connecting at Brussels

[realtrip]

Thanks!

 

Hope to see you in Montreal soon!

[headhunterke]

You'll be in the air right now, somewhere over the Atlantic, but I just wanted to wish you good luck on the connection here at BRU. Please let me know if everything went as planned. I'm crossing my fingers for you ;)

[Twickenham]

It's not looking good - the flight left 56 minutes late :(

[headhunterke]

Estimated arrival time is around 915am local time here, which is 35min. before their 2nd flight, which appears to be on time at the moment. So I guess it will be an automatic transfer to the 150pm flight to Venice. Air Canada and Brussels, not a good combo.

[Di Princess]

Wow! This is like reading an exciting mystery novel. Although I am fairly Air-Dumb, I was going to make the suggestion that he speak with the Flight Attendant (as someone else mentioned) and request a Golf Cart.

 

HeadHunter: Do they use the golf carts at Brussels?

They can drive faster than I can run. ;)

[FlyerTalker]

HeadHunter: Do they use the golf carts at Brussels?

They can drive faster than I can run.

One of the significant issues (as mentioned above) is inbound immigration and security screening. No golf-cart can improve those situations.

 

Also, any cart won't just be sitting around waiting for you to come off the plane....so you have that wait while you could be walking.

Edited July 9, 2015 by FlyerTalker

[realtrip]

Ugh!

as predicted, we missed are connection in Brussels. We expected to be put on the 1.50 flight which would have been not so bad. But no. We got to see Brussels airport until 12.30, then we took another plane ride . We got to visit Franfurt airport. What fun. Now we are waiting for our flight to Venice in just over 2 hours. Frankfurt is a huge airport.

meanwhile AC is refusing us food vouchers so I am keeping receipts ( lunch at Brussels 18 euro, I will see about a quick bite for dinner ). Hopefully insurance will reimburse.

this sucks but what can you do. At least the cruise is only on Saturday. I am debating wheter I should put a pin on my world map for Frankfurt as a place"I have been to",lol!

 

thanks for reading about our adventure. Strangely relating this story is making it kind of funny. Part of the adventure. But now, please no more adventure, lol.

[realtrip]

Btw no line at passport control or security. We walked right up both times. To think that was originally our big worry. Funny how things happen.

[FlyerTalker]

I am debating wheter I should put a pin on my world map for Frankfurt as a place"I have been to",lol!

In my book, if you have been involuntarily sent to a place, you can count it as "been to".

But now, please no more adventure, lol.

You now qualify to be an expert on BRU, VCE and now....FRA!!

 

I want to commend you on a great positive attitude. You are rolling with the punches and keeping your eye on the big picture -- you are getting to VCE and will make your ship.

 

And yes...your comment about the non-lines is worthy of a chuckle. Sometimes the things you most fret about are the ones that never happen, when something entirely different is what throws the spanner into the works. Like WRP96 being stuck because there was no one around to drive the jet bridge. Who would have put that on the list of something to worry over?

[realtrip]

Thanks for making me smile flyertalker.

[Twickenham]

In my book, if you have been involuntarily sent to a place, you can count it as "been to".

 

Agreed. You earned that pin.

 

I want to commend you on a great positive attitude. You are rolling with the punches and keeping your eye on the big picture -- you are getting to VCE and will make your ship.

 

+1

 

Sometimes the things you most fret about are the ones that never happen, when something entirely different is what throws the spanner into the works.

 

Reminds me of flying to FLL for a cruise a few years ago. Was one of those crazy air miles itineraries - YQB-YYZ-PHL-FLL. Was majorly fretting about getting to YYZ, as only a couple of weeks earlier they were completely shut down by a winter storm. Got to YYZ to beautiful clear skies - only to find that PHL was closed due to high winds. Ended up getting on a YYZ-MIA flight and cabbing it to FLL, but let's just say I was happy we flew in 3 days early...

[realtrip]

Seriously??? There is another delay. Jeepers, this is ridunkulous!

 

just had pizza for supper. Airport food is costly and oh so , what's the word, the one that doesn't mean delicious? Hubby promptly said, oh, you chose frozen pizza for us? A real funny guy.

hey Lufthansa has free coffee, tea, cocoa at their gate. Very cool! None of the other airports treated us this well. Maybe I will have to come back some day.:D

the plane has arrived, people are off, now they are cleaning and filling her up.

won't be long now, right?...

This will certainly be my story to tell at the meet and greet on the ship. :eek:

[realtrip]

Agreed. You earned that pin.

