mumbri
Jun 26, 02, 9:35 pm
Trip Report – AF Y Class TXL-CDG-MAD-CDG-TXL
By way of introduction, I am relatively new to FT and this is my first Trip Report. I’m currently living and working in Berlin. Most of my flights are quick weekend trips to wherever I can find a good deal on Opodo.de or other online travel sites. This past weekend’s trip to Madrid was planned to coincide with a friend’s visit and to use of one of my Starwood free weekends.
TEGEL Check-in
Tegel is a one of a kind design – each gate acts like its own mini airport. You can be dropped off right outside your gate, check-in, go through security and board the plane and do it all by walking about 50 feet. One advantage of this is that you can arrive just before your flight. The check-in areas rarely open more than an hour before scheduled departure. On this date I arrived about 30 minutes before departure and quickly regretted not arriving earlier – the check-in line was intimidating. Nevertheless, my karma was good and after standing in line for about 5 minutes and not moving forward at all, I turned around and noticed the Air France ticket booth had a very small sign allowing for check-ins if you only had carry-on luggage. Best of all, there was no line. The woman was very friendly and apologized for not being able to accommodate my request for an aisle seat in an emergency exit row on the flight to CDG (she did book the requested seat CDG-MAD). After asking me to demonstrate that my carry-on bag did indeed fit in the little “your carry-on bag must fit in this wire cage-like device” contraption, the ticket agent insisted on lifting the bag herself in order to not-very-accurately determine the weight. Convinced that my bag would fit in the overhead and only slightly injure a fellow passenger were it to “shift during flight”, my tickets were issued and I walked 10 feet to the security check and gate. The regular check-in still had not moved. I’m not in bad shape, but maybe I looked like I was struggling with my Tumi, because another AF agent did the same “one-handed lift to determine the weight thing” as I was placing the bag on the x-ray machine. The security guard asked me if my CD player was a CD player. I said yes (or more accurately: “Ja, das ist ein CD-spieler”) and I was on my way. Another 10 feet to the gate, boarding was underway and I walked right on the plane.
TXL-CDG 21 June AF 1435 TXL-CDG 09:55 Y Class 17D
The flight was not memorable, typical AF Airbus 319 (?) short-haul 3x3 configuration in Y. Exactly the same configuration in J but with the middle seat blocked. The cabin crew was very attentive. The moist towelette service (i.e. handy-wipes) is a nice plus. Even nicer, I noticed the FA leave a towelette in the seatback pocket of fellow Y class passenger who was sleeping. There’s nothing better than a refreshing, moist towlette immediately upon waking up. That is, unless you are waking up next to someone very special. Anyway, I digress. Meal service in Y was basic but better than anything you might find on a one hour morning flight in the U.S. Y was served what I consider a typical German-style breakfast: yogurt, roll, croissant, slab of breakfast meat, slab of breakfast cheese, butter, jam, orange juice, water, coffee, tea. It sounds like a lot, but it all fit on one tray. Maybe I’ve been living in Germany too long (10 months) but I find a hard roll with butter and a slab of unidentifiable lunch meat makes a darn good breakfast. No in-flight entertainment, unless you count the five year-old sitting one seat over who kept insisting he would only go to the bathroom if grand mom went with him. It was all very cute in German.
CDG-MAD 21 June AF 1600 11:55 Y Class 12C
We arrived at CDG and parked somewhere on the field, meaning a bus transfer to Terminal 2. I swear the bus driver took a wrong turn along the way and we had to double back in order to arrive at the correct disembarkation point. After climbing several sets of stairs and walking quite some distance, we found ourselves by the main check-in counters. We had to clear security again in order to reach the gate for our connecting flight to Madrid. I don’t remember having to do this in October during my last trip through CDG. We made the gate just as boarding was finishing. I think this flight was a A321 but the configuration details were otherwise the same. The meal service on this flight was, um……interesting. The main meal included a potato salad that I really didn’t care for due to an abundance of peas. I hate peas. None of my mom’s potato salad recipes call for peas. Who puts peas in potato salad? It’s been said that the French are different. Anyway, even more interesting was main dish: paella with one whole shrimp sitting on top. I’ve had the misfortune to enjoy many, many Y class flights and never ever have I seen shrimp in the meal service. I hope I never see it again. Don’t get me wrong, my love of shrimp balances my hatred of peas, but why go through the effort if you’re not going to do it right. Specifically, I was hard pressed to find any actual meat within the shrimp itself. Aside from the shrimp, the paella was marginal. There appeared to be some chicken-like stuff under the rice. The dessert was unidentifiable and I didn’t bother to taste it. The FA did offer extra rolls.
