Looking for alternatives: a multi-modal journey
 

When I finished my last trip report, I noted that I am contemplating if and how should I approach frequent flyer status in the near future. In the intervening six months, not much has changed – quite the opposite in fact – more of the same, but more intense.

I have said back then that my business travel has mostly dried up, and it has completely died in the meantime. It’s rapidly approaching a year since I was last out on business, and no change in sight (even the job listings I am looking at for a possible change are super scarce with travel-heavy positions). On the personal travel front, I have done a couple of trips (even started writing a TR for one, but nothing of note happened and the moment had passed, so into the bin it went), but am taking a conscious decision to get my spending under control, and travel budget is one of those things that looms bigly. Especially with the prices of flights from Amsterdam lately. Long gone are the days of a weekend away for a 120 euro ticket and an 80 euro hotel night. These days I’d have to budget twice as much. At least.

One trip that I had in mind was to go to Slovakia at the end of spring. Now, for a long time, the typical price of advance-purchase outside of peak periods like Christmas hovered just above 200 EUR, mostly regardless if I was looking at OK, OS or LO. Now we are looking at 400 if not more all summer, only in the fall do the prices come closer to 350. The only silver lining is, it makes buying the business class, which can be had for under 600 pretty much any time I’d like, look like a better deal.

I’ve started looking at options from other airports in vicinity, but couldn’t find good deals anywhere. Where it was somewhat cheaper, the need to account for onward travel at one or both ends pushed the calculus back to “too much”.
At the end of the day, I found what I thought was a decent option from DUS. Leaving to VIE and continuing overland via a stop in Bratislava, the return timings were not great. But then I tried about returning to Amsterdam. Austrian would not allow this double-sided openjaw construction, but it suggested I combine two one ways, the second one all the way from KSC to AMS with LO with a stop in WAW.

That gave me an idea to force a reprice with a cheap return from anywhere where it would be cheap. That worked, and I ended up with a DUS-VIE/PSA-FRA-QDU. And because the difference between Eco Light and Eco Classic on the outbound was or less the same as Eco Light to Business, I treated myself to a J flight. The return, aforementioned KSC-WAW-AMS, seeing as LO does not remove elite benefits from Economy Saver, I took it in the basic fare.

Getting from The Hague to DUS is relatively simple – there’s an ICE every two hours leaving Amsterdam, which I can join in Utrecht. Timing is not great, I should arrive at the (not in-terminal, the other one) DUS airport station just over 2 hours before my departure. Taking an earlier train would mean both an early morning and a 4 hour wait, so I will have to trust DB not to make me more than an hour late on this 2-hour itinerary. 1st class, because there was only a small difference. At the other end, a bus to Bratislava, a hotel there so I can meet some friends, and next day an Express train to Kosice. Certainly will take me longer than I flew all the way, or at least to BUD, but I will make use of the stopover at least.

What I will do with the stump PSA-FRA-QDU, I am not yet sure. There’s a DUS-FLR flight with Eurowings that I might take, and make the best of it as I have not been to the area yet. But the hotel prices are not exactly making me excited to travel. Still, I should make a decision soon.

For now, it’s about an hour until first train of the day leaves. Hopefully I don’t get Deutsche Bahned, I don’t have a Plan B in my pocket.

Happy trails!

I had to look QDU up, that was a new one on me.

I jinxed it, didn't I?

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It looks like it still hasn't left Amsterdam, so if the delay is only 30 minutes, it's a win. I wonder if Austrian would rebook me to a later flight.

A nice morning overall, with a decent wake up time. I went and walked to the local baker to pick up some fresh focaccia for breakfast, grabbed my stuff and walked to the train station.

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There’s a flea market in my street today. I would have liked to spend some time rummaging through vinyl records people are selling, but not today.


The first train today was a reasonably simple affair. I did elect to take the long way round to Utrecht, taking almost an hour via Amsterdam Zuid, but it saved me having to take local transport to The Hague Central station. With a departure time of 9:49, I wasn’t going to try to chase minutes and depart later.

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The last couple of times I have been too late for focaccias, which is a shame, today I was one of the first, if not the first customer. Happy days.


I could have been departing Amsterdam around 12, if I had just taken the same train to the airport. Instead, a 3pm departure from Düsseldorf. 3 hours extra time would not be too bad, except…

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We started here, and it only got worse.


I got out of the train in Utrecht, nice and on time, and went to check on my connection, which should have just left Amsterdam a couple minutes ago, to be immediately met with a 20 minute delay announcement.

Wouldn’t be Deutsche Bahn if it wasn’t something, would it? Annoyingly, the earlier ICE, the one that would have me running 4 hours early, was on time. Instead, I spent the next 45 minutes trying to see if the train has left, as several proposed departure times from Amsterdam came and went. In the end, the one that was about 45 minutes late didn’t change, and even though I couldn’t see the train on the tracker, all the apps and websites I was checking agreed that it left Amsterdam, and would pull in into Utrecht with a 40 minute delay, which would turn into a 50 minute delay in Germany. My buffer for delay is about an hour, maybe a bit more, so I can work with this, as long as it doesn’t get worse.
Regarding Plan B, I looked at later-in-the-day options from Amsterdam and Düsseldorf, not great. There is a cheap one, but it would have me overnight in Paris. I could deal with overnighting in Amsterdam, by way of going to my own bed, but a Paris airport hotel would wipe away any savings. The other option is a later Austrian flight. I would try and get myself changed to that, but I am not sure how amicable would Austrian be to a self-inflicted delay, even if I am a Senator with M&M. Worst case scenario, buy the late flight from DUS and hope travel insurance will pay up (apparently I can get all of about 12,50EUR from DB in case of an hours delay, almost enough to get a snack and a beer in the café car.)

40 minutes late, exactly as predicted, but the train does pull in and I can board. The seat is not too bad, but no spying on the train driver today (I have gone in front and checked, as my assigned seat was in second coach).

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Not the best train seat I’ve had, but it was alright. Especially for the relatively short trip.


Unfortunately, while the ride was comfortable, the delay chaos continued onboard. The train was formally shortened until Cologne, but apparently it is continuing onto Frankfurt, but under a different number. After stopping several times at random places, the delay has also increased to an hour. Not sure if it’s good news or bad, but I don’t think I have to care, as my next connecting train to the airport is also a bit delayed and I am almost certain to make the connection.

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I took the picture to see what I will be able to get from DB… even if symbolic.


Originally, I was booked on a different ICE between Duisburg and the airport, as the one from Amsterdam doesn’t stop there (not sure why, it would make things a lot easier for people taking the train to fly). That plan was obviously not gonna happen with an hours delay, so I found the next departing train of any class to the airport – turned out to be a regional train. It was supposed to be delayed by 4 or 5 minutes, which was nice as I would only just have been able to make it if it was on time. And it arrived 4 or 5 minutes late, as expected. I got in in the little 1st class section (same seating as 2nd, but a separate door and enforced by the staff) and waited. And waited. And waited… minutes ticked on, delay counter in the train ticking on minute by minute too. When the conductor came on and said something about police and people on track, I thought I was done for. In the end, we departed some 15 minutes late. Arrived at the airport station 14:06, T-59 minutes. I was really expecting to be in the Senator lounge at this time.

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Dangletrain arriving at the station to take me the last bit


By the time I got up to the dangletrain platform, it has just left. Luckily, these are running every 3 minutes, so no big deal. 5 minutes to the terminal, then to find the Austrian desks, tucked away in a corner, not nice. But OK, I made it in at 40 or 45 minutes until departure, just in time (though in theory, I could have even been 10 more minutes late).

Baggage dropped, I made my way to security, and it was shambles. One of the body scanners seems to have died, bag scan belt was full and not moving, and a bunch of people in front of me. And that was the priority queue – the regular queue seems to have been just abandoned totally. If I was there, I would have 100% missed the flight, hell, even if it was 30, 45 minutes later I am not sure I would have made it.
As it is, I have made it to the gate (first one right after the duty free) just as the boarding was supposed to start, and boarded just a couple minutes later when it did.

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So, in conclusion, flying from DUS looks good on paper (especially if I could finesse the connection to Utrecht a bit and save 30 more minutes on the train, and double especially if the ICE stopped at the airport), but in practice, the lack of reliability of DB these days makes it a super stressful experience instead. Perhaps, if the timing worked better. A 3 hour gap between the arrival of the ICE and the departure… but then that means the whole journey is an hour longer, and if the train is on time, I have to have access to a decent lounge. This could have worked if Eurowings still flew the direct DUS-KSC link, but at first I was wary of flying on it as it started out flown by a Dash-8 (and anything over an hour in a turboprop is a questionable decision) and later its legendary unreliability made it a no-go. I am still unsure what to do with the dangling PSA-FRA-QDU return, but if bI do decide to go to Tuscany, I will be driving to DUS, so I will make that comparison, too. This time, I could not drive, both because I am, after all, returning to AMS, but also because the parking cost for almost two weeks is a bit too much for my wallet to stomach.


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A rare bird these days, honestly I would have quite liked to be one of those queuing up on the stairs there.


But at the end of the day, after all the stress of the morning I’ve had, I made it to the Austrian Embraer, and I was super happy to have a seat in the front today. There was a decent amount of op-ups too, and with my record since getting a SEN status, I have to wonder, if I went for Y, would I be among them? (Question rendered moot, of course, by the fact, that J was cheaper to book when I was booking than Y with baggage).


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Some beer and a generous pour of the cheap swill is exactly what I needed at this point

There’s been a decent amount said of soft product of OS in J, and the conclusion is that it’s rather good. And I have to agree with that, nice and engaging crew, decent drinks and great food, hell, this flight is barely over an hour long and they serve hot food. Especially great today as I have not been able to stop by in the lounge on my way in.

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The chocolate of the season is Lindt Lindor balls, I have been informed of this earlier this week and it is indeed as described.


I can get used to this. I have not sampled OS J on the short flights such as VIE-KSC (I’ve tried, more than once… and ended up with IRROPS instead), but even if the sandwich is just a fun filler, at least the service is on a level. Our colleague @the810 is a recent convert from LH Group to AFKL, and he argues repeatedly that the biggest downside of BoB is not having to pay 10 extra euros to buy a drink and a snack, but that it makes the whole service feel so transactional. It is indeed one reason I prefer to be in front that this is just not the case when the crew does not have to deal with the payments. Point for paying up for J. If it’s only 50% more? It’s time to invoke my erstwhile new year’s resolution, and buy “less, but better”.

Now, we are on descent to Vienna and the seatbelt light has just gone on. Next step, grab my bag (and maybe check on the newly furnished SEN lounge on the way) and figure out the next closest bus to Bratislava. If I’m lucky, I may be not late to my own dinner reservation.

Hope your trip gets less stressful from now on!

I took that train to Kosice two years ago, and really enjoyed the trip along the edge of the Tatras. Kosice is a nice little town as well - if you fancy a bit of a hike the view from the observation tower at the top of the hill to the north is quite impressive.

Oh don't worry, I am intimately familiar with the area :)

I'll be catching you up momentarily, I'm having a good night cocktail in the hotel bar, after a very nice dinner catching up with friends.

A lot of my tomorrow will be spent in a train, so I shall be more up to date.

My brain had forgotten the last three characters of your username :-)

Apologies, something with the sync between devices corrupted my file and it took a while to recover.

So, three points of order after deboarding (bus stand, ugh). First, SEN lounge. No access on arrival with OS, in contrast to LH or LX. Fine. Second, Leberkas-Pepi. Unlike my information on Lindt Lindor balls, my information on Leberkas-Pepi stand being missing were, luckily, unfounded. It has just moved slightly, but is still there for your Vienna transfer needs (if you originate in Vienna, I suggest instead the Billa in T1 departures).

Third, the bus. There are three (or maybe four) bus companies offering regular buses between Vienna Airport and Bratislava, some more frequent than others. An added complication is that while all of them terminate at the same point (or at least pass through it if they carry on beyond Bratislava), even different buses of the same company will take a different route to the terminus. That makes it a bit more difficult to figure out the exact plan.

Today, I walked out the gate expecting about 10-15 minute wait for the next bus, but surprisingly, I found a Slovak Lines bus at the stand. People were still filling in, so I checked with the driver, he was a slightly delayed 17:05, it was some 17:10 now. He didn’t stop at my ideal stop, but his intermediate stop worked for me. Walk up fare a bit expensive at 17EUR, I could have saved half by waiting 15 minutes, but I did not fancy being late. A good ride of about 50 minutes and a quick taxi to the hotel

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a little welcome on basis of my Radisson status


Now, Radisson Blu Carlton is my preferred hotel in Bratislava. They always have good service, have pretty good breakfast, and fair prices plus a great location. The one thing that startles me more and more as the time goes by is the room décor.

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The rooms are clearly renovated, but the furnishings, while looking brand new, are super clearly 90s design. Like, look at the TV stand!


The TV stand serves no purpose. The TV stand should not be there. There is a fully functional flat screen TV mounted right above the TV stand. Why does the furniture look like I time travelled to 1998? Curiously, this is the exact opposite of the problem Sheraton a couple tram stops down river has – over there, stuff is mostly up to date, but (at least as of my last stay) super worn down and due for replacement…

Anyway, I managed to get ready and leave just in time so that I entered the brewery bang on time for a dinner with my local friends, it was great catching up with those who could join, and a huge lost opportunity for those who couldn’t.

Back to the hotel, I stopped for a nightcap in the hotel bar.

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The Mirror Bar specializes in drinks with some theater. It’s a bit more expensive than I’d necessarily like, but the drinks are well thought out, competently made, and the staff are friendly and happy to recommend and find something you’ll like, or to make you a classic.


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And if you don’t feel like cocktails, they have a good bottle selection, too. This isn’t even all of it, there’s way more behind the bar.


I felt a bit peckish after that, so I walked to the local pizza-by-the-slice monger, and coming back, was met with a guy presumably just leaving the bar has sat down behind the lobby piano. I would have normally ran away, but something in the way he tried the keys told me he knew his stuff, and indeed, besides his date, they two night receptionists and I were subjected to a short and impromptu, but a nicely played concert. What an unexpectedly nice way to end this long day.

Tomorrow, breakfast, maybe a short scooter ride along the Danube to grab a coffee (I have some credit left over from tonight), and then the “Express” train from Bratislava to Kosice.

That… and then there’s the fact that I outright state in the preamble that this is my regular travel pattern :D

Enjoying this one so far. I’m actually heading to Slovakia myself again next week. On a side note, any idea why the Intercity trains between Vienna and Kosice are not running at the moment? They were in December but I can’t find anything about them right now. That means that I’ll also be stuck on Slovak Lines from the airport too, as they’re the only ones to go direct to the train station in Bratislava and I can’t be bothered to schlepp my way across the city from the bus station. ;)

Looking forward to the continuation of this journey. :)

Unfortunately, IC trains fell victim to "rationalization" of the timetable, and with them the direct connection from Košice to Vienna.

It also adds time to my travel today, but on the other hand, now the trains are running every hour all day on a regular schedule and don't interfere with each other.

I have mentioned yesterday that I like the breakfast in this hotel.

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Good selection of drinks, being able to just take a bottle of water instead of repeatedly refilling a small glass is a great feature.


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Meats, cheeses, some traditional Slovak options, veggies, there’s also a health food section in the back with chia seeds and all kinds.


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Can’t see much on this picture, but there’s like 4 different styles of eggs, two sausages, hash browns, grilled tomatoes, bacon, beans, all kinds.


The restaurant also offers eggs on order for breakfast, decent eggs benedict, though I did not partake this time.

Instead, I figured, it’s super nice out, I’ll go out and have a coffee at riverside before coming back to the hotel.

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steps away from my chair, a good view for some coffee


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a memorial on the other side, the developer did a good job setting up this embankment.


I had a bit of trouble with the electric scooters on the way back to the hotel, but a well timed public transport bus allowed me to get back in time to have a quick shower and pack up before my check out time.