A Punishment For Missing A Flight

[CGK]

In one of my trip, I booked a flight FRA-GVA on LH which arrives before 1100, would visit Geneva till late afternoon, and was booked on SR GVA-ZRH departs at 1815.
I got the BP for both flights, and I checked through my small bag. And yes, I know that from the train station in the city to GVA, the train ride is only 10 minutes. My BP said the boarding would start at 1750.

Arrived in GVA early. Had a great breakfast on LH flight. Went through passport control briskly. And yeah, the struggle for getting money from ATM. My HSBC has Cirrus sign on it. The ATM at the airport has the Cirrus sign as well. It did not work. Luckily there was a guy from the bank who told me that in Switzerland, the ATM works on Maestro. Fortunately, I had another ATM that has Maestro sign on the back of the card.

After storing my carry-on in the locker at the station, the fun began. It is very difficult to understand how to buy a train ticket. Just not so clear. The machine can issue the tix for Zurich as well. And most of the machine only accept cards. Wanted to go to the ticket counter, but yeah a very long line with tourists. At last I managed to buy a day tix up to 9 hours roundtrip from to airport including the tram and bus ride inside the city of Geneva. I must say all of these took more time than the flight time from FRA-GVA.

[jjpb3]

I'm not sure about GVA, but the line at the ticket counters in ZRH move relatively quickly, notwithstanding the tourists. Worst comes to worst, I think you can buy tickets onboard the trains (not sure about the magnitude of the extra charges -- my clients pay for that).

We'll have to meet up in GVA to get rid of the bad impressions, CGK. I'm always open to meeting up in one of my favorite countries (CH) -- such a beautiful country. (Plus the GVA LX Lounge bears checking out, from what you've described)

[CGK]

Fun and Punishment

It was a nice day in Geneva.
Walking around the lake. See many sites. Window shopping. I really did have fun, including dot dot dots. (I know someone will have different meaning for that. ) I met my school mates from Penn. We chatted in one of the coffee shop while watching people milling around in the pedestrian zone.
I lost track of time. And I knew exactly I would not be able to board the plane at 1750.

Running back to the train station. But I knew I would be able to take the next flight which leaves just an hour later.

Arrived at the check-in counter just after the plane departed on time. LX agent said, no worry, we put you in the next flight, an hour later. But then, she saw my bag tag. I said I had a check-in bag from FRA this morning. Then, she told me that since I missed my flight, my bag would be off-loaded, and I had to pick it up myself inside the arrival hall. But she had to make phone calls first. I felt so bad at that time. She made at least ten phone calls. Of course it was all in a foreign language for me.

I was told to go to the arrival level. Picked up the phone for the baggage handling. The door was buzzed, I went in. And yes, there was a guy behind a counter of baggage information. I told him what I needed to do, and he told me, yes, the lady had called, and I had to go behind carousel #4.

No one was there. But then there was one person collecting bags that were not picked up by pax. I asked him, and he said to wait. The bag would come out in this special carousel.

15 minutes passed. Nothing happened.
30 minutes stood around. Nothing.

Watched Etihad crew arrived. Same suitcases.

60 minutes. The special belt just was on, and only odd-size bags came up.
75 minutes. Nothing showed.

I asked the guy who was there. His answer was Swiss handles thousands and thousands of bags. So just be patient.

90 minutes later, I saw the check-in lady walked towards me. She said she is worried why it was too long that I did not see her back upstairs. I said I did not get my bag yet. She said usually it would be in carousel 9. But of course there is no belt 9. We walked to belt 8, and looked around whatever bags stored near there. I did not see mine.

She went to the baggage information booth and made more calls. And I had to stand again behind belt 4 where I had spent at least 90 minutes. No chair. No water fountain.

I saw suddenly the belt moved. And slowly brought one odd-size bag. One pax came out from passport control. He rushed got his odd-size bag, and the belt moved again. This time my bag.

So for almost 2 hours I had to wait for my off-loaded bag, before I could re-check-in my bag. I admitted that's the punishment I got for missing my flight at GVA. (Well, at least I did not miss the last flight out from GVA to ZRH).

[jhm]

Uhmmm ... and this is the "God-like" treatment you get as a LH SEN ?

[CGK]

Uhmmm ... and this is the "God-like" treatment you get as a LH SEN ?

Well, I did ask her about why not just re-tag my bag for my next flight. But she explained to me that GVA has a different rule. When the bag is off-loaded, it means the pax has to pick it up first. Later on when she looked for me at the arrival hall, she said, it should not take too long and that was the reason why she came down looking for me. She said usually about 30 minutes only.

[The High Flyer]

It must have been a traumatising experience, CGK. I'm glad you managed to get your bag back!

[MAN Flyer]

I still find it incredible that you travel with checked luggage. It's not as though you don't have a bit of experience of this travelling malarkey.

I've been to the Asia Pacific region 6 times in the last two and a half months, and I didn't check luggage once. Yes, it can be a PITA if you're not spending more than a day in one place on occassion and yes your laundry bill for the trip can be quite high. But it just negates any chance of losing your luggage (and you seem to be cursed at the moment with this!!) and spending up to an hour stood around a carousel at some cr@p airport hoping it will turn up.

Checked luggage is so old school.... unless your StarG and it's unavoidable

[jjpb3]

I still find it incredible that you travel with checked luggage. It's not as though you don't have a bit of experience of this travelling malarkey.

You haven't checked in with him, have you?

To be fair, he's so sweet that he often ends up transporting stuff -- even luggage! -- for other people on his route. He keeps me well-supplied with sambal sauce and SilverKris magazines.

Checked luggage is so old school.... unless your StarG and it's unavoidable

So true. But then again, Sir StarG also looks a whole lot fresher and more "together" than I do wherever in the world we might be meeting.

Ah, the tradeoff faced by frequent travellers: look fierce, or look a lot less stressed because you don't worry about losing your luggage.

[StarG]

You should try travelling with StarG's family and getting a 'to buy' list from StarG's mother. That is how I have mutated into this uber-efficient shopper.

As to looking fresh, that is the least I can do since I don't have Sir jjpb3's famous attribute to amuse (think KUL do) the masses.