Worldtraveler36

Ok, the arm has been twisted and we will do another trip report. Children, please
stay away and go elsewhere. Thank you...
I think there is a McDonald's playground somewhere, I will even buy you a couple of Happy Meals /wide smile.

Every year a group of aviation nuts in Franfkurt (Viva Frankfurt!) get together around November and do an aviation traders show-buy, sell, collect, trade anything you can (and maybe can't ) remove from a plane... There are conventions all over the US, Canada, and others in Europe, i.e. London, Paris, and Brussels, but the FRA show is one of the best and I love to go. I love FRA... (Uli!!!)

I felt bad that in going, I would miss my bro's b-day. However, he has passed up on my b-day parties to go on a date and what have you, even walking out the door in the middle of a party-many moons ago, but still remember .
So, the trip is justified.

We also knew we would go someplace else after FRA, the question is where. Lightbulb, Cairo came into the thought process. Actually, when we flew to South Africa, we flew right over Tripoli, Lybia, both going down and coming back. Can you now see how Cairo came into play!? Cairo is a wee bit easier to get to for Americans. It was an awesome experience to fly over Tripoli, but that is another trip report .

My best friend Brian(who I am trying to get over to Flyertalk-he would be such an ASSet he he he at the Delta board, ugh, get over here!!!- works for Delta and hence, will use a DL buddy pass to get over there....



------------------
Michael
AA PLT,1 MLN Miles+
HH GLD, SCI GLD, MM SIL
-CEO, PRESIDENT, AND
BIG SHOT OF LAX

Worldtraveler36

THE ROUTING:

LAX-TARA(ATLANTA) DL 767
PLANNED: ATLANTA-VIENNA AUSTRIAN A340 (didn't happen)
ACTUAL: ATLANTA-BRUSSELS SABENA A340
BRUSSELS-FRANKFURT SABENA 737-400
FRANKFURT-ZURICH SWISSAIR A330 (first time on the A330)
ZURICH-CAIRO SWISSAIR MD11 (blood, sweat, and tears )
CAIRO-ZURICH SWISSAIR A330
ZURICH-WASHINGTON DULLES SR A330
DULLES-SALT LAKE DELTA 757
SLC-LAX DL L-1011

Here we go!

Worldtraveler36

PART 1

Ironically, even though ditching his soiree, sorry dude, bro drove me out to LAX(ative) to catch the redeye
to Tara(ATL)... We stopped by the Delta(aka Widget) parking lot to pick up Brian himself... Drove into the airport and with that, good bye bro...

One of the kudos that I will always give to Widget is that they do take care of their own, and this was no exception. The DL staff at LAX are very good to him, and that is impressive...

This was back in the days when you could go to the gates and no problems at security, oh how I long for those. I think our security people could now compete for biggest idiot of the year. ha ha ha

Hit the Crown Room Club and a few drinks... They have a good lemonade and that usually does it for me.
They didn't have internet access back then, this was a couple of years ago, fyi, so some reading and excitement for the trip. I love the LAX Crown Room. Hey, I met Randy there... That was fun!!!

Time for the gate and do that standby thing. The one main perk that I look for in the buddy pass is the upgrade, yes, I want it. I find it ironic that I pay more and fly my beloved AA-Platinum and get squat in the way of an upgrade. I fly with an employee, pay way less, and get upgraded. The airlines really need to look at that one. One reason I am considering defecting to NW, they do upgrade their elites, kind of a good business move.

Names are called, both of us back in coach. Dang! ATL is very difficult to upgrade and that is an
understatement... All those dang elites up there, he he he. To his credit, Brian will usually, if not always!?,
give me his upgrade if there is just one. He did that for me on Air France, knowing how much it meant to me, and he gets points, lot's and lot's of points... why he goes with me on Cathay, Qantas, SAA First, and Singapore Business... What else have we done? using coveted miles of course... I think the fiancee plans on taking over that role soon............

Boarding was easy as the plane was dead empty...

DL 767 LAX-ATL redeye

-Will look up flights and all later, do the itinerary at the end...... or in the middle, we shall see.....