MADRID
We took a cab from the airport to the Westin Palace Hotel. Traffic was heavy and the ride took about 30 minutes and cost €30. I later learned that we could have taken the metro. We had looked for metro access upon arrival but the airport signs only indicated that taxis and busses were available.
Westin Palace Hotel
Check-in was flawless and our room, 176, was impressive. I was initially concerned about a second floor room, but this proved to be unfounded. The room was well insulated from street noise and even had what could be called a small balcony (about one foot deep, but hey, the window opened and you could step out and enjoy a drink). This hotel received a bad review on the Starwood thread but I found that it compared well with other high end hotels I recently stayed in, including the new Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. The room was not large but was very nicely appointed. The whole hotel has just undergone a complete renovation.
There is a nice gym on the 6th floor with a sun deck, newspapers, jogging maps, trainer and bowl of fresh fruit. I enjoyed starting my day with a workout at the gym, a run on the treadmill or in the nearby park and then heading down to the Starbucks where I would meet up with my travel partner, enjoy an iced tea and a muffin and plan our day. Aside from being the kind of traveler who seeks out “American” chain restaurants in just about every place I visit, the smoke free, air conditioned environment of Starbucks was a nice relief from the standard smoke-filled cafes, restaurants and bars were we otherwise spent our time (okay, there was also the one meal at Planet Hollywood, but I resisted the temptation to eat at TGIF and Hard Rock).
My only complaint is one that I have with most Starwood properties: the mini-bar prices, taxes, gratuities and re-stocking fees are outrageous. I go out of my way not to use the mini-bar at Starwood properties but, in a moment of weakness after waking up from a heavenly nap in a heavenly bed, I found myself enjoying the pleasures of a Kit-Kat bar from the mini-bar. I’m not sure the pleasure was worth €7.92.
This was my first trip to Madrid and I really enjoyed the place. The weather was around 100 every day but the humidity was very low and that made things bearable. The Westin is within walking distance to just about everything. In two days we visited the big three museums: el Prado, Thyssen, and Reina Sofia. I enjoyed the Thyssen the most, but I tend to prefer Rothko over Goya. The Reina Sofia was really uninspiring – both the building itself and its contents. In all fairness, this was the last of three museums we visited and we were beginning to drag.
My free weekend was only good for two nights, so I booked a room at the Foxa 25 Suites through Priceline for the third night. I had never used Priceline before and thought I would give it a try. This was supposed to be a 4-star hotel. Starting at $50, I had entered prices in increments of $10 until my bid was accepted at $100. It turned out that the hotel was located in the far northern end of the city. The concierge at the Westin tried to point the location out on our tourist map but the map didn’t extend north far enough. Ouch. We took the metro to the closest stop and walked another 5 minutes from there. Upon checking in I noticed that the front desk had attempted to draw a line through the “Precio” section of the computer generated bill. However, utilizing highly classified sleuthing techniques, I was could read the price: €79.00. Ouch. I paid about €21.00 over the standard rate for a hotel way out of the city center, whose 4-star rating was questionable. On the plus side, the mini-bar prices were reasonable enough that I enjoyed a refreshing Heineken. I’m not rushing to use Priceline again.
MAD – CDG AF 1001 24 Jun 10:15 Y Class 19D
Check-in was quick and painless. There isn’t a whole lot to do at this airport, so I found an empty seat and read a book for a while. The flight was pretty much the same as on the way in. For breakfast they served scrambled eggs over toast, with bacon, juice and a small fruit salad. It was quite good. No peas or shrimp in sight. We landed at CDG and taxied to a real jetway. No busses!!! I’ve long believed the bus to be the worst form of public transportation ever invented. That goes double for airport transfer busses.
