by Jim Bellomo | Oct 10, 2024 | Air travel
Kathleen and I are sitting in the British Airways Business Class lounge at Seatac. We just had a nice bite to eat, and we are waiting to board the first flight that will take us to London Heathrow. From there we change planes to fly on to Madrid.
So far, we are the only ones in our group of six who have been on time (we hope to stay that way). My brother Steve and his bride Jamie are coming from Southern California via LAX, and their Lufthansa Frankfurt started an hour late, got halfway to the runway where they were to take off and had a medical emergency and had to turn around and go back to the terminal so they could take the person off. Their plane finally got in the air almost two hours late. We hope they connect in Frankfurt, which was only 90 minutes to start with. Luckily, Lufthansa has three other flights down to Madrid tomorrow, so they should be OK.
Our friends Mike and Cathy live in South Florida, and even though they were south of the hurricane, they were worried that Miami airport might close. The good news is that their nonstop flight to Lisbon and then on to Madrid on TAP Air (the national airline of Portugal) made it out, but they were two hours late. Mike thought they might also miss their connection, but that would be OK as TAP has flights to Madrid about every hour.
So, if everything works out for us, we will be in Madrid at 7:55 tomorrow night (which is 10:55 tomorrow here in Seattle. Wish us luck. We have a three-hour layover at Heathrow, which I consider enough. More on Saturday. And hopefully some photos, but it’s supposed to rain, so we shall see.
Seems like half my anxiety dreams are about airports. —Lois McMaster Bujold
by Jim Bellomo | Jun 1, 2024 | Air travel
This trip is our first time on Virgin Atlantic Air. I had heard good things about them, but sadly, I have to say that it’s all a lie. Well, it’s mostly a lie.
We were flying in Business Class, which is (of course) a little spendy. When you fly in business, you expect that if you pay that kind of money, you will get a product on par with other business class flights we have taken. But I knew as soon as we boarded this would not be a great flight.
First, the seats were the narrowest Business class seats I have ever seen. There was a small shelf with a can of water on it. You had to fold up the shelf for takeoff and landing. But I had to fold it up right away because there was no way I could sit in the seat with it open. There was no storage. Most Business class seats have decent storage. A place to put your phone or Kindle, but not on Virgin. There’s a tiny slot already filled with headphones, the airline magazine and the safety card. And that’s about all it would fit. That meant I had to keep my phone and pretty much anything else I wanted to have with me on my seat next to me.
One of the main reasons for choosing Business Class is the promise of lay-flat seats. In all our previous Business Class experiences, the seats began in an upright position and could be reclined to a fully flat position. This was not the case with Virgin Atlantic. The seat settings were limited to two extremes: upright or completely flat, like a dining room chair. Transitioning between these settings was cumbersome, adding to the overall dissatisfaction.
When you wanted to get some sleep, you had to stand up, move everything off the seat (hold it all while standing in the aisle) and then press a button that tilted the seat forward and flattened it. (I am so sorry I didn’t get a photo of that, but I promise to get one on the way home. The photo above is one I stole off the web.) Then, behind the seat, there was a large bag (like a cloth laundry bag) with a mattress cover, pillow and blanket inside of it. You made up your own bed (even though we had been told that the flight staff would do it), and that was that. It was almost impossible to do anything in the seat once it was flat. And you still had all the stuff you had when it was upright, except now you couldn’t put your headphones away either.
I have to admit that I got a couple of hours of sleep, but the bed part was pretty hard and not very long, so that meant sleeping on my side with my legs curled up. Speaking of the seat being…not very long…anyone over my height would have a very hard time sitting in the upright position. A tiny footstool sticks out into the aisle, and my feet barely fit on it. If my legs had been any longer, I would have had to put them over and into the aisle. Not good.
Speaking of the aisle, these were the most open seats we have ever seen. You were looking directly at the people sitting across the aisle from you. It’s one of the strangest configurations I have ever seen. My buddy Mike sent me a photo of his Virgin seat on an Airbus plane, and it looked very nice—more like the seats we are used to. Our 787 did not get those very nice seats.
