Gnopps

Background

First of all, I wish I could include some photos, but my camera was simply too big to fit in my bag. I regret now that I bought that 10x zoom...
Second, I hope you enjoy reading this. I prefer reading long reports rather than short ones, and find long trip reports excellent to read while I eat . So if you read all of this please do leave a comment!

With the changes to both SAS Eurobonus as well as SAS service general, I had decided to switch from Star Alliance to SkyTeam. CSA OK Plus was the program that appealed to me the most. Unfortunately they didn't want to match my status and so I had to start from scratch. Luckily, in the beginning of May a MR opportunity came along...
I was already planning a segment run to USA when suddenly Delta was offering trips from Copenhagen to Texas for €200 plus tax. After an hour or so of planning I bought my trip with 11 segments: CPH-CVG-MEM-ATL-MCO-ATL-AUS-SLC-SFO-CDG-CPH. The ticket was in B-class from CPH to AUS with stopovers in MEM and SFO. The ticket was flexible but Delta was really cheeky about those tickets. They even refused to check one guy in on the return!
I had a friend in LAX that I hadn't seen for seven years. I wrote her an email if she wanted to have a Swedish visit, and she was thrilled. Luckily there was a good fare SJC-LAX which I expanded into SJC-SLC-IAH-LAX-IAH-SLC-SJC, about 10 times as long as the direct flight :-) The price was $136 and booked in T.

Final itinerary was: CPH-CDG-CVG-MEM-ATL-MCO-ATL-AUS-SLC-SFO/SJC-SLC-IAH-LAX-IAH-SLC-SJC/SFO-CDG-CPH.
The MCO-part was to get extra miles and to fly some widebodies, but I almost lost this. To make a long story short, one of the flights was cancelled and I was rebooked on MEM-ATL-AUS, which meant I lost out on the segments I needed. Finally after a long talk with customer service in Atlanta I got my original itinerary back.

I had been working mostly nights all summer so my internal clock was more or less already set on American time. My last day at work was on Thursday, the next day I flew up to Stockholm to attend the FT ARN Do. Back home on Sunday afternoon I started to pack, both for my trip and for my upcoming move in to a new apartment. I knew that the days around the travel would be hectic. First returning from the ARN Do, then going on this trip, one nights sleep and then three nights at work (I work as a night receptionist at a hotel). Immediately after that my girlfriend and her parents would arrive from Finland and I would move to a new apartment with my gf.
Thinking that my luggage probably wouldn't make all my connections I packed light and fit it all in my roll-aboard, with some room to spare as well :-) Travelling with carry-on only would also increase my chances of a bump I hoped.


DL8423 CPH-CDG Operated by AF
07:20-09:20 22:nd August
B737

Usually when there is a big trip coming up I don't sleep very well. This time however, I slept as good as any night. Only problem of course was getting up at 04 having gone to bed at 00.30... I live about 45 minutes with the train from CPH. My plan was to catch the first train in the morning which would take me to CPH just early enough. Now the bus/train-card I had bought the night before was nowhere to be found and so I had to buy another. My hopes are that when everything is finally unpacked here in my new apartment I'll find my card again.
At Copenhagen airport I was quickly checked in for my first leg to CDG, the agent couldn't check me in further though and asked me to see the ticket office. This made me a little nervous as others had been treated badly by Delta when travelling on the same ticket. Therefore I had packed their contract of carriage, ticket rules, etc. to be well prepared. The ticket agent didn't seem to be in her best mood, and my charm didn't work ;-) She said they couldn't print my e-ticket (?) and so she wrote three receipts and printed my boarding passes until MEM. The seat on the trans-Atlantic leg was not at all what I had requested though, 23B instead of 15A. Since my seat reservation had been confirmed I asked to have it. Impossible she said, everything full, only window seat she could give me was in the back of the plane. Irritated I went through security, bought some candy for my relatives, and headed for the gate.
Boarding was started on time, on the screen at least. In reality a 15 minute delay was announced at the gate and no-one could board though the screen said otherwise :-) Finally on-board I sat in Tempo challenge, which is economy with a tad better service. Pushback was 30 minutes late due to heavy traffic. Once in the air a light breakfast was served, with yoghurt, bread and a croissant. We landed late but still earlier than expected. This meant that when we reached our gate there was no one there to manoeuvre it, and a 15 minute wait inside the plane at the gate followed. Lovely it was.

