Chocolate cats

Uneventful, you know the way it is, a filght to Brussels, 45 mins in the air, something unusual for a meal and wander off to the hotel.

The meal looked like a 10 year old had helped themselves at a buffet, the miniscule salad and slices of chicken breast, there was a cheesecake like thing in what looked like a sputum pot which I offered to my neighbour but he refused it as well.

Today would have been a good day to smuggle something, Belgian customs were all watching the football on a laptop accompanied by several passengers, all eager to cheer on Belgium against the USA

The match was looking like a draw so I retreated to the bath, keeping the door open to hear when goals were scored, Belgium won 2-1 but it was surprisingly quiet from the surrounding rooms, I had been assigned a room on the club floor and there was a lounge for club members so I assume they were all in there watching the match. The highlight of the whole hotel stay  was the two Belgian chocolate cats on my pillow!

Some confusion with the hour, I woke up realising it was an hour later unlike the usual few hours earlier, packed up at lightning speed and headed over to check in.

And that’s where the problems started……………………..

As I approached the desk at the  US Airways check in , I was given a particularly thorough “going over” by a nice young Belgian bloke, verbally, mores the pity but having toddled off with my passport, I was then directed to a desk where people seemed to know my name!

Turns out the 767 had gone tech and the new plane wouldn’t arrive from Paris in time for me to make the connection at PHX . CLT plane had already left as well. The US airways check in agent was a star, she kept trying route after route to try to get me to ANC in reasonable time.

 Having recently joined OW she didn’t have a huge knowledge of the routings available and after a few suggestions and a severe case of “computer says no” (which probably wasn’t going to be funny in Brussels as I don’t know if they watch Little Britain), 

I offered to buy her a coffee, slipped out for a cigarette and she was still struggling with a way to get me to ANC. “send me back to London and let them work it out” I suggested but she wasn’t going to be beaten, mores the pity a flight from London would have been a better TATL plane on AA or BA even !

Eventually she found a routing that would work BRU-PHL-DFW-ANC  The other 2 flights being on AA no problem except arriving 18 hours late and losing a precious 150 TP by taking a flight under 2000miles, sorry Alistair there goes your GUF2 upgrade to First next trip.

They are promising me a hotel overnight at PHL as well, rather be in Alaska though.

Taking the same lift up to the BA lounge, I was directed  to the Diamond lounge, a third party pay per use lounge, sparser than the BA lounge, local beer on tap, small variety of drinks and spirits and a Starbucks coffee machine- which turned out quite the nicest cappuccino I have had from a machine, I stayed for another one instead of venturing into the BA lounge for a croissant. Also it being Belgium no one bats an eyelid at smoking an e cigarette in the lounge or around the airport.

 I am extremely fond of Belgium, it was the first place abroad we went when I was about 6, just the right mix of being able to speak the language when a bank machine eats your card and a little Dutch culture, as a nation they are a good deal more casual about EU regulations than we are, the smoking in buildings ban is observed until you get to the mat by the door, none of your 25m clearance here, dogs allowed everywhere and a nice breakfast. A Belgian breakfast (and Dutch too for that matter) is bread, eggs, cheese and ham suits me fine.  this lounge is also a member of the Airport Angels system so if you got a card free with your Barclays bank account , stop in and try the coffee.

Unlike the priority lane for security there wasn’t one for boarding but I eventually got to the front of the queue and onto the plane

Single Aisle planes

….. Ever heard me say I wont cross the Atlantic on a single aisle plane? It’s a mantra Al knows well, anyway, the substitute plane is a B757, yep, narrowbody, the seats don’t go flat, there is no IFE, no privacy and the food is American- ie not spicy at all , they don’t really get the whole Umami thing and all the food tastes of salt and not much else, the salad followed by pasta wasn’t too bad, not a patch on what I would be eating if I had persuaded her to re route me  through London and onto BA.

In all my years of travelling I have never had to press the call bell to get another drink after 2 hours without one and boy am I missing the Champagne,  I started off being furious, but since I only watch the moving map, drink myself “tired “ and I can sleep on almost anything Boeing have ever built  it has pretty much everything I need, I think the main gripe is that I could have been sat in J on a BA 787 but lesson learned- Just fight the urge to bail out at LHR on the return and fly BA next time!

Nice view leaving Brussels, 

View of the exotic coastline of ........Oostende!

Did Georgia O'Keeffe fly this route?

Arriving at Philly another hour late, I got chatting to a young Belgian girl ( to me anyway she was 23) on her way to Dallas for 2 weeks, she had missed her re booked flight because of the immigration queue, and was saying she was worried about getting things sorted out. I offered to help, explained I wasn’t a weirdo and knew PHL quite well, as a Psychology masters student she said she knew I wasn’t “strange” and accepted my help. I left her an hour later at security knowing where she was going and what to do if she didn’t get on the standby flight. I have done my bit for the next generation of solo women travellers ie showed her how to cope when airlines throw a spanner in the works!

So here I am with an unexpected stop in Philly, not long enough to go to see Lisa but long enough to get bored – I don’t suppose they will show any highlights of USA getting beaten by the Belgians on the TV will they!