CDG – TXL AF 2034 24 June 13:15 Y Class 11C
Boarding was delayed 30 minutes because of the aircraft’s late arrival. I actually appreciated this because I wanted to spend some more time looking through duty free (a lot of time was spent clearing security after arrival from Madrid). My aisle seat was the first in the Y cabin and I was looking forward to getting back to Berlin. However, things quickly went downhill. First, we boarded through a jetway only to exit the jetway at the midpoint through stairs down to the tarmac where busses were waiting. They waited until the bus was at about 200% of capacity before we drove to the other side of the terminal. Upon arriving on other side we disembarked, climbed the steps of another jetway and boarded our plane. I wish I had paid better attention to the gate numbers so that I could confirm the absurdity of the whole exercise. Why not just announce a gate change and have us walk across the terminal without having to climb up and down four sets of stairs? If I want to include stairs in my workout I’ll use the stair machine at the gym.
I arrived at my assigned seat to find my seatmates, a Spanish couple in their early twenties, already occupying the window and center seats. They didn’t seem to notice my arrival on the scene as they were already engaged in a passionate embrace. Now, I’m not yet 30 and I’m not a prude by any means, but these two were really going at it. Kissing loudly, hands all over the place, barely coming up for air. A peck on the cheek, kiss on the lips, a little holding of hands – all fine by me. But I found their behavior both inappropriate and annoying. The flight crew didn’t seem to notice, I didn’t complain and they went at it pretty much the entire flight.
I passed on the meal service. The FA seemed to take offense and made up for it by offering me every available beverage and combination thereof. The two lovebirds did partake of the meal service, taking a breather from their other activities long enough to accept the trays. As soon as our row was served, Ms. Lovebird decides to try going to the bathroom. Now, we’re in the first row of economy and were served first. The food cart is now immediately behind us and has another 15 or so rows to go before it clears the aisle and anyone from upfront will be able to get to the toilet. But I don’t say anything, just get up and let her try. About 2 seconds later Ms. Lovebird is back – explaining that she couldn’t get to the bathroom because of the meal service. Duh. Switching on the seat belt signs for landing apparently reminds Ms. Lovebird that she has to pee, so I get up once again (twice actually) to let her in and out.
The weather was incredibly clear and we had a beautiful approach into Berlin. Off the left side you could see all of downtown Berlin, from Alexander Platz, down Unter den Linden, through the Brandenberg Gate, past the Reichstag and the Tiergarten. We landed smoothly, though almost an hour late.
All in all flying AF in Y was a good experience. Even my flight with the Lovebirds seems more entertaining than annoying in hindsight.
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By way of introduction, I am relatively new to FT and this is my first Trip Report. I’m currently living and working in Berlin. Most of my flights are quick weekend trips to wherever I can find a good deal on Opodo.de or other online travel sites. This past weekend’s trip to Madrid was planned to coincide with a friend’s visit and to use of one of my Starwood free weekends.
TEGEL Check-in
Tegel is a one of a kind design – each gate acts like its own mini airport. You can be dropped off right outside your gate, check-in, go through security and board the plane and do it all by walking about 50 feet. One advantage of this is that you can arrive just before your flight. The check-in areas rarely open more than an hour before scheduled departure. On this date I arrived about 30 minutes before departure and quickly regretted not arriving earlier – the check-in line was intimidating. Nevertheless, my karma was good and after standing in line for about 5 minutes and not moving forward at all, I turned around and noticed the Air France ticket booth had a very small sign allowing for check-ins if you only had carry-on luggage. Best of all, there was no line. The woman was very friendly and apologized for not being able to accommodate my request for an aisle seat in an emergency exit row on the flight to CDG (she did book the requested seat CDG-MAD). After asking me to demonstrate that my carry-on bag did indeed fit in the little “your carry-on bag must fit in this wire cage-like device” contraption, the ticket agent insisted on lifting the bag herself in order to not-very-accurately determine the weight. Convinced that my bag would fit in the overhead and only slightly injure a fellow passenger were it to “shift during flight”, my tickets were issued and I walked 10 feet to the security check and gate. The regular check-in still had not moved. I’m not in bad shape, but maybe I looked like I was struggling with my Tumi, because another AF agent did the same “one-handed lift to determine the weight thing” as I was placing the bag on the x-ray machine. The security guard asked me if my CD player was a CD player. I said yes (or more accurately: “Ja, das ist ein CD-spieler”) and I was on my way. Another 10 feet to the gate, boarding was underway and I walked right on the plane.
