Eos files & shuts down

Not at all unexpected, Eos filed for bankruptcy on April 26th, and flew their last flights today.

Like Maxjet, they were trying to fit into a niche where just about every US airline trying the model has failed... all-premium.

Unlike Maxjet, they had the right fleet -- 757-200's outfitted with 48 seats. But the economics just didn't work.

A few months back, a former colleague contacted me about doing some contract work for them. I passed. Had I done the work, I'd probably be an unsecured creditor as well.

In the past weeks, it was said they had new financing lined up. Based on today's shutdown, it appears that financing fell thru, and their private investors decided to call a loss a loss.

April 2008 will no doubt go down as one of the more notorious months in airline history -- this marks the fifth airline bankruptcy and fourth shutdown this month, plus the announced merger of NW & DL, which will no doubt wreak havoc on employees despite assurances to the opposite by both companies management teams.

And there are still three business days left to go...

Driving Down Under

On my most recent trip, I had the, er, pleasure of renting a car from Avis.

Unfortunately, Avis is about at good at delivering what you ask for in Oz as they are in the US... I'd requested a Toyota Corolla with a GPS. Not too difficult, right?

Wrong.

When I arrived in Sydney, they had Corollas, but no GPS's. So, the helpful people at Avis put me into the largest thing next to a 747 that they had at the airport - a Holden Commodore... with a built in GPS. OK. I had no real choice except to hang out at Avis hoping someone would be returning a car with a Tom Tom or other portable GPS, which wasn't likely in the next three hours according to Avis. The other option was to try navigating Sydney without a GPS, which would have been a bigger problem. It's by no means a grid city, and it's hard enough driving on the left without also having to figure out a map...

So, after the bags were packed in the hold, we cast our lines away and sailed off in the Aussie aircraft carrier...

Holden used to be an independent auto maker... in 1930. Then, GM gobbled them up. Despite being owned by GM, I didn't see a whole lot of influence, i.e. tired GM models from Detroit being rebranded as Holdens. But they do rebrand a bunch of Daiwoo's from South Korea... To their credit, the Commodore was designed by Holden in Oz, and they still manufacture their own engines (transmissions are imported).

Driving on the left isn't unusual -- it's a hold-over from the British Empire in Australia, New Zealand, and strangely, Japan. It sounds intimidating, but after a few minutes, you just get used to it. I only turned into the wrong lane at an intersection once... Unfortunately, the transposition of the turn signals and wipers is harder to remember. Up until the day I left, I signaled with my wipers about half the time. Then, when I got home, I started doing the same thing because mu hands had been re-trainined.

Ride-wise, the Commodore sailed pretty smoothly. But it was still a boat. Parking it was a downright pain, and being a good deal heavier than the Corolla, it sucked down gas a lot faster. At $3/gallon, that's a problem. But gas was about $6/gallon in SYD. Filling it up cost me $75 for 3/4 of a tank...

My biggest complaint was the GPS. It was moderately useful, but the "user interface" sucked. All the controls were in the steering wheel, and shared with the radio.... Spelling out a location meant scrolling a thumbwheel thru every letter of the alphabet, and then more scrolling to find [ENTER]. Sounds great, until you realize that you can't do it while in motion. You have to come to a stop to do anything. If you take too long, the controls revert back to the radio, so instead of scrolling for the letter "W" you've just changed the radio station for the umpteenth time... What a pain... With the Tom Tom, Navman or Garmin touchscreen, that's never an issue, and if you're moving, the passenger can operate the GPS.

The next complaint about the built-in GPS was the display... It was monochrome and integrated into the driver's gauges (directly in back of the steering wheel), and didn't have an overview map. Therefore, you really have no indication where you're going aside from an arrow showing your next turn. That's a huge disadvantage when you're in a strange city, see the ocean is to your left, and know your hotel is on the beach, yet the arrows are telling you to turn right. In one example, I was directed to make three left turns instead of a single right turn...

That's been corrected in newer versions, which have a color display in the center console. But that didn't do me any good...

My final gripe about the GPS. Did I mention it was a piece of crap?... Twice, it ignored where I wanted to go, and kept giving me directions back to the airport instead of the hotel. Maybe the car was a distant relative of Herbie the Love Bug, and realized how much I didn't like it, so it wanted to go home. Fortunately, Avis provisioned the car with a detailed map of Sydney in book form, so my passenger was able to get me where I needed to go.

Too bad we didn't know about the book when we were at the rental counter... I would have opted for the Corolla.

Lounges ... SYD Qantas Club

The last in a multi-part series... at least for a couple months. My traveling for the quarter is now over, thankfully, and so is my evaluation of airline lounges...

The last leg of my month on the road was the Qantas Club in Sydney, Australia.

Perhaps I was just tired of looking at clubs by this point, but honestly, I was underwhelmed. You'd think would be a flagship location (no pun intended against oneworld partner AA...) given that SYD is the largest operation for QF.

The floorspace was a little larger than what QF had at AKL and MEL, but it was quite narrow, being on the upper level of the departures hall. As in the MEL and AKL clubs, they had ample PC's to work from, and free wi-fi for those who wanted to use their own laptops. Fortunately, VPN worked great via the Telstra connection (which was not the case in AKL).