There were other things even if you liked the seats (I don’t know how you could). The entertainment system had some movies, some TV, audio and game selections as well. But except for one film, they were all pretty old, and I had seen them. It was kind of sad, actually. I hope they change the movies before we go home at the end of the month.
It wasn’t all bad. The service was excellent, and the crew was very nice. Dinner was outstanding—some of the best food I have had on an airplane. But breakfast was totally inedible. I don’t get that. Some of the worst coffee I have ever had, cold fried sweet potatoes and a quiche that was as salty as the Dead Sea. The OJ they gave me came in a glass that was sticky all over. You can bet I passed on that.
Maybe the best thing about flying Virgin into Heathrow is that they land at Terminal 3. Most flights from the US land at Terminal 5, especially those from the US. But Virgin pretty much has Terminal 3 to itself. This meant getting off the plane and through passport control and customs in less than ten minutes. This is unheard of at Terminal 5. We had planned our usual time to do that and so had told our driver from Welcome Pickups to grab us at 11:00 am. We thought if we landed at 10 (as we were supposed to do), we would be an hour getting through. It took 2.5 hours on previous trips to get clear through in Terminal 5. But our flight arrived early, and by the time we got through passport control and customs, it was only 10:20. I called our driver, and he said he would be there by 10:40. That was super.
Speaking of drivers, when we went to Portugal last winter, I found a new transfer company to get us from airports to planes, planes to trains and trains to hotels. They are called Welcome Pickups. I have to give them a shout-out here because we have already used them twice on this trip, and they are superb! They are worldwide, and you can hire them easily on their website. So far, we used them at home to get to SeaTac, then another driver picked us up at Heathrow and took us across London to Kings Cross rail station to catch our train to Leeds. Both were on time or early. Both texted us to let us know where they were. Both stayed right on top of everything. This is the same way it was in Portugal. We have at least three more Welcome Pickups trips arranged on this trip. They charge a predetermined price (like Uber or Lyft), and it is right in the same ballpark price-wise. But they meet your plane (holding a sign with our name on it at Arrivals), they help you with your bags, and they get you where you are going as quickly as possible. Yesterday’s ride to King’s Cross would have been even worse in a taxi. We had horrendous traffic, and I would have been watching the meter all the way as it went off the charts. BTW: I know I have used the quote below before but it is still the truth. And to my British followers, I am NOT doing my Victor Meldrake impersonation.
Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo. —Al Gore
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 22, 2023 | Air travel
Our last two sojourns to Europe have both finished badly. It is horrid that you have a great trip, and then the day you fly home, things suck. I promised to detail this for you, so here we go. Just once, I would like to be able to get home without feeling like I was run over by a truck.
We had originally purchased seats on Air France from Seattle to Lisbon via Paris and then home from Budapest to Seattle, again via Paris. Our original flights had a four-hour layover at Charles DeGaulle Airport (CDG–above) on our way out and a three-hour layover at CDG on the way back. I liked that. I thought it was a good amount of time to transition from one plane to another.
But then Air France canceled our flight. Well, they didn’t really cancel it; they moved us via a codeshare to Delta (that means that we were flying on a Delta plane but under an Air France ticket), flight 80 on the way out and 81 on the way back. We would still be on the same Air France flights from Paris to Lisbon and Budapest to Paris. On the front end of the trip, our schedule pretty much stayed the same, but on the way home…not so much. We went from a three-hour layover to a 95-minute layover. My friend Mike had warned me that CDG was not an easy airport, and I was really worried about it. Air France offered us a complete refund, but that would mean finding another flight less than two months before the trip. And those tickets would cost us almost three times the amount we had paid for the original flight. Plus, we would lose the flights to Lisbon and from Budapest…so we took the Delta offer and knew we would just have to move our butts.
Our flights coming to Euorpe weren’t too bad, but our experience at CDG on the way to Lisbon was not. You can read the post about that by clicking here. But on the way back, things went very bad.
I had been tracking both these flights on FlightAware.com before the cruise. If you have not used FlightAware before, you can plug in a flight and see how on time that flight is each day for about a week back. I tracked them both for more than a month—checking their on-time performance every day. I felt better seeing that our flight from Budapest to Paris was usually either on time or early. As it was the first flight of the day, we felt pretty confident we would get to Paris on time. And Delta flight 81 was also pretty much on-time most days. That didn’t make me that happy. I would rather see it being a little late so we had more time to transition at the airport.
