InIndiana
Jul 23, 05, 8:11 am
Because my sister was going to be in Madrid, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to see her without having to take a transatlantic flight. By chance I had looked at the Lan (http://www.lan.com/) / Germany web site and noticed that they had a special offer: Roundtrip Frankfurt to Madrid for 131€. (The offer also worked roundtrip Madrid-Frankfurt, but I was starting in Germany.)
The trip can now be bought for either 157€ (http://www.lan.com/promociones/data/europa/de/fra_mad.html) (3 day or Saturday night stay, no advance purchase) or €94 (http://www.lan.com/promociones/data/europa/de/fra_mad93.html) (7 day advance purchase plus Saturday night stay).
LanChile | LA 705
13 July 05
FRA – MAD
Scheduled 19:35-22:25
I arrived at the Frankfurt Airport and waited for my friend to return his rental car at Terminal 1. We headed inside and separated as he made his way to TAP’s check in desks and I headed to the train to Terminal 2. I chose the sky train because the buses were downstairs and I felt the train was closer.
Upon arrival in Terminal 2 I had to check the signs to find out where Lan’s check-in desks were located—in the “E” part of the terminal, so I headed down the appropriate escalator and reflected that usually when I was entering this part of the airport it was dominated by US Air, Continental, and Northwest’s transatlantic check-in operations. Of course since it was 5:30, those flights were long gone and the check-in desks were occupied by other airlines.
I found the Lan desks and got in line. Since I was doing my four day trip using only my back-pack, I didn’t put anything through the luggage scanning machines, instead waiting my turn to talk to an agent.
The check-in agent was insistent that I give her a phone number of somebody to contact in the event of an emergency. I only know one phone number and I didn’t want to give her any number at all, but she refused to go further, so I told her my mother’s phone number, but as I told it to her, she typed in the wrong number. I don’t know how “three” sounds like four, either in English, German, or Spanish, but whatever. I asked for a window seat and was assigned one toward the rear of the plane. I was on my way to Madrid, on Lan.
After getting my boarding pass, I went through passport control and security and into Frankfurt’s Terminal 2. For some reason, probably because the flight continues from Madrid to Santiago, the flight is not treated as an intra Schengen flight, and we were required to go through passport control both in Frankfurt and upon arrival into Madrid.
Once you clear security at Frankfurt, life sucks. The stores are marginal at best. I turned left to the better of the two crappy newsstands, walked in and got lucky. There was a copy of the Lonely Planet for Madrid.
I had my guide.
I wandered over to the gate, Gate E3. The line was not that long, they had not yet started to let people into the gate, so as I stood there I started reading my guide, only to have the nice lady behind me start talking to me about Madrid. She was from Chile and going the full length of the flight—all the way to Santiago, I was only taking the first segment from Frankfurt to Madrid.
Honestly, I have no idea what time the flight started boarding. I was in Zone 1, so I was allowed to board immediately after the families with small children, people needing additional assistance, business and first classes, as well as oneWorld Elites. I made my way down the stairs and onto the plane, thus entering my first LanChile Flight and my first Airbus A340-300 plane.
I crossed over to the right hand side of the plane and made my way to row 36, seat L, which was the window seat. The seat next to me was vacant and remained as such for the duration of the flight.
Not being a plane information dork, I can’t tell you that much, but LanChile does have seatback entertainment, which was showing wildlife during boarding. I started glancing through my Madrid guide.
No, wait, I looked through the in-flight entertainment system information, and discovered that the entertainment was especially selected for this flight.
Oh really?!
The pilot had already spoken and announced that the flight would land at 10:00, which meant that from gate to landing was 2 hours and 25 minutes. The actual inflight time would be about two hours, and most of the films were more than two hours long.
I glanced through the inflight magazine, and then put everything away in anticipation of take off. I then got lucky—in a way. I’d wanted to take a picture of the plane, but because of the position of the plane at the gate I hadn’t been able to get a decent shot. However, as we taxied across the airport, I looked out to my right and discovered we were passing a glass building that reflected the plane (http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmada/26798696/) quite nicely.
The take off was smooth and unremarkable, and we were soon headed south toward Switzerland before the plane headed southwest toward Spain and Madrid.
The most remarkable part of the flight was the meal. On a flight this long in the United States, I would expect… something to drink. Instead we got a small snack which include a small salad, some slices of ham, a roll, butter, and chocolate pudding.
After the snack, the flight attendants ran duty free. However before they could finish running around the entire plane the pilot announced something, which based upon the sky map I had running while reading the Madrid guide, amounted to “prepare for landing.”