Food choices were still better than an Admirals Club back home -- a cold table with some fruit and pasta salads, ham, bread rolls, and a well stocked self-service bar. They had fountain soda with a choice of six Coke products, and three Aussie beers on draft in addition to several selections in bottles. Fountain and draft are a little more green than having recyclable single containers, but frankly, it didn't leave much of a choice with regard to soft drinks.

Interestingly, no Vegemite to be found anywhere, however I was there during the early afternoon, so perhaps it was already locked away in the safe, being a high value item and all. Too bad -- the Queen was with me, and I was hoping to sneak her a taste of that lovely stuff.

The upside to SYD over the AKL and MEL clubs was clearly the view -- ample windows overlooking the tarmac allow you to watch planes come and go, and have some idea of what time of day it is, but that was about it.

Lounges.... Admirals Club - LAX

This is by far one of my favorite clubs... of course, my opinion is biased, since I'm a member, right??

First, the floor to ceiling windows overlooks one of the best views available -- the alley between AA's terminal and the Bradley terminal. There's nothing quite as enjoyable as sipping a Diet Coke while watching a QF 747 load next to an Eva 777-300ER...

Second, it's in LAX, which is quickly becoming my preferred international gateway... Don't get me wrong -- I like going thru ORD, and am really looking forward to the prospect of finally being able to connect to LHR via DFW, but LAX is a better place to depart and arrive. If nothing else, there's rarely ever any ATC or weather to contend with...

The variety of snacks was also better here than in other locations. Cheese, crackers, finger sandwiches, cookies, and my favorite, Salty Death Mix.

Free wi-fi is nice, and so are the showers. Kids room? Great idea! They've also got one in the new DFW lounge, so it wasn't a matter of simply converting the former smoking lounge into a game room. The alternative is what I've experienced in Chicago -- kids running all over... Far better to keep them in a closed-in space. And did I mention Salty Death Mix? (named as such because it has about a gazillion grams of sodium and no nutritional value whatsoever... yet I still eat it by the cupfull...)

I'd been a freeloader with the Admirals Club up until last month. Since most of my travel was on full fare business class tickets, admittance to the Club was included.

But when AA announced free wifi, they only provided it to paid members, so I finally bit the bullet and bought a membership. And yes, I confirmed tonight... only one wifi connection can be made per membership number in the same location. So... my guest and spouse weren't able to connect using my number unless I was logged off...

The only downside to the Admirals Club vs. other lounges? Not much. I don't drink much, and rarely do before getting on an aircraft. Being able to get a couple dozen Diet Cokes is usually good enough to me. But the Admirals Club has a cash bar for beer, wine, and cocktails, so if you like to imbibe, your money might be better spent with the Crown Room or another club who has an open bar.

Lounges.... Qantas Club in AKL and MEL

In AKL, the Qantas Club is located airside on the upper level, next to ANZ's club. Somewhat off the beaten path, but it's also quite busy, given that QF is the second largest carrier at AKL and probably the largest at MEL. In MEL, the club was a little more difficult to find -- it was on the jetway level of the airport, which is one level below the general hold rooms and shopping arcade.

My first impression was that it was very much like an Admirals club, but without all the dark furniture. Nice features included a self-serve bar (including hard liquor), and a cold table with various fruit juices, fruit salad, and yogurt. Pretty good selection of breakfast breads and jams as well. During the lunch hours, they had soup and some cold cuts.

Vegemite was proudly displayed, but I can't say that barley paste looks all too inviting. Still, I had to try it just because it was there... I only took a taste, and it was almost like spreadable soy sauce... I can't imagine why it hasn't caught on elsewhere, but don't expect me to ever buy it or try it again.

Boarding announcements were made in AKL, but were just a little too lengthy and frequent, almost to the point of being a distraction. MEL seemed to be a little more brief.

Free wifi was available, but in AKL, they had it locked down too tightly for my Gmail to be able to download to Thunderbird, and it also blocked VPN connections. Thankfully, both Gmail and my work email have web clients, but it was a bit of a nuisciance as I wanted to upload some photos to the web server and couldn't... At MEL, ports weren't a problem, but the connection was horribly slow. Painfully. Slow.

Overall, a very nice place to wait, which is just about all I really look for in a club.

Interestingly, Emirates also had a club in MEL. They operate three or four flights a day into AKL (one each to MEL, SYD, and BNE, all of which wind up in DXB).

Auckland

This week found me in New Zealand for the very first time. I have to admit I didn't know what to expect. Certainly, I didn't plan on seeing "Lord of the Rings" scenery...

Auckland is built upon the remains of some 50 volcanoes, so as you can imagine, it's very hilly. Everywhere we walked felt like it was uphill. I've never felt so out of shape in my life...

NZ looks like a very pretty place to vist. Unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of time to be a tourist.

I did get to visit Auckland Domain and the War Memorial Museum, but aside from that, I saw little more of the city aside from the drive to/from a friend's house for dinner, and the central business district.

Auckland Domain is a very large city park built on the side of one of the extinct volcanos, and yes, it's an uphill walk... From where I was staying, at least. The Domain has large lawns in some places, but most of it is simply nature preserve, with a few trails that give you the experience of walking thru a tropical forest. I probably would have enjoyed it more had I started at the top and walked down...

