Thursday 18 July 2013

Air transit ( Back to the Grind)

The plane started boarding at the time it was supposed to leave.  Why?  Maybe the fact that boarding passes were checked at 4 or 5 check stops has to do with it.  Even though there were enough Air Transat employees free to run two lines to check boarding passes they agreed on running only one line, which obviously did not everyone into the gate area at the scheduled take-off time.  Things did not get any better when on the plane.  Pretty much all airlines have treats available in the kitchen for those passengers who either can not get enough food or people like me who use food on planes as a sleeping aid.  On the Air Transat flight to Frankfurt their hands were going to the cheese&cracker drawer the moment they saw me coming ;-)   Times have changed: "No, we don't have any. But we can sell you a Caramilk bar for $2. Or you can wait for snack time in one hour."  I made a point of telling them that "I'will wait for the snack as a matter of principle".  The snack was a piece of Pizza.  The particular variety was "tomatoes & cheese". Good thing they did not call it Margharita (Pizza with tomato sauce), because what they gave us had absolutely nothing to do with Pizza Margharita. Actually, it had nothing to do with Pizza either.  The dry piece of dough had some red stuff on it and some pale stuff that probably was the cheese.  If they had called it Focaccia bread, it would have been easier to believe. Never in my life have I complained that the food served on a flight did not meet any particular gourmet standard. But: Congratulations, Air Transat, that 'pizza' forces me to publicly question whether the stuff you served even meets the criteria to qualify as 'a meal'.

As for Vancouver:  In no town in the last 5 weeks, with the possible exception of Paris, was the feeling of 'crisp morning air' or 'fresh air' so absent at 6 am and in no town (except Paris again) was traffic so overwhelming at 7:15 am.

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