IMPO-In my personal opinion, Delta's crews are average, Delta is average, sorry. We boarded and a "stew" recognized Brian, she was nice to him. Nothing was said to me or really anyone else in pee-on, UGH...
Delta crews need to do some serious customer service and people skills training... God bless AA !
(that will PO Brian so much, sorry, but it is honest)

Plane was empty, had 2 seats to myself, right hand side window, Brian was up front(easier to annoy him if I am in the back). If I am in front, can only put my seat in his lap, gets old after a while, he he...

Push back and taxi and standard Widget safety video with the plastic airplane interior, oh joy... It is about midnight and I am tired... and there ain't gonna be no food on this thing(was counting on the upgrade), oh joy...

I love the taxi out, South side of LAX. You see all the Airport hotels and get that feeling when you are leaving home for a while, especially going to Egypt, something my parents were less than thrilled with...

Take off, view of the airport, right side, out over the Marina, with Malibu in the far distance, with the lights of PCH leading the way... Full left turn out over the Pacific, Catalina, not as good of a view as from Qantas, sorry, and then another left turn and out over the Palisades and Long Beach. South of LA, above the shipyards at San Pedro, and on our way...

Service basically sucked... A drink service with that usual non-smiling and Aeroflotish flair :P and some kind of cinamon thingy... I am trying to remember if I had brought some food!?, I think I did... Never count on the upgrade when you fly standby, if you get it great, but loads can look great and then a plane is cancelled and then buddy, YOU'RE SCREWED! DL gives you that tiny bottle of water, as a water connoisseur I find it to be one of the most vile bottled waters I have ever known....Sorry if I offend, but my honest opinion...

It was about a 4 hour flight into the night... The highlight was flying over a big Texas city, guessing Austin or San Antonio... Yes, I thought of "TB(Texas Bear)", not a flyertalk name, just my personal nickname for Sarah
who lives in Austin and "Tex" who lives in Houston...I waved to both of you, did you see me wave? smile...
(TB was probably at some bar at ??? in the am, hmmmmmm LOL )

Caught some sleep and then woke up at twilight. This was cool. We flew right over Birmingham, Alabama and had the most perfect view of the city as the sun was coming up and we were starting our descent. I love how we are in descent and when I had gone to Tara years ago for the annual airliners show, I did a sidetrip to go add Alabama to my list of states and then went on to Birmingham...Lo and behold, they had a Crown Room Club at Birmingham. New state, new airport, new club, new city, MIkey likes...It was a fair drive, a couple of hours!?, and this was a few minutes of descent...amazing...

Full descent, wingflaps in full motion, noises from below, circle over the Atlanta area, not a bad approach, and sun was fully up. Good appraoch and landing... taxi to gate and we are on the way... Did the hike through the LONG concourse, all Delta, blah!
LOL Gotta take that train with the robotic voice. Should I test them to see if the doors really will slam on my hand? OUCH! I believe they would... but then like all good Americans, we'll just sue the airport, in humor kids...

Bag claim and a new carry on was having problems... The metal thingy for the strap kept coming off, UGH...
We took a day room at the Tara Ramada... Of course and as expected, room wasn't ready... Well duh, it is a day room... only have a few hours...so parked it in the lobby, actually quite comfy and rested and a free USA today came in handy, checked out the exchange rates... That was annoying... Takes away from the merit of doing a day room... Basic room, caught some sleep. The water in the loo was disgusting... it was vile! Brian jokes to this day about that water and reminds me how he can supply me with water from the ATL Ramada tap, get sick just thinking about it............ yuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

Wake up call and I feel like garbage... Did that zomby thing & get our crap and back to the airport... No elite lines here , long line for check in... Got listed and decided, do I carry or check my carry on!?!?!? was a tough one(big carry on), turns out, should have kept it. Dang!!!

