Tag: airtavel

At YUL Airport

It was the first time in several years that I didn’t have a lounge in the airport, and it was completely unexpected! I flew with American Airlines, but somehow, flights to the US are not “international,” and I was in the domestic sector of the airport, and could not access the One World lounge 😂. I had to find another place with a hot breakfast!

The Most Unusual Way To Enter The US

Everyone tells horror stories about long lines and long questioning at the border, for both visitors and US citizens, so I was ready for the worst. My flight was somehow delayed for 1 hour and 40 minutes. I am saying “somehow” because there was absolutely no reason. Boarding started on time. Since I was in Group 1, I sat down, opened a Kindle book and didn’t pay attention to anything. I heard “Boarding completed,” and this announcement was made ten minutes before scheduled departure. I am not sure what happened next, because there were no more announcements, and I was still reading a book. Then, it was “Boarding completed” again, and I looked at the screen and saw that the arrival time had been changed to an hour later than it should have been. And we didn’t gain the lost time during the flight; in fact, we were delayed for forty more minutes!

But then, when we left the aircraft, we were immediately “pre-sorted” for the citizens and visitors, but both lines were moving without stopping, and in five minutes, everyone was in the arrival hall. There were several border control officers, and one of them was outside her booth with a camera placed on a tripod. I approached, and she took my picture, and asked what I am bringing back, but it was absolutely “as usual.” Then I stepped into the booth and saw that there was no officer there. I stopped, puzzled, and another officer turned to me and told me: You can exit!

I am not sure whether my readers had a chance to register “what’s wrong with that picture,” so I am saying it explicitly: nobody looked at my passport! Yes, I get it—this passport has more electronics than my Apple Watch, and there is a passenger’s manifest on the aircraft—but still!!!

Flights – A Lot Of Them

My current trip was planned several months ago, but I was utterly not prepared by my departure time on October 18. Just one thing to mention: I was not packed in the morning of the day of my departure.

My flight to Helsinki had a connection in London, and when Boris and I flew to Athens on Sunday, we had a connection in London again. Both times, it was horrible: long security lines and no priority line, and taking all the things out. Both times, there was no time to stop in the lounge.

The good part was that I had a Business class upgrade on the flight from London to Helsinki, and for some reason, they had a larger aircraft on this flight, so the business class was a real thing, with all these cool seats, and a nice lunch, and a cinnamon bun for a dessert.

I arrived in Helsinki at about 4-40 PM on Saturday, and on Sunday morning, we took off to Athens, with yet another connection in London, and the flight was delayed again, and no business class this time :).

On Saturday, when I was doing an early hotel check-in, I realized that I accidentally booked one extra day, and it turned out that removing this extra day was considered a late cancellation, but it was too late to do anything about it.

That will be the end of the complaints, because the hotel is great, and we did a day and a half of touring, and now the conference is happening, and although I am not presenting this time, I do not have a second to spare!

I am a Professional!

The very last piece from my September trip. We walked around like complete tourists in Amsterdam and walked into this very touristy cheese shop, where literally everyone shops. We walked around the shop; I knew I wouldn’t be able to take anything with me, and I wouldn’t need any cheese before Thanksgiving, but Boris wanted to take something along. he liked one of the cheeses we had at the breakfast buffet in Jakarta, but we had no idea how it was called. So when the store associate asked us whether we needed any help, I first replied: thanks, we are just thinking, but then I decided to ask her. Boris started to describe the texture of the cheese he liked “as if it was dry, but not really dry,” and she immediately said: try this one on the opposite side – that should be the one.

We took the samples, and it was indeed the one. We thanked the associate, and she proudly said: I am a professional!

Then I decided to buy a set of cheese knives and forks (I thought I would bring it to Vlad and Dylon – I couldn’t possibly know this trip wouldn’t happen!). So I chose the set, and we started to check out when the same associate said: you know, they won’t allow this knife in the carry-on! The other two pieces are fine, but because of this third one you will have to check it in. Since I had a second flight the same day and didn’t want to risk getting out and getting back in, I had to put the set back on the shelf. I thanked her again (after all, she lost the sale on us, and we wouldn’t go after her if we figured this out in the airport!). She replied: I am a professional!

Indeed!

Flying Back And More Delays

The only flight that was on time for this trip was my flight back from Amsterdam to London. As for the final leg, I saw the announcement that my flight was going to be three hours delayed a day before, and I was only hoping it wouldn’t be another overnight delay.

That time, I had no option of going for a stroll in the city because I had my carry-on with me. Actually, if I had acted a little bit faster, I could have jumped on the previous flight to Chicago, but by the time I checked in with customer service, they were already boarding, so I decided – whatever!