The War Memorial Museum sits at the edge of the extinct crater rim, so it's visible from the city. It opened after WW-I, and as its name implies, has memorials to all those who fought in the various Imperial wars over the years that NZ was part of the British Empire, as well as present day wars including Viet Nam and Iraq. Included in the display areas are a Japanese Zero and a Spitfire, two of the more famous and capable attack planes from WW-II.

There's also a Holocaust exhibit, which I found odd at first until I saw that thousands of Auchwitz survivors emmigrated to New Zealand after liberation.

But that's only one of the three floors of exhibits... The bottom floor is devoted almost entirely to Maori history and artifacts, including a 50 person canoe and a longhouse with hundreds of hand carved totems lining the walls. That alone was worth the NZ$ 5.00 admission. The middle floor houses some exhibits more targeted at kids, including one on wildlife, and a pretty interesting display on volcanoes, which my youngest son would have probably spent all day in...

For a city of almost 1.3M people, it certainly didn't feel crowded or busy. Definitely on the radar to return as a tourist some day...

View the rest of photo album....

Dachau

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to tour Dachau, one of the very first concentration camps developed by the Third Reich in 1933.

The pictures and the history around the site speak for themselves, unlike the tens of thousands who died within its gates carrying the false hope "Work Makes You Free"...

I only try to post one or two pictures per entry, but this deserves more, so feel free to view the full photo album here...

Lounges.... DL's Crown Room - MUC

Just got back from Munich, and flew BA on the way back to London. I was a little surprised at check-on when BA didn't direct me to a third party club at the airport, but instead to the DL Crown Room... Now, very little about Delta surprises me anymore, but why on earth would Delta need a club in Munich, when they only have one flight a day? Granted, there are plenty of Skyteam flights at MUC, but it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Regardless, the usual open bar was present (this is a feature of the stateside clubs as well), but there wasn't a whole lot of style to the decor. They had seating for about 45, but there was no view whatsoever. T-Mobile was available for fee-based wifi (contrary to what the domestic clubs offer), but they did have a couple of PC's available for use in the very back.

Food selections were dismal. Virtually everything was prepackaged, with the exception of some breadrolls and some olives. There was a good selection of mini Bonbels and spreadable "Laughing Cow" style cheese and sausage thingees, but nothing to spread them with. That was a little messy...

If nothing else, it was a place to wait for my flight in relative peace. But if this is indeed representitive of the domestic CR's, it's nowhere near worth the money just for a free Jack Daniels before you fly...

Lounges... BA's Terminal 1 & Madrid

This week I had the chance to spend a few hours in BA's T-1 lounge for what will probably be the last time. BA's new terminal opens up next month, and most of what's in T-1 today will eventually move to other terminals, so I can only assume the lounge pavillion will also close or be scaled back considerably.

Personally, I find LHR's terminals 1, 2 & 3 to be about as attractive as a tube station (without the urine smell, however).

The exceptions to that are the various shopping areas and the private airline clubs.

The Terraces lounge in T-1 is pretty slick as my lounges experiences go. Lots of small finger foods & fruit at stations scattered about the lounge area, several different "theme" areas (a quiet zone, TV zones, and a quasi meeting zone with larger round tables) plus a central serving station with a self-service bar and a cold table with yogurt & fruit in the mornings, and various salads and lunch meats in the afternoon (I got there just as they were switching over). Wifi is pay (Boingo works), but they do have a half dozen or so free terminals where you can use MS Office and a web browser. Only downside is that you can't plug in a USB drive, so if you don't have your docs available via the web, there's no way to do anything in Word or Excel...

IB's lounge in MAD is spacious, but they're pretty stingy with the food... bags of peanuts and chips, a few pre-packaged muffins & cookies. Nothing fresh, and no fruit. Wifi is pay (again, Boingo works), but they do have wired connections available for free (leave your BP with the desk for a deposit on the ethernet cable). That's the only lounge I've found so far that has such a provision.

Time to go jump on a flight...

London Bridges

London is one of my favorite international cities to visit.  I've been here a dozen or so times that I can think of, mostly on business trips, which has limited some of my ability to sightsee.  This time, I had only a half day to spend in the city, and it was a Sunday afternoon at that, which meant many places would be closed or closing early.  I'd arrived at noon, so by the time I got to the hotel, back to the tube station, and into the cityit was already time for dinner.  I headed to Leicester Square, my favorite starting point, and found a place in China Town (when in London, always try the Chinese or Indian food...).  From there, I meandered down along Trafalgar Square (cordoned off for a music concert that evening) and hopped a bus to Westminster.

Being a Sunday, Westminster Abbey is closed for sightseeing, however there was an evening service at 1830, and I was just a few minutes late for the opening.  Walking from the entrance to where the service was being held, I was amazed at how many burial markers were on the floor.  It's literally a who's who of English history...  and I didn't get anywhere near the royal crypts.  The service was short -- by the time I arrived, the vicar was halfway thru the sermon.  The pipe organ is immense, and sounded incredible... After the service, we all exited down the center aisle, and I couldn't help thinking of all the people who had walked that same aisle, including Charles and Diana for their wedding, and Diana's casket for her funeral.  I paused for a moment at Churchill's tomb, which is right next to the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior from WW-I, and then the staff asked everyone left from the service to leave, since they wanted to go home and we were now sightseeing... Got to love British efficiency.