Grabbed some bagels(yeah, they really do have bagels in the South, go figure, LOL) and cream cheese and a couple big brownies... They have one common security clearance so everyone did go through the same entry... I checked out the old int'l terminal, front concourse, connected to main terminal, was pax only before, but now you could go in, so I gotta take a look. Also grabbed baggage labels and what have you from anything local, took a stack. I honestly don't know if it was AirTran or ValueJet at the time!?, it may come to me... Out on the packed train and to the new(new at the time) int'l concourse, which is nice... They have
some good lounges and asked to see the LH lounge... Going standby and pee on, no lounge access, and it sucked...

A couple of days earlier a Swissair flight to Zurich(747,miss it) had been cancelled, oh joy...Do you know what that does for standby? UGH... We were listed on an Austrian Airlines A340 to Vienna... My first time on Austrian Airlines(unless you count a Tyrolean Dash 8 from Budapest to Vienna as Austrian, I don't, it was Tyrolean, hence, I have flown Tyrolean, aber nichts fliegen mit OS...) We also had a sidetrip to Bratislava planned...

Flashback-on that trip in question, while in Vienna, my family and I missed a bus to Bratislava by minutes, I was depressed in having missed a new country-Slovakia by so little time. However, my dad said we would take a bus ride and catch the next bus that was going out... Turned out we went to Eisenstadt, met a wonderful(cute!!!) Austrian girl on the bus , yes, I am talking about you, Ute, and then hit the Hungarian border crossing. Walked across and back, neat to be back in Hungary, the officers thought I was crazy, and they expressed it. It worked out for me that my German sucked, or the Hungarian officer would have had a field day with me... The Austrian officers just laughed..."wo ist deine auto?" We took a taxi to the border so mein auto war uber da, with mom waiting in it... Hey, I had my border fun, but still, no Slovakia, but I had met a wonderful new friend....I also received a couple of new stamps... by the way, if you drove/fahrer/, the lines for cars went back for miles on both sides, wasn't sure if the wall had come down!? LOL Yes, I wanted to go back in(Sopron was the nearest town) and buy things, as Hungary was so cheapppppppp... Went crazy at a Euromart with mom but they only took cash, drove me nuts... Makes TJ(Tijuana) look good... (as far as prices go)...

Speaking of whom and so unfortunately, Ute wasn't available when we were planning to visit Vienna ...
Also, planned on a side trip to Bratislava...Now, I will add that country!!! (read NOT!) sad faces......

We saw the beautiful OS A340 at the gate... I figured my mininal Austrian heritage should get me on that plane... We did the standby thing here, too... lot's of waiting..... The loads, which Brian had checked before, were decent... Then, with the SR cancellation/annulierung, nah ah, the loads all over the place were sucky! and scary for standby people, more so if you needed to get to Europe... FRA show was in 2 days and I didn't want to fly in the day of the show, unlike some people, PHIL!!! UGH I don't know how you do it dude...

Well, needless to say, the OS 340 pulled back and we weren't on it... I didn't cry but I was depressed...
The thing was oversold so no way... Later, right!? Nein! OS pulled away as a partner with DL when they joined Star Alliance... dang... One of these days I will get over there and just buy a ticket to Vienna... Vienna is a cool place to visit anyway...

Hence, no Austrian Air, no Austria, no Bratislava(expletives here!!!), and now what do we do?
Brian went to work and they gave us backups... there was a Delta to FRA, boring... I want one of them
foreign carriers..... well, Sabena has a late night to BRU and it looks good..... There you go....

We had a long time to wait as it was a late evening flight... Tired and frustrated... We toured the terminal, we have time for that now, thanks... Did the Duty Free Shop but didn't buy anything... thankfully, with my beloved and coveted Priority Pass lounge card(people, and PAUL for sure!!! sign up with that thing....It is a lifesaver), we had access to the Delta lounge at the int' l terminal, but no access to the other Crown Rooms at Tara, worked for us... We did a visit to the Business Lounge to check it out and they gave me a copy of the Aeromexico magazine, gracias...

We camped out at the DL lounge and had some calls to make... Using my precious MCI calling card had to call the hotel in Vienna-Airport Sofitel and cancel... It was like 3am or whatever for them but someone was there and they cancelled, understanding the standby thing, I was depressed... We stayed at the Rennaissance
(North, near Schoenbrun Palace(wow!) in Vienna and that hotel is nice, rooftop pool with a view of the city... Gorgeous fraulein attendants....ughhhhhhhhhhhh

Fortunately, the Holiday Inn(nice hotel) at BRU took us in... I am trying to think if I had checked the Sheraton!?, right across the street from the terminal...

