dat4life

wtcmor

Looking forward to the EVA air report so few of them around.

roadwarrier

Having just flown out of Prague this morning, I look forward to your thoughts on the City. Looks like a great adventure!!

injian

love the intro. nothing beats making sound decisions after a few pints and a bottle of wine. looking forward to the rest.

Madone59

Very much looking forward to this trip report ^^.....not sure about this "earth is round" malarkey. Prove it!

dat4life

To describe the weeks leading up to my trip as hectic or manic would be a severe understatement. I was dealt a pretty tough assignment at work in South Texas, which resulted in many long days and more than a few long nights. By the end of it, I was exhausted, sick of being in South Texas, and more than ready to go on vacation. Unfortunately, it took me much longer than I expected to wrap up this assignment properly, which forced me to push back my departure several days. That reduced my time to in Prague to just over one day. It was certainly not ideal, but they pay me and I suppose i need to make some sacrifices sometimes. At any rate, I still had enough time in Prague to see a few things.

I did manage to go home the day before I was scheduled to leave. Although I left work far later than i wanted, the drive home wasn't so bad especially given what I had to look forward to. To boot, I got to enjoy a beautiful Texas sunset on the way.



My flight to London wasn’t until the late evening, so I envisioned a leisurely day of packing. What really happened was a day of frantic typing and dealing with other crap that popped up last minute and then hurriedly throwing stuff in my bag ten minutes before my drop-dead time for leaving to the airport. Luck (or experience) was on my side, and I was walking into Terminal E of George Bush Intercontinental Airport at just over an hour before departure.

The Premier Access checks in counters were empty at that hour. My bag was tagged and my boarding passes were in hand in less than a minute.



I found myself at the gate just a couple of minutes later as there was no one else in the security line. As expected, the gate was a buzz with activity as the flight was fairly full with a just handful of empty seats scattered around the plane. One of those empty seats happened to be next to mine, so I had a vested interest in monitoring the status of those empty seats. With less than an hour to go until departure and only two people on the standby list, I was fairly confident there was a reasonable chance that seat would stay empty.

United Airlines 5
Houston (IAH) – London (LHR)
Depart: 9:20PM
Arrive: 11:50 AM+1
Aircraft: Boeing 787-9
Seat: 24C (Economy)
March 24, 2017

Boarding was done through door 2L, necessitating a walk through the Business Class mini cabin to get to the back of the bus. As I made the walk, I cast a longing glance at the “big seats”. Though United’s Business Class seats on their Dreamliners are outdated, it’s still far more comfortable than what awaited me behind the curtain. There were saver Business Class seats available when I booked, but I wasn’t too keen ponying up the extra 27,500 miles for what amounted to be a short redeye flight. Besides, my United Premier Silver status allowed me to select an Economy Plus seat for free at check in, so I wouldn’t be entirely uncomfortable.

As I entered the economy class cabin, I was greeted acknowledged by a clearly bored and disinterested flight attendant, who was a perfect match for the one of what has to be one of the most bland and boring cabin in the skies. In fact, I don’t think economy class cabins on un-furbished ex-Continental aircraft has changed at all since I flew a then new Continental 737-800 in 1998, save for features like mood lighting and larger overhead bins on newer aircraft. The seats were hard as a rock as expected. But on the plus side, legroom was plentiful for my Economy Plus seat and the entertainment system was good in terms of content, ease of use, picture quality.









Someone showed up to claim the window seat midway through boarding, and I spent the next 20 minutes or so praying the middle seat stayed empty. The cabin door did shut with the middle seat empty, but mere moments later the skies opened up and sheets of rain came pouring down and strong winds buffeted the aircraft. Not surprisingly, the captain ended his welcome aboard spiel with the announcement of a ground stop. I did have a somewhat short connection at Heathrow, but I wasn’t too worried, as I knew there were plenty of seats available on later flights. But when the delay passed the 40-minute mark, I got a little antsy and called to get rebooked.

About an hour after the rain started, the captain announced the ground stop was lifted and we would be on our way. Flying time was announced to be 9 hours, and we would arrive in London about an hour late. Just before push back, the gate agent escorted a couple of new passengers and seated them in the middle seats a couple of rows ahead of me. I felt bad for those folks who though they would enjoy an empty middle seat, only to have their hopes dashed moments before pushback. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t do a mental happy dance that I wasn’t one of those unfortunate souls.