Following that, I headed across the Westminster Bridge, and walked along the south bank of the Thames.  It was low tide, so there was a lot of exposed rock and sand along the edges, and there was even a little "beach party" going on underneath one of the water taxi piers.  I also passed the rebuilt Globe Theater and the Tate modern art museum.  Somehow, in 20 years worth of visits to London, I'd never seen the Globe Theater...

Each of the bridges has its own character -- there's the boring bridges like Westminster and London, the somewhat ornate Blackfriar's, and the more modern looking Millenium Bridge, which is for pedestrians only and Golden Jubilee Bridges, which are physically attached to and flank the Hungerford Bridge, built in the 1860's.

 One of The Queen's (my Queen, not QE2) favorite places is the Tower of London.  We've both been there for tours, but it takes on a special character at night, when all the tourists are gone and all that's left are its walls.  Had my digital camera not eaten up some images (the card was somehow corrupted, the modern equivilent of film being jammed...), I would have had some really cool night shots.  Unfortunately, I was only able to salvage three or four...

And then there's the Tower Bridge... beautiful in its own overbuilt, gaudy way...

In all, I walked a total of more than three miles, including the walk up to Tower Hill, where I hopped back on the tube to return back to the hotel.  My feet and legs were a little sore, but that's the fun part of visiting London.  If you don't get out and walk, you miss a lot.

Ain't Life Grand?

Since it was a three day weekend, we headed up to the Grand Canyon for a break from the heat.

We arrived somewhat late (0200?), so rather than head into the park, we stopped at Ten-X, which is a National Forest campground about six miles from the south rim.  We'd stayed there before, and expecting the worse, we were pleasantly surprised to get a decent size pull-thru site near the entrance.

The next day, we headed into the park, and were able to get one of the last spots at Mather Campground for the following two nights, which was pure luck.  That meant we would be able to park Minnie (and the dogs) and be able to take the bus within the park, saving us a lot of teardown/setup and a lot of gas.

Back in July, there was a lightning strike on the North Rim, and the fires were still burning along the Walhalla Plateau near Roosevelt Point.  A lot of smoke visible in that part of the canyon, and there were a few road closures over there as well.  Would have been a bummer, since the drive out to Cape Royal is more than half of the viewpoints available on the North Rim.

While the views at the canyon are simply breathtaking, it never ceases to amaze me how stupid some people can be. 

For example... Mom, boy-toy, and her two kids.  The two kids are sitting on the stone wall.  Below the stone wall?  A 300 foot drop.  People have died at this very spot.  Yet Mom is simply too stupid to tell her idiot children that it's probably not a good idea.  No... She was too busy fawning over boy-toy (who the kids were calling by his first name).  I stuck around a few extra minutes waiting for them to tumble into the abyss, but eventually had to move on.

On Monday morning, we watched the sun rise over the canyon, which is awesome.  And yes, even at 6am, there were stupid people out in large numbers...

At Yaki Point, about a dozen tourists from 12 time zones away walked around the guard rails, down an incline and onto a outcropping about 30 feet below the rim.  Makes for a great view, but standing on a rock that is eventually going to wind up at the bottom of the canyon isn't too smart....

Since we didn't see anyone die a horrific death, we had to settle for buying a copy of "Death in the Grand Canyon", which is a great non-fiction addition to anyone's library, detailing the deaths of 300 or so people who have died from falling, dehydration, flash floods, and not-so-rare plane crashes...

As for the camping?  It was great.  Daytime temps in the 80's, and nighttime lows in the 50's.  Perfect sleeping weather, especially considering that we didn't have hookups.  Great sun meant the batteries were recharged by mid-morning (although we didn't really beat them up by watching TV or anything).