Had a few drinks, rested, read, and looked forward to the wonderful trip ahead...We also grabbed some Chinese at the food court... Hey, my last Asian food for over a week, that is a long time for me...

Back to the gate, sat and waited patiently, and we were called.... Mr XXXXXXX and Mr. XXXXXXXX
come on up...Business Class window for me, Business Class aisle for Brian, next to me... YEAH!!!

Seiple

Nice report so far.

The "Children" comment was unnecessary and really not appreciated. Let's keep it positive. Thanks.

I'm assuming this "Tara" being Atlanta is a reference to "Gone With the Wind".
Bravo for this. Most people mispell it.

Looking forward to the next part!

Uli

How come you just fly with someone who works for delta and can do non-rev yourself?

BTW your German always reminds me of my ex-wife (American)

Worldtraveler36

>>> Thanks Jason, appreciated...

As for Tara, it is what DL employees call their home base, it is kind of cute...
We need a cute name for American at DFW... Brian, who hates AA, has less than kind things to say about AA about DFW... :P

As to you personally, sorry for the kid comment and I appreciate the support... When I get married I think my future wife is going to pull the plug on me and flyertalk, so, trying to get them in while I can...

by the way, I finally tried chat( I hate that stuff, too time consuming and hard to get out of once you are in), but no one was there... so I talked to myself, gave myself an upgrade, free bonus miles, and slammed Delta for their L fare policy, all by myself, LOLOLOLOLOLOL...



[This message has been edited by Worldtraveler36 (edited 04-13-2002).]

Seiple

You have to realize that on these boards, a wide variety of people are reading what you write. It can be taken any variety of ways and you have to be prepared for people to take things the wrong way. We don't know you personally. We don't know you are a racist. All most people here have seen of you is a trip report where you take issue with somebody being in their job just because of their ethnicity. That appears suspect to many. You may not really be a racist or near as bad as people are accusing you, but you have to admit that if somebody knows nothing about you other than say that paragraph or that section of your trip report, there is plenty of room for all kinds of connotations or conclusions to be formed. I know of somebody who flies worldwide (they are in international sales) on a weekly basis and is the biggest bigot I've ever met.

Chat is usually more active after 8:00pm Eastern time.

Worldtraveler36

Ah, point made... For me, I wouldn't have the desire to travel around the world if I didn't love the world... If you read my reports overall, I have been nothing less than complimentary to the places I have been. When that Australian 744 slammed me,after I had literally praised his country and people, that was just too much for me, and he was the one to start it, so I will be honest in that I have daggers for him...

Also, I was more pointing out the irony to the Arab and security check. I dated an Arab for ;;;; sake, and Arab women are beautiful. Had a major crush on a girl from Lebanon, just was lazy to keep in touch with her after I graduated-your whole life changes, could have married her... She also has the same love for travel as I do... She had moved away and dissapeared ...

It is true that people on here don't know me, but to read what I have printed, most of it positive, then to jump out at me over one comment, which yes, should have been re-written. It was probably 3am when I did it ...

I will make a deal with you... If you can go and get everyone, and I mean everyone to edit their comments, I will just delete the whole thing on that section, which is what I did before sending that final part to my e-mail list... Again, I am sorry about it...

Thanks again... won't have time for chat now, but I will try it sometime... Have a full evening ahead... take care...

Seiple

Thank you for such a levelheaded reply.
I'm sorry, but I will not delete my comment. It is bad form and poor message board etiquette to do that, especially after others have replied to it. Deleting should not be necessary on a message board. You have a chance to edit what you say with a message board before you publish it to the general public. It isn't like speaking aloud where what you say is already said and cannot be changed. On here, you have a chance to think about what you have typed and edit it or take it back before you post it. Just think about what you are saying. You have the chance with a great medium of communcation like this one.