The flight touched down shortly before 10, and we parked at a remote stand. I rode the second bus to the terminal. Passport control was a breeze, and I sped through the airport to the Metro station. It was surprising how long a walk it was. From the time the plane landed to the time I emerged from the Opera Metro station was 60 minutes.
LanChile | LA 704
17 July 05
MAD – FRA
Scheduled 15:10-17:50
The return trip was a rather different, yet not.
I arrived at the airport at 1:10 and started the lengthy walk from the Metro station to the Lan check-in desks. The flight at 15:10 was not yet listed on the departure monitors, so the only way to find the check-in desks was to walk over to Terminal 1 and wander past all the desks until I found the goal. Eventually I did. The line was not very long and still forming when I arrived. Only one check-in agent was working.
This situation didn’t last long as the flights on either side of the check-in desk closed and agents started working the LAN flight.
Upon check-in I asked for a window seat and was assigned 17A. After completing the check-in formalities, the agent told me that the flight was going to be delayed. I was given a voucher for a snack once I had cleared security.
The new boarding time was 16:00.
I cleared passport control (which barely looked at my passport), and went through security before looking for a snack. Lan was very nice and proactive. I wandered around the area and got something to eat before looking at duty free and finding nothing.
Fortunately I’d picked up the newly released Harry Potter, which kept me entertained until departure. I sat down near the gate at about 3:15, and watched. Eventually the staff came and put up a sign that said the new departure time was 16:30. I kept reading.
The sign was obviously optimistic.
The plane arrived at 4:00, which left 30 minutes for the A340 to be turned around, a feat I found highly unlikely. It didn’t happen, and boarding didn’t really begin until shortly after 5. I was in Zone 3 and I boarded eventually. I don’t think my zone had been called, but I noticed lots of people were getting on the plane so I just stood up and handed in my boarding card.
The plane pushed back at 17:40.
The inflight service was the same as the Frankfurt-Madrid segment, including the same meal and the same duty-free sales. The plane touched down a few minutes after 8, and I sent my first SMS at 8:05, as we were taxing across the tarmac.
We parked at gate E3 or so, and I deplaned, headed upstairs, around a couple corners and down the stairs to passport control. Not having checked any luggage, I headed straight through baggage claim, through customs, and out the doors to catch a bus to Terminal 1. The bus proclaimed it was supposed to leave at 20:30, but it left at 20:25, seconds after I boarded. We arrived at Terminal 1, I went in, read the train information display, and caught the 20:32 S-bahn to the main train station.
Unfortunately my connecting train to Weimar didn’t leave until 10:22.
AAdvantage Miles: 1,770 miles, 885 each way.
The trip can now be bought for either 157€ (http://www.lan.com/promociones/data/europa/de/fra_mad.html) (3 day or Saturday night stay, no advance purchase) or €94 (http://www.lan.com/promociones/data/europa/de/fra_mad93.html) (7 day advance purchase plus Saturday night stay).
LanChile | LA 705
13 July 05
FRA – MAD
Scheduled 19:35-22:25
I arrived at the Frankfurt Airport and waited for my friend to return his rental car at Terminal 1. We headed inside and separated as he made his way to TAP’s check in desks and I headed to the train to Terminal 2. I chose the sky train because the buses were downstairs and I felt the train was closer.
Upon arrival in Terminal 2 I had to check the signs to find out where Lan’s check-in desks were located—in the “E” part of the terminal, so I headed down the appropriate escalator and reflected that usually when I was entering this part of the airport it was dominated by US Air, Continental, and Northwest’s transatlantic check-in operations. Of course since it was 5:30, those flights were long gone and the check-in desks were occupied by other airlines.
I found the Lan desks and got in line. Since I was doing my four day trip using only my back-pack, I didn’t put anything through the luggage scanning machines, instead waiting my turn to talk to an agent.
The check-in agent was insistent that I give her a phone number of somebody to contact in the event of an emergency. I only know one phone number and I didn’t want to give her any number at all, but she refused to go further, so I told her my mother’s phone number, but as I told it to her, she typed in the wrong number. I don’t know how “three” sounds like four, either in English, German, or Spanish, but whatever. I asked for a window seat and was assigned one toward the rear of the plane. I was on my way to Madrid, on Lan.
After getting my boarding pass, I went through passport control and security and into Frankfurt’s Terminal 2. For some reason, probably because the flight continues from Madrid to Santiago, the flight is not treated as an intra Schengen flight, and we were required to go through passport control both in Frankfurt and upon arrival into Madrid.
Once you clear security at Frankfurt, life sucks. The stores are marginal at best. I turned left to the better of the two crappy newsstands, walked in and got lucky. There was a copy of the Lonely Planet for Madrid.
I had my guide.
