FewMiles
Mar 19, 01, 10:46 am
14Mar AMS-LHR on BA
14Mar Travelodge London Heathrow
15Mar LHR-ORD-YYC on AA, YYC-YEG on AC
This is the return journey for my trip report from: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/001610.html
14Mar BA 443 AMS 21:05 LHR 21:20 757-200 exit row seat 26F
My colleague was kind enough to provide me a lift to the Eindhoven train station where my journey begins. The familiar ride is about one and a half hours in length with a single transfer at Duivendrecht. 10 minute train delay and the next train is extra packed. No big deal.
I arrive at AMS Schiphol Airport and make my way up the escalator ramps to the Plaza and then departures area 1. The oneworld airline ops are pretty much all located together. Check-in is at desk rows 1 and 2. EI is located nearby but not in the oneworld "zone".
A really long queue (~40 long) led to the economy class check-in. Smiling, I instead get to turn the opposite way and find three Club Europe check-in agents with no queue. I had to wait two minutes because one of the agents had to get rid of a guy who should have been in the economy queue then this other guy jumped the queue on me. Oh well.
It turns out that there have been computer problems in London all day and they are having problems checking people in for the earlier AMS-LHR flight. I am checked in ok though and the agent attaches a bright orange BA priority tag. I asked if ow Sapphires get any fast track arrivals at LHR but the check-in agents didn't know. Oh well. On my way to the airside, I pick up various oneworld brochures and timetables from the ticketing desks nearby.
As I was really quite early, I spent the greater part of the next hour at the duty-free shops and then headed for the BA Executive Lounge. It's not really that big and the view from the windows isn't that great (it's right above the middle of where the E pier juts out from the main terminal and you see mainly the roof of the E pier). The lounge, used (I think) by all the oneworld airlines at AMS, is divided into three rooms of approximately equal size, one for smoking, two for non-smokers.
Light snacks (crisps or chips--whatever you call them, crackers) plus a selection of juice, pop, and alcoholic drinks are available. There are several newspaper racks around, but at this time of day there are no newspapers around. Also available in the lounge are phones and pay-to-use Internet stations. Coat and luggage storage closets are available but there are no washrooms within the facility (gotta go out the lounge and down the hall).
I relax for a while and have a snack and try out my new Sony NC-10s. Nice. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Departure time approaches and the lounge no longer amuses me, so I head off. Schiphol is quite quiet at this time of day, in contrast to its bustling morning peak periods.
When I get to gate D10, it looks like the previous BA AMS-LHR flight is still sitting there. The 757 is all ready for pushback but there's some mysterious delay. It finally leaves at 20:50, more than 1.5 hours late. Must be the same computer problem.
Meanwhile our own departure time was pushed back from 21:05 to 21:30 due to late arrival of the aircraft. They nonetheless go forward with the security screening at 20:50 with the plane scheduled to arrive shortly. Schiphol is an interesting airport with security screening facilities at each of the gates rather than having a centralized security point (except in one of its areas). The concept is quite different. As well as doing the security check, this is also the point where they scan your boarding pass and lift the flight coupons. By having everyone security screened and put into the secure holding area, they can close the flight in advance and make sure everyone is in the holding area before boarding begins. This is helpful for on-time departures.
Anyways, the aircraft arrives a few minutes after and I watch as the jetway mates with door #2 and the arriving pax deplane. We finally board at 21:30. I'm in 26F exit row with lots of legroom. Loading is light around 55-60% and empty seats are plentiful. Everything up to this point seems normal, with a small half hour delay. No big deal, right?
At 22:00 we are at the runway approach taxiway and come to a stop. Instead of turning on to the runway, we turn the other way! Captain comes on PA - we've got to go back to the gate because there were problems in the paperwork from the handling agent - FA who's sitting in the jumpseat opposite me says it's the same computer problems again. BA's computer systems controlling its operations all rely on the centralized system in London and that's been on the blink the whole day.
We get back to the gate and with the engines still running, the required paperwork is delivered and we are back on our way. I remark to the FA with whom I've been chatting that it's interesting that we've left the engines running at the gate and brought up the jetway -- that's not standard procedure is it? He explains that if the engines were to be shut down, then the pilots would have to go through a whole long checklist again to start them up further adding to the delay. The APU has been turned back on anyways, in case we do have to shut the engines off.
The FA (John) goes on to explain that one danger of leaving the engines running is with the the push back tractor. The push back rod (and the pin that connects it to the aircraft) is under additional stress because of the engine thrust and could snap. If that happens, the planes inertia would tend to keep it rolling backwards. If the pilots slam on the brakes though, the plane might tip up on its tail -- this was a particular problem with some older British-built aircraft where the center of gravity was further back than desired! (The proper solution, I am told, is to rev up the engines a bit.)
Anyways, we finally get back out to the runway and start our take-off roll at 22:42.
For the short flight, there is a brief "All Day Deli" style snack and beverage service. Snack is a corn bun chicken fillet sandwich with mustard butter and a Spa blue water. FA's serve an additional beverage of choice. They guy sitting in the aisle seat in my row looks pretty uncomfortable and zonked out (motion sick?) and doesn't eat or drink anything.
We land very soon afterwards and roll towards LHR T4. We're late. Good thing I am spending the night at an airport hotel. We get to our gate, deplane and go through the most ridiculous rat-maze of twisting and turning corridors to get to the arrivals area. No major queues at passport control and upon explaining that I'm just staying overnight, my passport (Canadian) is stamped and I am sent on my way.
Make the long trek over to the baggage claim and after a couple of minutes wait the bags start coming out. Mine arrives quickly sporting the bright orange BA priority tag. I exit customs through the blue channel and there are no questions about meat products or anything like that (foot and mouth disease outbreak).
