samedi, mars 05, 2005
travelling gongshow
We travelled for 12 hours to get from one hotel to the next. And it's only a less-than-2-hour flight. We're beat, man.
The flight this morning was CANCELLED (yes, Speedwagon - due to the bad weather in Amsterdam which forced the delay and cancellation of many flights). We learned this upon arriving at the airport approximately two hours before the scheduled departure time. And were directed to stand in an already-growing ticket line to get our reservation changed. I gotta be brief because I purchased limited internet time here in the lobby of our Best Western hotel in Amsterdam (right on the canal - nice, but it's dark, so I haven't seen much yet).
To sum up: the KLM ticket staff were just about the most incompetent airport agents you would want to meet in a situation like that. They took about 30 minutes to handle each customer (in a "queue" of over 50 people, this was not helpful), were constantly screwing up the reservations for the customers they actually got to, and were resorting to writing tickets out BY HAND because they couldn't get them printing correctly. GONG. SHOW. And lots of angry customers. LOTS.
We MISSED the 1:30 flight, because the line-up just would not move. All in all, we stood in line for about five hours, before successfully boarding the 5:30 flight. Add in a couple trains into downtown Amsterdam, dragging our suitcases down a snowy street, and here we are, already asking for our wake-up call. So much for our day in Amsterdam.
Ah well. So it goes. Tomorrow's plan is to not have any flights cancelled. First Detroit (around 11), then Montreal (after a 3-hour layover). Cross your fingers for us!
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¶ 9:52 p.m. 
The flight this morning was CANCELLED (yes, Speedwagon - due to the bad weather in Amsterdam which forced the delay and cancellation of many flights). We learned this upon arriving at the airport approximately two hours before the scheduled departure time. And were directed to stand in an already-growing ticket line to get our reservation changed. I gotta be brief because I purchased limited internet time here in the lobby of our Best Western hotel in Amsterdam (right on the canal - nice, but it's dark, so I haven't seen much yet).
To sum up: the KLM ticket staff were just about the most incompetent airport agents you would want to meet in a situation like that. They took about 30 minutes to handle each customer (in a "queue" of over 50 people, this was not helpful), were constantly screwing up the reservations for the customers they actually got to, and were resorting to writing tickets out BY HAND because they couldn't get them printing correctly. GONG. SHOW. And lots of angry customers. LOTS.
We MISSED the 1:30 flight, because the line-up just would not move. All in all, we stood in line for about five hours, before successfully boarding the 5:30 flight. Add in a couple trains into downtown Amsterdam, dragging our suitcases down a snowy street, and here we are, already asking for our wake-up call. So much for our day in Amsterdam.
Ah well. So it goes. Tomorrow's plan is to not have any flights cancelled. First Detroit (around 11), then Montreal (after a 3-hour layover). Cross your fingers for us!
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¶ 9:52 p.m.
