Trip Reports - BNE-xBKK-xFRA-SZG-FRA-xBKK-SIN-KUL-xBKK-xSYD-BNE: TG (J), OS (Y), LX (Y), MH (Y)

Preamble

The plan
BNE-xBKK-FRA (TG C Redemption)
FRA-SZG-FRA (OS Y)
FRA-xBKK-SIN (TG C Redemption, LX Y)
SIN-KUL (MH Y)
KUL-BKK (MH Y)
BKK-BNE (TG C Redemption)

As things turned out, all 3 of us (Mrs AN*G, Master 5 and myself, all had TG points expiring in 2008. With none of us having used the Birthday award this year, and Mrs AN*G having nearly 90,000 points to use by year's end, we decided to each use our Birthday Awards to get business redemption travel to Europe for 105,000 points each - easily done by each of us. Having a whole swag of Starwood and Intercontinental points also made it tempting to have our first family holiday ever, where neither Mrs AN*G nor myself was working.

As luck would have it, friends of ours had invited us to go skiing with them in Austria this year. And so, we booked our return BNE-xBKK-FRA flights, and added in enough time for a look around Singapore and Malaysia on the way back.

Added in some el-cheapo (or what passes for that in the European context) flights to get us to and from Salzburg in Austria, as well as BKK-SIN (on LX by virtue of the fact that they were the cheapest), and SIN-KUL, and finally KUL-BKK, both on MH, which had an excellent MYR 9 plus taxes deal on at the time. Will have to try crediting these to Virgin Velocity and see how that goes.

So, all booked, all ticketed, and everything in order. Or so I thought. And along came the protestors...

As is well known, BKK was blockaded by protestors. A week passed, and whilst inside information indicated strongly that the protest would be well over by the time we were to fly, I was exploring contingency plans.

Of course, the blockade ended, but TG cancelled some flights, including our FRA-BKK TG923. As soon as I heard about the cancellations, I was on the phone - and was told, as I suspected, that we had all been rebooked onto TG921, 6 hours earlier. This meant a long transit at BKK on the way back (FRA-xBKK-SIN), and as I'd booked BKK-SIN on a cheap LX flight, no changes were possible. Not ideal, but not a major issue either.

A few days later, the word on FT was that the cancelled European flights were back on. True enough, when I rang up TG, this was confirmed, and we were promptly rebooked back on TG923. By the sounds of it, when the cancelled flights were re-instated, none of the rebooked passengers were booked back onto their original flights. Hmmm... we'll see how empty these flights turn out to be.

BNE-BKK
TG992
21 Dec
Dep Scheduled 2359 Actual 2355
Arr Scheduled 0630+1 Actual 0535+1

Availability on the flight had been showing C4 D4 J0 Z0 for quite a while, and it was no different up to online check-in time. Unlike the other TG flights, where you can check-in online 24 hours ahead, TG992 only allows you to check-in online 8 hours before departure - probably due to the fact that the flight operates a triangle BKK-SYD-BNE-BKK, with the SYD-BNE flight operating as both TG991 (for the BKK-SYD-BNE passengers) and TG992 (for the SYD-BNE-BKK passengers). So, at 4pm, I checked us in, happily noting that at this point, it was showing the new config 777-300 on the seat selection screen. With 15DEF pre-selected and confirmed, it was off to the airport at 2130, getting there just a touch before 2200. 2 counters were open serving business & star gold customers, both empty in contrast to the reasonably long economy line. The bag-drop and collection of boarding passes went smoothly, with the only source of amusement being the turning away of a well-dressed lady, trolley fully laden with bags from the other business/*G counter ... "no, madam, economy passengers must check in over there...".

Surprisingly, the express immigration/security lane was operating even at this time, and so, we availed ourselves of that. At immigration, Master 5 pipes up with the "I wish I had an Australian stamp in my passport - I wish they stamped passports here". Happily enough for him, the immigration officer, offered to stamp his passport, and the back of his hand - and so, Master 5 finally has an Australian immigration stamp.