How worried were we about making the flight to Seattle? So worried that we looked at videos of how to move from the E gates (where intra-Europe flights land) to Terminal M (where flights outside of Europe originate from). We studied airport maps. We read posts on FlyerTalk. We found a bunch of contradictions about what we would have to go through, but we did understand where we would have to go. Most of these said we should be able to traverse the long walk from the E gates to Passport Control, go through that and then take a train/bus to the M gates, which should take about half an hour to 45 minutes. That would get us to our gate to go home after they had started boarding but before they closed the doors. We weren’t worried about our luggage since we were going home and knew if they didn’t make the connection, they would catch up soon after, and we have clothes at home. Our day was planned, and we went to bed knowing that we might have a stressful trip, but we could do it. Kathleen was still worried about how she would do with her knee.
We got up at 2:00 am, had our luggage ready to be picked up by Viking, loaded on the “luxury motor coach” to the airport by 2:45, and we were downstairs in the lobby, ready to board that bus at 3:00 am. We arrived at the airport at 4:00 am for a 6:20 flight, right on time. We boarded the plane on time. And then…the pilot announced that we needed to de-ice the plane, and that would take about half an hour. We freaked. But then I got a notification from Delta that our flight from Paris to Seattle had been rescheduled to one hour later. YEAH! A flight attendant onboard was great at telling us where our next gates would be, and when we mentioned we were worried about making it to the Seattle flight, she said not to worry too much. There were 24 people on that plane from Budapest going to our flight to Seattle. She said, “They aren’t going to want to rebook 24 people. They won’t fly without you.”
Our flight from Budapest finally left about 45 minutes late. So we had lost 15 minutes of that hour. We had been scheduled to get into Paris at 8:30 am. We arrived at 9:45 and had to get across the airport by 11:30. So off we went. We found our way through the E gates pretty easily, but Kathleen’s knee was already starting to hurt, and we had already walked quite a distance. And then we hit Passport Control.
We had high hopes that being in Business Class there would be a special line for us. And there was. But it wasn’t moving any faster, nor was it any shorter than the other lines. And all of them were going slow. In the meantime, a bunch of people were going up to an airport supervisor, asking to be let in early. He would scan their boarding passes, and if they had less than a certain amount of time, he would let them through. We saw him send 90% of those people back to the end of our line. Of course, they didn’t go to the back of the line; they just kind of blended into the line a few people back. We saw a number of them, who should have been 100 people behind us, get through before we did.
After 45 minutes, we got to where we could see the Passport Control booths, and of course, on a day when there were a lot of late planes due to weather (ice and cold), only four of 10 of the booths were operating. I can never figure that kind of thing out. We finally got through, and it was 11:15. We thought we had only 15 minutes to get to the gate, which was quite a ways away. But I got another text from Delta at just about that minute saying that the flight was now delayed until 11:50. We breathed another sigh of almost relief.
From there, we made our way to gate M-29, where our plane was supposed to load. Now, before I continue, I need to tell you what we are carrying between us as we went. Kathleen has her carry-on (a regular-size carry-on roller) and her personal item, a bag about one-third the size of a carry-on. She was pushing both on the roller’s wheels. I had my standard roller carry-on and my computer/camera bag as my personal item. Both our carry-ons are standard size and weight, and Kathleen’s personal item wasn’t that big or heavy. But my computer/camera bag weighs about 35 lbs. Half the reason I don’t check the roller bag is because I need it as a dolly for the computer bag. That’s how we rolled through the airport.
So now you know what we had between us, you will know why the next thing that happened really killed us (especially me). When it was time to go down the jetway to our plane, we went about halfway down, and there was a door, and we were directed to go through it and down three flights of stairs to a waiting bus. The plane at our gate, at the end of that jetway was not our jet. With Kathleen’s knees, there was no way she could carry her bags down the stairs. She needed to have her hands free to grab a rail. So I carried them all down—all four bags. No elevators, no escalators, just three flights of stairs going down.