Worldtraveler36

>>> Hello Uli ...I have been doing less of that and concentrate on flying American, paid tickets, getting the miles, and hence double miles plus bonus, and maximizing the return. You actually make a profit out of it if you do it right, which I think all of us on flyertalk have learned that... My family and some friends still think I am nuts... Then they don't understand how I can fly to Australia in First Class...(duh! LOL

So, you married an American!? I guess I should be impressed. That means you like us Yanks!? Was her German that bad? LOL

Worldtraveler36

SABENA A340 ATL-BRU BUSINESS PART 2

Ah, yeah, we were happy. We made it, we're going to Europe, now getting back will be the fun part, as you will see, and boarding the Sabena A340 was nice... We have flown SN before, why I had wanted the Austrian-new/neue, but the SN flight JFK-BRU was incredible, could this be the same?

Greeted by a most friendly Belgian crew-bonjour & goed dag- and they escorted us to our seats, helping with carry ons and all. He actually helped me put my behemoth into the overhead, I never see that on a US airline, sorry. Now do you see why I wanted something foreign? Turns out I did take my carry on, but had checked something which I needed and made it hard when I get to BRU, as you will see...

Sabena's Business Class is nice, much like the Swissair product... about 60" of pitch aka legroom and the seats are comfy, big, and a joy to kick back in for a transatlantic... Pre-flight drinks were served but it was the attitude and smiles. It was mostly a male crew, which is fine, but the previous flight from JFK had the most beautiful francophone Belgian stew and she was a delight... I have a weakness for French women, ah, but you all know that already, certainly my French friends... hmmmmmmm

Push back and safety video, which if I am correct, was all in English. They managed to do that multilingual thing, English, French, Flemish(Belgian Dutch), and I love it. If they are francophone(i.e. French speaking), I will speak to them in French, otherwise, English, as ik spreekt nee Nederlands/Vlaamse... sorry, but nice language... Shirley(aka Duth Girl ), you can teach me... Then I go to Holland and everyone speaks English...

I love how the captain comes on the PA and announces take off is in 2 minutes, just love it! About a 100 Deltas lining up behind us... Where is Eastern? I miss that airline...

Remember, this was an Airbus product... Loud engines and slow climb... Take off, long roll down the runway, slow lift off, wing could have clipped some ATL suburbial homes, it was so low, but hey, the view of Tara was great... Cajun cooking and all... My bro's fiancee comes from Georgia and their wedding is in Atlanta next month, so I will get to know Georgia very, very well........ I will be flying AA, not Delta, even if I go through O'Hare for the extra miles, and mom is coming with ME, so, :-P!!!! She can get all the perks while they fly Widget, yes, nonstop, but do I mind going through ORD? ah, NO... I can hit the Worldclub, thanks...

Plane did a slow ascent, was cool, was almost a little scary... I don't remember an Airbus being this bad... It was the best flight for nightly views... We flew right up along the coastline, and I enjoyed every minute of it... Flew over Charlotte, NC, East Coast of the USA pretty much, Virginia, I think we were East of DC?!?, watched the flight map the whole time, but then had the most incredible view over Atlantic City, never been, so could see the hotels and the flashing lights(I 'll take Vegas, thanks...), and then over NY, wow!!! the place is huge and different to see it from so far up...Usually, I am flying to or from NY when in the area...

Up to New England, don't remember any special views, means we were East of Boston(Baston :P) and then to the Maritimes of beloved Canada... Out over the Atlantic and nothing til England, which was cloudy anyway.... Needless to say, view wise, it was great... I think the view of Atlantic City for some reason was the most memorable, but there were cool lights all the way up the coast... I would fly out of Tara just for that reason, as when I fly AA out of Miami, it is out over the Atlantic and nothing til Europe...