Nice is Nice... in a French sort of way

TUS-NCE
	Meetings with the mother ship.
	Somewhat planned in advance trip to NCE to work on a new line of business. Our corporate travel office decided that we needed to follow their travel policy a little closer than we have in the past, to the extent that I got a phone call from a manager in MIA after I'd proposed my preferred itinerary on AA and BA. It appears that the preferred carriers for international travel are IB and LH, however neither are customers for our tiny division. AA, DL, and UA are, but they're not anchor tenants of the larger Amadeus just yet, and they''re also smart enough not to have negotiated the steep discounts that IB and LH did. Complicating things a bit: my passport expired at the beginning of May, and I hadn't sent it off for renewal yet. That turned out to be a good thing. With 16 days advance notice, I had time for an expedited mail-in, but as a backup, needed to route my ticket so that if I had to drop into an agency office prior to leaving, I could do so on the way over. With all that in mind, I booked AA TUS-ORD, and then IB on ORD-MAD-NCE (separate tickets because of our discounts on both AA for domestic and IB for international). Fortunately, my passport was turned around within five working days, and in my hands the Monday before leaving, so I didn't have to change my outbound. Despite all the horror stories about passport agency delays, I have to admit that they exceeded my expectations. But, had I mailed my passport into the agency for renewal without the expedite fee, I would have been screwed. Non-expedited renewals are taking 10-12 weeks to process, and in many cases, not being logged into the system for up to a month after being sent in. Until it is logged into the system, the processing priority can't be changed. Long travel days suck, but there's no way to avoid it when you live in the desert... TUS at 0500 is an easy place to move thru. I checked in at self-service, swiped my passport, and had boarding passes for TUS-ORD and ORD-MAD in just a few seconds. Not bad, considering I was booked directly on IB and not as an AA codeshare. Line at security was about two people deep with two machines operating, so there was no wait at all. Right after I came thru, there was a group of about 25 soldiers coming thru in fatigues, and I found it a bit ironic that they were all told to take off their combat boots for screening... It's OK for off duty cops and federal law enforcement officers to bring weapons onboard, so why are soldiers (who are obviously able to engage in hand-to-hand tactics far more effective at disabling someone than with simple weaponry) given the same degree of screening as Joe Sixpack?... Policy for the sake of policy and show is simply stupid. And somewhat demeaning to these men and women who are clearly willing to put their lives on the line for our freedom... AA1184 TUS-ORD MD80 21A left 0607 crew legality off 0615 on 1104 in 1109 N442AA What is there to say about a domestic flight on AA that I haven''t already seen?... We took off reasonably close to ontime, we arrived more or less ontime, and I got a Diet Dr. Pepper. Crew upgraded a soldier to F at departure time, so I'm glad I didn't request an upgrade, since that was the only seat left in F. On approach, we did a left turn over the north Loop, literally around the John Hancock tower. Some beautiful views of downtown Chicago. Arriving at ORD, I tried to get into the Flagship Lounge, which is AA''s premium class lounge out at K20, but since I was on an IB ticket (and not an AA codeshare ticket), I was relegated to the Admirals Club. Granted, the club is a great place to wait for a flight at ORD, but there isn't exactly a lot to keep one occupied there unless you shell out the bucks for T-Mobile wifi or ORD's Boingo wifi. So, after grabbing a soft-drink (and running into our CEO and his family on their way back to TUS from ROA), I took a stroll thru T-2. While there are a lot more food options than I remember, I'm surprised to see that the DOA hasn't done anything to raise the ceilings in T-2 as they've been done in T-3. Along the way, I stopped at Jetblue's gate and bought a set of on the ear headphones (I'd meant to buy a set when I took the tour at JFK with Ahasic a few years back...) from the honor box. The headphones are definitely worth $1, and now I can say I'm a Jetblue customer, right?... There was a JFK E190 departure in progress, and it went out completely full, stranding a commuting DL flight attendant who coincidentally was also going to NCE, except that she was supposed to work DL's JFK-NCE trip that night, and was now going to have to fly into LGA to make her sign-in. Such is the life of a commuter. The remainder of my wait at ORD was spent watching a few episodes of Battlestar Galactica 1980. I'm a big fan of the remake on Sci Fi Channel, and have been watching reruns of the original 1978/1979 series (which I was also an avid watcher of when they were first aired, and a bit bummed when it wasn't renewed by ABC). I vaguely remember the 1980 showings, but don't recall watching it, and it doesn't appear to be in the rotation on Sci Fi, so I went off to bitTorrent and downloaded all 10 episodes. My advise: don't waste the electricity to power your TV if this is ever re-aired again, and unless you're really into bad acting and corny plot lines, don't bother downloading it, either. Lorne Greene's cameo over-acting and some of the hokie gimmicks they employed made this a total waste of time and money. But, it killed time... IB 6274 ORD-MAD A346 3J Left 1648 off 1659 on 0739 in 0748 Fronk already warned me that IB's boarding process was akin to the running of the bulls, and he wasn't kidding... Fortunately, there was a separate queue for J class, but but the coach "pen" was looking a little scary... I lucked out and had an empty aisle seat next to me, which was one of the few high points of this leg. I started out with a seatmate and her Schnauzer, but she was able to move into the center two seats. Schnauzii sat in a seat for a couple hours until the purser finally noticed and told her to put it back in its carrier. I was looking forward to IB's premium product based on their website and what others had told me. If IB has new J seats, I'm not impressed... Reminded me a lot of the first generation F seats on AA's 777 fleet (pre-Signature). Seat power was inop for the first 30 minutes of the