Around the world - Part 2

From Korea I went to Japan. Japan Airways. Short flight, not bad.  I flew into Haneda airport and out of Narita. Haneda is much closer and easier. Narita is nice, but you feel like you are halfway to your destination by the time you get there. Tokyo is great. I have been there several times and always like it. If you have not seen "Lost in Translation" with Bill Murray and Scarlet Johansson, I recommend it. It basically conveys a great western view of Japan. Then onto Beijing. China Airlines. Did you know that any company starting with "China" (Air, Telecom, whatever...) is owned by the state? I didn't. People in the U.S. often find it easy to denigrate anything run by the government, although I think the misconceptions tend to be pretty far reaching. But I have to say, China Airlines was very good. I went to use the restroom on the flight and the flight attendant saw me heading in that direction, she walked over and held the door open. Find that in a United flight. I was met by a woman affiliated with the car service who greeted me right off the gate, before getting through customs. She power walked me through the Beijing airport which seemed to be about the size of Connecticut. The hotel in Beijing was also really nice, as were the people everywhere. Then there was the traffic. I think I could have run to my meetings quicker. But all in all, a great visit. After a long day, it's back to the airport for my flight to Tel Aviv. There a janitor followed me into the men's room in an almost deserted airport at 10 PM. Why in the world was this happening? If I am at Hartsfield in Atlanta, I am thinking he is about to rob me. If in Minneapolis, perhaps he is a Senator. It turns out, he is running ahead if me to spray and wipe the toilet seat. Seriously. When was the last time that happened to me at LaGuardia? Oh yeah, never. Then I board my El Al flight. Before you get the the airport to fly El Al, it helps to think through exactly what you do for a living, why you are flying to Israel, where you have been, where you are going, where you are staying, how long, the people you will see there, and some other fun facts about things you like or whatever, just so they can get a measure if who you are. You will be asked this stuff. Very, very thorough. The 11 hour overnight flight was enhanced by a 2 hour delay on the tarmac, which, when announced, seemed to be greeted as a call for several small discussion groups to spontaneously commence in the isles. All in Hebrew, mostly loud. Too funny. I arrived in Tel Aviv at about six in the morning. A beautiful day. Ben Gurion Airport is first class. Fairly quick through customs as well, to my surprise. Taxi to the hotel to shower and change, then on to meetings. My hotel was a boutique hotel called the Leonardo in a business district in Tel Aviv. The staff was nice and the hotel was very modern. My room was great. There was also a trail that ran along the little river near the hotel, and I went out running in the evening. It was awesome. I found Tel Aviv to be great. The food was good, the people were nice, the business climate was vibrant. My colleague rented a car, which I will also do when I return on my next trip. Two very long days, capped by a fantastic dinner with our partner there at a restaurant right on the shore of the Mediterranean.  Then a 430 am taxi to the airport Friday morning, and on to a British Airways flight. I love coming come. 

The icing on the cake was getting upgraded to First on BA. I have been a BA gold card holder for 12 years in a row, and after flying several different airlines in the last 13 days, I still feel BA is really hard to beat. The planes are nice, the crews are nice, the ground staff is nice. They are efficient. They get international travel. The clubs are top notch. 

Long trip. Great trip. But always great to get home.

Safe travels

The First Week

This week I was in Auckland, Melbourne, Taipei, and Seoul. As far as Airlines go, all flights were a steady improvement from the start last week with United. I flew Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Dragon Air, and China Airlines. As a general observation, the Asian airlines have flight crews with exceptional attention to service. I would compare it to a visit to the Apple store, when you ask the young person at the Genius Bar why your iPhone screen is locking, and the respond like it's the most marvelous question they have ever heard and you made their day by asking. On my flight to Seoul I had that same experience by asking for coffee. Smiles. Quick service. Happy. Bowing. More bowing. Since I am in my seat, I respond with an approximate bow in the form of a head nod. But again, I would highly recommend all of these airlines. The one thing I did think was not so much bad as it was amusing was when my Cathay Pacific flight landed in Hing Kong to transfer after an overnight flight from Melbourne, the flight attendants shut the curtain between business and economy, and when it got pushed open they were quick to re-shut it. They did not want the curtain open until everyone had disembarked from Business and First. It's like we had Bruce Springsteen on board and they wanted to ensure nobody saw which door he went out. 