The food and service were superb... The crew were so friendly and fun... I love how they are multilingual in so many languages and kind to everyone, whevever you come from... I forgot the amenity kits and menus, everything which I had asked for extras... I no longer have the menus, Philippe!!!, but I assume it was a chicken something, and the food was good... I can remember the meal from the previous flight, a very late night, so more of a snack, was a cold duck and was so good, I had asked for 2... she had obliged....Ironically, I have often preferred the cold dishes on flights... The French are very good with cold meats and cheeses, butter, and all, yummmmmmmmm Dessert was good, followed by Neuhaus, bien sur! Unlike so many airlines, they put out in the Business galley serve yourself Neuhaus, fruits, cheese and crackers... Take as much as you want and smiles to you while there.....

We had done a couple tours of the plane pretty heavy in the back, not full, but heavy. I don't remember sitting in a coach seat, which I will usually do to test the legroom, hopefully not like Swissair in the back.

We had hit some major turbulence, and I mean turbulence... The thing was rocking and shaking, and I, ah, was not at my seat... cringe...

They had a good inflight audio/video selection... If there is French music, I am there, toujours, sans doute....
They need to add Mylene Farmer-une chanteuse(singer) francaise that I just adore...

They had Life is Beautiful on the video. Since we are out over the Atlantic, nothing to watch on the Air Show, right? and you are too far south to see Greenland(you see that coming from LA or something like NY to Scandinavia)... I saw Life is Beautiful earlier while on a date with a beautiful Japanese stew(Delta)... Yeah, she married someone else, :P....... She wanted to see it so we saw it... Yes, I cried, what can I say!? It is an emotional movie, to say the least... Hence, I cried again, on this airplane at the end... I just don't see why they had to kill him when it was all over..... but the reunion of mother and son could make me ball....... Bellisima!
Least the cabin was dark and Brian was majorly snoozing......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My coveted legroom was gone thanks to the dear souls in front having their seats all the way back... I just hate that...It is nice to have the legroom but you don't get to enjoy it...Folks, put the seats up an inch or 2...
One of my mom's biggest pet peeves, why she has me sit in front of her... I read or watch movies, I can sleep at home... I guess I am always waiting for something to happen........

I actually did get a little bit of shuteye, not much, hard to sleep on planes, unless it is First and with a Horizontal bed.

Beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic... Gotta love that... My first trip to Europe with my family ions ago I woke up on an Air New Zealand 747-200 to London, sun was just coming up, plane was ice cold and a dear baby was crying... I wanted to be back in my own bed so much.... you don't know...

We made our way to Europe and as the sun came up, crew reappeared and breakfast was being prepared... Overall, the food in Belgium is very good and very delicious.... I have had meals there, oh my... we won't even get into Neuhaus or Godiva..... love both of them... I remember someone gave me a very generous box of Godiva for my b-day, can you say Heaven? dang... I often do buy Godiva coming back from Europe and it is not necessarily cheaper, though it should be in Duty Free, but seems to have become more of a tradition.... I break the jetlag by stopping off at the East Coast or Chicago(AA), if DFW, at that point, I just keep going, close enough... It is nice to go to the hotel, all jetlagged, and have Godiva... what a treat...

Ok, bkst is served and it is good. Service is outstanding... I forgot to mention the 100's of SPAs that I had, it is a Belgian mineral water and wonderful...KLM intro'd me to it and when I am there, I buy it by the bulk for the hotel, car trips, what have you...

I enjoyed the service so much that I had asked for a comment card to Sabena... Took the names of the crew, sang praises to them in my "report", and handed it back to them.... I seldom bother to write letters after the fact, sorry, I don't, so, keep the comment cards out and handy and if I like the service, I will share... I try not to write bad letters, though I am unfortunately starting to change that view.... With Delta, I could write many bad letters.....

I also forgot to mention to the aviation collectors on here, Sabena puts out post cards of the fleet, like LH, so I, ah, kinda, sorta, ah, grabbed a FEW..... Can you say pockets bulging!? I think I cleaned out the entire supply on the plane and shared with Brian... didn't hurt at the FRA show either....