Then, when we got to the bottom, there was a very ugly bus. Most people on it had to stand up. Luckily, Kathleen got a seat while I managed the bags and stood. We literally drove to the other side of the airport. I truly believe the bus ride was approximately 30 minutes. And when we finally arrived we saw that our plane did not have a gate or jetway, just a set of stairs next to the plane. So now I would have to carry those bags up a very long and steep set of stairs while I worried that Kathleen would be able to do it safely as well. And there was no way I could carry all four. She had to take her small one.
To make matters worse, they wouldn’t let us off the bus. They had five buses lined up with everyone on board. And since it was a cold day out, they kept the doors closed. For at least 20 minutes, they just kept us there. Eventually, people yelled so loud about the heat on the bus and the smell of diesel fuel that they opened the doors of the buses, but they still would not let us off. I was truly surprised no one passed out from the heat and fumes.
Finally, someone from Delta came to each bus and said that the food service provider was servicing the plane and we were not allowed to be onboard until he was finished, which he thought would be in about 10 minutes. All this time, most of the people on all five buses were still standing up, trying to hold up their bags. Finally, we were allowed to board the plane. By this time, it was almost 12:30 pm. Kathleen made it up with a minimum of trouble. I still have a sore shoulder from getting those bags up those stairs. The cherry on the whole crappy day was that they had changed planes, so our seats were no longer together. Not a huge deal but it meant I wasn’t right there to deal with getting the carryons up and down from the overhead bins for her. And we couldn’t communicate during the flight without getting out of our seats. We managed.
The flight itself was fine. I watched a couple of movies, worked with some photos, had a nice meal, and drank a lot of water. We landed in Seattle after 3:00 (supposed to be 12:45), got through Customs, we were met by our driver (who had monitored our flight and knew we were late), and we were home in our house before 5:00. But what a day—23 hours from waking up in Budapest to unpacking in our home. And to top it all off…it was my 71st birthday. Not one I will soon forget.
See why plane travel makes me feel old…and ruins the end of trips? When I have days like this, I totally get why my good friend Bob hates air travel. I totally understand. Oh, and when I checked this morning on FlightAware, both of those flights had been right on time (within 15 minutes) every day before and since. Our particular day was the only one that was different. That’s crazy.
I have one more post to write and this trip is toast. This is just a summary and review of the whole thing, especially the cruise. See you soon—hopefully tomorrow, but more likely the day after Christmas. Lots of cooking and shopping and wrapping to do before then.
Running through airports with pounds of luggage – that’s a good workout. —Rachel McAdams
by Jim Bellomo | Dec 1, 2023 | Air travel
I have absolutely nothing better to do right now than write this post. Plus, I have been up for 24 hours at this point, and I still have at least eight more to go before I can go to bed. We are about three and a half hours through a five-hour layover at Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris, France, where the weather is cold and foggy.
Our travel day started off well with a perfect pickup by Century Car Service. We have been using them for a while now and are very happy with them. Our forever neighbor Lisa told us about them as she books them for her group at Microsoft. They are ALWAYS early. I love that. The drivers are classy, the cars sparkle, and we get whisked off to the airport like we were on a magic carpet. (Lousy analogy—but remember, I have been up for 24 hours.)
When we got to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac), we got through check-in and TSA pre-check security pretty darn quick, and we were off on the train to the S-gates, where we could spend our time waiting in The Club, a very nice lounge we get to use courtesy of our Chase Sapphire Visa card. What was especially nice was that our old friend Seth Wayne was also flying out (on British Air) simultaneously, so he came in and spent some time talking about travel like we always do. Seth is our friend who used to be a television weather person, had a weekly travel show on the radio (that I was a guest on a few times), then worked for Holland America and now owns his own escorted travel business, Sail with Seth.
After our visit with Seth, it was time to board our Delta flight, non-stop to Paris with connections (that’s what we are waiting for right now) to Lisbon. We flew on Delta coming home from Europe in the fall of 2022, and we were really not that happy with them. The seats in Business were hard as rocks; the food was just okay. For what we pay for Business Class, we kind of expect better.