DL8608 CDG-CVG Operated by AF
10:20-13:25 22:nd August
A340

With 30 minutes at CDG I had to switch terminals. This was a piece of cake with all the well displayed information that was available. Oh how I wish the previous sentence was true. In reality you had to decide which terminal to go to before there were any screens available telling you which terminal you should go to. I already knew my terminal but for the less experienced traveller it must be a real pain. Oh, what I also like at CDG is how you get to mix with the pax who haven't checked in yet and don't have to stay airside the whole time ;-) I went through passport control, security and had a long run to my gate. Almost everybody had already been bussed to the aircraft but AF couldn't let me board just yet. They had to rewrite the ticket receipts from CPH which took a while to do. Being the last one the bus was waiting for, I of course was selected for additional security screening... At least the security screener was a lot of fun and we managed to have some stressed laughs :-) Then on to the bus I went and could soon climb the steps of this Airbus 340.
Well on-board I started to feel more and more comfortable in my aisle seat, and decided to make this instead of windows my preference for future long-haul flights. My seat mate was nice, and IFE pretty good. There were some movies to choose between and simple games (though no where passengers could interact with each other). The screen was a bit blurry but it was still acceptable. An amnety kit with eye-shades, ear-plugs, towlette, and headphones was handed to every passenger. The staff were nice though the food wasn't much to remember. I had fish for lunch and a very small sandwich as snack before landing. Usually I like airplane-food but not the one served by AF.. The aircraft felt fresh though and I managed to get some sleep. There was another aircraft landing on the parallel runway next to us which made for a view like the one you can get at SFO. Cincinnati was a nice airport, immigration was ok and I had no problems finding the right way to go.

DL4237 CVG-MEM
16:15-16:43 22:nd August
CRJ

I had a bite to eat and waited at the gate for my first US domestic leg in years. The gate-agent was young and very nice. I was surprised how many different requests she got and how well she handled them. Having left my roll-aboard at the bottom of the stairs before boarding (something that worked just fine on all of my segments) I sat down in my seat. The thing I noticed most on this flight was the more relaxed atmosphere than I'm used to from my European flights. The flight-attendant made jokes and kept up a friendly chat with the passengers. Perhaps it has do with the smaller aircraft, but I found this nicer than in Europe.
Another thing that differed here though was that she made an announcement welcoming all US soldiers aboard and thanking them. Though I can understand why such a message was made, I didn't feel comfortable being part of it. On the other hand, I guess my opinion doesn't count as I was a guest in another country and not a citizen.
I got my first taste of the Delta snack selection, of which I was to eat a load the following days. The selection is decent, but that is pretty much all you can say about it... We landed in a very hot Memphis and I started to make my way through the airport. I don't know what you think about this airport, but as a major airport it was really depressing. The ceiling was low, the rooms felt dark, and everywhere there were muzak playing from speakers. I'm glad I don't travel through this airport more than I do. Another bad thing was that there were no shuttles available from the airport. Luckily though I managed to find someone who was willing to share a cab with me downtown.

Memphis

In Memphis I stayed at the Sleep Inn at Court square. I paid $59 per night plus taxes using this link (not affiliated). The location was very good with a 10 minute walk to Beale street. My room had no flaws and the staff were very helpful with all my questions. Only the breakfast-staff seemed to have a morning-mood all of them :-) The breakfast had bagels, cereals and pancakes, ok but not something we would be proud to serve at the 2.5* hotel where I work. I asked for a wake-up call at eight, and got it at eight in the evening instead of the morning, thought it would have been obvious I meant to have it the next day :-).
Being a big fan of soul music I wanted to visit those places in Memphis, the Rock & Soul -museum as well as the Stax-museum were both good and lasted about 2 hours each for me. I also wanted to visit a gospel service, like the ones you see in movies. This was a bit difficult as it was in the middle of the week, but asking around I was recommended one who had Wednesday night service. This was the first time I visited a service like that and it really was like in the movies!! I had a wonderful time and felt very welcome, this got to be one of the highlights in my trip. It will for sure be included in my future trips.


