals area. Eventually I found the line to get in, and ended up chatting with an American guy and his daughter, who were lost and had no idea where to check in. We solved it together, and made it in at T-90, and check-in was a breeze.

Through security and immigration, and into the waiting area. The “alcool” store was still closed – probably still hungover from New Year’s Eve the night before.

The Christmas trees were still up in the waiting area, and this called for a selfie:

Oh, and Santa and his reindeer were hanging out with the trees too. Gabon was certainly feeling festive!

Boarding area was empty, less than 50 people, and this despite the fact that two flights were about to board. First they boarded the CamAir flight to Douala, and then there were only 12 people left. I was pretty sure they had downsized our plane. Soon, it was time to walk across the tarmac to our plane. A look back at the terminal building:

…and there’s our plane! It really was a 737 for just 12 people. Maybe there were through passengers already on board? Nope!

RwandAir Flight 211
Libreville, Gabon (LBV) to Brazzaville, Congo (BZV)
Depart 10:35, Arrive 12:05, Flight Time 90 minutes
Boeing 737-700, Registration 9XR-WK, Manufactured 2007, Seat 10A

Was easy to move around on board, since there were a total of 12 people for a plane that seated 150. I asked the flight attendant if it was ok to move to the exit row, and he gave me a puzzled look. Turns out, he didn’t speak French. Despite Rwanda changing its official language from French to English less than 10 years ago, it appeared this guy in his 20s didn’t speak a word of French. Curious.

The plane felt very new and comfortable, and was in great condition inside. The crew took their jobs very seriously, carefully doing the exit row briefing and all. Flight was short and comfortable, and there was even a small snack served. It was a semi scary looking sandwich, and given the fact this wasn’t a RwandAir hub I was pretty sure it had been on the plane a while, so I didn’t partake. I was tempted to have a local beer or glass of wine (all complimentary) but opted just for water at this hour.

All in all, I was seriously impressed with RwandAir. Certainly better that your average domestic US flight with newish planes, professional crew, and even free food and drink!

The Brazzaville airport was very clean and modern as well as being well air conditioned! Quite unusual for Africa! Immigration was reasonable quick and friendly, and my bag was already waiting for me when I got to the bag claim. Even the taxis were honest, only asking 3,000 CFA for the 15 minute ride to my hotel. So far the trip was starting to look up!

Douala to Libreville, Gabon on South African and the Le Meridien Re-Ndama, Gabon

Cameroon, Flights, Gabon, hotels, New Years 2013-2014 No Responses »

Jan 092014

After a late lunch, the hotel shuttle dropped me at the airport early evening, about 3 hours in advance of my flight. The airport was absolute chaos, with lines that weren’t lines, and it was incredibly difficult to figure out where check-in was. Finally I found the South African counter, which seemed to just have a disorganized mass of people congregating in front of it. I pushed my way to the front of the scrum, saying “Classe Affaires, Classe Affaires” and that seemed to do the trick. Soon I was checked in, and off to the gate.

Or so I thought.

First I had to get past the immigration folks, who kept saying “stamp, stamp, stamp.” Seems there was a booth in the check-in area where you had to by an airport tax stamp, which got put on your boarding pass. 10 minutes and 10,000 CFA later I had my stamp, and it was off to try and find the lounge. Managed to find it without too much trouble. A few sad sandwiches and cookies on offer, but also a decent bar selection. I ended up having a couple of Castels over the two horus I was there, and found a power outlet which was nice for keeping the i-Devices charged up.

The amusement came about an hour in, when a small group of American oil workers (Louisiana based on their conversation) came in. One of them loudly announced to the whole room and the bartender “I ain’t seen women in months” followed by “throw down that whole bottle of Johnny walker!” They were refused the entire bottle, but pretty much polished it off shot by shot in the next 15 minutes. Keep it classy Amurika! Soon, it was to the gate, security, and time to board.