Worldtraveler36

-PART 2 SABENA TO BRU

We came in from the North, I think Northern England, maybe Manchester or so, all cloudy, so couldn't see squat... Amazing how quickly you cross the North Sea to the Continent... I swear I can feel the motion of a plane descending as I write this, freaky!!! Clouds cleared up after the coastline and flaps and gears started moving...announcements in all languages, English now taking a back seat, which is fine, and we did an approach over the suburbs of Brussels... the head of NATO, the head of the European Union, etc, all here, not a bad place... My High School French teacher came from Belgium, so learned quite a bit... It is a whole different perspective than from someone from France, where I had college French professors come from, the rest American and one Russian, if you can believe that.... she was cool!!! She was a tough something in grading but when I made it to the Foreign Language Honor Society, she was there smiling and gave me a big hug... Will always think highly of my French teachers... my Business prof's, well, for the most part, that is another story....LOL Was actually close to some of them.

Approached Zaventem Airport from the back end, front is better, especially on the right side, like flying into Gatwick, right along side the terminal.....Boom and touchdown.
Taxi to the gate and it is nice and sunny in BRU.........I kinda, accidentally removed some extra amenity kits and menus and whatever from the plane before exiting... the crew saw me and laughed, if didn't help me with it... They are there for the pax, if they don't take them, I will... especially going to a convention, hello!

Said our goodbyes, I loved these people, and into the arrivals hallway... BRU-Brussels Zaventem separates arrivals from departures into a sterile, closed hallway... kind of mundane, but they have moving sidewalks which makes life so much easier.....What is also cool, coming from a linguistic standpoint, everything airside, ie. after passport control and security, is in English... The public area has to do everything in 4 languages:
French, Flemish, or Flemish, French( and that is a very serious issue! I can promise you!!!), German, and then English... It is ironic that English will get last billing publicside, but then rules airside... English can be used as a neutral language in many cases...

With my carry on and all, I didn't feel like going upstairs to the lounges, though should have... With Priority Pass, have access to the "common lounge" and should have as with Schengen to FRA, I don't come back...
Oh well....Also, the dear(read snot) at the BA lounge told me to take a hike with my AA Platinum card one time when I was there flying out on AA. I was entitled to go, she didn't know any better, so they owe me one... It is nice to pick up some extra waters and newspapers... Also, as you will see the following day, it is easy to "wander" ah hmmmm into other lounges, not that I, Mikey, would ever do something like that, LOL...

Ok, nice line for passport control... I love the actual stop sign. Do I speak French or English? If I think they are French, I speak French, and they love that, seeing it is a personal triumph against the Flemish... The Flemish, on the other hand, speak much better English, as I think English is easier to learn for the Dutch and Flemish...

Turns out no questions, she was not the happiest camper around, to say the least....I think i did ask for a stamp in French, but she didn't say anything... She did check me out on the computer as the last time I was there, from the NY flight, I wanted to hit the lounges in the int'l area... I know, this is confusing, but kind of fun...

BRU separates the int'l (non-EU save UK and Ireland) flights from the "Schengen" flights, most of the EU flights... I argued with the officer, politely of course, on my last trip, as I wanted to go back to the int'l area to hit the lounges and shops(much better, by the way), then go to Schengen... They acquiesced, but didn't like it ... We were also flying to Frankfurt that day and flew straight through... In essence, I had entered Europe, exited, and re-entered the same day.... They didn't like that and I am sure it had created a red flag...
Oh well, I got my lounges.... You otta see what I had done in Vienna......that is for another time....

She gave me a funny look, I knew what she was thinking, but she was nice and didn't hassle me, as afterall, that was over a year ago....I had been to Europe how many times since then!?!?!??

Passport was stamped and into baggage claim, which actually , is a nice facility... Hit an ATM, checking the exchange rate at the desk, nice to use them for info and then go elsewhere for my business, he he he. FYI, you get a much better exchange rate if you use the ATM and access cash from your home checking account, debit card, etc... You will come out ahead as you usually get a better exchange rate... Took my dad a long while to figure that one out, sorry to pick on him... You also get a better rate using your credit card, which is mostly when I use my Platinum Citibank card......Anyway, monopoly money, ie. Belgian Franks, now a thing of the past, came flying out, and I was good... While the Euro is more convenient, I will miss the indiv. currencies...
Why I love Switzerland so much!!! they're keeping everything and out of that dang EU.

