Saturday, July 28
BA 7902, OSL-MAN
EI 207, MAN-DUB
EI 129, DUB-ORD

Ah, the dreaded double connection. On the freebie ticket, this was all we could get -- AA was full up on all their LHR-ORD flights in J (and the booking agent strongly discouraged me from "downgrading" to Y, "you don't want to fly coach"). We didn't lose any time with the extra connection -- connecting times at MAN and DUB were both one hour, so just about the same as the two hour connection at LHR -- so we went with it.

We took the airport bus from the Radisson on the return, easier than schlepping to the Sentral Stajsion for the train. Gardermoen airport was a little less efficient on the return. BA is handled by Servisair, and the very small map at each check-in island that shows you where to check in showed Servisair at both islands #1 and #3. We of course went to #3 first when we needed to go to #1. Oh well. Ended up wasting a fair bit of time and the check-in took a while, so we didn't have tons of free time before the flight. Therefore I can't comment on the OneWorld lounge at OSL. We also completely missed the VAT refund desk -- the map said it was just beyond passport control -- but it really meant the first control point, where they only looked at our boarding passes. So we went through passport control and realized we had missed the VAT desk -- and couldn't go back. Boarding was via a bus which took us to the ERJ parked on the tarmac.

The reverse direction flight was fine, this time with a hot breakfast in J including ham and mushrooms on some kind of flat bread. It also had fruit, danish, and a bread roll. I am not sure how I feel about two class service on the ERJ. Our seats were no bigger, there is no extra lav at the front, in short - same old same old. However, it did show me that the US carriers could offer more service than they do on the ERJs...with AA, DL, and others using them for fairly long flights, they could offer more than a bag of pretzels.

The connection at MAN was even more cumbersome on the return. At the security checkpoint leaving T1, we had to wait for an immigration officer to come stamp our passports -- on a connection from England to Ireland ???? But it's never a good idea to argue with immigration or customs so we waited. We then proceeded to T2 where they wanted us to go through the whole thing (X-ray, passport) again, but relaxed when they saw the stamp in our passports. Very strange. At least MAN has a Starbucks Coffee and a Boots, so we entertained ourselves in the brief time before boarding.

The Aer Lingus flight from MAN to DUB was packed full, with only 9 seats allocated to J. We pushed back almost half an hour late, due to delays in loading baggage (the captain announced that they were short staffed in baggage handling). Once airborne, a "Premier Cold Lunch" was served including fruit, a roll, and "Kassler & Smoked Gouda". I know and like Gouda cheese, but couldn't figure out what kind of meat Kassler is. Anybody?

Flew out to the west of DUB and landed to the east, giving us a nice view of the Emerald Isle on approach. Landed about 20 minutes late on a one-hour connection to an international flight, with immigration still to clear. Thankfully, Aer Lingus was looking out for us -- they picked us up plane-side in a "Premier" van and took us directly to the gate area for our ORD flight -- right outside US Immigration. We even had a few minutes to backtrack and buy that great Irish Smoked Salmon from Howth & Co -- I love that stuff!!! The immigration officer seemed slightly puzzled by our connection ("How long have you been in Ireland") but cleared us through, and the flight was boarding.

On this slightly-older A330, business class was almost full. Menus and amenity bags with the usual stuff were distributed. The cabin crew was really professional and very caring on this flight -- overall, EI was earning high marks for their service both directions. This plane had room to put bags under the seat in front -- on the outbound, that area was blocked. We pushed back and took off right on schedule.

The inflight lunch started similar to the outbound with banquet-hall snacks, followed by an appetiser of crab with avocado and grapefruit or poached pear wrapped in prosciutto. The crab was excellent. Both were served with salad and sliced breads. The mains were steak, lamb, sole, duck, or taglioni. I had the lamb (don't remind me about foot and mouth ) which was excellent. Dessert was a raspberry mousse for me, with other choices being a gateau chocolate cake, fruit, and another raspberry something-or-other. This was followed by a cheese and fruit plate. I think the dish/cutlery count for this meal was 40-50; even the sugar and cream were served in "premier" dishware (for which I felt guilty as I don't drink much coffee or tea). I passed most of this flight reading Carl Hiassen's "Sick Puppy" which was quite good. Cabin service was polite but quite available throughout the flight -- water bottles, hot towels, etc. About an hour before landing, they served finger sandwiches (including smoked salmon) with petit fours (an eclair and a couple of others) and some fruit.

We landed in Chicago on 27L about 15 minutes early. When we pulled into gate 9, they announced that they had a message for me -- uh oh The dreaded double connection had done me in...my suitcase was still in Dublin. I must be cursed -- at the Flyertalk dinner in Chicago last month, I admitted to someone that I had never had a bag delayed or lost. Now it's happened three times since!!!! At least in this case, Aer Lingus was still providing great service -- they had already filled out the paperwork, given me a claim number, and just needed address/phone. They also gave me a kit bag which included soap, detergent, shampoo, shaving stuff, toothbrush/paste, even a t-shirt and underwear. Since I was on my way home, I didn't really need any of this, but I happily accepted (Air France last month didn't even offer an apology). The t-shirt even has the Aer Lingus logo, which sent my wife looking for a shamrock on the underwear . So, all told, this made for my fastest international arrival at O'Hare -- we had already cleared immigration in Dublin, didn't have to wait for a bag, so basically walked right out to our waiting ride. If all goes well, the bag shows up this evening.

On the whole, another great set of OneWorld flights. I'm not sure exactly why, but I really like flying Aer Lingus -- it just feels sophisticated in some way, even though it's mostly tourist traffic. They may be one of the small guys (39 planes) in OneWorld, but I'm glad they're there, and that in this case, they had a decent connection to BA to Oslo.

Next international trip -- a passage to India, or so I'm told.

[This message has been edited by ka9taw (edited 07-29-2001).]