DL1692 MEM-ATL
07:20-09:38 25:th August
MD80

Still being messed up with my sense of time I had no problems getting up at five in the morning to catch my morning flight. There were shuttles available TO the airport and I had booked one who came to the hotel at half past five. Checking in at the airport was easy with the machine. I noticed the four nice letters "SSSS" on my boarding pass, but from reading other MR trip reports I had expected this. The security agents were polite and I got to repack my bag which was good since I had pretty much only thrown in my clothes in the morning. Boarding started a bit late but was done very quick thanks to the zones. I really like the zone-boarding and wish it would be implemented on more airlines in Europe as well.
Nothing special on this flight, except that the smoke alarm went off as we were taxiing in ATL. Finally after a couple of minutes the cockpit made an announcement that it was a faulty alarm that would be replaced..

DL157 ATL-MCO
11:35-13:03 25:th August
B777

Being such a big airport, I found Atlanta to be quite ok. The airport felt fresh and bright. I had some breakfast and was soon on-board the widebody to MCO. By my feet on the floor was a pretty big plastic cover that had fallen off from somewhere. Ringing the call-button didn't bring about any flight-attendant and so I took the cover and walked up front and presented it to one. She quickly took it off my hands, hid it behind her back and walked back with me and took a look. As I had guessed it was the cover for the IFE (I think) under the seat.
The flight was fine up until 20 minutes before landing when we where told that due to bad weather in MCO we would have to circle a while. 25 minutes we circled before landing on the wet runway. With a destination like Orlando I had expected a lot of families on the flight and I was right, there were a lot of screams with each bump. Especially fun was it to hear a big "whoooa" with the last steep turn before landing. What was fun was that they showed connecting flight info on the screens, and my return flight to Atlanta was listed. But I wasn't the only one with strange routings, another passenger was to continue to Texas. I noticed VS landing with three B747s after us, heavy holiday destination for sure!

DL980 MCO-ATL
15:28-17:00 25:th August
B767

I liked Orlando airport. The nice yard with hotel view and fountains in the middle helped you get a feel of being in more southern parts of the world. But I'm sure no airport in the world can help you overcome having one of the most boring jobs ever: being a security guard sitting at the exit from gate area, checking that no one goes the wrong way. I'm really glad I don't have to do that job. I had to re-check in here and of course I was awarded with the lovely SSSS. The security line moved fast, and looking at it another way you might say that SSSS gives you VIP-service with your own separate lane and guard :-)
Waiting at the gate there soon was an announcement that the flight would be delayed an hour due to ATC-troubles at ATL. I was impressed how Delta handled the situation by assigning 2-3 extra agents to help with rebookings at the gate. My connection time in ATL was 46 minutes but I was hoping my flight out of ATL would be delayed as well. To be on the safe side I was confirmed on both my original flight as well as the following one. What I also liked were the info-screens at the gates. You could see who were on stand-by, who had been upgraded etc.
On-board the plane service was the same as ever. A sitcom was shown on the big middle screen, what surprised me was that there were commercials as part of the airshow. I can cope with some kind of "hidden" commercials for related products, but I'd rather not see a regular commercial on the IFE. As we were taxiing those with short connections were asked to raise their hands, so that the other passengers could let those out first. Of course most of the plane had short connections by now, but the system still seemed to work.

DL4189 ATL-AUS
17:46-19:05 25:th August
CR7

Luckily my connecting flight was also delayed and so after a run from B to C I managed to board the CRJ 700. Hopefully you won't think less of me now, but what struck me as I sat in my seat was that the overhead speakers look kind of funny. The shape is the same as I imagine someone sitting on a toilet looks from beneath. Do you agree? I'll leave it at that and let your imagination do the rest.
My seatneighbour sitting in the aisle seat took his shoes off early and proceeded to put his feet against the bulkhead at about the same levels as our heads. Though I agree this is comfortable and I do it myself from time to time, I wish that he would have kept his shoes on and not have put the feet up that high. About halfway into the flight at cruising level, the plane suddenly jolted pretty heavy from side to side. It was pretty scary for a moment, not helped by some woman saying "oh my god" loudly. Being a regular flier, I was soon relaxed again, but I wish the captain would have come on the loudspeakers saying something that "this was perfectly normal bla bla bla". If not for me, then for the more frightened passengers.