As far as airports go, they all start to look the same after a while. Auckland was fine, although relatively small. Melbourne was OK. Nothing special. Hong Kong is pretty nice. While spread out, it has a nice feel to it. It is relatively new, and feels that way. Taipei is undergoing a renovation, so it was a bit more challenging. It kind of looks like a cross between 1965 and 2015. I suspect it will be really cool when finished. Icheon Airport in Seoul is a ways out from the city. It is a large airport and getting through customs takes a little while if you are arriving on a fully loaded 747, which I was. That said, no complaints. I am flying out of Gimpo, the other Seoul airport tonight, so it will be interesting to compare. 

As far as hotels go, I give super high marks to the Hotel Éclat in Taipei. I arrived around noon, and was met at my car by the doorman, which is not in and of itself uncommon. When I stepped out of the car he said "Welcome Mr. DeLoach". That threw me. Then as I walked inside, I was greeted by a very professional looking (and acting) woman who said "Hello Mr. DeLoach, I am Kate. Welcome to Taipei." and she proceeded to take me to my room, and check me in there using a remote card machine, provided an overview of all the hotel stuff, and was unbelievably nice in a way that felt very sincere. The room, the hotel, and the overall stay was great. Except the typhoon. Oh well. Then in Korea I stayed at the Marriott Courtyard. That evokes the familiar image of a 3 story, 4 hall, rectangular building with the pool in the courtyard. Not even close. This was a very new, very large hotel that was at Times Square in Seoul. Again, the entire staff was unbelievably accommodating. The room was great. The Internet service was really high speed. And it connected to an upscale Mall ("Times Square Department Store") which, except for the fact that it was always completely jammed with mostly young Korean people between 17 and 25, looks  like almost any mall in North America, including the store chains themselves. To that end, I like experiencing the local cultures. Krispy Kreme is not exactly what I want to see in Seoul. 

Last, the ground transportation was generally good. Taxis in Auckland were fine, but expensive. I did not use any in Melbourne. In Taipei, they are relatively cheap, and the drivers are all quite nice, but few speak English. Almost the same in Seoul, except the have this phone translator service you can supposedly use if you need it, which seems nice but I never tried it. I had a converter app on my iPhone so I always had the address in the local character set for the drivers to see which got me where I was going. I also rode the subway in Seoul, which I highly recommend as well. It was clean, nice, and relatively cool, even though it was extremely hot outside. 

And one final note. Whether it's an iPhone or an Android, make sure you have good apps on your phone as a guide for the cities you are visiting, complete with language help, and tips on everything from taxi's to subways to tipping to currency conversion and use of ATM's to etiquette. They are invaluable. 

I am going to have a tough time going through "service de-tox" once back in North America. I can't imagine many hotel staffs, much less cab drivers in New York with the service culture that exists here. There are definitely lessons to be learned. But who am I kidding, it is clearly a cultural thing. And it's very impressive. 

Safe travels

The first (broken) leg

To say this got off to a rocky start is an understatement so large I am not even going to try to explore it in any detail. Here are the high points. I got to O'Hare really early for the flight to San Francisco. The flight was ultimately delayed four hours. I missed my connection to New Zealand by about 10 minutes. Had the notification of the fight delay in Chicago been earlier, as it easily could have been, I could have reacted in a way to not miss the New Zealand flight. But the notification was not timely at all. Had the turnaround of the late arriving flight from Denver been quicker than an hour and fifteen minutes, I might have made the connection. It wasn't. The narrative surrounding the mismanagement from United runs so far and wide that it just isn't worth even worth exploring. I was frustrated. I was angry. I was a bit in disbelief. Nothing seemed to work right, and little made any sense. Then, at around midnight in San Francisco, I had an epiphany. 

I felt put out, and most of all, I felt like I was starting this really big trip with a huge setback that was entirely avoidable, which was the most frustrating of all. And while I was interacting with  the person at the international ticket counter trying to sort out re-booking and coming to grips with the lack of their ability to provide, or even help with hotel accommodations even though I missed the connection because of them, it occurred to me that my feelings of being put out and inconvenienced probably paled in comparison to the frustration this guy must feel every single day. Then I thought back to the other people I had interacted with from United over the course of the day. I had literally spent hours with the O'hare ground staff in Chicago trying to find a solution, to no avail. Some of these people were terrible, with a bitterness and disdain that seemed to magnify every problem I was seeing through comments like "we just can't get good information out of these Continental systems", or my favorite, which was the gate agent saying "and why would I expect anything to actually work?" Yet, there were three people in particular who had been calm and had truly tried (to no avail) to find a solution; to be helpful. These people get yelled at all day long. They are trying to put a good face on unbelievably difficult circumstances. And while they are not universal, if United is able to make it (which is better left to another discussion), it will most certainly be because they had people like the ground information person in Chicago, or the gate agent in Chicago, or the ticket counter guy in San Francisco who treated people like me as customers deserving of their understanding and support, despite the extremely difficult circumstances. Poor me? Wow. Poor them. I would not want their job, but the ones who shine in the face of such adversity certainly have my respect.