flight, and the plastic trim piece on the seatback in front of me was falling off from the time I sat down, and the little pull-down briefing card holder wouldn't retract back into its stowed position. When I reclined the seat to its lay-flat position, my head was pressing against the back of the plastic shell and my feet wound up being pinned underneath the seat in front of me. To make matters even better, the tray table swings out of the armrest; as I sank the seat down, the table sank unevenly along with it... So the seat goes almost flat, but only if you're less than 5' tall. The other annoying part as a person of height is that the headrest had wings (similar to AA), but they were not adjustable in height, so in the lie-flat position, the joint between the seatback and the headrest got to be a little uncomfortable even with a pillow under my neck. Likewise, the fold-out footrest was for people under 5' tall, but leaving it stowed meant a piece of metal was now between my legs and the seat cushion. Newspapers passed out on ground - assortment of Spanish papers plus the Tribune. Right after takeoff, magazines were offered, all Spanish. Movies onboard were plentiful, but I had a second set of videos to watch -- PBS's "The Mormons" which aired on Frontline last month. Approx 20% of all boy scout and cub scout units in the United States are LDS sponsored, and in Arizona, that number is closer to 50%. Given my involvement with scouting, I thought it was time to find out a little more about the LDS movement. Interesting documentary. As an outsider, I thought it was a somewhat reasonable balance of documented history mixed in with commentary from current members, former members, critics, and theologians inside and outside the church. LDS church members might feel otherwise. (It's available to watch on PBS.Org, and if anyone is really interested, I have all four hours of Quicktime files already downloaded.) Food was OK but nothing horribly interesting. Salad of grilled scallops, mango, and field greens served with oil & vinegar. Entrees consisted of Chilean sea bass, veal, and veggie lasagna, none of which I'd really consider either US or Spanish. Dessert options were mango & rasberry ice cream, chocolate cake, or a cheese tray. Breakfast was fruit, twelve hour old toast, and yogurt. One thing IB does that I like is present the entree choices and desserts from a tiered card. Makes it a lot easier to choose an entree you want, as opposed to guessing from a paper menu (assuming the translations are decent). In both directions, I chose my entree based on appearance. On arrival in MAD, we walked forever, and arrived at the same time as four other A340's, presumably from the US given the lines at immigration. As much as some people criticize the lack of moving walkways in T-5 at ORD, I found them to be a bottleneck in MAD (likewise in LHR), and chose to walk at my own pace. Doing so put me into the immigration queue a minute or two earlier than some of the other folks from the J cabin on my flight.MAD airport is interesting architecturally, but appears somewhat overbuilt. There's T4, and then there's the ginormous T4 satellite. All long-haul international arrives at the satellite, and then trains similar to ATL & DEN run you over to T4 to clear security and customs. Both terminals are long, long concourses with glass walls on all four sides, giving great views of the ramp (if it weren't for the jetway tubes). The IB Club at MAD was made to sound a lot better than it wound up being. I'd rate it a small degree above the Admirals Club in either DFW or ORD (which isn't saying much) except that they had a lot more selections for self-serve beverages (Admirals Club doesn't have self-serve in the US), and they also had small snack foods available (Admirals Club only has salty death mix and a few pieces of fruit). Fortunately, they had showers, and I was able to get out of the clothes I'd been wearing for over 20 hours. IB8748 MAD-NCE CR2 out 0959 off 1013 on 1140 in 1145 EC-IAA (oh, the irony.....) My connection to NCE was on Air Nostrom, and believe it or not, this was my first revenue CRJ200 flight. I'd flown the 70 a few times on Eagle, and flown on a Bombardier sponsored charter about 12 years ago, but this was the first time I can think of where I was on a paid ticket. For a regional, it wasn't bad. Despite the number of gates, all regional boarding is done at ground level on a remote pad. Once onboard, I remembered my biggest gripe from the CRJ200 charter: the windows are too low for anyone over 5' tall. Perhaps they used the same test dummy as IB's lie-flat seat vendor... Sitting on the aisle seat, I was able to look down at the ground when we flew, but I couldn't tell you what we saw at the airport as we taxied. Even though the flight was an hour or so long, there was a meal service, on china with stainlessware no less. Choice of crepes or plated fruit, with a second choice of chocolate rolls or Krispy Kremes. OK, they weren't Krispy's, but they looked just like them.... In 20 years of flying, that's the first time I've seen glazed donuts offered, but there were a lot of takers for some strange reason... Arrival into NCE was uneventful, although on taxi, the crew missed our taxiway into the parking area, braked really hard, and somehow managed to do a 180 on the taxiway to get back to the opening. That's comforting... why not just continue down to the next turnout?.... Ground crew at NCE was very welcoming, in a French sort of way.... Several of us were waiting for our hand baggage which had to be placed in the hold thanks to the CRJ's spaciousness, and the CSR was literally yelling at us to get on the bus, even after we told her we were still waiting for hand bags. Rather than take that for an answer, she demanded to see our claim stubs. Having spent approx 20 hours in transit by that point, I was not exactly pleased to have to go digging thru my backpack to find the claim ticket. But, after we all produced our claim stubs, she did shut up.... Gotta love the French. Nice is nice. In a French sort of way.... Our facility in NCE is actually stated as being in Sophia-Antipolis, which is about 20km northwest from the airport. We have somewhere around 2500 employees, mainly programmers and product development staff, located in at least 11 different buildings that I've been to, and I believe there may be an annex or two located within 1km of the main campus. Being