Ok, waited for the bags, but, lo and behold, no bags......Because we had changed flights, well duh!!!, like we had a choice, Delta had some security whatever... I should let Brian explain it as I still don't understand it....
!Ay caramba! Esentially, the bags were delayed 24 hours for a security matter, but that didn't make any sense, as then the bags would fly unaccompanied from us anyway, and they had several hours to find our bags and put them on the right flight... Mixed feelings....If I had prepared carry on wise, better, it would have been a good thing... Having lots of junk to take to the FRA show, I didn't mind not having them, but was also a pain, no clean clothes, personal toiletries, etc... the biggest one, no swim suit, as the Holiday Inn has a nice pool, so that sucked... We went to the Sabena office and they were completely compassionate with us.... Filled out the forms and Brian kept an eye on it from thereon in... (stupid Delta!!!) and I really do mean that, too...

They gave us each a toiletry bag, which I was happy to keep and they were nice about it... Afterall, it was Widget, not Sabena, that did the screw up........FYI, the gentleman helping us out looked very much like my friend Pierre in Montreal, maybe a long lost relative!? an amazing resemblance...

With that, we exited, bought some very expensive waters, UGH, should have gone to the lounge, and waited for the eternally slow Holiday Inn bus. When I did a mileage run on AA earlier, I must have just missed it and it goes once an hour, so I stood there for an hour in the fumes exhausted arrivals area(enclosed) and was ready to pass out. Was not gonna do that one again... The bus did come, but lo and behold, they didn't have my reservation... Of course not, that would have been too easy... Fortunately, they honored the rate like 500, 000 BFs and we were in. The negative, no upgrade like last time, which was a turn off. I think we'll be at the Sheraton next time, Sheraton is good to upgrade, I am Gold-Starwood, it is right across the street from the terminal, and it is nice... Standard HI room and then what do we do?

Well, we went to bed... Woke up in the evening and I was just so exhausted, didn't feel like going into the city, pissing statue and all . You have to see that one... In the central coutyard in BRU they have a "pissing statue", water of course ... One of the Belgian networks does a bloopers video, no language skills needed, have seen it a few times, and they have shown the statue doing its thing, it is hilarious, unless of course you are the one getting soaked and it is a cold Belgian fall day........:P

Anyway, we did room service and watched tv....There is nothing out there in Zaventem to do... I rented a car on that mileage run, there is nothing, it is dead..... but you are too tired to go take that stupid shuttle to the airport, once an hour!?, then the train in... been there, done that...... If it were Brugges!?, I would have gone in, as I love Brugges and you have to go there...

TANGENT:
My dad and I (he hates London) took the hydrofoil over to Calais(France), via Dover... met my friend from Paris there and asked about going to Belgium... Dad wanted to swim, the water is warmer over there than in England, it really is, and then Philippe and I would go hang out in Belgium... Dad went swimming and he and I had drinks at the Ostend Airport-small and dumpy, dead as a doornail-but they had some cool Russian made planes that got our attention... after that, we all went up to Brugges and fell in love at first sight... so much so that we all-family went to Brugges the next year and loved it. It is a beautiful, charming city... It is also in the Flemish part of Belgium so everyone speaks English, while being a spit from France... as you get into the francophone part of Belgium, less English is spoken... You should try Brugges...

The thing I love about Belgium is the TV... Again, TV connoisseur here... You get all the French and Flemish stations, BBC 1 and 2 from England( such a plus right there), the French, the Dutch, and many of the German stations, plus CNN Int'l, BBC World(love both!), etc... so we watched some tv and rested. Then bed.

couscous

Mon ami,

Great report so far... you are so crazy !!!
Have fun in Europe, I'm jealous...

Worldtraveler36

>>> salut et merci! I love the support. It really is alot of work, I'll tell you...
Wait til you see me on the Swissair, I stripped it...

I am off to the beach in a sec and I have earned it... a bientot...

LH738

Great itinerary (I like flying on & reading about different airlines): a lesson in history with the "old" alliance.

Looking forward to the next parts.

[This message has been edited by LH738 (edited 04-13-2002).]