Austin

This was the official destination for my ticket and I had booked the Hilton airport hotel through Priceline for $45. They had a complimentary airport shuttle which picked me up and I was soon settled in my room. The hotel was shaped as a donut, making it possible to run in a circle around it. I had a bite to eat in the bar, catched up on my email (and FT of course) in the business centre, and then went to sleep. The next day I spent an hour by the pool, swimming and reading some.


DL4900 AUS-SLC
12:22-14:05 26:th August
CR7

I liked Austin airport, it was spacious and seemed well designed, though I'll let the more experienced AUS-travellers judge that. Of course I was SSSS-ed, and then proceeded to eat a little before the flight. I arrived at the gate 25 minutes before my flight only to find that the plane had already been boarded and was in final boarding phase. I thought 15 minutes before departure were enough to be at the gate. As the last passenger I went on-board the plane and we took off. In terms of on-board service this flight was special, we got three different snacks each. Wow... :-) I took some time to read the Delta in-flight magazine; "Sky" and it really was exceptionally boring. But off course I had a bunch of books with me which I read instead. The five last minutes before landing in SLC were exciting with a steep descent and a lot of bumps.

DL3979 SLC-SFO
15:10-15:58 25:th August
CRJ

SLC was a quite decent airport to connect in. Finding my way was easy and though there was nothing special about it, it also didn't seem to have any major flaws. After some waiting I was aboard the by now usual CRJ to SFO. One thing I noticed in the security announcement was that you were not allowed to use smokeless tobacco in flight. Does anyone know why? It sure wouldn't be very accepted in Sweden, with the popularity of Snus here.. What was different about this plane was that it looked pretty worn. The interior was old and had a lot of marks etc. on it. I slept on this flight but woke up in time for landing. SFO sometime offer you a great view with another plane landing parallel next to you, and though I was seated on the right side to see this we were the only ones landing :-(

San Francisco

In San Francisco I visited my two cousins and as usual had a lot of fun with them. Among other the weekend included a lot of drinking, free at their club whohoo (do visit it! Element Lounge on Geary St.)! and visiting my first baseball game ever. I was surprised how slow the baseball game was. Being used to all the excitement at a soccer game in Europe, I was surprised to see that you could go to a stadium and hang out a couple of hours, chatting the time away. But I still missed the excitement of other games..
As usual we went to a supermarket for me to awe at all the different groceries. Being a university-student, I was as many times before more or less out of funds. Therefore we skipped going to any music/electronics-stores, I like seeing the selections there as well :-) We chose a cheaper alternative for me to try something new: we went to an ice cream-place called Coldstone. Always eating too much ice-cream, I liked having it mixed just as I wanted. And the staff sung a song each time you tipped, couldn't help doing that an extra time :-)


DL4378 SJC-SLC
08:40-11:26 29:th August
CR7

Early Monday morning it was time for my next leg. I got a ride to the airport with my cousin and was with the help of the check-in machine soon checked in. I like Deltas check-in machines. Like most check-in machines you could change your flights, select seats and such. But the machine felt really easy to use and had a nice user interface. I can also say that the machines were more interesting than San Jose airport. The airport (well, at least the terminal I was in) was formed like a long line with check-in counters a long the line. The gates then had more or less individual security checks, so once in the gate area there was just your gate and nothing else. Not that there were much to do before security either :-) Talking about security, I was not tagged for SSSS at all on this trip. I guess flying a 3100 miles instead of 300 is not considered suspicious...
Anyway, I was soon aboard the plane to SLC. What I noticed this time with the security announcement this time was that they specifically told the passengers not to approach the galley, but to still remember that the flight attendants were there for our service. We took off northbound (the right direction) but then turned south and flew past the airport again. If we hadn't been climbing I'd thought something was wrong but I guess we needed altitude before turning north again and passing over SFO/OAK.
My seatneighbour was an elderly man who instantly took the whole armrest. With the passenger in front reclining soon after take-off I had little space and asked to have a some space on the armrest. The man with his hearing-aid couldn't hear me but automatically removed his arm to adjust the hearing-aid, problem solved! We landed and I proceeded to the next gate.