TXL-CDG 21 June AF 1435 TXL-CDG 09:55 Y Class 17D
The flight was not memorable, typical AF Airbus 319 (?) short-haul 3x3 configuration in Y. Exactly the same configuration in J but with the middle seat blocked. The cabin crew was very attentive. The moist towelette service (i.e. handy-wipes) is a nice plus. Even nicer, I noticed the FA leave a towelette in the seatback pocket of fellow Y class passenger who was sleeping. There’s nothing better than a refreshing, moist towlette immediately upon waking up. That is, unless you are waking up next to someone very special. Anyway, I digress. Meal service in Y was basic but better than anything you might find on a one hour morning flight in the U.S. Y was served what I consider a typical German-style breakfast: yogurt, roll, croissant, slab of breakfast meat, slab of breakfast cheese, butter, jam, orange juice, water, coffee, tea. It sounds like a lot, but it all fit on one tray. Maybe I’ve been living in Germany too long (10 months) but I find a hard roll with butter and a slab of unidentifiable lunch meat makes a darn good breakfast. No in-flight entertainment, unless you count the five year-old sitting one seat over who kept insisting he would only go to the bathroom if grand mom went with him. It was all very cute in German.
CDG-MAD 21 June AF 1600 11:55 Y Class 12C
We arrived at CDG and parked somewhere on the field, meaning a bus transfer to Terminal 2. I swear the bus driver took a wrong turn along the way and we had to double back in order to arrive at the correct disembarkation point. After climbing several sets of stairs and walking quite some distance, we found ourselves by the main check-in counters. We had to clear security again in order to reach the gate for our connecting flight to Madrid. I don’t remember having to do this in October during my last trip through CDG. We made the gate just as boarding was finishing. I think this flight was a A321 but the configuration details were otherwise the same. The meal service on this flight was, um……interesting. The main meal included a potato salad that I really didn’t care for due to an abundance of peas. I hate peas. None of my mom’s potato salad recipes call for peas. Who puts peas in potato salad? It’s been said that the French are different. Anyway, even more interesting was main dish: paella with one whole shrimp sitting on top. I’ve had the misfortune to enjoy many, many Y class flights and never ever have I seen shrimp in the meal service. I hope I never see it again. Don’t get me wrong, my love of shrimp balances my hatred of peas, but why go through the effort if you’re not going to do it right. Specifically, I was hard pressed to find any actual meat within the shrimp itself. Aside from the shrimp, the paella was marginal. There appeared to be some chicken-like stuff under the rice. The dessert was unidentifiable and I didn’t bother to taste it. The FA did offer extra rolls.
MADRID
We took a cab from the airport to the Westin Palace Hotel. Traffic was heavy and the ride took about 30 minutes and cost €30. I later learned that we could have taken the metro. We had looked for metro access upon arrival but the airport signs only indicated that taxis and busses were available.
Westin Palace Hotel
Check-in was flawless and our room, 176, was impressive. I was initially concerned about a second floor room, but this proved to be unfounded. The room was well insulated from street noise and even had what could be called a small balcony (about one foot deep, but hey, the window opened and you could step out and enjoy a drink). This hotel received a bad review on the Starwood thread but I found that it compared well with other high end hotels I recently stayed in, including the new Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. The room was not large but was very nicely appointed. The whole hotel has just undergone a complete renovation.
There is a nice gym on the 6th floor with a sun deck, newspapers, jogging maps, trainer and bowl of fresh fruit. I enjoyed starting my day with a workout at the gym, a run on the treadmill or in the nearby park and then heading down to the Starbucks where I would meet up with my travel partner, enjoy an iced tea and a muffin and plan our day. Aside from being the kind of traveler who seeks out “American” chain restaurants in just about every place I visit, the smoke free, air conditioned environment of Starbucks was a nice relief from the standard smoke-filled cafes, restaurants and bars were we otherwise spent our time (okay, there was also the one meal at Planet Hollywood, but I resisted the temptation to eat at TGIF and Hard Rock).
My only complaint is one that I have with most Starwood properties: the mini-bar prices, taxes, gratuities and re-stocking fees are outrageous. I go out of my way not to use the mini-bar at Starwood properties but, in a moment of weakness after waking up from a heavenly nap in a heavenly bed, I found myself enjoying the pleasures of a Kit-Kat bar from the mini-bar. I’m not sure the pleasure was worth €7.92.