So, if that is the case, why did I book a flight on Delta? The answer is—I didn’t. I booked a flight on Air France. I booked it about eleven months, and somewhere in the middle of those eleven months, Air France decided that flying to and from Seattle was just not profitable, so they pulled out and codeshared all their flights with Delta. So I didn’t pick them out; Air France did. We weren’t happy.
We are OK with it now. We are on an older plane (in this case, it turns out that’s a good thing as the newer ones have harder seats), and the food was pretty darn good. The service was excellent, and I am actually looking forward to going home on their service from here in Paris to Seattle.
When we disembarked in Paris (we have never flown to or through DeGaulle airport—the only time we have been to Paris, we flew into a smaller airport north of the city), we had to walk about a mile to get to where we could wait for our next flight. Not only that, we had to go out of and back into security and clear passport control. Took about an hour and a half. And their security is a total pain. You have to take everything out of your bags that we haven’t had to do in ages. My laptop, my Kindle, my Phone, my belt, Kathleen’s quart bag of makeup and beauty stuff, our coats…you name it, we had to put it in a basket for scanning.
Thank goodness we didn’t have a tight connection. We were happy to see what gate our next flight would be because there was an Air France First Class lounge right next to the gate. And sure enough—there was…but it was closed for renovations and the nearest other lounge we could into was back on the other side of that security and passport control we had just cone through. There was no way we were going back.
So we have been sitting here on very hard chairs (I just checked with my butt, and it agrees with me), freezing as this is a very cold part of the terminal, and the temperature outside is barely freezing.
This morning, before we left, my buddy Bob was giving me a hard time about flying. He is not a fan. Usually, I am okay with it, especially when we are in business or first class. But this long layover in a cold terminal on a hard seat is beginning to get to me. And then I think—what the hell? You are on vacation. You are in Europe. You got to fly here in Business class. Shut the heck up and stop complaining. I think I will do that as soon as we get to our Lisbon hotel, and I can take a shower and a nap. On the West Coast, where we live, it is 3:30 am. It’s 12:30 pm here in Paris, and we won’t be at the hotel until around 4:00. I’ll let you know tomorrow if we make it ?.
What’s important is that a customer should get off the airplane feeling, ‘I didn’t just get from A to B. I had one of the most pleasant experiences I ever had, and I’ll be back for that reason. – Herb Kelleher
by Jim Bellomo | Mar 7, 2022 | Air travel
Editor’s note: After I mistakenly pushed Publish on my last post before I had added photos, I am going to no longer have the entire post go out in an e-mail. You will get the headline and the first paragraph followed by a link to click to see the entire post online. Thanks for looking at it that way.
Typical Domestic Economy Class
Winding up our discussion of flying classes/categories, let’s finish with the Premium Economy, international Economy and Economy. But first, let’s talk about domestic economy class because we all know that hell hole that we have all flown a lot of the time. We still fly it when we travel along the West Coast but we do our best to make the situation better with plane and airport choices. Here are some of the things we recommend for those flying domestic economy.
If you fly domestic economy and want to have as good an experience as possible here are some things we do to make it better.
- Choose a better airplane if you can. When we book a flight I will often look (if multiple flights are going to that city) for a particular airplane to fly on. We have grown to love flying on Embraer jets. If you have never flown one, they are smaller planes (not too small—you can still stand up in them) and if you pick the correct economy row (the first one behind First Class) you have more legroom than those in FC. Also, the seat configuration is 2-2 so there is no chance you will ever get a middle seat. One drawback to these planes is that you can’t take a standard carry-on onboard the plane. There is just no room in the overhead compartments so I usually gate-check my carry-on bag.
- Choose a better airport if you can. We have been blessed for the last few years that Alaska Air has started flying to most destinations on the West Coast from Paine Field in Everett (PAE). For us, it is about the same distance from our house to Everett as it is to Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA). PAE is much smaller (like about 5% the size of SEA) and the smaller the airport, the smaller the planes (Alaska only flies Embraer jets out of Everett). Small airports also mean that you don’t wait in security, boarding, or food lines at concessions for as long. The airport is one of the most stressful parts of flying and small airports make it better. When we fly from SEA, from the time we walk into the airport until we check our luggage, get through security, and take about 30-45 minutes to our gate. At PAE we can do all that in less than five minutes.