in a suburban office park has its advantages, but it also means that when we go over for meetings, there aren't a lot of options for hotels or for dining within a reasonable walking distance of the campus. There are two hotels that are across the street (sort of) however both were full this week, so I wound up at the Ibis. They're owned by Accor. I didn't think it was possible to view Motel 6 as an upscale chain, but after staying at the Ibis, M6 now looks good. Because of the distance from the airport and city, cabs can run about E$40-60 to/from the airport, and very few of them accept credit cards. Plus, given the prospect of being trapped at the hotel and dependent on local employees to be shuttled around, I reserved a subcompact from Avis. It wound up being a diesel Renault Clio, which was fun to drive, and would have easily fit in the bed of my pickup... My GPS and the European version of Microsoft MapPoint did a great job of telling me where I needed to go, albeit with a few missed turnouts in the roundabouts (Frank, you can go ahead and say "I told you so" now), but once I got the hang of actually looking at the map -before- entering the roundabouts, and turning on map rotation, all was well. All in all, driving wasn't so bad, but the motorcyclists are downright reckless... After an accidental afternoon catnap, I drove along the Mediterranean coastline to Monaco (about 20 miles from the hotel), which is one of the more beautiful drives I''ve taken in Europe. Passed thru Monte Carlo before returning back on the low road, which was a little less dramatic than the high road, but also less traveled. Since it was getting dark, I didn't mind. Stopped for a take-out pizza in Villefrance-sur-Mer (which translates to "small village with three pizza places on one block"). During the course of the week, I had a chance to visit the village of Valbonne (which stands for "British ex-patriot haven") twice, about ten minutes drive from the HDQ campus. It's an older village with a small town square surrounded by outdoor restaurants, plus smaller restaurants on the streets leading into the square. A few outdoor scenes from "French Kiss" with Kevin Kline and Meg Ryan were filmed there in the square. It's also a favorite with ex-pats from the UK, including one of the program managers I dined with on Wednesday night. She also recommended a hotel on the square for future visits, since I wasn't afraid to drive. Things not to expect in France: Shopping on a Sunday. Even though there is a huge influx of Muslim immigrants, the whole country pretty much shuts down on Sundays. Sort of a bummer, since I'd hoped to hit a grocery store for some Diet Coke, baguettes and marmalade for breakfast. I wound up finding a small convenience store by accident when I stopped for pizza Sunday night. Eating dinner before 2000. Restaurants don't open until 1900, and there's no way you're going to see starters before 1930... Buying gas between 2200 and 0600. Pay at the pump hasn't made it to South France, and the few places that were actually open for business 24h only accepted oil company issued credit cards. If you need to gas up, do it during the day. Refills at McDonalds Ice at McDonalds Les Etats-Unis est le place pour moi.... My flight home was at 0730, however as I'd changed my reservation the day before, the travel office at HDQ suggested that I get my ticket revalidated at the ticket counter, which opened at 0600. Given time to return my rental car, get gas, and be lost for a while on the way from the hotel, I wound up waking up at 0330, and leaving the hotel about 0410. No problems getting to the airport, but tried to stop for gas along the way, and none of the stations I found offered pay at the pump. The station in the airport opened at 0600, but that was cutting it a bit close, so I did something I've never done before -- returned a car without refilling the tank. Apparently, posted opening times in France are a myth. The agents for the ground handling company at NCE strolled out of their office about 0610, and spent the next five minutes setting up the counters. Good thing I didn't wait for the gas station attendant - I'd have probably arrived in the terminal at boarding time... Once open, it was fairly quick in/out of the queue, thru security, and into the J lounge at NCE. They've got two small lounges with free wifi, but the way it is set up, they give you a PIN which is only good for an hour. After an hour, you have to go to the reception desk and get another PIN. With a 0730 departure, I planned on leaving the lounge about 0700. At 0645, the receptionist told me my flight was boarding, and to report to the gate. So... being the obedient customer that I am, I packed up my stuff, and went to the gate. No agents, and lots of people sitting. Now I'm a little annoyed, being paged to the gate for no apparent reason, and in the time it took me to pack up and walk to the gate, my wifi PIN expired, and I couldn't finish sending email...... At 0715, the agent shows up and starts boarding. After running my boarding pass thru the EGR, the spirit twin of Agent Naste' d'Arrivals demands to see my connecting boarding passes, takes the BP for my ORD-TUS segment, and tears it in half. Now I'm pissed. One-stop check-in is supposed to be part of oneworld, right? I had a seat assignment, so obviously Edifact thru check-in worked. My bags were thru checked OK. I ask why she did that, and she snipes back "your ticket has problems". OK, why weren't these fixed at the ticket counter? "I don't know. Get on the bus." Excuse me? Now I'm pissed. I ask for her name. "I am not required to give you my name. Get on the bus you smelly American -- I am superior and know everything so your question is simply stupid. Go away." With that, she whips her ID card and lanyard inside her orange safety vest, lest I be literate enough to read it from her AOA badge. I considered taking her picture with my camera phone, but decided it wasn't worth it, as she was the only agent I saw with Braniff orange hair. I'm sure that assuming I write a letter to Iberia, the airport supervisor will be able to figure things out from the duty roster. IB 8753 NCE-MAD 5F out 0730 off 0742 on 0929 in 0940 EC-JCL (again, the irony... JCL is the language I have to re-learn to obtain access to some of the datasets we need from Amadeus) Meal service was less exciting than the outbound; choice of bread, and a soda. Taxi took what seemed