This was my first trip to Madrid and I really enjoyed the place. The weather was around 100 every day but the humidity was very low and that made things bearable. The Westin is within walking distance to just about everything. In two days we visited the big three museums: el Prado, Thyssen, and Reina Sofia. I enjoyed the Thyssen the most, but I tend to prefer Rothko over Goya. The Reina Sofia was really uninspiring – both the building itself and its contents. In all fairness, this was the last of three museums we visited and we were beginning to drag.
My free weekend was only good for two nights, so I booked a room at the Foxa 25 Suites through Priceline for the third night. I had never used Priceline before and thought I would give it a try. This was supposed to be a 4-star hotel. Starting at $50, I had entered prices in increments of $10 until my bid was accepted at $100. It turned out that the hotel was located in the far northern end of the city. The concierge at the Westin tried to point the location out on our tourist map but the map didn’t extend north far enough. Ouch. We took the metro to the closest stop and walked another 5 minutes from there. Upon checking in I noticed that the front desk had attempted to draw a line through the “Precio” section of the computer generated bill. However, utilizing highly classified sleuthing techniques, I was could read the price: €79.00. Ouch. I paid about €21.00 over the standard rate for a hotel way out of the city center, whose 4-star rating was questionable. On the plus side, the mini-bar prices were reasonable enough that I enjoyed a refreshing Heineken. I’m not rushing to use Priceline again.
MAD – CDG AF 1001 24 Jun 10:15 Y Class 19D
Check-in was quick and painless. There isn’t a whole lot to do at this airport, so I found an empty seat and read a book for a while. The flight was pretty much the same as on the way in. For breakfast they served scrambled eggs over toast, with bacon, juice and a small fruit salad. It was quite good. No peas or shrimp in sight. We landed at CDG and taxied to a real jetway. No busses!!! I’ve long believed the bus to be the worst form of public transportation ever invented. That goes double for airport transfer busses.
CDG – TXL AF 2034 24 June 13:15 Y Class 11C
Boarding was delayed 30 minutes because of the aircraft’s late arrival. I actually appreciated this because I wanted to spend some more time looking through duty free (a lot of time was spent clearing security after arrival from Madrid). My aisle seat was the first in the Y cabin and I was looking forward to getting back to Berlin. However, things quickly went downhill. First, we boarded through a jetway only to exit the jetway at the midpoint through stairs down to the tarmac where busses were waiting. They waited until the bus was at about 200% of capacity before we drove to the other side of the terminal. Upon arriving on other side we disembarked, climbed the steps of another jetway and boarded our plane. I wish I had paid better attention to the gate numbers so that I could confirm the absurdity of the whole exercise. Why not just announce a gate change and have us walk across the terminal without having to climb up and down four sets of stairs? If I want to include stairs in my workout I’ll use the stair machine at the gym.
I arrived at my assigned seat to find my seatmates, a Spanish couple in their early twenties, already occupying the window and center seats. They didn’t seem to notice my arrival on the scene as they were already engaged in a passionate embrace. Now, I’m not yet 30 and I’m not a prude by any means, but these two were really going at it. Kissing loudly, hands all over the place, barely coming up for air. A peck on the cheek, kiss on the lips, a little holding of hands – all fine by me. But I found their behavior both inappropriate and annoying. The flight crew didn’t seem to notice, I didn’t complain and they went at it pretty much the entire flight.
I passed on the meal service. The FA seemed to take offense and made up for it by offering me every available beverage and combination thereof. The two lovebirds did partake of the meal service, taking a breather from their other activities long enough to accept the trays. As soon as our row was served, Ms. Lovebird decides to try going to the bathroom. Now, we’re in the first row of economy and were served first. The food cart is now immediately behind us and has another 15 or so rows to go before it clears the aisle and anyone from upfront will be able to get to the toilet. But I don’t say anything, just get up and let her try. About 2 seconds later Ms. Lovebird is back – explaining that she couldn’t get to the bathroom because of the meal service. Duh. Switching on the seat belt signs for landing apparently reminds Ms. Lovebird that she has to pee, so I get up once again (twice actually) to let her in and out.
The weather was incredibly clear and we had a beautiful approach into Berlin. Off the left side you could see all of downtown Berlin, from Alexander Platz, down Unter den Linden, through the Brandenberg Gate, past the Reichstag and the Tiergarten. We landed smoothly, though almost an hour late.
All in all flying AF in Y was a good experience. Even my flight with the Lovebirds seems more entertaining than annoying in hindsight.
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