Amsterdam – 2/11/2020
Feb 12th, 2020 by rallyadmin
The flight to Amsterdam is on KLM and we stop at the Gate to check that our boarding passes are legit. The KLM agent says they are fine but she changes Barbara’s seat from the middle seat to a window seat which leaves the middle seat open, a nice change. We board. I check the Delta app’s “Check Your Bags” function (a nice touch) and it shows our bags being loaded on to the plane which is a new 787-10 (a very nice plane from Boeing.)
We take off and passengers start changing seats as soon as the door closes. The seats in front of us have three people and the aisle passenger moves to an empty aisle seat in a row with only the other seat occupied which gives the original aisle seat to the passenger in the original middle seat. Everyone ends up happy. We settle in for the 8+ hour flight to Amsterdam.
Dinner is served. Headsets on. Movies selected. The passenger in front of me promptly drops his seat into full recline which is pretty much in my lap. Wait a minute. This isn’t more leg room. It turns out that the International desk solved the seat assignment problem by putting us together in Economy NOT Comfort+. Grrr. I’ve already paid for one Comfort+ seat and now we don’t have any Comfort+ seats.
And I should have asked when we were checking in. There were plenty of empty C+ seats. Grrr. Memo to self: check Amex bill when I get home.
But, otherwise, the trip is fine. We even get to Amsterdam an hour early. We shouldn’t have any problems getting our boarding passes since we have plenty of time before we have to board.
In Amsterdam, when you changing flights, you go to an automatic kiosk to get your outbound get no boarding pass. I do a slip of paper telling me to set an agent. Now we start searching for a live KLM person, not the easiest thing even in the home base of KLM.
We finally find a counter where the KLM agents will be in “about 30 minutes” after walking nearly the length of the damned airport terminal (no small feat in Amsterdam.) We do find a live KLM agent working at a counter and he tells us that the reason we got the message from the automatic kiosk is that our flight to Helsinki has been canceled and we have to be re-routed. Hmmmm. This is turning into a fun trip.
Finally, the KLM agents file into their counter and I get in line. The line moves slowly but I finally get to an agent who pecks away at her terminal. She gets us a couple of Finnair seats on the next flight to Helsinki which leaves at 11:40 AM. Okay, it is what it is. If I’ve learned anything on all the international flights I’ve taken it’s be patient and calm down. It is what it is.
We hike up to the gate that the Finnair flight is supposed to depart from. And settle into a couple of seats in what is a nearly empty terminal. Slowly passengers move in to the area around us waiting for flights that depart from the same gate.
We nap on and off. We have about a 6 hour wait for our flight. Finally the first flight from the gate (a flight to Geneva) calls boarding for its passengers and a french speaking young couple sitting across from us lean over and ask if we are on the flight to Geneva. They must have been watching us nap and were afraid that we might miss the flight. We thank them and tell them that we are going to Helsinki, not Geneva, but thanks for checking.
They leave to board and the other flights boarding in this pod leave. We keep taking naps. Then the screen shows that our flight has changed gates. We hike to the new gate.
A few delays for our flight and we finally board about a half hour late. Whatever. (Patience is a requirement.) The plane is a single class 319 and it’s a crowded flight but it’s only about 2 1/2 hours of flying time. We land in Helsinki. Hurray!
“Hurray!” only lasts until we try to get our bags. We get to baggage claim, the conveyor starts up, bags come out. People get their bags. Our bags don’t come out. Over to the claim counter. Patience, dude.
A very nice Finnair agent takes our contact info and our baggage tags. She enters everything into the computer system and gives us the info on the claim which we can check on the web. They’ll call as soon as they learn anything about our bags. I thank her and we go off to get our rental car.
Fortunately, there’s no problem with the Hertz rental. (Good thing, we’re getting really tired and there might not be much patience left.) We get directions to where the car is parked in the huge parking structure. More hiking. This has to be good for our step counts. Everything going well until we get to where the car is. Or, rather, is supposed to be. No car. We look at the map that the agent at the Hertz counter gave us. I think we’re in the right area. WE walk around but no car and it really doesn’t look like a rental car area. It looks like basic, passenger parking.
I have the key fob for the car and, on a lark, I press the panic button on the fob. Immediately we hear the mournful call of the lonely rental car. We’re in to wrong area. Actually, we’re on the wrong floor of the parking structure. We wander around, homing on the mournful rental car wail.
Finally, the horn gets louder and we get close enough to see the flashing headlights. I push the Unlock button on the fob and the horn stops. We load the car with our travel packs. Start the car. Plug in the hotel GPS address and we’re off. This is getting to be a very long day, occasional short naps not withstanding.
No dramas to the hotel and a parking spot right across the street. We get ourselves a bit confused trying to get a parking slip front the automatic system and give up trying after noticing that none of the other cars parked there have no tickets.
We check in to the hotel, the Scandia Paasi, which is very nice continental style hotel. Think of an IKEA style hotel but with better workmanship. I recommend it.
There’s a restaurant right across the courtyard from the hotel. It’s got a nice quiet vibe and a very poofy bartender/waiter/manager. But he’s nice and we have a very good light dinner before heading back to the hotel.
Barbara’s out about 5 minutes after we turn on the tv. A bit later I give up on the tv after dozing off a few times. What a day.
I’m dead asleep and my mobile rings. It’s Finnair and they have confirmation that our bags are on a KLM flight that is due into Helsinki tonight. Great. “Please call when you know when it’ll land. I may drive back to the airport to puck up the bags.” The woman warns me that it might be late and they may be wrong, the bags may not really be on the plane. These things happen. But she’ll call.
About an hour later the mobile rings again. It’s the Finnair agent again. The bags have arrived. But it’s already nearly midnight and I have no business driving back to the airport. Please deliver the bags to the hotel in the morning. And thank you for calling.
This may just work out. Back to sleep.
Obi-wan