- ruBSD,
Moscow, Russia, Dec 12 - 15
LH eco HAM-FRA-DME, DME-FRA-HAM, 320/321/321/319. The long legs were
pretty empty, maybe 70% on the way in, less than 50% and completely empty biz on
the way back. Slight delays on the way in because of Moscow weather.
Moscow itself was very nice.
- biz trip, Weimar, Nov
19 - 20 20 - 21
train, ICE to Fulda, IC to Weimar, return ICE to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe,
conecting ICE delayed like hell, so used another one, home 20 mins later than
planned. 1st class as usual.
- vBSDcon, Dulles/Washington D.C., USA, Oct 25 - 28
LH biz HAM-FRA-IAD, long legs on 747-8i. The new LH biz leaves me
with mixed feelings. The full lie-flat seat is nice, however, as a seat
the old one was better, the new one clearly wins as bed. The materials,
esp the silver-painted plastic, don't give a premium feeling.
The 748 is very quiet, tho not remotely as quiet as the A380, and
doesn't give the sedan-like feeling the A380 has, it is much more a
victim of turbulences. Doesn't have the aha-effect of the 380 at all.
- hackathon, Berlin, Oct 17 - 21
train of course, overcrowded ICE even in 1st class on the way in, half-length train only. No issues but a tiny delay on the way back.
- EuroBSDcon, Malta, Sep 26 - 30
LH eco HAM-FRA-MLA, 321/brand new 320 with sharklets/321/321
- Hiking in Bulgaria, Aug 25 - Sep 2
LH eco HAM-MUC-SOF, 320/E95/E95/319
- work at customer site, Karlsruhe, Germany, Aug 21 - 22
Intersky eco HAM-FKB, ATR72-200, op by Avanti Air
- biz trip, extended by a day for a party, Marburg, Germany, June 21 - 23
Train, 1st class. ICE Hamburg - Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, IC onto Marburg,
ICE on time, IC 20m delayed. Back RE to Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe on time,
ICE onwards to be delayed by at least 20m, caught an earlier slightly delayed one,
which I could only reach due to the delay, arrived a few minutes earlier than
planned.
- biz trip, Weimar, Germany, June 12 - 13
or 14
Finished early, thus return thursday. Train, 1st class as usual.
Planned Hamburg - Göttingen ICE, onto Weimar by RE. Flooding-related
chaos led to 3 ICEs, Hamburg - Hannover - Fulda - Erfurt, then RE to Weimar,
arrived an hour late.
Way back as planned, 10m delay.
- BSDcan/West Coast Trail/t2k13, Ottawa/Vancouver Island/Edmonton/Toronto, Canada, May 14 - June 6
LH eco HAM-MUC, 320, emergency exit seat. LH eco MUC-YUL, 333, again
emergency exit seat with galores of legroom, got food & blanket from biz for
no apparent reason. And AC eco YUL-YOW, whopping 28 minutes gate to gate,
in an oooold Dash 8-100.
AC eco YOW-YYC, E190. While I like the E-Jets in general, for an almost
5 hours long flight this was unpleasant in at least this config. AC eco
YYC-YYJ, Dash 8-400.
AC eco YYJ-YVR, Dash 8-300, 23 minutes gate to gate... and AC eco YVR-YEG,
E190
AC eco YEG-YYZ, A320
LH eco YYZ-FRA, 346, emergency exit seat with plenty of legroom.
LH eco FRA-HAM, 319
- Berlin, Germany, May 4 -5
Just a little fun trip meeting Uwe, Stefan, Sebastian, Peter and Bret. Train.
- AsiaBSDcon, Tokyo, Japan plus a little more, Mar
12 13-21, LH biz reward
Mar 12th: flew 60 Minutes in an LH A319 from HAM to... HAM. Frankfurt
closed for several hours due to massive snow and wind while we were in the
air, so it was decided to return to HAM. Spent another 2.5 hours getting
rebooked onto the same flights for next day. Lufthansa gave me taxi
vouchers without me having to ask.
Mar 13th: still chaotic. Quickly changed to an earlier flight to FRA.
Parking at the gate for another 90 mins, then finally to FRA. Connection
would have been tough, but the next flight was an hour late as well since
the aircraft came in late from Miami. Arrived in Tokyo about 60 mins late.
The main deck (A380 Tokio) was supposedly full, we've been roughly 20 pax
in the upper deck. I was alone in my row. Slept long and well, I like
LH's biz :)
No big natural disasters this time - an earthquake at six point
something, not a problem for them, I slept and didn't even notice. And
a typhoon, not too strong either. The power outage in Fukushima didn't lead
to dramatic consequences either.
The flight back went smoother, Narita to FRA as planned, LH A380
Johannesburg, biz was only 30% full. Arrived 40 mins early
due to strong tailwinds. Strike in FRA, this time LH ground handling people,
ended at noon, I arrived two hours later, good timing. There were giant
queues at the rebooking counters, I changed my flight to HAM to one an hour
earlier in the lounge. That flight was half an hour late, last not least due
to my luggage. Side-anecdote: the FRA-HAM rebooking got me from booking class
I (biz reward) into C (full-fare biz) so that I ended up getting bonus points
for a flight paid for with bonus points :)
- biz trip, Malta, Feb 5-6
LH biz HAM-FRA-MLA and vice versa. Open return date, but finished fast.
Delay on the way in due to a defective emergency door (actually same fault
on this LH A321 as in the Quantas 737-800 in ZQN a bit over a week earlier),
an hour delay on the way back due to snow in FRA and a defective air
deflector on the righthand engine, fixed with us onboard by LHT Malta
- New Zealand, Jan 1 - 26
BA/Quantas HAM-LHR-SIN-SYD-ZQN and vice versa, long legs on A380.
A quick oneway ZQN-CHC on Air New Zealand.
1st week with rental car, Nelson Lakes, Mt. Olivier and
finally to Dunedin. Dunedin to Queenstown by Bus.