I dozed off at some point early in our climbout, but I woke up to the smells of food being served. I had not eaten since early that morning so I was rather hungry. Despite being awake while serving drinks at my row, the same bored and disinterested flight attendant skipped over me but served the gent seated in the window seat. I ended up requesting a drink from the flight attendant serving meals, who gladly went to retrieve a Goose Island IPA for me. It’s not my favorite beer, but it did the trick.

On tap for dinner to tonight was the time-honored menu of chicken or pasta. I chose the former. It appeared to be chicken risotto with way too much sauce. Presentation was lacking, but it actually tasted far better than it looked and went well with the Goose Island IPA.



After dinner, I fell asleep again and didn’t wake up until a couple of hours away from London. I started watching Passengers during our groundstop and decided now was as good of time as any to finish it up. It was… entertaining enough, but not something I need to see again. In meantime, I tried to communicate with the world below by logging onto to onboard wifi, but I wasn’t able to connect. This was par for the course in my experience using United wifi, but at least this time they didn’t charge my credit card before crapping out.



Breakfast, consisting of a cold croissant and strawberry yoghurt, was served just about an hour before landing.



We were vectored straight in without needing to enter a holding pattern, which was a pleasant surprise for anyone who’s flown to Heathrow on a regular basis, and landed an hour late as advertised. We pulled into a gate just a few minutes later next to an Air India 777. Everyone pretty much leapt out of their seats the second the seatbelt sign was turned off. Not sure if it’s function of a bunch of short connections or being crammed in economy class on a 787. At any rate, I was glad rebooked early so I didn’t have to sweat it upon landing in London.



In spite of all the bad press United has deservedly received this year, my experiences with the airline have generally been fine of late. This flight fit that mold perfectly. The not so great flight attendant and non-functioning wifi aside, the flight was decently comfortable, the food edible, and the entertainment fine. Also, this was the first time I’ve flown a 787 since I flew Singapore’s wonderful A350 the month prior. I know I’m supposed to be all “Team America”, but the A350 does laps around the 787 in terms of noise and comfort. Blasphemous, I know.

dat4life

Now that I think about, yeah there aren't that many recent ones. When I booked my ticket, I was going off of TRs from a few years ago and I was not disappointed at all.

I'll have that up in a day or two!

Some of the world's best decisions were made after too much booze. And many of the worst. haha

Hopefully I won't fly off the face of Earth. We'll see!

dat4life

Once off the plane, I navigated a labyrinth of long hallways and escalators before I reached transit immigration and security. I then headed to the transit desk to get new boarding passes for the flights I had been rebooked on. A friendly agent had those printed for me in nothing flat, but she then asked me the six words that would strike fear into any experienced traveller during IRROPS: Do you have any checked bags? CRAP. For once I did, and I totally forgot about it until now. I dug out my bag tag and handed it to the agent. After a few minutes of typing, she handed the tag back to me and said that she couldn’t guarantee that my bag would be rerouted to my new flights but she entered the new details in to the system.

There wasn’t anything else I could do at this point, so I thanked her and headed over to the nearby Plaza Premium Lounge. I had access to the lounge by way of a Priority Pass membership from my Citi Prestige Card. Overall, I think lounge options at Heathrow are very disappointing especially when it comes to British Airways’ lounges. In my experience, BA’s Heathrow lounges are worn, not very clean, and often times overcrowded. So my expectations were pretty low considering the Plaza Premium Lounge is a contract/membership lounge. But it was perfectly located for me, as it was just down the hall from my departure gate.



A friendly agent admitted me after quick swipe of my Priority Pass card and a signature. No showers were available at the time, but the agent was happy to put me on the waitlist and explained I would be paged once a shower becomes free. I was very impressed by lounge. Yes, it was a little small and darker than I would have liked. But it was clean, in good repair, and most importantly not over crowded.





There was nice buffet setup. Hot items included curries, soups, and stir fried vegetables. Cold items were typical assortment of pastries, breads, and fruit. Everything looked to be of decent quality and was constantly restocked.



There was also a very nice looking bar just a little ways over.



I was paged a few minutes later, and I was off to a much-needed shower. Just like the rest of the lounge, the shower room was far more impressive that I anticipated. It was a bit on the small side but very clean, i.e. the exact opposite of a shower room at BA’s lounges. Water pressure was blissfully strong. The strong stream of hot water was just what the doctor ordered after the nine-hour redeye flight.





I felt like a new person after the shower, and I headed back to the main seating area where I settled down with a Fanta and reconnect the outside world. My friend sent me a deluge of messages while I was in the air, and I didn’t get them until then. We had planned to go to dinner that evening as soon as I touched down, but that was obviously shot due to my delay in Houston. So he rescheduled our reservation for the following evening.

Lufthansa 911
London (LHR) – Frankfurt (FRA)
Depart: 4:30PM
Arrive: 7:05 PM
Aircraft: Airbus A320
Seat: 24A (Economy)
March 25, 2017

Scheduled boarding time came and went, and there was no sign of my personal assistant or a Porsche. Then I remembered I was actually traveling with the 99 percent that day, sighed, and walked the long five minutes to my departure gate where my A380 was…



Damn… equipment swap to an A320? Man, Lufty is really cutting back. All kidding aside, I was truly glad to be able to fly Lufthansa for the first time.

A smiling flight attendant greeted me as I stepped on board and made my way down the aisle.



The sterile steel gray color scheme of the cabin was actually pretty cool looking, but I was a little apprehensive about the comfort of the seats. Those seats were the slimmest slim line seats I have ever seen. The seat ended up being a bit more comfortable than it looked, but I wouldn’t want to be stuck in these seats for more than a couple of hours. Legroom was also a bit lacking, but again it was doable for a short flight.





Boarding wrapped with the plane half full at best, and I ended up with the entire row to myself. Distance wise, our taxi to the active runway was pretty short. But we were departing at the height of the afternoon departure bank. Not surprisingly we were stuck behind a long line of departing traffic. With plenty of time to make my connection in Frankfurt, I was more than content to sit and admire the variety of air traffic near by.









I chuckled when I spotted the above Aegean Airlines Airbus A321. I’ve heard plenty about their frequent flier program, as it is (or was) the easiest way to earn Star Alliance Gold status. But I have never seen an Aegean liveried aircraft until today. So there you go, photographic evidence Aegean really is an airline.

Finally, our little Airbus was screaming its little guts out and rotated off the runway into the clear English sky, after a fairly quick takeoff roll, 45 minutes after pushing back. Those of seated on the left side of the aircraft were treated to a nice aerial view of Heathrow moments after rotation.



A even bigger treat lay ahead, as we banked sharply to right and headed out over the city of London before setting course toward Frankfurt.





Service commenced by the time we went feet wet over the English Channel. I really wasn’t expecting anything. So I was pleasantly surprised by the choice of a meat or cheese sandwich. I chose the former. The sandwich was small but tasty. It was a welcome departure from the package of 12 pretzels U.S. airlines conditioned us to be excited about.



The rest of the flight was uneventful, and we landed in Frankfurt a bit early. During our lengthy taxi to the gate, we passed Lufthansa’s gorgeous 747-8i in the retro livery.



Once in the terminal, I got a great view of the our A320 framed by the backdrop of a gorgeous sunset.



German culture is famous for efficiency; however, the designers of Frankfurt airport didn't get the memo if the convoluted maze of inefficient passages is any indication. The sterile and drab hospital white color scheme definitely did not improve my perception of the airport. I eventually found my way through immigration and transit security, which was pleasant enough. It was probably a lot more pleasant since I barely beat a huge Chinese tour group to immigration.

By the time I cleared security, I still had over an hour to kill before boarding, but the terminal I was at is probably one of the most boring in the developed world. There was exactly one poorly stocked duty free shop and one food vendor. Hong Kong International Airport, this most definitely is not. There are several Priority Pass lounges in Frankfurt, but reaching any of them would require me to leave the Schengen area. So I found an empty gate area and dwiddled my my thumbs for an hour.

The gate agent dutifully announced boarding right at the stated time. My boarding pass was scanned and I marched down the jetbridge onto the waiting… bus? Guess it’s a remote gate tonight. After the gate agent finally decided the bus was full, the door was slammed shut, and we were finally off.



In between bouncing off several people while racing across the tarmac, I heard a bunch of distinctly American accents next to me. I struck up a conversation with a few of them. They were a group of soon to be high school seniors from Chicago on a class trip to Europe. I couldn’t help but laugh a little, as the most exciting high school trip I ever got to take was a 3ish hour school bus ride to Pensacola, Florida. Anyhow, their Lufthansa flight from Chicago was delayed 8 hours due to a mechanical issue, which really ate into their time in Prague (sound familiar?). I’m sure Lufthansa really appreciated me telling them about EU 261, and that they may be eligible for significant cash compensation for the delay. Not sure if they actually made the claim, but one of the chaperones I talked to seemed through the roof at the prospect of a few hundred dollars.

After 15 minute bus ride, we stopped in front of an A321 that was Legen-WAIT FOR IT...



In the US, it's pretty rare to board anything bigger than a regional jet via stairs. The only time I've boarded a mainline aircraft using airstairs was a year ago when departing Paris on an American Airlines A330-300. It was awesome to be able to just walk up to the plane. While many people detest remote gates, I was pretty excited about it as a consummate avgeek. I almost died laughing when one of the students I chatted with said, “Can they not, like, afford a normal airport so I don’t have to walk outside?” Kids these days…

Lufthansa 1402
Frankfurt (FRA) – Prague (PRG)
Depart: 10:15PM
Arrive: 11:15 PM
Aircraft: Airbus A321
Seat: 21A (Economy Class)
March 25, 2017

Prague is just 250 miles from Frankfurt. Given the relatively late hour and short duration of the flight, I didn’t expect any sort of service. After all, American Airlines’ SOP for on flights of this duration is to announce service is suspended due to turbulence, even if there is no weather within hundred miles of the route, gossip in the galley or read a magazine and pretend the passengers don’t exist. Or at least it seems that way on my flights between Dallas and Houston over the past couple of years. So I was pleasantly surprised the by the flight attendants hustling through the cabin to offer cheese sandwiches on a pretzel roll and a small selection of drinks. And they were able to serve the entire plane well before final decent.

The cheese sandwich was pretty tasty.



I thought my long journey was over once the main wheels kissed the runway in Prague, but I had one more road block to clear before I could leave the airport: my checked bag was missing. I wasn’t the only one as there were several people already in line at the baggage service desk. Nearly 30 minutes elapsed before it was my turn. After some furious typing, the agent told me my bag actually made it onto my London to Frankfurt flight, but it wasn’t loaded onto my flight to Prague despite a nearly two hour connection. After I frantically made a Whatsapp call to my friend to get the address of his place, the agent tapped everything in and handed me a receipt with a promise to deliver my bag sometime the next day… err actually today since it was already past midnight. With that, I hopped an Uber to my friends’ Airbnb.

What can I say about Lufthansa? With the exception of the dreary Frankfurt airport and leaving my bag in Frankfurt (coincidence?), my first Lufthansa experience was perfectly pleasant. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again, preferably including a visit First Class Terminal!

dat4life

It was a 30-minute ride from the airport to the flat my friend was renting. I hadn’t really eaten since my United flight, and my friend didn’t eat dinner. So we hopped another Uber to a 24-hour pizzeria my friend suggested. We split a pizza and an order of beef capriccio. Both were delicious, as was the bottle of red wine we ordered.





Our short journey back to my friend’s flat was… interesting. First off, there weren’t very many Ubers available at that time of night, so we had to wait about 10 minutes for a car. No big deal. As we were waiting, I felt someone grab my arm and I nearly jumped. My friend was startled too as he didn’t see anyone since that street did not have any lighting. The hand my on my arm belonged to a very attractive lady. I’m not proud to say it, but given her outfit, stilettoes, and the time I assumed we were getting propositioned. Her equally as attractive friend was right behind her. The lady who grabbed my arm spoke to us in Czech for about a minute before she realized we didn’t understand a word. Her friend laughed and asked if spoke English. Yes. Turns out they were out partying and got separated from their other friends. Now they were jonesing for some Chinese food. Well… Couldn’t help them there. But we did point them to the pizza place, which they seemed grateful for.

Our Uber arrived a couple minutes after the ladies left. I’ve gotten a lot of really cool Ubers over the years, but this one takes the cake: a classic Land Rover with huge off road tires and giant luggage rack. The driver was an equally as cool bloke, and we had a nice chat.

We weren’t particularly tired, so we ended up talking and before we knew it the sun had risen. And it was time to head out to explore. I wanted to get an early start to maximize my limited time in Prague. But first, breakfast! Afterall, we’re still growing boys. My friend suggested a place that he had wanted to try since he’s been in Prague, but didn’t have time to go to yet.



We started off with lattes, accompanied by their delicious house made bread and butter. I could have eaten an entire loaf of the bread myself.





I went with a poached egg and sourdough dish, which was excellent.



My friend ordered the apple cinnamon crepes, which he loved.



After breakfast it was finally time to go sightsee. I couldn’t have picked a more perfect day to go sightseeing. The skies were clear, and the sun was out. It was a bit chilly, which was a problem since my jacket and jeans was in my bag that was still in Germany. In fact, I was still wearing the same t-shirt, shorts, and pullover since I left my house on Friday. It was now Sunday morning. But I decided to suck it up and power through.







We eventually made it to the Old Town Square.









This looks legit.











This is the coolest Starbucks I’ve ever seen, and probably the only Bux anyone would want to take wedding photos at.













It was interesting to see classic European architecture in front of the drab architecture of the communist era.





More remnants of the communist era.







After the whirlwind tour of the city, I was even more bummed out I had to cut my trip short. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever visited. It was an awesome juxtaposition of Soviet era influences and classical European influences. And to top it all off, the people are among some of the most friendly of any country I’ve visited. In short, I can’t wait to go back.

We finally walked back to the flat at close to 5PM, where I was through the roof to see my bag waiting for me. A good hot shower and clean clothes was in order. That accomplished, it was time for dinner. My friend and I were famished as we haven’t eaten since breakfast. And besides, I think we’ve earned it after a day like this.



My friend’s birthday was just a couple of days before I arrived in Prague, so we were discussed whether we wanted to go celebrate and do something. If the internet lore was to be believed, Prague is the bachelor party capital of Europe, and there was plenty of choices for a great time. We did joke (I think) about reliving our younger wilder years, but we decided against it. Which is a probably a good idea, since we’re both on the wrong side of 3-0 now. So we ended up going to the restaurant that we were supposed to go the night prior, which was located 30 minutes away by foot.

We started off with the garlic soup, which sounds weird but was amazingly delicious.


The highlight of the meal for me was the goat cheese salad. The cheese was warmed to the point just before it melting would begin, which made it super creamy and paired well with the out of this world delicious honey vinaigrette. Candied walnuts add a stronger sweet element, and its smooth taste and crunchy texture made the salad far more interesting. It was quite possibly one of the best things I have ever tasted.



For the main course, we split a huge barbeque meat platter. It too was phenomenal.



Of course, this was accompanied by a few giant brews. When in Prague…



Thankfully, the kitchen closed before we could order dessert or we would have really been in trouble. Also, walking to/from the restaurant was a great call given the massive amount of food and booze we just consumed. It was a fantastic way to round out a visit to a fantastic city.

wtcmor

Looks like you had a great time in Prague

SQTraveller

Great report so far!!!

RandomBaritone

FYI, as of 3pm EDT on September 22, all of your photos are replaced with a Flickr message saying "This photo is no longer available"....

dat4life

Yep, I sure did! Thanks for reading!

Thanks! Just saw your new report, and looking forward to reading that as well!


Oops! Sorry, I was tinkering with my Flickr account and messed a few things up. It'll be fixed in a few minutes!

RandomBaritone

Glad to help. At this point the first half of the report is working, while the photos from Prague onward remain invisible.

dat4life

Totally fixed now! I appreciate the heads up. I was playing around with the sizing, and totally screwed everything up!

Next section up shortly!