A quick drink at the NZ*G lounge, and boarding was called at 2320. The usual chaotic mess prevailed, with SYD originating passengers boarding from the right hand gaggle, BNE originating passengers from the left hand scrum, and a roped off area in the middle, with a Menzies agent there holding a Thai airways "Royal First, Royal Silk, Star Gold" sign (obviously a mass produced, generic sign, given that TG doesn't have First in Australia). Upon seeing our business class boarding passes, and *G cards, we were promptly let through the roped off area, and escorted to the front of the boarding line.

Boarding revealed a new 777-300 - fortunately lie-flat seats with AVOD. Load in the C cabin turned out to be good, with only 6 seats noticeably empty (28/34 passengers, 5 of them young children, all well behaved). We all skipped dinner, and went to sleep reasonably quickly, waking up at various times after a smooth and uneventful flight. Quite a bit of time gained en-route, with arrival into BKK nearly an hour early. Not much use for us, with a connecting flight to come though.

Transit in BKK

BKK was noticeably quieter than normal. Everything looked like it was running smoothly though, with no signs of the dramas of recent weeks evident. Disembarking at Gate C5, we paid a short visit to one of the C concourse lounges where I had a quick shower, before the cigarette smoke smell wafting in from the smoking area close by forced us to relocate to the main Royal Orchid lounge in the middle of Concourse D.

Now, something not quite right happened here. Upon entry to the lounge, the usual welcoming Thai greeting from two of the lounge attendants was supplemented with a personal greeting by first name, even before the boarding passes or Star Gold cards were presented... but not for me. Hmmph! It was Master 5 who was recognised from previous visits and welcomed in in a manner usually reserved for movie stars. Oh well, I guess that's what you get for having a highly sociable child who happily converses with adults at adult level. The 8 hours of transit went by reasonably quickly, with various lounge attendants taking turns to socialise with Master 5 and entertain him.

BKK-FRA
TG922
22 Dec
Dep Scheduled 1320 Actual 1323
Arr Scheduled 1910 Actual 1915

Boarding was already well advanced when we entered the holding pen. Going straight to the left hand doors (most of the gates at BKK have priority boarding at the left hand doors from the holding pen, and normal boarding through the right hand doors), we went straight into a very, very empty 747. Load in the lower business cabin where we were was 6, and a quick look upstairs showed only 2 (though there might have been 1 or 2 more around). Still, 8 or 10 C class passengers out of 40 seats is very light, and a stroll through the Y cabin later revealed that the load was clearly less than half, with most passengers having an empty seat next to them, or having a whole row to themselves.

Even though we had 2 flight attendants serving 6 passengers in the lower deck C cabin, service seemed average to a touch below normal - certainly competent and friendly, but not quite up to expectations. Even though it was predominantly a day time flight, as soon as lunch had been served, the cabin lights were switched off, shades closed, and a virtual night was proclaimed. 3 movies, and a second meal later, the descent into FRA was called.

Miracles can occur! Despite the busy 7pm time, we still had an aerobridge gate, and no line at immigration. Through the main area, and down into the FRA baggage claim area, and our run of good luck continued. The carousel display was already showing "Delivery" for our flight, and our priority tagged bags were the third and fourth onto the belt.

Because we had an early flight the next morning, we elected to stay at the Sheraton Frankfurt Flughafen (Airport), and a short 3 minute walk later, we were checking in (points stay).

Sheraton Frankfurt

Not much to report about this stay - it was merely used as a transit sleep over - and is a great hotel for that purpose.

Check in was with typical German efficiency; quick and painless. Didn't even take 5 minutes from walking into the hotel lobby before we were up in our room. By 8pm, we were in bed, with 7am alarms set for the next morning's 8.35am flight to Salzburg.

Unfortunately, the alarms were unnecessary, as I was up at 3.30am. Since we all woke up early, we decided to head over to the airport to check-in at 6.45am, and have a leisurely breakfast in one of the Lufthansa lounges. That decision to head over early proved to be fortituous, as you'll see in the next part.

FRA-SZG
OS262
23 Dec
Departure Scheduled 0835 Actual Never
Arrival Scheduled 0940 Actual Never.