14Mar Travelodge London Heathrow
15Mar LHR-ORD-YYC on AA, YYC-YEG on AC
This is the return journey for my trip report from: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum81/HTML/001610.html
14Mar BA 443 AMS 21:05 LHR 21:20 757-200 exit row seat 26F
My colleague was kind enough to provide me a lift to the Eindhoven train station where my journey begins. The familiar ride is about one and a half hours in length with a single transfer at Duivendrecht. 10 minute train delay and the next train is extra packed. No big deal.
I arrive at AMS Schiphol Airport and make my way up the escalator ramps to the Plaza and then departures area 1. The oneworld airline ops are pretty much all located together. Check-in is at desk rows 1 and 2. EI is located nearby but not in the oneworld "zone".
A really long queue (~40 long) led to the economy class check-in. Smiling, I instead get to turn the opposite way and find three Club Europe check-in agents with no queue. I had to wait two minutes because one of the agents had to get rid of a guy who should have been in the economy queue then this other guy jumped the queue on me. Oh well.
It turns out that there have been computer problems in London all day and they are having problems checking people in for the earlier AMS-LHR flight. I am checked in ok though and the agent attaches a bright orange BA priority tag. I asked if ow Sapphires get any fast track arrivals at LHR but the check-in agents didn't know. Oh well. On my way to the airside, I pick up various oneworld brochures and timetables from the ticketing desks nearby.
As I was really quite early, I spent the greater part of the next hour at the duty-free shops and then headed for the BA Executive Lounge. It's not really that big and the view from the windows isn't that great (it's right above the middle of where the E pier juts out from the main terminal and you see mainly the roof of the E pier). The lounge, used (I think) by all the oneworld airlines at AMS, is divided into three rooms of approximately equal size, one for smoking, two for non-smokers.
Light snacks (crisps or chips--whatever you call them, crackers) plus a selection of juice, pop, and alcoholic drinks are available. There are several newspaper racks around, but at this time of day there are no newspapers around. Also available in the lounge are phones and pay-to-use Internet stations. Coat and luggage storage closets are available but there are no washrooms within the facility (gotta go out the lounge and down the hall).
I relax for a while and have a snack and try out my new Sony NC-10s. Nice. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Departure time approaches and the lounge no longer amuses me, so I head off. Schiphol is quite quiet at this time of day, in contrast to its bustling morning peak periods.
When I get to gate D10, it looks like the previous BA AMS-LHR flight is still sitting there. The 757 is all ready for pushback but there's some mysterious delay. It finally leaves at 20:50, more than 1.5 hours late. Must be the same computer problem.
Meanwhile our own departure time was pushed back from 21:05 to 21:30 due to late arrival of the aircraft. They nonetheless go forward with the security screening at 20:50 with the plane scheduled to arrive shortly. Schiphol is an interesting airport with security screening facilities at each of the gates rather than having a centralized security point (except in one of its areas). The concept is quite different. As well as doing the security check, this is also the point where they scan your boarding pass and lift the flight coupons. By having everyone security screened and put into the secure holding area, they can close the flight in advance and make sure everyone is in the holding area before boarding begins. This is helpful for on-time departures.
Anyways, the aircraft arrives a few minutes after and I watch as the jetway mates with door #2 and the arriving pax deplane. We finally board at 21:30. I'm in 26F exit row with lots of legroom. Loading is light around 55-60% and empty seats are plentiful. Everything up to this point seems normal, with a small half hour delay. No big deal, right?
At 22:00 we are at the runway approach taxiway and come to a stop. Instead of turning on to the runway, we turn the other way! Captain comes on PA - we've got to go back to the gate because there were problems in the paperwork from the handling agent - FA who's sitting in the jumpseat opposite me says it's the same computer problems again. BA's computer systems controlling its operations all rely on the centralized system in London and that's been on the blink the whole day.
We get back to the gate and with the engines still running, the required paperwork is delivered and we are back on our way. I remark to the FA with whom I've been chatting that it's interesting that we've left the engines running at the gate and brought up the jetway -- that's not standard procedure is it? He explains that if the engines were to be shut down, then the pilots would have to go through a whole long checklist again to start them up further adding to the delay. The APU has been turned back on anyways, in case we do have to shut the engines off.
The FA (John) goes on to explain that one danger of leaving the engines running is with the the push back tractor. The push back rod (and the pin that connects it to the aircraft) is under additional stress because of the engine thrust and could snap. If that happens, the planes inertia would tend to keep it rolling backwards. If the pilots slam on the brakes though, the plane might tip up on its tail -- this was a particular problem with some older British-built aircraft where the center of gravity was further back than desired! (The proper solution, I am told, is to rev up the engines a bit.)
Anyways, we finally get back out to the runway and start our take-off roll at 22:42.
For the short flight, there is a brief "All Day Deli" style snack and beverage service. Snack is a corn bun chicken fillet sandwich with mustard butter and a Spa blue water. FA's serve an additional beverage of choice. They guy sitting in the aisle seat in my row looks pretty uncomfortable and zonked out (motion sick?) and doesn't eat or drink anything.
We land very soon afterwards and roll towards LHR T4. We're late. Good thing I am spending the night at an airport hotel. We get to our gate, deplane and go through the most ridiculous rat-maze of twisting and turning corridors to get to the arrivals area. No major queues at passport control and upon explaining that I'm just staying overnight, my passport (Canadian) is stamped and I am sent on my way.
Make the long trek over to the baggage claim and after a couple of minutes wait the bags start coming out. Mine arrives quickly sporting the bright orange BA priority tag. I exit customs through the blue channel and there are no questions about meat products or anything like that (foot and mouth disease outbreak).