 

 

 

+1

 

 

 

Reminds me of flying to FLL for a cruise a few years ago. Was one of those crazy air miles itineraries - YQB-YYZ-PHL-FLL. Was majorly fretting about getting to YYZ, as only a couple of weeks earlier they were completely shut down by a winter storm. Got to YYZ to beautiful clear skies - only to find that PHL was closed due to high winds. Ended up getting on a YYZ-MIA flight and cabbing it to FLL, but let's just say I was happy we flew in 3 days early...

 

wow, talk about taking the long way to Miami, lol. It probably would not have taken much longer to drive. :eek: you have got to love our winters.

 

Apparently what caused our first delay( out of Montreal) was a sick passenger and two passengers that were not allowed to fly. It is weird though that the two not allowed to fly were actually allowed to check in, cross security, board the flight and only then get kicked off. They were not happy. Has anyone heard of such a thing? It sounds off to me.

oh, they are now boarding!,,,

[headhunterke]

Wow! This is like reading an exciting mystery novel. Although I am fairly Air-Dumb, I was going to make the suggestion that he speak with the Flight Attendant (as someone else mentioned) and request a Golf Cart.

 

HeadHunter: Do they use the golf carts at Brussels?

They can drive faster than I can run. ;)

 

They have them, but they are literally ALWAYS late. And wheelchair passengers at BRU are disembarked as last passengers most of the time.

And even if you make it out fairly quickly, chances are there's still 2 or 3 other gates they'll need to attend.

 

Glad you got to experience some of Frankfurt's airport atmosphere, although I suspect you'd be much happier if you made it to Venice a little earlier, despite the free drinks coffee or cocoa :D

Enjoy your cruise, you guys!

[Di Princess]

Realtrip:

 

Where are you now? :confused:

[realtrip]

Realtrip:

 

Where are you now? :confused:

 

I've finally made it home.

 

We had a fantastic cruise.

 

So here is where the saga left off...

We got on our flight to Venice out of Frankfort airport; it all went well. Thankfully a really nice gentleman ( from a few airports ago) let me use his laptop/Wi-Fi to send an email to my mom and friend so they wouldn't spend all day at the Venice airport waiting for us. ( Because, you of course when it all goes wrong, it all goes wrong, lol. My husband -- a computer tech at work, couldn't get access to Wi-Fi on his tablet, lol.).

 

Anyways, we got to Venice at 7 ish, met up with my mom and friend and had a story to tell.

Now for our return... Someone wrote earlier that 3 hours at Pearson wasn't too much time. Well, I have been to Pearson a few times and I thought 3 hours is soooo long, I'll try to get bumped to an earlier flight ( they run hourly to Montreal).

Well wouldn't you know it?%?$ our flight from Venice to Toronto left a tad late, we sat on the runway for a bit in Venice and then sat on the tarmac in Toronto for 25 minutes because our gate was occupied by another plane, lol.

THEN!!! they were on a work to rule at Pearson or something because even though the line at security was very short the agents announced it would take over thirty minutes to cross. They checked for chemicals on one person in each party, they opened and checked every duty free purchase, etc. People were freaking out, I couldn't stop giggling, this was just too much!

Made it too the gate just as they were boarding our flight.

Note to all flyers: do enquire if Realtrip is on board and if I am : run to change your flights, lol I think I have some kind of curse.

Now I'm home it's 6 am and I've had breakfast and am on the web because for my body it's 12, lol

Thanks for sharing my crazy adventure!

[Michidoeme]

We flew Zürich-Münich-Toronto-Frankfurt-Zürich with Lufthansa just recently. And I did much fretting as well about finding best connections thru Munich and/or Frankfurt (long enough, but not too long) as we were travelling with baby. Careful selection, etc. much phoning to (re)confirm seats and make sure baby basket, etc.

First flight Zrh-Münich; fine - connection 1.25 min : fine, enough time for going from Schengen to non-Schengen, diaper change, etc. - timely boarding and installing for long haul to Toronto : fine, everything on time. My daughter prepares to feed baby, etc. Then captain announced they found a leak which had to be fixed and everyone needed to leave plane and take belongings, just in case. So we packed everything together again, got out and waited 2 hours. Then change of plane as they could not fix.

Coming back : transatlantic fine, on time - connection in Frankfurt 1.15 min : just right, even with passport and new security check, diaper change, but then at gate announced that Frankfurt - Zrh delayed because of mechanical problem. After some delay change of plane. Then not able to land because of stacking up in Zrh, etc.

Conclusion : we also could have taken a longer connection and would have arrived earlier. :D However we were happy everything else went well and it would have been worse if we had to turn back or land somewhere in the middle. But what are odds that out of 4 legs, 2 legs are delayed because of mechanical problems and new plane had to be prepared ? Is this a result of cost cutting ?

Edited July 26, 2015 by Michidoeme