Flugprobleme

Flight problems.

German is hilarious.

I strode onto the empty dark Berlin street at 3.30am and in -5 degrees to take the train to the airport. The next part of my journey will see me in the UK office for the rest of the week. Even with German punctuality and efficiency the 3.48am train was cancelled, so I had to fluff around the station looking for the next best option.

I was due to fly into London City Airport so at the gate it was me and a load of business execs having Zoom calls about content and strategy before 6am. Then the flight was cancelled due to fog in London so we entered the mundane cycle of rebooking, retrieving and rechecking baggage, redoing security and then finally receiving an email telling me the first flight had been cancelled. Thanks for the timely update.

Funnily enough yesterday with some older colleagues I was discussing how international travel does start to tire one out. I can’t tell whether it’s because I’ve hit 40 and am now more curmudgeonly than ever or whether post-Covid there are more system and travel disruptions, as both are very viable hypotheses.

We received an 8 Euro voucher, which enabled us to purchase precisely half a croissant, and a printout of the airline’s compensation policy. This was already redundant because the disclaimer stated that compensation could only be provided for issues within the carrier’s control and British Airways had already said about twenty times that they cannot control fog in London. But there’s nothing like companies going through the motions to pretend that customers have recourse to any action.

Then when sitting on the runway for the rescheduled flight (to Heathrow this time) we received an email saying we were likely to be delayed due to weather. Meanwhile my colleague in West London (who had organised an afternoon of meetings in the office which I eventually missed) was perplexed, reporting a clear day in her part of the world. Fog must be a very localised phenomenon.

About eight hours late I landed into the brightest February day in London that one could hope to encounter. I found my lodgings (Travelodge) then met the delightful Timothy for pizza, which was a wonderful antidote to a frustrating day of travel.