I am now landing in Auckland after a 12 hour flight and a 23 hour layover in San Francisco. I am optimistic that better travel awaits.

By the way, Air New Zealand is pretty good. I would fly them again. 

Safe travels

Around the World

I am about to visit much of Asia and Israel over the next two weeks. I have to admit with as much travel as I have done over the years, very little has been in Asia. Outside of Sydney, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, I have not seen anywhere else. And while I travel to "new" cites less and less (logically), I always get a kick out of it when I do. I am about to visit seven cities over the next thirteen days, of which six will be ones I have never visited. My plan it to write a quick blog about each one. This will most certainly speak to the combination of the airlines I see, hotels where I stay, ground transportation I use, as well as the airports, local establishments, people, and cultures. 

My trip will begin with a 4.5 hour Saturday afternoon flight to San Francisco, followed by a 12 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand, arriving at 5:40 am Monday morning in Auckland. Oh yeah, in economy. Sound fun yet? My first plug is for Sonata. It is similar to Ambien, but apparently without the side effects of binge eating and having sex in my sleep. Now, for what it's worth, if I was to be binge eating and having sex with someone without being awake or aware of what I was doing, that would, in and of itself, be quite a tribute to the power of the drug. That said, since such behavior is likely frowned upon in planes, I think I will stick to Sonata! As for the rest, we will have to see. 

I will be experiencing a number of new airlines, like Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, Jetstar, China Airlines, Japan Airlines, Air China (different than China Airlines), and El Al. That said, I  start and end my trip with two familiar airlines, United out to San Francisco, and especially British Airways from both Tel Aviv to London and then on to Chicago.

More to come.....

Good and Bad Taxis

I am on a flight to New York. When I land I will take a taxi from LaGuardia into Midtown. Chances are high that it will be a bad experience. I know this, well, from experience. So that begs the question, what is a "good" or "bad" taxi experience? In my book, it is a function of speed, safety, and the pleasantness of the ride, which itself broken into smoothness, sound, smell, cleanliness, and comfort. 

To elaborate, I usually want to get where I am going quickly, so the NY taxis do well in that department. Speed limits are more like disregarded suggestions. That goes for yellow lights as well. Safety means I arrive intact. That has always been the case, although there were times I thought I might be safer landing on the Hudson via US Airways than in my taxi. Score a half point there, arriving safe but frightened. But in NY, the pleasantness of the ride is where things start to take a dive. A smooth taxi ride in NY is almost impossible. The drivers jerk you around like a pinball as they weave through traffic. This is accompanied by a combination of the in-taxi TV with Leno doing funny news lines and the taxi driver yelling at other motorists in a language I can't understand while carrying on a phone conversation through his bluetooth cell connection. Not an A+ on the audio front. Generally I am also on my cell phone so I don't hear much, except for my cell drops in NY every 2 blocks so I can catch up on the Leno lines and foreign insults. Then there is the aroma in the taxi. Not always terrible, but often the case. The worst is the combined aroma of Mongolian beef and body odor. Magnify that 10x in the summer. Gross. This, of course, forces you to think "Air conditioning or open window?.. Air conditioning or open window?".  I usually go for the window. Cleanliness is a mixed bag. Some are kept very clean, others not so much. It's usually the sticky stuff in the floor that I notice. Last is the comfort itself. Some are good, others are older with lumpy seats. By in large, I find most in NY OK in that regard. 

All that said, I think the London taxis are the gold standard. Toronto is fair. Chicago a little less. And yet, some of the nicest taxi drivers I have met are those very same, seemingly insane and not terribly hygienic drivers. One thing is certain: you see (and meet if you are so inclined) a lot of very different and interesting people.

Safe travels.  