DL4272 SLC-(CRP)-IAH
13:00-17:02 29:th August
CR7

Because my connection in IAH was pretty short I asked at the CO-flight departing shortly before my DL-flight if I could stand-by on that one. After some typing the friendly GA told me DL wouldn't let me stand-by on my T-fare. Oh well. In general I must say that the gate agents in USA seem to have both more time and willingness to help passengers. They were also pretty friendly in general.
As the plane was boarding, the FA stood in the galley holding a baby in her arms. Of course a lot of remarks were made, and soon turned out the baby was a passenger's. It was nice to see such service being done as well :-) I was sitting in 1A with no one next to me and the FA made a remark that I was in first class and would I like some water during pushback? Pushback-announcement this time made sure to let everyone know that Delta was one of the founding members of Skyteam. Something important to remind us of given the recent trouble DL is in?
Flight was uneventful until 10 minutes before scheduled arrival time. An announcement came from the cockpit that because of weather problems (Katrina approaching) in Houston they had closed down the airport for a while. Our fuel-supply wouldn't last long enough if we would be in a holding-pattern, so we would land in Chorpus Christi to refuel and wait for the airport to reopen. As we were approaching the CRP I could see two other planes landing just before us. All in all I counted about 10 planes at the airport, I guess most of them were there for refuelling. The airport wasn't used to our aircraft type and so we had to wait a while before the airbridge was connected to the plane. We were let off and told estimated waiting time was 30 minutes. While waiting I noticed a soda-delivery truck being escorted by a police-car across the airport, I guess they had a catering-shortage now?
I phoned Delta customer service and got given the circumstances an agent on the line pretty quickly. I tried to get confirmed on the next flight IAH-LAX but apparently it had no availability and so I was confirmed on the flight after that instead, departing 22.45 instead of 21.15 (my original flight had had departed at 17.50). We were updated with current information quite often but after 80 minutes we were suddenly asked to board. The captain announced a flying time to IAH of 50-60 minutes due to a "funky routing" to avoid the weather. We took off and seemed to fly a lower altitude that normal. After landing the FA came on the microphone and gave us all compliments because we had behaved so well in this situation and also had stayed seated up until the seatbelt sign had been switched off (that took some time).

DL2604 IAH-LAX Operated by CO
17:50-19:15 29:th August
booked, but flew

CO47 IAH-LAX
21:15-22:30 29:th August
B757

Because I was in the CO-terminal (which looked good) there were no Delta desks around (that I could see at least). I again called Delta and asked to be confirmed on the next flight, but no luck this time either. Instead I went to have a bite to eat and then proceeded to the 21.15-flight's gate. Luckily I got on this flight by asking if I could stand by, the gate agent even asked me if I preferred window or aisle after the BP was printed! There must have been a lot of missed connections for this flight if it was zeroed out and yet left with hardly 50% of the seats taken.
My first impression was that the cabin was pretty elegant. There was a pillow and a blanket for everyone and the magazine seemed better than Delta's one. Only thing annoying on this flight was that the air vents opened automatically so you couldn't close them. Didn't bother much though. I must say I enjoy flying at night time, especially at bigger airports. It is cosy in the cabin and you see all the lights flashing around you, it feels more magic. They showed a movie on the flight but I slept instead.

Los Angeles

I stayed in Los Angeles one night. My old friend and I went out to eat and talked a lot. The next day as she drove me to the airport she told me "You know if you get bumped, delayed or anything, tell them that you would like to fly on the direct flight to SJC instead! Or that you would like to stand-by on that flight instead, that is no problem! You don't have to go through Houston you know.". Though I had tried to explain the concept of a MR to her, she just couldn't understand :-)


DL2815 LAX-IAH Operated by CO
11:30-16:15 30:th August
B737

There were some problems checking in, they couldn't find me at first but this was quickly resolved. What was annoying was that there were not at all enough chairs at the gate, and this terminal of LAX didn't seem at all appealing. What was funnier though was that my seat mate on this full flight was a teenage girl who flew for the first time. I did my best to calm her down and she was more excited than scared. Once in the air she would look out the window and then turn her head the other way and cover her eyes. Fun but I wish her ponytail wouldn't hit me in the head every time she did that.
Since it was lunch-time we were served a meal consisting of a small salad, some candy and a hot bun with burger-meat in between. The burger was probably the worst thing I've been served in the air (in hard competition with a fish dish I once received in KLM C). I hadn't expected any IFE on this 737, but a movie was shown and this time I watched it making time pass by quickly.

