Job interview in CPH
 

The co. that I am interviewing with (still in process--cross your fingers) said they'd pay for Economy to visit them to interview (they seem always to fly Y across the Atlantic). My choices were UA (for multiple miles) or DL (which I had SWUs on). UA was tough to book (no upgrade room) but DL was a breeze (with judicious choice of European connecting points--since u can't upgrade AF intra-Europe it really doesn't pay to use CDG as the connx point.

Friday 9/30 ATL-MAN on DL
Kind of fun to walk up to the tkt counter and buy the tkt--usually either book ahead or use a tvl agent. I commented to the agent that their "Worldwide Partners" sign was looking a bit bare w/o Sabena and Austrian (I think SR still was showing b/c DL handles several other airlines here than Skyteam). She said everyone was bi**ing about it, especially having only CDG as a connecting point with DL flight numbers.

I chose MAN as a connx point b/c I could use the SWU on a Fri. night flight. Went over to the BizElite lounge on E. DL uses bartenders there so you can't pour yourself (or just take a can of soda)...there were some pretty picked over munchies--crudites with ranch drsg, smoked salmon dip with rye bread, and some little sandwich things. I really enjoy looking thru the int'l newspapers there that they always have, especially scarce ones like those from South Africa (Beeld, in Afrikaans always seems to be left over. This time there was also the Sowetan, also). They annce boarding about 20 mins before flight time, so walk over to gate where the 777 is there and they are just starting boarding.

Go on during preboarding. Not much visual difference btwn 777 and MD11--roughly same cabin width. 6-across means seats roomy.

End up taking off about 15 mins late. Tailwind means flight time only 7:05.

They hand out menu and winelist--old July winelist w/Chardonnay (Magleri and GRGICH), Viognier (VidalFleury and LES DOMAINES PAUL MAS), Amarone (Nicolis, Allegrini and SPERI) and Medoc (Ch Branaire-Ducru and CH TAYAC), same Henriot champagnes, and Peller icewine.

Meal:
Goat cheese crostini w/fig chutney, accmp. by citrus shrimp bundles and mango-lime salsa

salad w/croutons and cherry tomatoes

Beef Tenderloin (Omaha, with mushroom sauce, white lentils and veg medley carrot, green bean and squash)

Seared Turbot (white wine and scallion sauce, roasted sweet potato mash and veg medley)

Vegetarian pasta (3cheese tortelloni) with butternut squash and leeks, golden bell pepper sauce (optionally with chicken)

Soup, cream of mushroom w/portobella

Fruit/cheese

Dessert: on menu was ice cream sundaes, actually served was Klondike bars. The f/a mentioned the breakage problem as the cause for the loss of the sundaes. I can accept that...imagine, let's say, they have 4 trays of 12 ice creams all frozen with dry ice in those rocks glasses...one glass breaks on one of the trays, contaminating it with glass shards, and you have to disappoint up to 1/4 of the passengers. (They can't individually wrap the glasses very easily to prevent the contamination).

Chocolates were passed.

With an Ambien, I dozed off after dinner, but again the service out of ATL is SLOOOW. My movie was over and still I had my tray out finishing dinner.

Skipped b'fast (standard continental or egg crepe w/asparagus and red pepper).

This menu was marked ATL/BRU/DUB/LGW/MAN/SNN, CVG/LGW, JFK/BRU. (I guess they don't do 3-language menus for Brussels).

Got in right on time. 2 people (!) on the flight making connections--me to CPH, a lady to BRU. We take the right turn to the transfer desks, where they sort us out, as she stays in that terminal but I had to change terminals. After waiting about 10 minutes to ensure that there wasn't anyone else, we go on an expedition and I'm bussed over to the other terminal, where I wait another 10 minutes for the proper handling company rep to show up, then another 10 minutes for her to emerge with a hand written (!) boarding pass for SK. Exit through security and find the shared lounge for SK. *G gets me right in. Very quiet on a Sat. 2 747s there for Singapore (on Sat goes MAN-BOM-SIN) and PK.

Out to gate where a proper BP was there for me. No UA number printed, but agent assures me that it's on there.

Board DC9 and of course I'm in 2d to last row...about 2/3 full, lots of older Brits on the flight/very few identifiably Scandinavian folks.

Cold chicken breast lunch passed out, I picked at it. 2 passes of drinks and we were in CPH. Bit of a wait for luggage (no * priority tag on it) but was off.

Had booked Sixt car, which is handled by Mudan there. Had requested smallest (and really wanted a Twingo) but ended up with a quite new Nissan Almera. Pleasant to drive but with an awful gear shift, and also strange that there was no neutral start switch.

450 kms around Jylland trying to decide if I can go there for 3 years...place I'd be working is about 20 kms outside of CPH in an exurban area (although on the S-train system).

Reasonably good interview.

Heading home--stay tuned.

jl

Nice report so far. Curious though, how full was BE?

good luck jamiel. Future (weekend-) meetings in CPH will be easier to arrange for me than in ATL!

Good Luck Jamiel and please keep us posted.

I'm glad it would be easier for Rudi to come see you, and I could be convinced to make a trip as well! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Rest of trip...

The company located a hotel in downtown CPH for me at the Komfort Hotel. Not one that I'd heard of, but this is Scandinavia, after all (I should have been suspicious of a $70/night rate)...well, I never...

I've never stayed at a place where there's no interior cage on the elevators--you just stand away from the door, because you could get pinched if you weren't careful. Also, never stayed in a place where the bathroom = the shower room. The hotel was...disappointing, but cheap.

Put over 400 kms on the car wandering around trying to figure out if the place is OK to live in. The town (Birkeroed) is about 20 kms outside of CPH--I'd call it exurban.

Interview went pretty well...we'll just see.

