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Part I: I thought SKG wasn't due yet...
Good day – Grüezzi – Kalimera!
Once again, it's winter time in Europe. Not only does this time of the year stand for Santa Clause, snow and winter sports I try to avoid at all costs... no, it also stands for great fares on SWISS Business Class, the notorious Y-Flyer from Austria was blinded by. This will probably become a very weird bunch of reports as I wasn't really staying in places too long - you have to know, I was still a mileage-run virgin.
Prelude
The 'gold rush' basically started at work, when I browsed for some flights as I came across those great fares on SWISS Business. Instantly, I booked a flight to Thessaloniki because it's supposed to be the most easy-going destination to turn around. The run basically meant departing Vienna in the late evening, arriving in Thessaloniki past midnight and turning around to be home for breakfast in Vienna again. Sounded like a perfect plan to me, considering I will get roughly 6000 miles for about 300 euros. A bit more than 5 cent per mile are acceptable in Europe, especially when requalifying for BD Gold is pretty hard on low SQ booking classes. I think this is my problem: I would not buy full fare Economy because it's simply not worth it for me. I don't get a better product than somebody who probably paid half as much as I'd have paid. So I just had to make these unorthodox mileage runs.
After booking the tickets to Thessaloniki, I had to go for another one. Athens was the next target as it gives even more miles but involves a slightly more time-consuming turnaround. But I am a pretty hard core guy to mess with, right? xD With the two trips ticketed on the second and third weekend in November, I was set to call up my SWISS agent to reserve some good seats for the upcoming flights. No good seats were available for me, so I had to settle for rows 2 and 3. Well, at least I have a window.
Off it goes
Friday was a very exhausting day. Work was pretty laid-back as both of my bosses weren't in and my team mate was in MUC. So I was basically alone, finally, getting things done without people interrupting me like all the time. The fact that we're off at 4 PM on friday was very great as well but I still had to attend a uni course at 6.30 PM which would keep me busy till 8. Pretty exhausted, I went home and prepared to go out - there was a great drum and bass party going on this night. But before that, I finally had time to squeeze in our Kazakhstan-DO.
Watching Borat, the Ali G. show and the A380 delivery video that ran on ARD, Germany's national TV channel, with zauberflöte and petz was finally something very great this day. However, I underestimated how unwillingly my body seemed to like my day planning ... so it was no drum and bass event for me afterwards but rushing to Burger King, getting a Double Whopper without pickles and onions plus extra cheese, eating, watching Futurama and testing the cyan blue LED mood lighting system my friend Raffael installed at his home together with some very nice Ambient music by Aphex Twin (the early works ... man, I love Xtal) and Secede's Tryshasla album (gosh, Leraine featuring Kettel is probably one of the best songs for me!) ... together with some new age from Enigma ... was very nice too.
Woke up at 10 AM, went to celebrate the birthday of a person very close to me and had a Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee at the Mocca Lounge near Naschmarkt before Raffael and humble me went to the airport.
Calm Vienna evening ... rainy, though.
Hello, VIE. This time not coming from the trains!
Hello again, dear check-in hall.
Checked in, three tickets... apparently the check-in machine wanted me to stay in ZRH!
It's a luxury having a friend driving you to the airport and I am so thankful I did not have to take the train this time. Checked in at the self check-in machines and rushed thru the passport checks. First time at the A-gate sided SEN lounges which were disappointing in comparison with the normal Business Lounge. I tried to speak to 4 (!) persons who apparently wanted to avoid conversation if I could boost them into the lounge but they all denied. Strange folks, I tell you... strange folks.
Having a glass of Johnny Walker Red Label in the lounge.
OS SEN Lounge Pier West... errr... flowers on the wall.
Boarded LX 1583 en route to Zurich - priority boarding for C and Star Gold does matter! First aboard ... wonderful.
Flight: LX 1583
Departing: VIE - Vienna International
Arriving: ZRH - Zürich Kloten
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Reg/Name: HB-IJP
Seat: 3F
Got comfy in my seat and hoped I would not see a seat neighbour. Thankfully, I got a row for myself and the C cabin was only filled with 6 people whereas the Y cabin was packed full. Got my Henniez water, a refreshing towel which came in just so handy and off we were.
Rather empty flight.
I asked the Maite D, Juan, if they loaded the Charles Heidsieck Blue Top and he told me he thought it was the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. He came back with the Heidsieck and apologized for giving me the wrong information. Food-time usually means a satisfied Flo but this time I could only eat half of the mains as the salad was not too much of my taste.
My Heidsieck.
Time to dig in!
Got a cup of coffee and two Swiss chocs for my friends in Vienna. Yay. I asked the Maitre D which registration the aircraft had and he instantly told me. Because he was so delightful, I told him that I wanted to counter the trend that everybody always just seems to mention something when somebody does something badly and asked him if I could complement him. He was very happy and handed me a form to fill out, which I did.
Coffee. My favorite xD
Also the first time aboard for my SQTalk tag - thanks StarG!!
When deboarding in Zurich, he came to me and said "Mr. Wagner, thanks for flying with us and I hope I will see you soon aboard again. It was a real pleasure to fly with you!" which I found very nice as he called me by my name.
Good day – Grüezzi – Kalimera!