DL4272 IAH-SLC
17:37-19:50 30:th August
CR7

After a quick change of terminals in Houston I was soon aboard the flight to SLC. The FA on this flight was a bit too relaxed, she did her safety announcement half giggling.
Not very professional I think, another thing that bothered me was that the tray table in the bulkhead wouldn't stay flat so the drink kept sliding off. Just a small detail that was easily overcome, but if I were to fly that aircraft every day it would be more bothersome. There were no announcements in air from the cockpit. Though I usually don't pay that much attention to them I still prefer to hear something about estimated flying time etc. All in all this flight was one of the most boring ones during my trip, I kept thinking it was time to land, only to look at my watch and see that landing still was a long time away.

DL4401 SLC-SJC
20:40-21:35 30:th August
CR7

The plane for this segment was the same one that I had just arrived on. Though this time I didn't sit in the bulkhead seat.. I opted to sleep on this flight, which my seat mate must have somehow known, he was quiet as a mouse the whole trip. The flight was uneventful with the only not ordinary thing being that the last check before landing was done only seconds before landing.

San Jose

I had booked the Best Western Airport Plaza on Hotwire for $45 and took a cab there. The hotel was nice but the receptionist couldn't answer how much a call to Europe would cost. Since I hadn't talked to my girlfriend in a while I just wanted to talk a little to her and so I phones anyway. The charge for the 5 minute call was $16... Ouch!
The next day I walked to the BART-station and took the train to SFO.


DL8599 SFO-CDG Operated by AF
16:50-11:50 31:th August
B747

I arrived before the check-in counters had opened. When they were supposed to open I started queuing but the staff were on south-European time, the desks opened more than half an hour after they should (according to the signs). Getting an aisle seat was no problem though the flight was more or less full, I was seated on the second row in economy.
As boarding was about to begin I saw and said hello to an old classmate of mine who was travelling on the same plane. It is funny how the world can be so small. Anyway, boarding was the usual chaos, but done pretty quickly. I think elite passengers somehow managed to board first. I waited until the chaos was gone and went on-board as one of the last passengers. My seatneighbour and his wife had spread out their belongings all over the over-head compartment but he packed it together when I asked him. He turned out to be a really nice guy travelling home to France, and we talked some. So did the Italian woman in front of us. She had a voice so high it could easily be heard over the engines at take-off. It was annoying, but I remember my last AF flight SFO-CDG. I then happened to sit next to two nice girls, we had a blast and laughed a lot. I remember the man in front of us clearing his throat in a very meaningful way. So I can't be the one to throw the first stone...
The flightshow was funny. It was not shown top-down the whole time, but sometimes had an angle so you could see mountains etc. in a 3D style. Soon after take-off I noticed that a passenger in the row in front of us had her call-button on, three hours later a flight-attendant came to ask if she could be of assistance :-)

The meal was ok and after the nice chat with my neighbour I read until the movie started. Wanting to see it I plugged in my earphones. No sound... Ok, tried the ones AF gave me. No sound there either. Turning to my seat mate we found that this was a problem shared by all three of us. Ok, didn't matter that much since I had much reading material. As the cabin lights had been dimmed I turned on the reading-light. No light. Nor for my seatmates. Turned out none of our buttons worked. I stopped a FA passing by and explained, with my seat mate helping in French. He came back saying sorry, we can't fix the problem. I asked for a flashlight so I could read, but he could find none. Instead he said there was a seat in the back were I could sit and read. I followed him to the aisle seat in the back and sat down to read. A couple of minutes later a woman comes to the seat and ask me what I'm doing in her seat!!! Seems like the FA didn't bother to check the seat assignments...
I went back to my seat and decided to try and get some sleep instead. The seat had those wonderful "wings" that you fold up so you can rest your head against them. I put on earplugs, eyemask and leaned my head back. Only to find out that those wings didn't stay up.. They were broken as well. So no comfortable sleeping available either. Once again I stopped a FA and explained the situation about no IFE, light or wings. When I reached the part with the woman's seat in the back he was rather surprised and uttered a big "OH!". I offered to sit in the in the area between Y and C but that was not possible because of security. Once again I asked for a flashlight and this FA was able to bring one. I read some and then managed to sleep a little as well. Considering that I was travelling in B-class and my seat neighbours had elite-status I think a bit more could have been done. And regardless of status I think an airline should have a small voucher / other compensations ready for situations like this, shouldn't it?

