Vienna to Budapest Bicycle Trip - Day 0
I'm calling this "Day 0" because it was a non-vacation vacation day. The day was long and stressful, but probably not that interesting to read about.
We did our usual routine to the airport: We drove over and dropped me and the luggage off. Bruce drove home and walked back over to the airport. That way we don't have to drag bags on the 1.25 miles but we also don't have to pay for parking or a taxi. I'm much better at waiting than Bruce is, so he usually gets the walking part. (When it's a shorter trip, we'll both just walk and carry our bags.) This system is probably the only real benefit to living so close to the airport.
Our original route was BTV to IAD (Dulles) on United, and then IAD to VIE (Vienna) on Austrian. That's about as direct as one can possibly get from BTV to VIE.
The plane was late coming in from IAD. It was very late. It didn't arrive until well after our IAD to Vienna flight departed. The BTV United people were trying to be helpful, but really, they mishandled a lot of things. First off, the woman at the gate didn't ever call for help or back-up. She spent huge amounts of time rescheduling people and made those with later connections miss theirs. Bruce ended up going down to the ticket counter and getting us a new plan, however it was based on the assumption that the BTV to IAD flight would eventually go.
It didn't.
We watched the plane come in, very late. We watched mechanics check it out. We watched our luggage sit by the plane and not get loaded. Then we watched the luggage truck drive away from the plane. That flight, the last one out of BTV by that time, was canceled.
We had to reschedule for the next day. And our original most-direct plan was all sold out. So we ended up with BTV to ORD (Chicago) to FRA (Frankfurt) to VIE, with only the FRA to VIE being on Austrian (more on why this matters in tomorrow's post). There was a district manager-in-training at the United counter who had helped Bruce with rescheduling earlier in the day, who was helpful and pleasant. However, on the whole, I can't say that United folks handled it very well. We could have been rescheduled quickly when the IAD flight was late and made a connection somewhere (Chicago and Newark flights all left while we were in waiting-mode). They also didn't offer much in the way of compensation except for the nice gent giving us lots of food vouchers.
So, while Bruce waited for finalized plans and our luggage, I walked home and got the car. We had no food in the house so we went to Guild & Co. for dinner. We didn't get to walk there because it was pouring rain by then. We gad a lovely evening; good food and the usual fun joking with the staff. And we got to sleep in our own bed.
I am glad that we didn't fly on an iffy plane; but, there were a lot of missed options that could have made it better. It was a long and frustrating Day 0.
We did our usual routine to the airport: We drove over and dropped me and the luggage off. Bruce drove home and walked back over to the airport. That way we don't have to drag bags on the 1.25 miles but we also don't have to pay for parking or a taxi. I'm much better at waiting than Bruce is, so he usually gets the walking part. (When it's a shorter trip, we'll both just walk and carry our bags.) This system is probably the only real benefit to living so close to the airport.
Our original route was BTV to IAD (Dulles) on United, and then IAD to VIE (Vienna) on Austrian. That's about as direct as one can possibly get from BTV to VIE.
The plane was late coming in from IAD. It was very late. It didn't arrive until well after our IAD to Vienna flight departed. The BTV United people were trying to be helpful, but really, they mishandled a lot of things. First off, the woman at the gate didn't ever call for help or back-up. She spent huge amounts of time rescheduling people and made those with later connections miss theirs. Bruce ended up going down to the ticket counter and getting us a new plan, however it was based on the assumption that the BTV to IAD flight would eventually go.
It didn't.
We watched the plane come in, very late. We watched mechanics check it out. We watched our luggage sit by the plane and not get loaded. Then we watched the luggage truck drive away from the plane. That flight, the last one out of BTV by that time, was canceled.
We had to reschedule for the next day. And our original most-direct plan was all sold out. So we ended up with BTV to ORD (Chicago) to FRA (Frankfurt) to VIE, with only the FRA to VIE being on Austrian (more on why this matters in tomorrow's post). There was a district manager-in-training at the United counter who had helped Bruce with rescheduling earlier in the day, who was helpful and pleasant. However, on the whole, I can't say that United folks handled it very well. We could have been rescheduled quickly when the IAD flight was late and made a connection somewhere (Chicago and Newark flights all left while we were in waiting-mode). They also didn't offer much in the way of compensation except for the nice gent giving us lots of food vouchers.
So, while Bruce waited for finalized plans and our luggage, I walked home and got the car. We had no food in the house so we went to Guild & Co. for dinner. We didn't get to walk there because it was pouring rain by then. We gad a lovely evening; good food and the usual fun joking with the staff. And we got to sleep in our own bed.
I am glad that we didn't fly on an iffy plane; but, there were a lot of missed options that could have made it better. It was a long and frustrating Day 0.