South African flight 87
Douala, Cameroon (DLA) to Libreville, Gabon (LBV)
Depart 21:20, Arrive 22:20, Flight Time 1 hour
Airbus A319-100, Registration ZS-SFN, Manufactured 2005, Seat 2A

Boarded right on time, and South African has an odd business configuration on these birds – 2 seats on one side of the aisle, and three on the other. Seriously, middle seats in business class? There were 25 seats, but only 4 of us in business for this short hop, so didn’t make much different. Fantastically friendly crew, but then things started to go tits up. All the captain would tell us is we were waiting “for a technical reason.” This stretched on for over two hours, and I was convinced we were going to cancel. They cycled the power completely on and off at least three times, and finally around midnight announced we were ready to go. It didn’t fill me with confidence.

But, no problems. Flight was short and uneventful, maybe an hour. There was even a small snack:

This is where things got fun. I’d asked for the hotel shuttle, but of course being nearly three hours late it was nowhere to be found. Got a cheap taxi to the hotel no problem, and arrived to find out I’d been upgraded…to the Presidential Suite! SCORE! In the end, my two nights here turned into four for reasons I’ll go into later, but it turned out to be the best upgrade I’ve ever received from Starwood. Several shots of the suite:

The living room:

Malabo to Douala, Cameroon on Ethiopian Airlines

Airports, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Flights, New Years 2013-2014 3 Responses »

Jan 082014

Quick ride from the Hilton in their shuttle bus, and I was at Malabo ready to check in. The only problem was, the check-in area was total chaos. Dozens of Chinese everywhere, each with several bags, busy saran wrapping them, tying them up with twine, you name it. The room was chaos. Since I couldn’t see a line, I just pushed my way to the front of the mass of humanity, and eventually found a check-in desk. Yes, it was for Ethiopian, and yes, I could check in. No checked bags, so should be a piece of cake. I had tried online checkin, but it said it didn’t work, however, the seat I’d selected took. Bulkhead aisle…not bad for a 30 minute flight.

Couldn’t figure out where to go next….tried one door, there was a woman at what looked like a passport check…nope, this is domestic flights…she waved her hands and pointed in another direction. After wandering around looking lost for several more minutes, I finally found the right passageway, leading to international passport control and security. Piece of cake, and soon I was in a large waiting room. Time to have a seat.

There was a hallway marked “VIP lounge” but there was a security guy guarding it. He wouldn’t let me past. So, when he disappeared a few minutes later I just went down the hall, and followed some stairs upstairs….and did a little plane spotting:

Found the door to the VIP lounge, and it was unlocked…so I went in. Nobody was in there. Hmmm…there was a flight board though!

Belgrade to Washington, DC on Lufthansa

Airports, Flights, Germany, Serbia, Tajikistan Moscow Serbia and Montenegro No Responses »

Dec 312013

Normally, I wouldn’t make too big of a deal of yet another transatlantic with Lufthansa. I’ve posted many, many reviews of it. However, see, this time I jinxed it. I kept promising another Lufthansa first report and…the upgrade didn’t clear. I was to be stuck with the commoners…in business! 😉 Anyways, scroll back to 4 in the ungodly morning when my alarm woke me from my slumber. Well, it didn’t so much wake me as it did annoy me – I’d strategically put the phone on the other side of the room so I’d get up as quickly as possible, since I’d only given myself 30 minutes to get out the door.

Check out was quick, I think there was a shower that I don’t remember, I know there was a can of Red Bull I don’t remember…and I was off. I’d booked the hotel car, figuring there was no telling what a taxi would be like at this hour. I should have stuck with the taxi. My driver insisted on doing his best Nascar impression, gunning it at 140-150 kph the entire way down the highway, all the while telling me about his side job as Serbia’s most famous iPhone repairman. I kid you not. I suspect he had a lot more Red Bull than I did.

Got to airport way early, and check-in and passport were a total non-event. The agent harassed me about the weight of my carryon (around 12.5 kg) but eventually gave in as she wasn’t prepared to argue at this hour.

…because EVERY airport needs a tree with Bambi!

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