Most of my long-haul travel have been with KLM and the difference I noticed was that the flight-attendants didn't do any drink rounds. This is something I would have missed if I were sitting by the window.. Other than that the service was alright. When I asked for hot chocolate with my breakfast the FA disappeared for a couple of minutes and came back with a very nice cup of chocolate.
My seat was next to the galley and it was interesting to follow the work being done there. What I noticed was that the cassettes for the entertainment system were stored in a box next to the entertainment system. An evil thought struck my mind... Wouldn't it be very easy to switch a cassette out for something else? Like the arrivals information could instead of "Welcome to Paris" be "Welcome to Casablanca"..
Time passed by and we were soon seconds from touchdown at CDG. Then as we came over the runway they engines powered up and we did a go-around! I've been in a go-around before but it was special being in 747 doing it. The flight attendants hadn't closed the hatch to the entertainment system in the galley so when we started to climb all the cassettes came out with a big bang making the go-around extra effectful. The captain explained that the runway wasn't cleared in time and that it was normal etc. The flight attendants came and cleaned up in the galley but made no round in the cabin! I would have thought they would have walked up and down to make sure no one had been too scared, but instead they remained in the galley chatting. Well, the next landing went fine though I noticed as we were taxiing that another AF 747 also made a go-around.. Heavy day at CDG? As I left the plane I handed one of the staff one of those complaint-forms that are in the in-flight magazine, writing about my broken seat, putting me in an occupied seat etc.

DL8426 CDG-CPH Operated by AF
12:50-14:25 1:st September
booked, but flew

AF1050 CDG-CPH
15:45-17:40 1:st September
A318

Finding one's way in CDG was the usual bad experience..
The last three years I've averaged about 40 flights per year. Every single time I've asked if they've needed bump-volunteers (on all of my flights on this trip as well). Though some flights have been overbooked they've never needed any volunteers. I had more or less accepted my fate as bump-cursed. But as I arrived at my gate and as usual asked if they needed any volunteers they said yes! They made a call to the check-in desks and proceeded to offload me. They wanted to put me on the next flight which was Maersk, but I instead asked for the next Skyteam flight and was put on the AF flight three hours later. A bump voucher of €150 (I know this is too low for some FT:ers but as a student I'm happy with what I can get) and lunch-voucher was given to me. Since the AF food hadn't been very good it was nice to have a good meal at one of the restaurants.
Check-in soon opened for my new flight and I asked if they needed any volunteers for this one. The Airbus 318 was overbooked by 10 I was told but they didn't know if I would be needed yet. I was given a refreshment voucher and asked to come back in an hour for the bump-voucher. When I came back I was told I was not needed and was given my BP and bump voucher. Bump voucher?? Being an honest person I asked if I really should have that. Yes the agent told me and so I was another €150 richer. The second voucher said the new flight number so I guess it was intentional. Not often you get paid to take the actual flight, is it? Those €300 I got will hopefully be used before the year is over to qualify for gold.
Mealservice in the Tempo Challenge (economy plus) cabin is supposed to be a bit better. But still way too small, just some canapés. We landed in a crosswind making us touchdown hard on one side first. Back in CPH again I took the train home to Sweden and had a gooood relaxing beer with my neighbour.

Aftermath:

Because of all that dry airplane-air my throat was really soar for a couple of days. I had been drinking a lot of water/juice on-board my flights but that didn't help. I started working the day after I came back. Working nights was extra easy since my sense of day and night anyway was screwed up. The move went fine and so I'm now writing this in my new apartment that I share with my GF.
All segments but three have posted to my OK Plus account.
I still haven't heard anything from AF regarding my SFO-CDG flight.


Summary:

I chose AF over DL transatlantic because I don't want to pay for my wine. They were all right but the return leg was a disappointment. I found that Delta provided very good service, especially the gate agents.
CDG was the worst airport I visited on this trip and SJC the most boring one. Sorry to say this, but the nicest one during my trip I still think is CPH, with ATL and AUS following.

I hope you enjoyed reading this, please do not be afraid to say what I could have written differently!

Gargoyle

Your friends might not understand, but we do.
Thanks for posting! Good, vivid descriptions... even though it's long, since you broke it into small chapters it reads well.

tomashi

Nice to hear that your trip worked pretty well, despite the complications in the booking and reservation-process. Sounds like a lot of fun! Would love to do a MR like that too, but as I traveled with my parents this time it was not possible!

Fortunately my AF seats all worked very well and the service was great too. Funny thing: I also saw a younger guy volunteering at CDG for our CDG-MUC flight. Thought about it a minute or two but soon they cancelled the thing as they found out that aome passengers missed their connection. The flight ended up with at least 5 free seats.

Have a nice time at your new apartment! I´m currently searching for a new apartment in the city of Konstanz, Germany where i will study in the next three years. Not that easy! Wish me luck!

Greetings from Austria, Thomas

MAN Pax

Great report - thanks for taking the time to write it!

jacob_m

Nice report!! ^

You didn't get sick of flying with so many legs during your trip? 17 legs is quite a lot.
Well at least you must have seen quite a bit of the US from the air.

I agree CDG is very very bad, gosh I just hate that airport!!
As you noted the check-in desks are actually in the "transit hall" in many of the T2 terminals which makes it very confusing.
I don't understand either why the terminals are called 2A, 2B, 2C etc instead of 2, 3, 4, 5... That must create a lot of confusion among transit passengers who think they will transfer within the same terminal.
The other terminal, T1 (used mostly by *A airlines) looks like something between a multistorey carpark and a concrete factory. I have actually found it is better not to read the signs than to actually read them, that will reduce the risk of getting lost. Also, it must be the only terminal in the world where the arrivals hall is actually above the departure hall. When you have reclaimed the luggage you need to take the elevator one floor down (or is it two?) to get to the airport buses.
And now that has become my primary airport...
Sorry, had to relieve some tension...

oopsz

great report! Have you reached elite status on OK yet? What about their program appealed to you more than flying blue/worldperks/onepass?

Gnopps

I arrived home from China yesterday and found a letter from AF waiting. It was a short one were they apologized for the trouble I had, and gave me a voucher for 500 SEK (~65 USD). They didn't specify in the letter though what my trouble had been, something like "sorry for the trouble you had with your seat" would have been nicer. Oh well, I'm pleased anyway.

Thanks for all your comments. 17 flights were not so troublesome, I got used to it and had a lot of reading material with me. I got silver now and am missing 9 segments for gold, hoping to do that before christmas. But fares are so high right now with fuel surcharges etc.

A.d.a.m.NYC

Great trip report. I really appreciated your comments and comparisons between AF and DL. As an american who flies SkyTeam alot, I'm always inclined to automatically think that AF service is going to be better, but in my experience and corroborated by you, it really depends on the specific flight and specific staff, and AF certainly is not perfect!

Also, I wanted to let you know that MANY Americans are also uncomfortable with announcements such as the 'supporting the troops' one made on your ex-CVG flight. I would suggest that this has very much to do with geography, as I see this a great deal when I travel to/through Atlanta and through GSO and other destinations in the South. I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment to support the troops (as individuals) but there is a very fine line between that and making public announcements that are suggestive of a "single voice" about the Iraq war and the foreign policy of the Bush Administration, which many American's DON'T AGREE with.

Lastly, HOW MANY EQM's did your receive?? How is your qualification for Platinum status going?

Gnopps

Thank you for you comments! AF was not what I expected, I flew them trans-atlantic a couple of years ago and was let down then as well.

When planning the trip, I was more looking to do as many segments as possible, rather than maximising miles. In total I earned 25000 with bonuses.

MCI777

Great trip report!! I know how you feel. I'm doing my trip "that my friends don'y understand" next month. 20 segments in 12 days. 4 Continents, 6 cities and a whole lotta flights! Part of this is getting miles and part is burning miles.

BTW, Ill be in Copenhagen on November 18 and 19.

Gnopps

I found it! As I'm moving out and going through everything I own I found the card in a bag. Great news as it is full of cash :-)