Tag Archives: Airport

Observations: How Arriving in Rome Leads to Magic

Let me just say, I miss Italy – the walks, the food, the friends, the light, and the myriad of personalities represented by each tiny kingdom that makes up this crazy country. Whenever I travel to Italy, I find myself in a reoccurring predicament sort of like Groundhog Day…the arrival day. There is a reassuring madness and transition that takes place every time.

In Rome, if you made the mistake of checking your bag, you are often resigned to a long wait by the carousel where I am convinced the baggage handlers gather underneath and watch us poor checkers of bags wait and wilt, teasing us with an early movement of the carousel, encouraging us to jostle to claim the best spot for a smooth departure. Mistake number one. You checked your bag! Rome’s airport is so convinced that it will be a long and possibly fruitless wait, that they have installed a children’s playground and coffee/wine bar to ease the pressure of the moment as the baggage handlers do whatever they need to do to maintain their part in this commedia dell’arte.

And then at some point, if you’re lucky, the bags show up. There is a frantic grab as everyone, except the unlucky ones, retrieve their bags and head to the uscita. And then the next round of fun begins.


Taxi? No grazie.
Metro? Dove? Bus al centro, mi dispiace! Nothing comes easy.

The signs at airports in Italy are always confusing and there are often a couple of exit points so that somebody waiting for you may be in the wrong place. It only adds to the story. By nature, Italians are overly detailed and under sourced in terms of organization. So there are rules that make no sense and rules that are deliberately confusing. And everyone in Italy think they make perfect sense – which they do if you’re Italian.

Confusion, chaos, where is the metro, how do I get a ticket, where is the motolaunch in Venice, which way do I go?! Italians almost revel in that power of perfect and complete orderly chaos. It’s their word after all – caos.

At some point, you survive the airport arrival and end up in your hotel. A little frustrated, but how bad can it be as we are talking about Italy!

Then the arrival moment…the passegiata.

Through the busy piazzas and the bits of Bernini, past the fountains and the Baroque and Roman stone, you stop and take an espresso, or a gelato, or a beer, or a Campari. And you look out onto the movie set walking by and you know something beautiful has happened without your knowledge. You have passed to the other side. You have disappeared into Italy, and have become an observer of all those things that you found frustrating and they have turned into beautiful moments. The transformation is complete.

No need to toss coins in the fountain. The spell is cast and without even a thought, but with a skip in your step, you go about your day secure in the knowledge that you will return.

The Journey to Sarajevo

Sarajevo is a tricky place to fly into from Boston. I arrived at the airport in Boston early for a Lufthansa flight that would take me out across the Atlantic and connect in Munich for a flight to Sarajevo. There aren’t too many other flight options for getting there.

In Boston, Terminal E is jazzing its act up. There is now a Legal Seafoods and a taco place in addition to the awful Durgin Park, which for some reason still occupies a space somewhere in Boston. It’s dreadful! I was sitting at Legal’s quite happily having my clam chowder and tuna sashimi when I started to see my flight falling apart on me. First it was a one hour delay, then a two hour delay.

Lufthansa assured us that all onward connections would be taken care of “when we arrived.” Yeah, right. I quickly checked my phone and could easily see that firstly I was going to misconnect and secondly the nightmare would only just begin and it would take me all day to get to Sarajevo if I was lucky.

What to do?! I had my boarding card and was through security already. Then as an oasis appears in a desert, I saw the magical light of Turkish Airlines in the distance. Turkish Airlines departed for Istanbul at 11:30 pm and then had a straight onward connection to Sarajevo. I called my agent (it’s handy to have someone to guide you through this) and made the shift while inside security in the terminal.

While the Lufthansa flight was finally boarding, I went up to their counter and explained that I was going to be a no-show on their flight. I had my bags with me, they removed me from the manifest, and wished me good luck on my 11 hour transatlantic flight to Istanbul.

I sat down, had another beer, and waited for the Turkish Airlines flight. And what a great flight that was! You can do a lot with 11 hours – two movies, a bite to eat, and five hours of sleep. My kind of transatlantic flight. I’m thinking of flying to London via Istanbul next time!

Istanbul Atatürk Airport

When you come off of a transatlantic flight and have three hours to kill, there are certain airports that make you want to stick around. If you are flying in business and you happen to be transiting through Istanbul Atatürk Airport, head straight to their business class lounge. It is enormous and has every single convenience that you need to while away the time before your onward connection. I even discovered the cinema – yes there is a cinema with comfortable lounge chairs inside of the Turkish Airlines lounge.