Once again, it's winter time in Europe. Not only does this time of the year stand for Santa Clause, snow and winter sports I try to avoid at all costs... no, it also stands for great fares on SWISS Business Class, the notorious Y-Flyer from Austria was blinded by. This will probably become a very weird bunch of reports as I wasn't really staying in places too long - you have to know, I was still a mileage-run virgin.
Prelude
The 'gold rush' basically started at work, when I browsed for some flights as I came across those great fares on SWISS Business. Instantly, I booked a flight to Thessaloniki because it's supposed to be the most easy-going destination to turn around. The run basically meant departing Vienna in the late evening, arriving in Thessaloniki past midnight and turning around to be home for breakfast in Vienna again. Sounded like a perfect plan to me, considering I will get roughly 6000 miles for about 300 euros. A bit more than 5 cent per mile are acceptable in Europe, especially when requalifying for BD Gold is pretty hard on low SQ booking classes. I think this is my problem: I would not buy full fare Economy because it's simply not worth it for me. I don't get a better product than somebody who probably paid half as much as I'd have paid. So I just had to make these unorthodox mileage runs.
After booking the tickets to Thessaloniki, I had to go for another one. Athens was the next target as it gives even more miles but involves a slightly more time-consuming turnaround. But I am a pretty hard core guy to mess with, right? xD With the two trips ticketed on the second and third weekend in November, I was set to call up my SWISS agent to reserve some good seats for the upcoming flights. No good seats were available for me, so I had to settle for rows 2 and 3. Well, at least I have a window.
Off it goes
Friday was a very exhausting day. Work was pretty laid-back as both of my bosses weren't in and my team mate was in MUC. So I was basically alone, finally, getting things done without people interrupting me like all the time. The fact that we're off at 4 PM on friday was very great as well but I still had to attend a uni course at 6.30 PM which would keep me busy till 8. Pretty exhausted, I went home and prepared to go out - there was a great drum and bass party going on this night. But before that, I finally had time to squeeze in our Kazakhstan-DO.
Watching Borat, the Ali G. show and the A380 delivery video that ran on ARD, Germany's national TV channel, with zauberflöte and petz was finally something very great this day. However, I underestimated how unwillingly my body seemed to like my day planning ... so it was no drum and bass event for me afterwards but rushing to Burger King, getting a Double Whopper without pickles and onions plus extra cheese, eating, watching Futurama and testing the cyan blue LED mood lighting system my friend Raffael installed at his home together with some very nice Ambient music by Aphex Twin (the early works ... man, I love Xtal) and Secede's Tryshasla album (gosh, Leraine featuring Kettel is probably one of the best songs for me!) ... together with some new age from Enigma ... was very nice too.
Woke up at 10 AM, went to celebrate the birthday of a person very close to me and had a Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee at the Mocca Lounge near Naschmarkt before Raffael and humble me went to the airport.
Calm Vienna evening ... rainy, though.
Hello, VIE. This time not coming from the trains!
Hello again, dear check-in hall.
Checked in, three tickets... apparently the check-in machine wanted me to stay in ZRH!
It's a luxury having a friend driving you to the airport and I am so thankful I did not have to take the train this time. Checked in at the self check-in machines and rushed thru the passport checks. First time at the A-gate sided SEN lounges which were disappointing in comparison with the normal Business Lounge. I tried to speak to 4 (!) persons who apparently wanted to avoid conversation if I could boost them into the lounge but they all denied. Strange folks, I tell you... strange folks.
Having a glass of Johnny Walker Red Label in the lounge.
OS SEN Lounge Pier West... errr... flowers on the wall.
Boarded LX 1583 en route to Zurich - priority boarding for C and Star Gold does matter! First aboard ... wonderful.
Flight: LX 1583
Departing: VIE - Vienna International
Arriving: ZRH - Zürich Kloten
Aircraft: Airbus 320
Reg/Name: HB-IJP
Seat: 3F
Got comfy in my seat and hoped I would not see a seat neighbour. Thankfully, I got a row for myself and the C cabin was only filled with 6 people whereas the Y cabin was packed full. Got my Henniez water, a refreshing towel which came in just so handy and off we were.
Rather empty flight.
I asked the Maite D, Juan, if they loaded the Charles Heidsieck Blue Top and he told me he thought it was the Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin. He came back with the Heidsieck and apologized for giving me the wrong information. Food-time usually means a satisfied Flo but this time I could only eat half of the mains as the salad was not too much of my taste.
My Heidsieck.
Time to dig in!
Got a cup of coffee and two Swiss chocs for my friends in Vienna. Yay. I asked the Maitre D which registration the aircraft had and he instantly told me. Because he was so delightful, I told him that I wanted to counter the trend that everybody always just seems to mention something when somebody does something badly and asked him if I could complement him. He was very happy and handed me a form to fill out, which I did.
Coffee. My favorite xD
Also the first time aboard for my SQTalk tag - thanks StarG!!
When deboarding in Zurich, he came to me and said "Mr. Wagner, thanks for flying with us and I hope I will see you soon aboard again. It was a real pleasure to fly with you!" which I found very nice as he called me by my name.
Home is where your heart is.
... did not want to miss my flight, ate a few gummy bears and off to my next flight I was. I was right there, had to wait a few minutes at the First/Business security line and again at the gate area when I was finally let in.
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