I dropped car at the airport Mon. evening--they couldn't give me a receipt, said they'd have to mail it...then train back to DT Cph.

Tuesday, cab to train station, then took train to airport. Just missed a train (they come every 10-15 mins) so waited around. Got to airport about 1 hr 20 mins before my flight--wanted to try to get onto earlier flight to ARN but they'd closed it already. I only had a 35 minute connx at ARN between SK and DL, but DL ticketed it without notifying me of a problem...Checked in my luggage crossing my fingers, but turned out to not be a problem.

Went up to the SK lounges--what a pleasant setting! Airy, beautiful and quiet. Stopped by and got my taxfree shopping refund, and meandered out toward the gate. Gate was a smoky mess--lots of Japanese travelers heading to Thailand on TG were smoking up a storm.

Got the 1st row of economy--a little claustrophobic with the dangling curtain literally in your face, but oh well. Such is the breaks of trying to be 1st off the plane.

Flight very full, lots of employees, though.

Got in about 5 mins early--headed right to gate, who sent me to the transfer agent to get interrogated. Quick trip to buy some duty free (which I later forgot at JFK http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif )
and onto the 767.

DL ARN-JFK

This flight on a 767 was actually very good. The seats weren't as narrow as I'd feared. Service from the JFK crew was excellent--brisk and businesslike. Several real stinkers on the flight, though including my seatmate--a man of about 70 who was really unpleasantly demanding of the flight attendants, plus got up 4x before we took off (mind you I was late on board!).

New wine list plus specific menu in English/Swedish. Also a Finnish speaking flight attendant on board introduced herself to me as I'd picked up a Finnish newspaper.

Wines (October)

Chardonnay: Maglieri (AUS), Grgich Hills (CA), Ivan Tamas (CA). Grgich available.

Viognier: Vidal-Fleury, Les Domaines Paul Mas. DK what was boarded.

Amarone: Speri, Musella, Santa Sofia. Speri on board.

Medoc: Ch Branaire-Ducru, Ch. Leoville Poyferre, Ch. Bel Orme Tronquoy de Lalande DK what was boarded.

Henriot champagne

New icewine--Peller and Inniskillin.

Menu: Appy: Smoked trout w/sour cream
Salad: with tomatoes and pine nuts, blue cheese or red pepper vinaigrette dressing

Entree: Beef tenderloin w/potato cake, green beans and mushrooms, onions and corn
Chili lime chicken, with plantain cake and corn/rice pilaf. (OK, nothing special)
Veg. pasta (orechiette) with roasted pepper sauce, red onion, zucchini and baby tomatoes (grilled shrimp and scallops may be added)
Soup (chicken/mushroom)

Fruit/cheese

Ice cream (Moevenpick chocolate choc chip, individual tubs) or strawberry mousse.

Continuous snacks (including some perfect strawberries that were superb)

Afternoon refreshment

Fresh fruit

Chix waldorf Salad Sandwich with wild rice medley
or
Cavatappi pasta salad w/smoked turkey breast

Warmed cookies

Pretty painless. I'd never arrived into JFK--what a nightmare. And I thought MIA was bad!!! And INSPass wasn't working.

Longish wait for luggage (didn't have a DL priority tag).

There was an awful scrum for rechecking luggage--very little order was in evidence. I ended up carrying my piece upstairs and handed it to the checkin agent.

Stopped at 2 different BizElite lounges--identical stuff at each, both very crowded (with the 1st wave of outbound flights).

Flight JFK-ATL was full in biz, not full in coach. Announced delay due to 'maintenance' ended up being about an hour. About 45 mins late into ATL. Drowsed through dinner---lettuce salad, chix breast with potato gnocchi and the eggplant sauce, and toffee apple cake.

Luggage waiting when we made it in from the E concourse...

Still waiting for the employer but it looks promising.

JL

Jamiel,

Sorry to bug you, but what were the BE int'l loads?

Good luck on the job, providing it's the one you want. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

jamiel, do you speak Finnish? if so that makes two of us here on flyertalk.

BE was 80 % full eastbound, 70 % full westbound.

No, I don't speak Finnish but I realllly enjoy looking at international newspapers (actually more the advertisements--just call me a marketer at heart). Since I am in the wireless business, there is a lot of that advertising in newspapers these days. It's always fascinating to see what trips people's triggers locally. Currently, "phone in a box" prepaid promotions are the hot item--it's wild to see how different companies are differentiating this product by POS packaging--in the Netherlands, the phone is packaged in a milk carton. In Portugal, the prepaid service is called "Vitamina"--you buy a Vitamina card to charge up your phone--get it--

Anyway, long way around asking--Sanomat--what does that mean in Finnish (news? newspaper?). You sometimes see XXXXX (city) Sanomat left over in airport lounges.

jl

Hey, count yourself lucky there jamie. I've got an interview in Fair Lawn, NJ tomorrow and all they were willing to spring for was a $244 Metroliner (choo-choo train) ticket http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Good luck Jamiel and thanks for the great reports. The Komfort website shows it as a not too bad looking property. Compared to some places I have been lately, it looks positively first class!

'Sanomat' literally means 'messages' and I think about 50% of Finnish newspapers are called '(City) XXX Sanomat', which indeed stands for news or newspaper of that city/region. The paper you're most likely to see around is Helsingin Sanomat - News of Helsinki. BTW, it is the largest circulation newspaper in the Nordic countries.

Good luck with getting the new job!

[This message has been edited by R2 (edited 10-10-2000).]

Goodluck Jamiel.

Koko: YOu are interviewing again?

Then again, so am i. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I'm learning that all life is just a game of interviews.

Thanks for another great report about DL's BizElite.

Sorry about the ice-cream problem!

Carfield http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif