Air Berlin delays no fun
This story is about a trip to Zurich in Switzerland from Bangkok in Thailand with Air Berlin (AB); it will surely grab your attention. It may even get you to change your air travel plans and not fly Air Berlin. But I digress; here is the story.I booked with AB, in business class, for Thursday the 20th of May, 2010. The idea was to arrive in Dusseldorf on the same day in the early evening. I booked accommodation at the Lindner Airport hotel.
Anyway, to make a long story short it was a long, whole, day at the airport with at least three delays. One was in the morning when we were supposed to take off, two was at the business class lounge where we waited and waited and three was again on the tarmac with another long delay due to another, unexplained cause. The entire day was spent at the Bangkok airport and it was all down to Air Berlin.
At about 10:30PM and after being told where I lived in Bangkok was too dangerous to go to after curfew hour, I agreed to go to the Millennium Hilton Hotel on the other side of the river. I have lived in Bangkok for about 23 years and had visited the Hilton by the riverside before. I thought it was too far but the AB staff (very good by the way) assured me that with empty streets it was just 30 or so minutes away. I could get the AB flight to Berlin (different destination but at this point who cares) at 11:40 the next morning.
Sounds OK eh? I did it and true to their word with empty streets The Hilton was slightly over 30 minutes away. I had a good sleep, was pleased to meet an AB limo driver at the hotel and he agreed to take me and a new German friend to the airport for the 11:40 check in. All was looking much, much better. Hah! Wait for it.
The AB flight to Berlin did not take off at 11;40. In fact there was an unexplained delay which seemed to last a full hour. Not explaining the reason for delays seems to be what AB does best. The earliest, the start of the whole sordid, delay affair, cause was something was wrong with the air system on board. That’s all the info we got except that the Thai engineers were excellent and fixed the source of the long delay. The second problem we never knew and were not informed. It was, I assume a mechanical problem of some sort and resulted in another tarmac wait; another going back inside the terminal; another security check. The third, as I have pointed out, was spent in the business class lounge. We were the lucky ones.
Jeezus H.
Anyway that was the key to the Millennium Hilton stay. I went willingly, knowing that the curfew started at 9PM and it was now 10;30. Woe is me.
Anyhoo the next day started much better. I made a new reservation at a hotel in Zurich and went to the gate where the flight was supposed to board. Wait a minnit it didn’t. At least not for what seemed like an hour’s delay anyway. Oh gawd was there no end to this? Anyway we finally took off and were on our way to Berlin; the only question was would we make it in time for our connection time to Zurich. We did indeed; our luggage unfortunately, did not. No problem though, after staying at the Best Western at the airport the bag would be on a train for the 3-hour journey to my first stop, the hotel Butterfly in Zermatt. Not a problem I thought.
Then I was informed by AB’s reps for lost luggage (there were about 10 of us who had taken the plane form Bangkok, none with luggage) that, instead of putting the missing bag on the train it would be sent by post and would not be there before Tuesday, a full four days after my arrival. Lawdy lawdy miss Claudy I had nothing. No shaving cream, razors, toothpaste or brushes, socks, clothing change, work clothes, nothing except the clothes on my back. I was supposed to wait four days?
Lets make a long story short here, I did and never burdened AB nor my travel insurer with anything I bought. I simply did not work, period. I waited until Tuesday AM and stayed until Friday a day after my original, intended, departure. In the meantime I wore my blue jeans, a t-shirt (one of 3 that was given to me by my friend Kirk who owns a t-shirt business. I bought some toiletries. That was it, I was finished, couldn’t work, until my luggage and clothes changes arrived on Tuesday AM.
Good story eh? My friend had a birthday party in Bangkok with free food and booze but I spent that day and part of the next at the airport. What a great day.
Oh well; I would work again in Zermatt in December. I won’t fly Air Berlin to get there tho