Bath and Bristol - Valentines Day 2008 + update on the last two weeks

Dear Fighter,

I do not intent to bore anyone to death with the nice romantic weekend that we had in Bath. Just for the record, just in case the wrong (or the right) person reads this. It was a beautiful couple of days.

Travel - a curse or just bad luck
My last day at work was the 31.01.08. However, I had been ask to Travel to JFK for a couple of days to help out. A sort of consulting job to advise the new procurement manager in New York. This is where it all started.....

I haven't travelled abroad for a while. Therefore, I did not own a passport. I did have a temporary one which I had made for my trip to Dubai but that one was expired. And even if it wouldn't have been, it is useless to use for the states. Our friends in the U.S.A. (at least the one who made the mistake voting for Bush) truly believe that a German person could be the next Osama or Una Bomber. We, therefore, have to carry a fully fledged passport with chip and fingerprint to gain access to land of opportunities, world domination and freedom.

As it takes 72h to get this passport I had arranged to fly from Germany to London on the 31st at 20:15 with BA. I've noticed already earlier (curse of being involved in Airline Catering) that the two flights earlier to Frankfurt had been delayed and one was cancelled. Upon checking, I checked with BA if this fly would be cancelled. No! was the answer, it is on time. I, therefore, strolled through security, amazed that I did not have to wait forever (thank you BAA for finally employing more sercurity personell) but also pissed off that again I had to take my shoes off. Once all my change, keys, ipod, shoes, laptop, jacket and lighter had been placed again in the pockets where they belong, I checked the info display. Great 1h delay.... Look around the shops, killed time, bored to death, boarding time arrived, NO GATE. Waited another 10min, NO GATE, NO NEWS, check with the BA desk.

ME: "916 to FRA?"
BA: "cancelled!"
ME: "you are kidding me!"
BA: "Why would I kid you, what would I gain from that"
ME: astonished.....

Off I went to the reclaim, was told that I takes up to an hour for my bags. Result: Pissed OFF! Decided not to stay and to leave the security area to go to the ticket counter of BA (why the hell is there none within the security area considering that they cancel flight almost hourly). Anyhow, line, not long but not short either and very slow moving. Smoking, thinking about what I would say to the agent.... It turned out that I calmed down and the agent disarmed me even more by admitting: "we screwed up, the crew that is supposed to be on your flight is still in the air and we don't have backup". I then was booked on a LH flight at 7:10 the next morning.

Now, the next task, how do I get back into security. The yellow phone at the arrivals door. Ring Ring, no answer..... Ring again, no answer. 5 minutes later, still no answer.... so I went back upstairs to the check in counter where they've told me that someone would pick up the phone before. Finally, agreed to send someone down with me. Here we go.....Lost another 10 minutes for that....... for the first time my airside pass would have been handy but no i had to quit and returned it just 4 hours before. not to mention that I would have been allowed to use it for personal reasons anyhow.

So I got my bag and met Lucinda who was waiting outside for almost 1h. All in all, I wasted 4h at LHR.

The next morning, made it on time to the airport, however the flight was delayed again for 1,5h and it was freezing cold in the lounge.....Due to the delay, I then missed the appointment which would have still been possible. Therefore, I could not apply for my passport that day (note: in Germany civil offices close at 12:00, I arrived there at 12:02).

So, off to apply on Monday. Everything went smooth and my passport was due to arrive on Thursday by 11:00h. I was due to fly out at 14:00h, which means 1h window between getting my passport and going to the airport.

Though, I had to learn on that Thursday that the transmission to Berlin did not work and therefore my passport would not arrive that day. Ok, back home. Change of flights. Charges. More Charges. Plans changed: Tuesday off to LHR, Wednesday till Friday Bath, Saturday flight to JFK.

Tuesday: Lucinda calls me and tells me that my 14:30 flight to LHR is cancelled, great called BA, was booked on flight at 22 something. During the day I stayed informed about what was happening with the flights to LHR and had to learn that they've cancelled another 2 flights and that the flight before mine was heavily delayed. Knowing about the fact that flights are not allowed to land at LHR after 23h, I inquired with the BA hotline. Clueless. I then just 10min before the time when I had to take off to the airport, I called BA at FRA and they informed me that the flight is going and that it is relativly on time. So off I went.

I turned out that the flight would be delayed by "only" 1h and that it actually left only 30 minutes after the flight that should have gone 2h earlier. Anyhow, we boarded and I was relived until the purser made an announcement: "L and G, I have good and bad news for you, the good news is: we are going to London tonight, the bad we are flying to LGW" Arghhhhhh. So, I called Lucinda, rerouted her to LGW.

Once, I had arrived, I called Lucinda when I exited the plane as we had discussed. Though, I had to learn that she hadn't left yet because neither the hotline from BA nor the website told her that my flight would go to LGW. Why the hell didn't she listen to me. Woman I guess. Control Freak I guess.

Anyhow, we arrived home by about 2h local time........

The next day we went to Bath. We stayed at the MacDonald Bath Spa & Hotel, a 5 star property (beautiful) and MacDonald won the AA award for the best chain in 2007.
The building and souroundings of the hotel were beautiful, the interior and rooms were past their best and the service was appauling. I don't want to go into detail but DO NOT GO THERE.

Last but not least, we had our treat in the spa on Friday. I kept myself under control for the entire stay and tried hard not to complain to Lucinda too much and to not cause a scene with the staff. I even accepted that we were not able to extend our check out time to 14:00h even though we had treatments till 13:30.

My treatments were OK, the ayurveda massage was not what I expected and far from the quality that I had at Teneriffe. The facial was good and hot stone massage was very good. I was lucky to get it actually, as I had to sign a disclaimer because I had two massages on one day. The therapist almost refused to do it. The reply to our question why that was not pointed out to us at the time of booking was typical for the place: Reception has no clue........

Anyhow, the icing on the cake was not my (direct) misfortune but Lucinda's. Her therapist broke a rip of hers whilst massaging. ARGHHHH. This was diagnosed by a less than motivated NHS doctor without even looking at her properly after only 1,5h waiting.....

What a wonderful 14 days..... I am still waiting for the anwers to my complaints to BA....

Keep Fightin'

Jochen