Upon arrival at the departures hall, the big old fashioned clackety board confirmed that LH was handling the check-in in Hall A. So, it was off there to check-in. Entering the Business/*G check-in area, we had our pick of 3 agents. Some furious typing away later, the bad news was delivered. The incoming SZG-FRA flight had gone tech, and so, our OS262 was cancelled, with the passengers offloaded onto a 1015 FRA-MUC service, arriving MUC at 1110, and a bus service leaving MUC at 1200, arriving SZG around 1400 or 1430 - 5 hours later than planned.

This was just not acceptable. No seats were available on the 1235 FRA-SZG service either. So, it was off to the ticketing counter to do battle with them for a re-route. Initially, the agent was most reluctant to explore or entertain any re-routing options. But, upon being shown 3 *G cards, the attitude changed. And, when I offered FRA-VIE-SZG as a possibility (I had toyed with the idea of that originally, as it was the same fare as FRA-SZG, but with more miles), 3 seats were found for us on the 0800 service to VIE, connecting on to the 1015 VIE-SZG service, arriving in SZG at 1115, just 90 minutes later than originally planned.

Only problem - it was now 0720, tickets had to be reissued, bags re-checked in, security cleared, and we had to run down to A40, and if anyone knows FRA airport, the run to A40 is a good kilometre. All in 30 minutes before the gate closed. We decided to go for it.

Much typing later, the first 2 (adult tickets) were reissued as INVOL REROUTES. That was enough to race over to check-in and get the bags checked-in, and to race back to ticketing and get the 3rd (child) ticket - which we later discovered had been rebooked as a normal adult (full Y instead of the original L) ticket instead of an INVOL REROUTE.

Now. security. An agonising 2 minute wait, which seemed much longer, then the sprint. With a roll-on cabin bag, 2 10kg backpacks and a 5 year old! We made it - barely. And then, we sat on at the gate for 30 minutes waiting for a departure slot! The 0800 departure ended up being 0827, arriving into VIE at 0930, 10 minutes before the VIE-SZG flight was to board.

Fortunately, we arrived at the gate almost adjacent to the next flight, so we were able to stroll over comfortably to board our next flight. I was worried about the bags though. Even though I'd noticed the "HOT" tag on the re-checked bags at FRA, it was still going to be a risky baggage connection at VIE.

Then, the FO announced that we were delaying departure for 10 minutes to wait for incoming bags from a late incoming flight. That was a relief! Soon, I noticed a baggage cart pull up, and our two distinctive suitcases were amongst the last half dozen or so bags to be loaded on, and it was off to SZG.

Next: Hotel Altstadt Salzburg

FT luminaire, szg, had recommended the Christmas Markets on Dom Platz and Residenz Platz to us. The Hotel Altstadt (Old Town, for the non-German speakers out there), was located ideally to explore those markets and the charming alley-ways that make up the old part of Salzburg. It is apparently part of both the Austria Trend group, and the Radisson SAS group, though there was very little signage relating to the latter.

The hotel itself has two parts, in two separate buildings, joined by an internal open-air courtyard. Upon arrival, our taxi dropped us off at the entrance on one of the main roads of Salzburg, the Rudolfskai, with the hotel foyer up an imposing set of stone steps. After lugging our two large bags up, we went to check in. As our room was not going to be ready for a couple of hours (it was just on 1200 when we arrived), we left our bags, and went for a walk out to the Christmas Markets.

Once our room was ready, we discovered that it was huge. A separate entry area led to the large bathroom, and to the main room which had a 5 seater lounge set, king bed and lots of room to spare.

The Christmas markets were spectacular. We found a stall with Nurnberger sausages (a quite unique sausage from Nurnberg) - during our stay in Salzburg, we had quite a few Nurnberger im Semmerl ohne Saeurkraut snacks - fans of the TV series, Inspector Rex (Kommissar Rex) will be familiar with the Semmerl. The Mozart historic sights were well worth the visit, and Mozartkugeln were delicious.