to be about 15 minutes. Arrived at a remote pad next to a stairway, so no need to be bussed, saving us a couple of minutes. IB6275 MAD-ORD 3H A343 EC-GUQ out 1209 off 1220 on 1321 in 1326 Transiting MAD wasn't as bad this time because I didn't have to clear customs and security, but it was still a 25 minute walk from arrival to the J lounge. I swear, IB must have the largest fleet of A340's in operation at a single hub... Onboard service was about the same as the outbound. Watched "The Astronaut Farmer" during dinner. Good movie, although it vaguely reminded me of a horrible 70's prime-time drama "Salvage One" starring Andy Griffith.... Also watched a few minutes of "The Good German" with Toby McGuire and George Clooney. I couldn't follow the storyline very well, but the interesting thing about this movie shot in the past year or two is that it was done in late 40's style black and white, complete with graininess and lack of music. Perhaps that's why I found it so hard to follow, or maybe I was just tired from having gotten four hours of sleep before heading to the airport.... Frank has noted before the risk of having a flatulent seat mate. Prior to leaving, I noticed that IB's website clearly advises the following: Pressure changes. It is advisable to avoid heavy meals or flatulent food as of the day before the flight. Our onboard menus are designed to avoid using ingredients that may cause discomfort. Well, someone around me obviously didn't read those tips, because there was a persistant cloud hanging in the air.Once you got used to it, everything was fine until someone new joined in the "chorus"... Instead of worrying about greenhouse emmission taxes, someone needs to investigate in-cabin emmission taxes... Post arrival snack was an egg/tomato/chicken breast sandwich with the crusts cut off, plus some fruit, served about 45 minutes prior to landing, so the crew was scrambling to pick up the last of the trays when we were half-way across Lake Michigan. Arrival in Chicago was straight down the center of Lower Michigan, with our right turn just over Jennison (GRR), which is where Vicki lived for her first year of high school. We then flew down Palatine Road past Pal-Waukee, out over Hoffman Estates, and began a lazy turn back to the east, arriving on 9R. Taxi was very short. As soon as we exited the jetway, we were at the escalators down to Immigration. Then we discovered that we'd arrived just after the DEL flight... one of my worst nightmares on several accounts, the least of which was the queue to exit Customs. I knew there was a flight to TUS leaving at 1415, so seeing as there was at least 30 minutes, I thought I'd give it a go. Or maybe not... 1329: In line at Immigration. Despite the fact I'm in the line for US citizens, there's a guy from Italy in front of me, and needs to be finger printed and photographed... while that's going on, the officials on either side of me have processed two or three people who were all in line behind me... 1334: Finally get to the agent, who says "welcome home". Score another point in the curteous vs. rude perception for immigration. 1335: I'd checked my rollaboard in NCE. It was tagged for premium/priority, and expecting it to be out in one of the first containers was a bad assumption. IB obviously has the tags, but either didn't do squat as far as segregating bags, or ground handler AA screwed up and didn't deliver the priority bags to the claim belt first. Same thing happened to me on AA in DFW back in December, so I know its something AA probably doesn't do very well. Yet another strike in my mind against IB today, and oddly neither failure was IB's fault directly, but the fault of ground handlers... 1346: My bag finally showed up in the fourth or fifth container. Time to get in the Customs exit line... 1351: Thru Customs; fortunately, the line of trolleys from the DEL claim belt had dwindled to a dozen or so while I waiting for my bag. Customs officer also says "welcome home" as I'm handing him my declaration. 1552: Impatiently standing on the escalator as people ahead of me are refusing to stand to one side with their bags... Note that I have succesfully transitioned from go-with-the-flow world traveler mode back into to pushy/impatient American business traveler mode. 1355: On the train to T3. Take up strategic position at exit doorway so I don't have to be behind people with lots of time to get to the lobby... 1357: Realized as I'm heading up escalator to the skybridge that NCE Agent Extraordinaire' Duex had taken my ORD-TUS BP away, so I was unable to go straight to security. Merde'. When I get into the lobby, all the top tier queues have about 10 people in them. Kiosks are my friend, and there's no line. Damn. Gave me a "see agent" slip. Frack. Fortunately, the bag-tagging agent takes pity on me and pops out the BP for my later flight in a few seconds flat. 1401: In the security queue behind a group of five barefoot Tibetan Monks, which slowed things down because either the BP screener couldn't communicate very well with them or the TSA couldn't figure out where their shoes were... 1409: Thru security, after Grandpa Joe Screener decides I'm his random hand search candidate for the hour. Now running to L2A with my shoes flopping at my heels because I didn't have time to lace them up at Security. 1411: Finally arrive at gate, where the last six or seven people are stilled queued up at the EGR. Thank God that agent working EGR is former girlfriend of former roomate 1411½: Remember that agent at EGR used to walk around our apartment butt naked 15 years ago... This could be good or bad for my chances at getting on. 1412: Agent recognizes me and doesn't hold grudges for past choice of roomate, or for roomate cheating on her. Tells me to just go onboard and take 27A/B. 1414: Walking down jetbridge to get on aircraft. Thank God I only lived with former roomate for 12 months... Whew.... AA1349 ORD-TUS MD80 27A Gate L2A Out 1415 off 1433 on 1533 in 1534 N408AA Somewhat packed flight. 110 out of 125 seats in the back filled. Buy on board looked better than normal -- wrap sandwiches and cans of Stackers (Frito Lay's version of Pringles). Bought a can of Stackers since I was starving after my mad dash thru the airport. Unfortunately, no powerport in my row, and my laptop died about halfway thru the flight. So I spent the last hour watching podcasts on my iPod, since sleep is next to impossible for me on an aircraft.