Hotel Etiquette

Last weekend I was awakened at 1:55 AM by screaming at my house. Home invasion? Kind of. My college son had arrived home with two friends. They were on Spring Break and had landed, after a long evening, at our house to play NHL on the X-Box in the den. Now, I have nothing against college kids having fun, especially on break. But when they are back home, they need to adjust. So after realizing that the screams were competitively induced rants after a skillful slapshot, I made my way out to the den. "Did you see your fraternity letters on the front of our house when you walked in tonight?". "No". "That's correct. That's because this is not your fraternity house, it's our home. We frown upon screaming at 1:55 AM. Please keep that in mind". With that, I went back to bed. But it made me think about several hotel visits recently.

I was in a room at the Plaza Hotel in Boston not too long ago. I got in around 11:30 PM, and there was clearly a very small, reasonably well contained party going on in the room next to me. It sounded like 4 or 5 people, max, and they were not loud. I thought I would turn on the news for a bit while they wound down their gathering, then time for bed. Silly me. They were ramping. By 12:30, there were probably 10 people there, and music had started. The more they drank, the louder they got, and the more impressed they became with their clever, loud storytelling. Then somebody called security. The knock on the door. The admonishment. The sincere, apologetic response. A couple leave. Relative quiet. 10 minutes. Maybe. Then the voices begin to rise. More people show up. Then more. About 30 minutes later, another visit from security. It's now about 1:45. Now the security guard is less cordial. The people in the room are really, really sorry. All good. 10 more minutes. Building steam again. Now the music starts again. Louder still. I break down, and this time, I call security. I never do that. Buy hey, enough is enough. By the time security gets there, they are as loud as they have been all night, and one guy, apparently not content with the music, and overly blessed with liquid induced confidence, decides that singing is on order. So the security guard arrives and insists they call it a night. Many file out. I am now thinking we are done. It's about 2:35 at this point. Almost done, but not entirely. Three of four remain, and keep going, this time trashing the people that had just left the room. How nice. I thought about calling security again. Instead I took a Melatonin and fell asleep. (incidentally, I find melatonin, which is a natural sleep hormone, helpful in falling asleep, but it does not really keep you asleep like an Ambien or Sonota would, so they are great in instances like this where you need to get up in a few hours).

More recently I was in Barcelona with business colleagues a a conference. We had a late dinner with customers. Dinners in Europe are often epic in nature. It's kind of like a marathon. Anyway, we got back to our hotel and I noticed that my colleague, who should really know better, was talking to me as we were in the hallway walking to our rooms, pretty much at full volume. He would say "I COULDN'T BELIEVE WE WENT ON FOR THREE AND A HALF HOURS", and I would basically whisper in response, hoping to make the point "yes, it was really long". "I HOPE TOMORROW DOESN'T GO THAT LONG". "yes, me too, good night".

The most basic rule of travel etiquette is to be respectful of people around you. This rule is broken all the time. Seldom is it malicious. The people in the room next to me in Boston were clearly young, probably at a training seminar for a company and just out of college. They were not mean, except to each other behind their backs, but they were just stupid. They probably knew better, but did not think. I am sure my colleague knew better, but he wasn't thinking either. Recent college graduates don't have a monopoly on this.

In the end, you could probably be inconsiderate, loud, and carefree about how you carry on in hotels. Almost nobody would really know.

Except you.

European Travel Communications

I have to laugh sometimes when I see or hear communications to travelers in Europe. This can range from riding the tube in London to waiting for a flight in Helsinki, and everywhere in between. Everyone has heard "mind the gap", as the phrase constantly communicated for riders on the London tube. There are T-shirts, pillows, and underwear all with the London Tube logo reading "Mind the Gap". Very British. Fine. But what I find so amusing are the more direct, yet normal everyday communications that may be OK but just sound odd to a U.S visitor. For instance, I was in the tube and there was a sign that read "No smelly food" underneath a cartoon character eating something. What does that really mean? Hmmmmm. I think it might mean, "no smelly food". Hard to struggle interpreting that. On the other side of the equation, but equally funny to me was the PA annoucement in the Helsinki airport earlier this evening. The women had a Finnish accent, of course, and said "The flight arriving from Frankfort is delayed, ah, ... for the usual reasons". It was raining and bad weather. If I had been talking to a gate agent, I would not have thought twice about hearing that. But somehow, when it comes over the public address system, it just sounds odd.

I am clearly not a part of the indigenous population. Nobody else seemed to even notice.