Only issues we had - our room was in the Eastern building, which had an Irish pub on the ground floor. At night, smokers would congregate around the stairs, which would cause the smoke to rise and enter our non-smoking room. Fortunately, by closing the door between our room's entry foyer and the bedroom, we were able to keep out the smoke, but still, not an ideal situation. The other issue was that from the upper (2nd upwards) floors of the Eastern building, the only access is via the lift. The stairs only lead to the cellar of the Irish pub, which is closed during the day. Once, the lift was out for an hour, and we were trapped in that wing for that period of time.

After spending Christmas in Salzburg (we spent a couple of hours at the Europark shopping centre on Christmas Eve stocking up on things for a Aussie-ish Christmas meal), it was time to leave Salzburg and meet up with our friends for a week of skiing at Serfaus-Fiss-Ladis. We had an earlyish train from Salzburg, and so, in the dark, we took our taxi to the Salzburg Hauptbahnhof.

We took the Vienna-Bregenz ICE service from Salzburg to Landeck (the closest station). It was remarkably quiet, except for one moment of hiliarity early on. Now, regular users of European trains will know that when working out where to board your train from, it is important to note that there is a difference between platform 5b and 5B. Some trains will split along the journey, with the front half of the train going to one destination, and the back half to another. When this is to happen, the front part of the platform is listed as 5 or 5a, and the back part of the platform 5b. But, there are also Sector indicators, which show you approximately where your carriage is going to stop, usually labelled A B C D E... in upper case. This is also used when there are two trains leaving the same platform in close time to each other.

This time, there was a train going to Bregenz at the rear (platform 5b) part, and to Munich from the front (platform 5) part, a few minutes later. Unfortunately, sector B was located at the front part. Not long after we departed Salzburg, there was a loud scream from a middle-aged, largish American man. He stood up with this crazed look, and loudly asked everyone (which amounted to his presumably wife, us, and another family of 5) "Does anyone speak English? Is everyone here going to Munich?" This gentleman had obviously been told (or worked out) that his train to Munich was leaving from platform 5 and his carriage was going to be stopping at sector B, and he had seen the sign for platform 5b, and assumed that that platform 5b was the same as platform 5 sector B. Since he was waving the train station/stop/route/timetable card (each seat has a card showing what time the train is scheduled to reach each station) in his hand, I guessed he had just read it and realised that he was on the wrong train.

As calmly as I could, I gave him the bad news that this train was not going anywhere near Munich, and what had happened to him. As I had my laptop fired up and on the net, I had a quick look to see if there was another intermediate station he could get off at to switch trains - alas for him that was not an option. Not long after, the ticket inspector came along, and had a long, detailed conversation with the gentleman. I have no idea what the outcome was, except that the gentleman and his wife got off the train at Innsbruck.

About 2 and a half hours later, we were in Landeck, where our pre-arranged transfer driver was waiting with a sign "Familie AN*G", and it was off for the half our drive to our hotel in Fiss.

In this area, where three villages are linked together by ski trails (downhill runs) and cable cars, most of the accommodation takes the form of family owned and run hotels and chalets. Our hotel was no different, nestled about 200m away from the main cable-car area of Fiss. Our two families (totalling 7 people) had rooms next to each other, and the kids had a ball. Breakfast and dinner were included, as dining options are very limited. The food was spectacular - well prepared, tasty, and made very good use of local produce. In the evenings, the staff were all dressed in traditional Austrian clothes, which was a really nice touch. Although the rooms were a little bit small, they were all you need for sleeping - after all, just about every waking moment was spent skiing or dining. Staff were excellent - friendly and efficient. The rooms on the 3rd floor have recently been renovated, and have a very modern feel to them.

Although we only had one powder day, the skiing was excellent. I mean, the skiing conditions were excellent. Excellent is not a word I would use to describe my skiing. Average doesn't even come close. I'm able to stay upright usually, but awkwardly, and I have my fair share of head-first plunges into snowbanks, especially on the red runs, usually when I'm going faster than I should and faster than I want to, because I'm out of control, or I'm chasing after Master 5, who has this firm belief that the faster and the steeper the better it is.

All too soon, the week was over, and it was time to take the taxi back to Landeck and the train back to Salzburg.