Choose the right seat. NEVER fly in a middle seat. Even when flying together in a jet with 3-3 seats we sit across the aisle from each other. I have never been a fan of window seats. I hate being closed in and having to get across two people to use the restroom. And the older I get the more that happens ?. On a wide-body jet, you have another choice to make but that depends on the seating configuration. If you have never been there, allow me to introduce you to Seat Guru. You don’t need to check it for every flight but you do need to go there before you fly on a wide-body jet. That will show you the configuration of the seats. For instance, in this seating chart from a British Air 777, you can see that the top section (that starts with the green seats) is Premium Economy with 2-3-2 seating. The bottom section (they call it World Traveler) is their economy and it is 3-3-3. The best seats on this plane (outside of Business class) are the green bulkhead seats on either side of the plane. The 2 seats in the 2-3-2 configuration.- Another Seat Guru note is that as you can see, some seats are red, some green and some yellow. When you’re on the Seat Guru website and mouse over those, you get a pop-up that tells you that the reds are seats to stay away from and why the yellows are cautionary. The greens are considered very good for some reason. When you mouse over them, it tells you why or why not you should pick them. I do this with every flight we take unless I know the airplane well. All you will need to look up your plane is your airline, date of flight and flight number.
- Choose your seats as early as you can. People who wind up in middle seats usually buy their tickets at the last minute. I can tell you that the last time I flew in a middle seat was when my Dad was sick and I bought a ticket using miles to get down to help my brother deal with a bad situation.
The differences between international and domestic economy
Typical International Economy cabin on an international flight. Note the 2-4-2 configuration.
When you fly international for the first time you will find that it is decidedly not like flying economy domestically. To start there is about a 90% chance you will get a meal. Especially on foreign carriers. And on the foreign carriers, it will be a warm meal. You also have some kind of entertainment system. There may be some other little perks you can get but this will vary by airline. Some include seat assignments for free, some include one checked bag. Pay attention when booking. Watch for anything that says, “info” and click it. The more you know about your flight the better. I am going to do another post (I just decided this one is too long) on how I book our airfare.
What do you get with Premium Economy and is it worth it?
Delta’s Premium Economy Seat
When you decide to pay the additional $$$ and move up to Premium Economy (PE) you get a few nice extras. One is the seat. Your PE seat will look much like the ones you walk by in First Class of a domestic flight. A little wider and a little more legroom. Unlike most domestic First Class, the seat may recline a little further and you may have a leg rest that pops out when you do. Kind of like your La-Z-Boy recliner at home. So it should be easier to fall asleep.
If you are flying with a partner or a spouse, do your best to get one of those two seats on the side of the plane in a 2-3-2 configuration that I mentioned above. That way if you have the window seat, the only person you need to bother when you need a restroom break is your partner.
Flying in PE may also get you expedited check-in, earlier boarding, a better meal, a free checked bag or an amenity kit. The area of the cabin you are sitting in will be smaller than the economy section. Usually a LOT smaller. And there will be one or two dedicated flight attendants for this section so you should get better service. It should also make the flight a little quieter. Since PE costs more than Economy, many families with kids won’t be flying in that section which will further help you get some sleep on the flight.
Is it worth the extra dollars?
The price difference between economy and premium economy will depend on the flight you are taking. For instance, here’s the price on our next flight to Europe, a non-stop going from Seattle to Amsterdam on Delta.
- Business Class (Delta One) $2,680 per person
- Premium Economy (Premium Select) $1842 per person
- Economy (International Main Cabin) $1,135 per person
We are flying Business Class using a voucher we had from a canceled flight in December. If we were going to fly this flight and we weren’t going to be in Business, it would be worth it to us to pay the additional $707 to move up. Especially if I could snag one of those two seats in a 2-3-2 configuration. It would be worth it to me to get rid of the middle seat. Especially during COVID. I should add that some airlines (including Delta) now charge more for “Comfort Seats” with a little extra legroom. That might just be an exit row or a fully dedicated section. All of that will depend on the route and plane you will be flying. Again, check Seat Guru…and hope they don’t change your plane the day of the flight.
Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo. – Al Gore