I sat down, watched a movie, relaxed, dozed off, set my iPhone for an alarm in case I got into a heavy sleep, grabbed a Turkish coffee (why not?!), and made my way over to my onward connection to Sarajevo. It was just about as smooth as I could imagine. Turkish Airlines is a great airline but more importantly, the lounge knocks the socks off of most air lounges out there. It’s even voted as one of the top 10 airline lounges in the world.

When Your Bag Never Arrives

Word on the street is that airline technology is moving in so that you can track your bag through messaging on your phone. That means that you don’t have to wait for half an hour at a baggage carousel when the airline already knows that your bag is not going to show. A simple alert, and you can head straight to baggage information.

But airlines are moving beyond this and want to eliminate that mess. You know, selecting what your bag looks like on an identity kit picture and filling out a silly form that is filed away (FYI: never lose your bag at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport!). So, this is an improvement. However, airlines get a whopping $4 billion per year in baggage fees. This is another way for them to give you false statistics. If you do not fill out the form and they inform you your bag is missing, you can alert them on where you would like to receive your bag. That means that your bag is not lost or missing but is simply “arriving for your convenience at your home address.” So they look a little more efficient than they are. They still charge you for the baggage fee. All they have done is change the goal post, make our lives a little better, and make themselves look fabulous.

I for one am all for avoiding the dreaded line at baggage services. That’s at least a two-hour killer right there. Frankly, the only reason that you should ever check your bag is if you’re skiing or emigrating.

Extra Checks at TSA

Given the recent state of events, it’s not surprising that TSA is tightening its grip on the security checks at airports.  There’s not just the possibility that we all may soon have to travel without our computers, but at the screening stage it looks as though we are headed to a process that has us separate the contents of our bags into different bins.  The days of simply removing your liquids and creams into a separate bag may soon be over.  Now there are going to be bins for jackets, belts, shoes, creams, liquids, plus paper and electronics.  If you’re traveling, it probably makes sense to unclutter your bag.  The more stuff that you have floating in that thing, the more likely it is that they will want to look inside it.  That is what will cost you time and hold up the lines.

In addition, TSA is becoming super diligent on the two bag carry-on rule.  I ran into a problem the other day at Logan Airport and had to quickly unzip my main bag and put my man bag inside of the main bag because I had a backpack as well.  Of course, all of this is good as it is all planned to make us safe and secure when we fly.  This always bring me to the question – why don’t more people apply for TSA Precheck or Global Entry?  None of the rules that apply or are shortly to be launched will affect TSA Precheck.

That brings me to the last thing, airlines do a phenomenal job of screening passengers.  Soon they will be able to determine through government issued ID whether you have a reason for them to be suspicious.  Where is Amtrak in all of this?  Take the Acela from Boston to New York or New York to Washington; a well-trafficked route and you wonder why they do not institute an x-ray machine and an ID check before you get onto the train.  It’s not perfect but it seems in this ever security-concerned world that it would make smart dollar sense to invest in something here.

Incidentally, TSA has assured us that the extra security checks they are putting in place will be tested not just for security but also for speed for consumers.  You almost wonder why people that fly on planes are not forced to get global clearance.

Long day at the Airport

Long day at the Airport

Long day at the Airport

Hotels always give out bad information on the time it takes to get from them to the airport. It’s not that they’re overly cautious, they’re just wrong. I just often wonder how many of the people who give us this advice, have actually ever been to the airport that they’re guiding us to. Case in point, Marmaris center to Dalaman airport.  The journey takes less than an hour. Hotel advice is that it takes two hours and of course they recommend, given the problem of security, that you get to the airport at least 2.5 hours before departure. Of course it’s all about the rooms really. They wanted the bloody rooms! I should have known.

I hate being at airports too early. I am a “maximum of 1 hour before” guy. As it were, traveling is like marriage. Once you’ve been at it for while you become ever more inventive in your ways to keep it fresh. I like the excitement of possibly missing the flight. I like to see how fast I can move through security, how economically I can buy souvenirs (if I really have to) and it means I don’t have to spend endless hours drinking dreadful coffee and eating plastic sandwiches in some awful lounge.

So here I am, spending endless hours drinking dreadful coffee in some awful lounge, wondering why I fell for the bad information yet again. To add insult to injury, my flight to Istanbul, of course, is delayed. From Istanbul, to London there’s a change of terminals before connecting to Dublin. More delays. More plastic sandwiches. This day, a mélange of Turkish Air, British Airways and Aer Lingus, a feast of cultural diversity and sweaty planes (lovely), started at 6am in the morning. It will not end until Turkish time, 2pm the next day. In other words, Australia would have been a more convenient option and certainly more fun!