Random travel post
This was my first time flying with Air-France, i typically do the KLM thing all the time, but Air France offered the best fare at the time when i was looking for tix.Good thing you can still earn miles since they have a partnership agreement and are part of the ’star alliance’ with KLM. The plane from Newark to Paris was a new looking Airbus A330. The interior was a snazzy looking navy blue with off white, there was a faint hint of ‘new plane smell’. It had an interesting addition of a web cam; well, make that a ‘nose cam’ where the images of what is going on in front of the plane is displayed on the screen in front of the seat.Nothing particularly interesting happened before we took off, just airport staff walking into a side entrance. I wished one of them would stop and do a little dance just to liven things up, perhaps something like Hugh Grant’s moves from the movie Love Actually? Flying these days is just drudgery. 
We left Newark at about 19:10 so it was still sunny out. After take off the ‘nose cam’ pans to the bottom of the plane giving you a view of the land below. The pilot seemed Jazzed about this and pointed out Central Park NY when we flew over it. I wasn’t impressed. The nose cam is cool though. Aerial view of central park…not so much. During the trip, the plane sounded abit noisier than the KLM flights i had taken before, a little crickety during turbulence, its a good thing disposable ear plugs are provided, or perhaps its because of where i was sitting, just behind the left wing.
Food – med
Lint from little blanket on black sweatshirt – Very High
Courtesy of staff – med
Overall experience thus far – so, so.
I will skip the whole thing about Air France being able to check baggage all the way to Nairobi, but not able to give me all the boarding passes, especially the boarding pass for flight from CDG to Nai. The agreements between airlines appear to favor baggage but not people?!!! I am just used to having all my boarding passes before i leave. Oh well, maybe its because my ticket was ‘cheap’
Paris wifi which they pronounce weee feee (?!!) cost $16 for an hour…I really should write my posts without being connected to the net. A few habits that i have to shed very very quickly.
The folks in Nai, see you at the geek dinner . Other readers, please check back starting June 3rd for posts from TED Global ‘Africa The Next Chapter’ – Arusha.
**Disclaimer – During the coming week, if I drop too many exclamation marks from over excitement, please oh please forgive me! (see see i started already)
My next flight is on KENYA AIRWAYS! I hope they have the KCC butter with the meal, or is that only on flights from .KE?
Other random items from Wired mag from this month…wired.com and just search for the stories, had to do this post without looking up the links. Fuel costs $4.20 in Nairobi, $4.17 in Mumbai and woudl you believe that in New Jersey its $2.99? How now?! Does the ‘Arm pit of the US’ have oil refineries nearby or an invisible pipeline to oil deposits on the moon? (NJ is actually pretty ok, i was just told that it was the arm pit of the US the other day, laughed my head off. Would that make california the tanned and buff abs of the US?) moving along… Cows emit more methane gas by burping than by farting.What with all the 4 stomachs, who can name them? (No googling?!)
Currently reading ‘The best Technology writing 2006′ compiled by Brandon Koerner. (Link is on my sidebar) – Very cool book. What i could garner from it so far…to be a good tech writer, you need a narrative and some banging metaphors.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 9:28 am and is filed under This, that & the other, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Carol Dunham May 30th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
On May 20, 2007 I flew from Toronto to Barcelona, via Paris, on flight 353. I chose Air France because last year I flew to Paris on a 777. It was new and clean and spacious with individual video terminals for each passenger. I was so impressed I decided to forego my Air Canada points and book with Air France again this year. This year we flew on an Air France 747 which had duct tape on the arm (row 26 seat C) and duct tape along the wall where the overhead compartments join the wall (flight 353 on May 20th from Toronto). I looked out the window to make sure the wing wasn’t duct taped to the fuselage!!. The toilets smelled disgusting, the chicken they served was poison, the seats were jammed into a small space, the customers treated like cattle, and generally it was a bad experience. Unfortunately I also booked on the same flight to go back to Paris this Friday, and…I convinced our friends to forego their Air Canada points to fly Air France as well. A bad decision!!! I would have written this directly to Air France but I could not find a link so I assume they don’t want to hear from customers. I was so impressed last year I even joined their points club!!!