Second blog on Airlines and flying

We had the opportunity over the last two weeks to have interactions with 5 different airlines. These are my ramblings about those interactions. One leg of our travel, that would have been effected by the British Airlines potential strike was our Logan to Heathrow leg. When there was a possibility of a strike, we decided to buy an insurance ticket so that if there were a strike, we would be able to get to London, on a non-BA flight. We were also worried about the tight connection in London anyway. So Dec 23rd we checked into our Iceland Air flight.

Ever the nosy talkative one, in the security line while chatting with someone, we heard that if you don't check in for the first flight of travel, they cancel the entire ticket. WHAT!!!!!! This is outrageous, and is in the small print. Our logic which did not prevail was that BA was threatening to strike and we needed to be sure we could get to London. Long story short is that we went to the BA lounge, tried to sway the customer service person, got nowhere, got our bags back from Icelandic Air and left on our original BA flight the next morning. We also had a non-refundable night at the Hilton at the airport, so we used that as well. We think our karma turned to positive at the point at which we got our bags back from Icelandic Air.

When we checked into BA the next morning, we had been upgraded to business class. We were so pleased with ourselves, and to this day we are both so curious about why we got upgraded. We were also upgraded on the 11 hour London to Bangkok flight. Business Class is very nice. We actually priced it on a lark while we were at the Hilton. For the 4 legs it would have cost us $19,000. Lucky we did not even consider it, because it cost us nothing in the end.

In Thailand, we used two airlines, Thai Airlines and Bangkok Airlines to go to Cambodia. All 4 of these flights were less than 50 minutes long, AND we were served a box snack. In the US you can fly all across the country and not be given a meal. In Thailand and Cambodia, you get fed on any flight.

We did not get upgraded on our return BA and Qantas flights. In fact, we did not even get seats together because "we have different last names and therefore were not considered a family." Our tickets were not linked in the system. Are you kidding? You know that 6 digit confirmation code. If you pull our record up by that, both of us are listed. We finally did get seated together, after taking up 25 minutes of the person's time. We were not going to give up. In Bangkok, it does not seem OK for women to be pushy and aggressive and stand up for themselves. When I displayed that behavior the ticket agent only would talk and face Murg. It was pretty funny actually, as I leaned over to try to make eye contact with her.

So we get upgraded on the way to Bangkok, and do not even get seated together on the way back. HUH?

The final adventure of our travels was in Heathrow, 10 days after the Christmas Day terrorist tried to blow up the Amsterdam to Detroit Northwest flight. Any flight leaving for the US had an additional security check. They had 5 additional BA ticket agents put on and probably 15 extra security agents to check every bit of your carry on baggage and do a fully body pat down, with a gender specific security personnel. The flights could not have flown to the US, but this must not leave a very good feelings among all of those ticket agents and security personnel. Yes, Americans are targets but I did not feel that great as an American that day in Heathrow.

So my conclusions are that money talks. If you can fly business class do, especially if you get upgraded for free. Buying cheap tickets on the Internet have some risks, and I need to be prepared to take those risks. We are very lucky to be able to travel and even luckier that we overheard and talked with the woman in the security line that night. If we had taken the Icelandic Air flight we could have arrived in London, and had to buy another ticket for $4000 each. YIKES AND OUCH!!!!

These flying experiences opened my eyes to the cultural differences around the world, not just in the arena of planes, flying and airports.