I wandered over to the gate, Gate E3. The line was not that long, they had not yet started to let people into the gate, so as I stood there I started reading my guide, only to have the nice lady behind me start talking to me about Madrid. She was from Chile and going the full length of the flight—all the way to Santiago, I was only taking the first segment from Frankfurt to Madrid.
Honestly, I have no idea what time the flight started boarding. I was in Zone 1, so I was allowed to board immediately after the families with small children, people needing additional assistance, business and first classes, as well as oneWorld Elites. I made my way down the stairs and onto the plane, thus entering my first LanChile Flight and my first Airbus A340-300 plane.
I crossed over to the right hand side of the plane and made my way to row 36, seat L, which was the window seat. The seat next to me was vacant and remained as such for the duration of the flight.
Not being a plane information dork, I can’t tell you that much, but LanChile does have seatback entertainment, which was showing wildlife during boarding. I started glancing through my Madrid guide.
No, wait, I looked through the in-flight entertainment system information, and discovered that the entertainment was especially selected for this flight.
Oh really?!
The pilot had already spoken and announced that the flight would land at 10:00, which meant that from gate to landing was 2 hours and 25 minutes. The actual inflight time would be about two hours, and most of the films were more than two hours long.
I glanced through the inflight magazine, and then put everything away in anticipation of take off. I then got lucky—in a way. I’d wanted to take a picture of the plane, but because of the position of the plane at the gate I hadn’t been able to get a decent shot. However, as we taxied across the airport, I looked out to my right and discovered we were passing a glass building that reflected the plane (http://www.flickr.com/photos/elmada/26798696/) quite nicely.
The take off was smooth and unremarkable, and we were soon headed south toward Switzerland before the plane headed southwest toward Spain and Madrid.
The most remarkable part of the flight was the meal. On a flight this long in the United States, I would expect… something to drink. Instead we got a small snack which include a small salad, some slices of ham, a roll, butter, and chocolate pudding.
After the snack, the flight attendants ran duty free. However before they could finish running around the entire plane the pilot announced something, which based upon the sky map I had running while reading the Madrid guide, amounted to “prepare for landing.”
The flight touched down shortly before 10, and we parked at a remote stand. I rode the second bus to the terminal. Passport control was a breeze, and I sped through the airport to the Metro station. It was surprising how long a walk it was. From the time the plane landed to the time I emerged from the Opera Metro station was 60 minutes.
LanChile | LA 704
17 July 05
MAD – FRA
Scheduled 15:10-17:50
The return trip was a rather different, yet not.
I arrived at the airport at 1:10 and started the lengthy walk from the Metro station to the Lan check-in desks. The flight at 15:10 was not yet listed on the departure monitors, so the only way to find the check-in desks was to walk over to Terminal 1 and wander past all the desks until I found the goal. Eventually I did. The line was not very long and still forming when I arrived. Only one check-in agent was working.
This situation didn’t last long as the flights on either side of the check-in desk closed and agents started working the LAN flight.
Upon check-in I asked for a window seat and was assigned 17A. After completing the check-in formalities, the agent told me that the flight was going to be delayed. I was given a voucher for a snack once I had cleared security.
The new boarding time was 16:00.
I cleared passport control (which barely looked at my passport), and went through security before looking for a snack. Lan was very nice and proactive. I wandered around the area and got something to eat before looking at duty free and finding nothing.
Fortunately I’d picked up the newly released Harry Potter, which kept me entertained until departure. I sat down near the gate at about 3:15, and watched. Eventually the staff came and put up a sign that said the new departure time was 16:30. I kept reading.
The sign was obviously optimistic.
The plane arrived at 4:00, which left 30 minutes for the A340 to be turned around, a feat I found highly unlikely. It didn’t happen, and boarding didn’t really begin until shortly after 5. I was in Zone 3 and I boarded eventually. I don’t think my zone had been called, but I noticed lots of people were getting on the plane so I just stood up and handed in my boarding card.
The plane pushed back at 17:40.
The inflight service was the same as the Frankfurt-Madrid segment, including the same meal and the same duty-free sales. The plane touched down a few minutes after 8, and I sent my first SMS at 8:05, as we were taxing across the tarmac.
We parked at gate E3 or so, and I deplaned, headed upstairs, around a couple corners and down the stairs to passport control. Not having checked any luggage, I headed straight through baggage claim, through customs, and out the doors to catch a bus to Terminal 1. The bus proclaimed it was supposed to leave at 20:30, but it left at 20:25, seconds after I boarded. We arrived at Terminal 1, I went in, read the train information display, and caught the 20:32 S-bahn to the main train station.
Unfortunately my connecting train to Weimar didn’t leave until 10:22.
AAdvantage Miles: 1,770 miles, 885 each way.