Text 30795, 90 rader
Skriven 2009-11-06 13:53:44 av Michael Loo (1:18/200)
Ärende: 346
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I'm not dead yet.

My plans changed a bit, and I found myself sitting
1. in a middle seat in coach on a 320
2. in coach on a 744
3. in first class on a 346
4. in business class on a 346
5. in the crew rest compartment on a 346
6. in business class on a 753
7. in the jumpseat of a 753

among other places.

I heard about this amazing trip for a less amazing (but still
reasonable) price, and my friend Pat said, I'll do it if you
do it, so we did it. I should have sprung for the extra $500
to sit in business on the 744, but I was going to sleep anyhow
(and did). The trip was from New York to Frankfurt (some amazing
fares out of NYC), partially to celebrate the entry of Continental
into the Star Alliance, and then by charter to Oslo, Toulouse, and
back to Frankkfurt. We got receptions from United, who were being
good sports about it all, what with being forced into cooperation
and possible merger with one of its bitterest competitors,
Continental, SAS, Lufthansa, Airbus, and the Star Alliance itself.
The plane was full of airline professionals, aviation enthusiasts
(Pat, me, several others of my acquaintance, and 170 others),
a movie crew (frequent flying being a hot topic these days), and
reporters from various rags including Conde Nast Traveler and the
Wall Street Journal. I was briefly interviewed by the Journal guy
but I hope was sufficiently uninteresting that I won't get quoted.

The kickoff was in Chicago, where we were given a tour of United's
flight operations and some prestaled airline food; then to
Newark, where I would have been given some more prestaled airline
food, only I found Pat was in a middle seat in the back, so I gave
her my beautiful first-class place, cheese plate, and booze. I
slept. Then the Continental flight operations, followed by a snack
pack of prestaled airline food, then a bus transfer to Kennedy for
the best meal of the trip, an odd juxtaposition of chicken tikka
masala with basmati rice (very good) and pork roast in caraway gravy
(pretty good) with potatoes (sad-looking).

Then the Lufthansa nonstop to Frankfurt, which is said to have
offered more prestaled prepackaged food, only I slept through the
whole thing. Off the plane, easy customs made more tedious by
my line closing in almost French fashion just as Pat and I were
about to get processed - I went to the back of another line, and
she stayed where she was, and I beat her out of there. To the
Sheraton, where I dumped my stuff off in a room that had to be
the farthest from an elevator that I'd ever been given - it was
a (small) corner room in the diagonal opposite location from the
elevators, and it was in fact over 500 meters away, I know, I
counted every step. Back to get credentialed for Lufthansa, and
then next thing we knew, we were assigned to groups and sent on
tours - I got the maintenance hangar and the training facility.

I'd always wanted to sit in first on a 346. Unfortunately, the
one I got to visit wasn't going anywhere that day. It was parked
at the Lufthansa Technik hangar, where they let me and 14 of my
best buddies crawl all around a plane that was off for light
maintenance, heading to Cape Town the next night. The seats are
comfy but not superior to the Boeing seats that I'm accustomed to.

After a bunch more stuff - watching the flight simulators running,
which is less interesting than it sounds - we stood on a gangplank
above these big boxes (full cockpit mockup, with sound, vibration,
and visuals, inside) that did nothing for a long time and then
would periodically gyrate in some direction or other or perhaps
start to shake (simulating turbulence no doubt) - it was more than
time for a meal. Of course, first we got the speech from the
head of Star, whose name I believe is Jan Albrechts, and then,
blessed food and airline wine. I sat with Johannes Winter, the
marketing director for Condor, and after sampling various wines,
we agreed to switch to Bitburger beer; a forest of bottles started
building at our table, as the wine was very bad indeed. We had a
nice conversation about beer and how Condor, once largely owned
by Lufthansa, has now become a total subsidiary of Thomas Cook.
Appetizers were pates, sort of ordinary, and lots of fish -
herring in sour cream, smoked trout, and smoked salmon; I had the
last, which was of a good airline standard. There were two main
plates on offer - smoked pork loin en croute, with sauerkraut and
pureed potatoes and medium-rare roast sirloin with green bean
bundles wrapped in bacon and roasted potatoes. I had one of each,
avoiding the starchy bits and eating all the meat and some of the
veg. The food was quite good considering it had been made in
advance for a party of nearly 200. Having blown out my arteries
with two German-size plates of food, I skipped dessert.
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