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As you’ll know from the long thread on CGK’s LPP run, I was fortunate enough to keep our very own SQ VVIP company on the last terminal overnighter of his legendary run back in early June; I’ve been meaning to write this short report for a while now, and whilst it wasn’t on SQ metal, it did have an SQ theme (and of course included a meeting of SQTalkers), which hopefully justifies it place on the forum! In summary, my trip involved six trains and four planes and was a great experience!
I had been thinking about meeting CGK in FRA as a surprise, as I was unable to accompany him, cawhite and DFP on the final FRA-JFK flight, but after some confusion over whether I would be in the Schengen or non-Schengen side of FRA after flying in from the UK (and therefore having a wasted journey), I decided to break the surprise and let him know my plans. Luckily, as it turned out, I would indeed be in the non-Schengen side and therefore I went ahead and booked the tickets. It seemed that Swiss offered the cheapest *A fare from BHX-FRA, and so I booked the following itinerary:
BHX-ZRH-FRA (Economy) and then the next day FRA-ZRH-BHX (Business)
…my flight would arrive in FRA around two hours before CGK and DeltaFlyingProf’s flight from SIN on the Sunday evening, and I would then depart around an hour after their flight departed on the Monday morning. Many elements of that particular evening have already been documented in CGK’s run thread, so I’ll try not to repeat myself
Journey to BHX
Fairly uneventful, but requiring three separate trains from Nottingham to Birmingham International (BHX). Here’s a self portrait of me at the station waiting for train number one:
When you get to Birmingham International train station, there’s a monorail between there and the airport itself that leaves about every five minutes (or less) from memory. Seemed to be very difficult to get a good photo because it moves so damn fast (!), but this is the best I could manage:
I had been thinking about meeting CGK in FRA as a surprise, as I was unable to accompany him, cawhite and DFP on the final FRA-JFK flight, but after some confusion over whether I would be in the Schengen or non-Schengen side of FRA after flying in from the UK (and therefore having a wasted journey), I decided to break the surprise and let him know my plans. Luckily, as it turned out, I would indeed be in the non-Schengen side and therefore I went ahead and booked the tickets. It seemed that Swiss offered the cheapest *A fare from BHX-FRA, and so I booked the following itinerary:
BHX-ZRH-FRA (Economy) and then the next day FRA-ZRH-BHX (Business)
…my flight would arrive in FRA around two hours before CGK and DeltaFlyingProf’s flight from SIN on the Sunday evening, and I would then depart around an hour after their flight departed on the Monday morning. Many elements of that particular evening have already been documented in CGK’s run thread, so I’ll try not to repeat myself
Journey to BHX
Fairly uneventful, but requiring three separate trains from Nottingham to Birmingham International (BHX). Here’s a self portrait of me at the station waiting for train number one:
When you get to Birmingham International train station, there’s a monorail between there and the airport itself that leaves about every five minutes (or less) from memory. Seemed to be very difficult to get a good photo because it moves so damn fast (!), but this is the best I could manage:
)
Eventually, the gate had been assigned (can't remember the number now), so I made my way down there. For those that know FRA, it was the one down at the end where one of the LH Business lounges is, where the gates are arranged in a circle (B38 or something?). Anyhow, the gate area was all dark, and I was able to sneak into the seating area and sit myself down behind a pillar out of view of the gate personnel to await CGK's arrival. Coincidentally, the gate at which their SQ flight arrived was exactly the ame gate that mrs nickbot and I departed from just a month later on our trip to YVR.
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