My Paris Diary | 46 comments (46 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

the killing blow -- a train strike.

What was the occasion -- anyone knows?

My flight was to leave at 3:55. I checked in at 3:04. I was told I missed the plane.

Was it Air France or an American airline?

_{*Lunatic*, n.

One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

by DoDo on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 07:46:39 AM EST

I heard about the call for a Monday strike on the RER B line while listening to the radio on Saturday morning, just before leaving for the meet-up.

Since RER B isn't on my daily commute, I forgot about it and didn't realize some ETribbers would rely on it to head to the airport on Monday... <kicking myself>

At least, the à Paris children were delighted to have Izzy one more night!

I'm not surprised about the flight and I don't think it has anything to do with Air France or American or United: there are 3 sorts of flights: domestic, international and US-bound international (a fourth may be to Israel). On this last sort, the various security checks are so cumbersome, and have gotten worse and worse, that airport ground staff tend to play it safe by applying the "last time for check-in or you'll be denied boarding" rule.

Had you flown to Berlin or Rome: no problem, most likely.

Another aggravating factor for CDG airport: not enough gates on the terminals, so they're busing passengers to and from aircrafts, including long haul flights, not only puddle hoppers. It happened to me the 2 last times I came back from SFO, and because of that they probably need to add a good 15 to 20 mn to their time constraints.

by Bernard (bernard) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 08:09:43 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: My Paris Diary (4.00 / 4)

I'll 'forgive' you since I only spent two hours in sheer hell and finally made my plane through unusual means.

I think I have noticed only 2 types of flights:

Domestic and international
To monstrous govt. countries like the US, Israel, etc.

where no human event is allowed to change the rules from their rock brains and nothing will ever satisfy them except a body bag and a bag o´money!

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. -Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 10:05:42 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: My Paris Diary (4.00 / 4)

the various security checks are so cumbersome, and have gotten worse and worse, that airport ground staff tend to play it safe by applying the "last time for check-in or you'll be denied boarding" rule.

OMG - I forgot to tell you guys the best part! So the next day I'm sitting on the plane waiting to take off on the way home, and we're just sitting there at the gate. For ages. I was seated next to this really nice French family. There were a couple of announcements, but they were in French with no translation.

Finally, after about 45 minutes, I asked the French family what was going on. The guy says that the plane's been delayed because some people checked on their baggage but then couldn't get into the boarding area and they had to unload all the bags to return them to the people who missed the flight.

I just looked at the guy (he said it so casually) and I'm all... so... if I'm understanding you correctly, some passengers got to the counter in time to check their baggage, but just missed the one hour cut off to the gate, and then they delay the flight an hour to get their luggage back to them? Does this make any sense? He goes, well... hmm... I never thought about it, but I guess it doesn't and we both started laughing.

Maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding. -Hobbes

by Izzy (izzy at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 30th, 2008 at 02:16:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: My Paris Diary (4.00 / 2)

Essentially, the RER B line is split between the SNCF to the north and the RATP in the center and to the south. It used to be that the driver would change at Gare du Nord - causing a two to three minutes delay for the train, that was a bit cumbersome on such a busy line. The strike is caused by the move to have the drivers drive on the whole line rather than only on their company's tracks ; apparently that one strike was caused by claims the drivers are being overworked.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Sep 28th, 2008 at 04:44:30 PM EST
[ Parent ]

My Paris Diary | 46 comments (46 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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