Gesundheit

This is pretty disgusting.

Air Canada Maple Lead Lounge at YVR - a lounge guest was serving himself to a "Penne Siciliana" and sneezed into the bowl of food at the buffet.

I am now having a sandwich.

Welcome to Canada

How do you know that you have arrived in Canada? You are greeted with a sign reading "Attention! All cannabis products must be declared." I am pretty sure that this was very relevant to all my fellow passengers on the MU flight from PVG...

Anyhow, welcome to Vancouver.

Pyjamas in the air

A few years ago I was upgraded to first class on a Thai flight out of Bangkok and, for the first time, wore pyramid to sleep on a intercontinental flight. Yes, wearing slightly oversized, purple pants and shirt did look silly, but it sure was more comfortable than sleeping in jeans. Since then, I always carry pajamas with me on these overnight flights and usually change into them right after boarding and before take off.

Last night over dinner, before boarding another flight I mentioned this to a colleague flying with me and she told me she could never do that as she would feel awkward, with her wearing "private clothing" in a "public space". 

Sure, that has some merit, but I do not care what people think of me in that moment. I am tired and want to feel remotely comfortable for the next 8-12h. When I wake up after 6.5h sleep in my "sleeper" seat, I (and all other passengers) look pretty crappy ( and usually, nobody would leave home looking that way) no matter what I've worn, but at least I will have felt better...

And based on my (non-representative) flights in recent years, I have the feeling that more and more people are doing the same as I. Last night, before take off, at least four other people when to the lavatory to change into soft cotton clothing they had brought along...

Late Night Dinners on Airplanes

When I fly West on an overnight flight, and I am not too exhausted from a week working, I will probably stay up a bit, have dinner and watch a movie - after all, if I am flying back home into a -6h time difference, and my flight departs at 23h local time, I do not want to go to bed in the late afternoon home-time.

However, the reverse is weird... let us take last night. Our flight to Mumbai departed at around midnight - I was tired, really tired, and by the time the seat belt sign was off and I had settled into my seat it was around 4am Mumbai time. Yet, I was not able to fall asleep immediately, because half of BAs business class passengers had chosen to eat dinner... past midnight UK time and almost breakfast time in India!

Either people where really starved (not likely given that BA actually serves warm meals in their business class lounge and Terminal 5 of LHR has enough dining places... and I do not know people that wait until midnight for dinner), or they were all Spanish (although even in Barcelona, 0:30 is rather late for dinner), or they were all craved for the free BA dinner, booze and watching The Hobbit on a 15" screen - unlikely.

And this is not only on BA flights to Mumbai, also flights from US to Europe, Latin America to Europe, Europe to China... always the same pattern...

By the hard facts, I can consider myself a frequent flyer: I fly 40-50 legs a year – most long-haul, have a status of some kind in a few frequent flyer programs, know my way around most major international hubs (including a pretty decent Sushi Bar at ORD) - I have been doing this for several years – I was under three when I had my first long-haul – and have not had a year with less than 20 flights a year for 10 years.

I am based in Western Europe.

So much for an opening statement while sitting in the BA lounge waiting for a massively delayed flight to Mumbai...