It ended up spending another six hours staying in the lounge because there was already almost an hour gap between flights, but at least I was able to catch up on reading and blogging:)

The flight landed in Chicago at about 9 PM, and the good part of such a late arrival was that there were no lines at the border control, and also, there was no traffic on Sunday night, so I was at home at 10-20. I am proud of myself that I didn’t unpack but went to bed right away 😀

All My Travels

I am back home and going back to work tomorrow. Although not everything happened as planned, I am happy with my trip. I boarded a plane eleven times during these two weeks, my personal record. Out of these eleven times, four times it was business class.

It turned out that business class might be very different even within one airline, from “barely any difference” to something very sophisticated:

The bug plus was that I was able to use lounges on every connection because of the Finnair Gold. If not for the lounges, I won’t survive the travel of that intensity. I stayed at nine different lounges (two different ones in Helsinki and three different ones in Heathrow); Vaanta and Heathrow are on the top, although one of the lounges in Heathrow was so crowded and loud that it was not much different from waiting in the gate (of cause, there was a delicious food which makes a difference :))

I loved this tea service in one of the Heathrow lounges: you can pick up the tray with the teapot and milk pitcher, choose your teabag, pour the hot water and the milk of your choice, and happily enjoy the tea!
Breakfast in Paris
Finnair lounge breakfast

Another thing I learned on this trip is that you can survive without some beauty products for several days. I always take my “thirteen bottles of liquids” everywhere I go, and I mastered the art of fitting them into a one-liter bag.

This time, I knew I would need more than that because it was a two-week journey without touching base in Helsinki, so I had some extras in my checked luggage. However, when I was heading to Paris from Stockholm, I was already more than a half through, and I decided to consolidate all of the remaining liquids in one bag. And I left this bag in my carry-on, just because I always think: what if the luggage is delayed and I will need something?

And you know what happened?! In Stockho;m, they told me that my one-liter bag was”too big” and I needed to repack my liquids into a smaller bag which they gave me. And they told me “it’s EU regulations” as if I was not on the second week of my trip! They would not give in, and I was nervously choosing what I could leave behind (my checked-in luggage was already checked!) I decided that the hotel would have shampoo, conditioner, and a body lotion and parted with those, only to find out that this hotel in Paris had only the body wash! It was a completely ridiculous situation because some of the tubes had very little of the cream left. At the same time, I had two bottles of the eye wetting drops in two bags inside my backpack, and nobody paid attention!

But I learned that I could wash my hair with a body wash and survived without the hair conditioner. And moreover, when I forgot my eye cream in the hotel, I found out I can survive a day without it as well 🙂

Traveling As Finnair Gold

My two weeks of travel had begun. There are no direct flights to from Chicago to Helsinki this time of the year, so I had a connection in London. It was the first time I used a Oneworld lounge in O’Hare, and it was a great decision because I could have a way better dinner than on the plane. Also, I could go to sleep immediately after the boarding was complete and have close to normal sleep time. No need to wake up for food :).

Same with breakfast – they gave us just a half-cup of yogurt on the plane, but I went to the Oneworld lounge in Heathrow and had an English breakfast there.

I loved that they had small teapots with a cup and a milk pitcher (same as when you have plates and cups at the buffet). You can take one, choose your tea bag(s) and pore whatever milk you prefer, and then take this set back to where you sit.

After I arrived in Helsinki, I tried to put a contact lens in my right eye for the first time since this weird thing happened, and it felt OK. Today, I wore both lenses for about six hours, and it was all good, but I am not sure for how long I will wear them tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a very long day!

Fall Is Here

Boris arrived last night, once again in the aircraft barely 1/4 full, and this time, nobody asked him for his marriage certificate or proof of vaccination. Which, honestly, makes me worry! Because it means that the border control does not know anymore what’s allowed and what’s not.

On the good side of things, Uber from ORD does not cost $100 anymore, but somewhat around $35, which is cheaper than before the pandemic.

Today was the first seriously autumn day, with rain, and wind, and cold. From sandals to boots, in a matter of several days.

Delayed Flight

On Friday, my flight to Helsinki was delayed because of the snow. Funny how everybody forgets how to operate in winter when snow is expected! It was delayed just enough to make my connection impossible – I only had a little bit over an hour.
But I was amazed by how well Icelandair operated: the moment we landed in Reykjavik I received both email and text with rebooked flight; the new flight was by Finnair and less than three hours. The rest of my schedule didn’t suffer. Plus, they gave me a meal voucher, and I had a huge breakfast at the airport:

Turned out, that we were lucky: over 600 flights from ORD were canceled that night!