Greece Trip: 4/30/08 (Weds) -- Inauspicious beginning
We head way early to IAH to drop bags (we checked in online) and problems already. KLM IAH-AMS has been delayed, and we won't have time to make our AMS-ATH connection. I had booked it this way knowing that there was a later flight AMS-ATH. It's KLM's hub, so no biggie, right?
Yeah, spoken like a fan of CO, which seems to be able to handle such problems. Not true KLM, which told us their later flights were all full.
Oh, and in the meantime, half our bags had already gone down the conveyor belt from the KLM elite/business desk, meaning that the agent was trying to get those retried as she also tried to figure out what to do with us more generally. All of this was in the elite line, so I can only imagine what a cluster**** this might have been in the normal (way-backed-up) line.
Anyway, the agent finally came up with some options -- one involving splitting out party in half (more on this) and hitting different routing, or all of us going and laying over at AMS for nearly half a day and flying out to ATH for an early Friday morning arrival.
Since our ferry to Naxos was scheduled for 8:00 am Friday, we thought this was not as good an option as splitting up. Callie and I travel a bunch, so we decided we should split, so Callie's mom and I opted for the IAH-CDG/CDG-AMS option via Air France, and Callie and her sister would take the IAH-LHR/LHR-ATH routing via Continental and British Airways (Callie to to try out the new CO IAH-LHR before me -- poo!). Amazingly, we would all get to ATH within an hour of each other -- about 5:00 pm. Later than our original routing, but not too bad.
By this point at IAH (and an hour and a half had passed since our arrival -- thank goodness for our early arrival!), things were getting tight to check in and check bags on Air France -- and KLM still hadn't retrieved one of the bags. Thankfully, Air France is a SkyTeam partner and their elite line was empty. A very helpful agent checked my bag and assured us there was time to check the other if we could track it down. Okay, this is better. Helpful agent. Nice.
Seats? Not so nice. So I explained our odd situation and just asked if there was any way she could improve our seating. And I was exceedingly NICE myself. Travel these days is going to have snags and most people in the profession really do want to help. If things go awry, you'll get much better assistance solving the problem if you don't act like an ass. And if you are nice, nice people will respond in kind. A life lesson, eh? And a simple one at that!
The Air France agent gave us bulkhead seats on the transcon and the best available on the CDG-ATH leg. And said if our bag showed to come back to her and she would do her best to get it on the plane (Life lesson: Be Nice!).
Less than one hour to the Air France departure, and the bag is finally retrieved by KLM -- and sure enough, we go back to the Air France agent, who actually remembered my name, pulled the reservation as I was approaching, and said she would get it on the plane, no problem. Outstanding. This lady really had it together. And unlike the KLM people, actually acted like she gave a crap.
Off to the gate for us, and a quick call to the CO elite line to get Callie's mom's CO frequent flier number. Not sure if we'll get 100% credit from Air France, which would make things simple. If not, we'll have to ask KLM for original routing credit (as their fare would have credited 100% to CO and I need both those EQMs and regular miles). Why didn't I book CO again? (Oh yeah, these fares were about $200 cheaper, which for four people kind of added up).
In the meantime, Callie has gotten her reservation straight (their departure is later than ours). So we plan to meet up at ATH and are off to our plane. Gate staff with Air France are super nice & efficient, and we boarded early as CO elites.
Bulkhead seats... nice and roomy. Seats on the Air France 777-2000... not so comfy. But still, bulkhead. Given the circumstances, I'm happy as hell.
Overall, it's a good flight IAH to CDG. Pluses and minuses:
+ Bulkhead seats
+ In Flight Entertainment comparable to CO transcons I've flown. Not as good as full-blown AVOD though.
+ Dinner and light breakfast are both excellent, and served with metal utensils. In coach! Well done.
+ The wine was excellent, as one should expect of the French.
+ The flight attendants were attentive.
- Really uncomfortable seats.
- Some guy kept falling asleep... and screaming. A lot. Hundreds of times. The noise-cancelling headphones helped.
- Lots of people coughing and sneezing. Hope I don't get sick from them!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/30/08 23:59 | Travel | Technorati
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