Home sweet home... after a bloody trip

Hi everybody, and happy new year to everyone!

As you might have noticed I have been away some weeks. This is because I have been travelling first to Uusikaupunki and then to Spain. Isn´t that nice? Travelling should be considered a human right... or maybe not... specially if you happen to travel from Madrid in one of those rare days when the snow falls in our beautiful capital.

The following text is the letter I sent to Czech airlines, the company I had the (dis)pleasure of travelling with. I think it describes quite properly hoy flying companies are treating(or threating) passengers nowadays... Hope you like it...

Hi!

My name is Victor Rincón (200180-161J) and last monday I had a fight from Madrid to Helsinki with stop in Prague.
The reference for my ticket is ETKT 064 2462146173

What I am gonna write about is what happened the 2 days that my trip took. I hope you will read until the end and try to help me / explain me why this has occured.

I arrived at Madrid Barajas and checked in as normal, went to the security control and got into the plane as normally (the flight was OK 703). When we sat on the plane, the captain informed that we were going to be late since the personal must clean the snow and ice from the aircraft. Understandable since it had snowed until 04.00 AM in Madrid. We were given some sandwich and refreshment.
Unfortunately after about 3 hours sitting in plane, the captain informed that the flight was canceled since the crew had exceeded the allowed working time, and they were not able to flight the aircraft anymore. We walked back to the terminal and there we were informed by your partners from Iberia (who handled the check-in) that Czech Airlines had no other crew available and they needed to send one from Prague, and because of this reason the flight was canceled. We were provided by some lunch vouchers and we were asked to pick up our luggages from the hall 10, belt 2, and then go to the check-in counters för relocation.

The baggage never showed up at 10-2.... after 1 hour it showed up at 10-8 without any indication about it. It was matter of luck that one of the passangers show it from the distance and inform the rest.

After getting the luggage we went to the check-in area where Iberia was relocating the passangers. The information was at least ... not enough. The only option we were given was to flight to Prague in the evening with the new crew that has arrived and there "try to get somehow to Helsinki". The queing time took 4 hours for the relocation. After this we checked in the luggage again, got new boarding cards, went through the security control and got to the gate H11 where our flight was scheduled for 17.30.

The plan left from Madrid about 18.30 and we arrived Prague at 21.30. We were asked by the crew to contact the transit desk in order to be relocated. More queing, this time took 3 hours. At 00.30 we got to know that of course there were no planes to Helsinki that evening and that we will be relocated to a plane to Copenhaguen at 10.10 AM. In the middle time we got provided refreshment vouchers and hotel accomodation. The hotel was 10 miles from the airport and we got a charter bus leaving at 01.00 AM. The bus was so packed that some passangers needed to stand the whole way (about 30 minutes). There were no safety belts.

We got to the hotel at 01.30 AM. More queing. At 02.30 we got a room. We slept.

The morning after (the 12th of january), we waited for the bus we had been promised at 08.30 AM in order to take us back to the airport. It never showed up. Stress. The hotel provided some transportation. We got to the hotel and checked in, went to the security control and realized that our plane was again delayed. We left Prague at 10.50 about. And arrive to Copenhagen just with time to catch the plane to Helsinki.

We arrived to Helsinki 1 day after expected. But not the luggage. I went to report this and the Finnair / Ready to Go personal told me that they didn´t know where the luggage is. Since I am sick and need my clothes, I ask if the company will cover such expenses (my medicines are in the luggage, the same as the clothes). The answer was no, since I live in Finland. Unfortunately I do not have extra shoes or extra shaving machine just in case the flying company has problems.

Today the luggage is still missing, Finnair / Ready to Go does not pick up the phone and I can only track my luggage via web.

I must go for a working trip at 17.30 and I don´t have my things with me.

I call Czech Airlines and explained what happened. Someone called Jakub tells me that he is not in Helsinki, he is in Prague.
He says that my plane was not cancelled in Madrid, he said it was only delayed 11 hours because of the weather. He does not know anything about the crew change.
He says he can´t help me, but I can go to the Helsinki office or send an email to customer service. He promises they will answer within 30 days. I asked about clothes and medicines. He says that I can buy them om my own and then send them within the complaint by email. I MIGHT get a refund.

I asked about the phone number for the office in Helsinki. He says that Helsinki office does not have a phone, all the calls go through Prague. I get mad. I don´t believe that Helsinki office does not have a phone. This is Nokia´s Land (sorry about the irony).


After all this happening I have some questions I hope you will be able to answer.

1.- Why there was no extra crew in Madrid who could fly the plane? Why you haven´t been prepared for delays knowing that the weather conditions were not gonna be favourable?
2.- Why took 5 hours to proceed to the relocation?
3.- Why took 3 hours to get relocated in Prague? Why took 2 extra hours since we got a room? Why the bus was overbooked and passangers had to stand, why our transport at 08.30 did not show up?
4.- Why Czech Airlines does not cover the extra expenses that the luggage delay might cost?
5.- Why Jakub in Prague told me that the flight OK 703 from Madrid was never canceled, just delayed because of the weather conditions. Why Jakub did not know about the incident with the first crew working hours?

And the most important ones.
6.- What is Czech Airlines gonna do in order this not to happen again. How are they gonna compensate the worst trip in my life?
7.- How Czech Airlnes is gonna convince me to flight with them again.

If you have read this much, thanks for your time. I hope you can understand me and give me some answers from your company.

Best Regards, Victor Rincón

PS The luggage has not been found yet.

And december came...

Is been a while since my last entry (I really wonder how many blogs entries start like this), but I have been quite busy lately. December has arrived and with it .....a lot of work.
Traditionally in the IT sector december is the month of the year when you get a lot of orders. Probably because the customer have a bit money left in the budget and they think is a good idea to spend it on us. In my case this has ment that I have worked extra hours quite often. But if I think about it cold. To work 12 or 14 hours a day is almost an every day thing in Spain... so I better enjoy of my spanish week in Finland (and become glad of working normally just 8 hours a day.
Because of work I travelled to Stockholm and Åland the last week. I travel either to Stockholm/Åland or just Åland every second week. Yes, I know... it might look crazy, but actually last year I was doing this every week, so I am not really complaning. Is actually pretty nice to spend some sunday evening without sleeping at a ferry cabin.
On Åland we had our Christmas party at a place I know pretty well.. Hotel Arkipelag. First because I was a frequent visitor during my Erasmus time (there is located the only night club in the island), and then because I was working there as glass boy for a year (and I don´t mean repairing the windows, more exactly I was picking up the dirty glasses). But anyway the party was nice. Good food, good company and good dancing... at least, as much as I remember...
As Johanna was with me in this trip, we took the chance to stay over the weekend on Åland. It was nice to enjoy the quietness of the island again and check that not so much has changed since we moved away last summer.

Back in Helsinki... suprise surprise... but our russian friends have open the siberian doors and the real winter has arrived. It has come a bit of snow and the temperature has fallen to -21C.
Many people ask me how you can live when is that cold. For me the funny thing is that I don't make any difference between -3C (very cold) and -21(very cold, starting to be annoying). At least since everything is more brighty now with the snow, you don´t feel so depresed because of the feeling that the dawn comes just after your lunch break. Actually if you want to see the bottle really half full... after a couple of days the daylight will get longer :)
That´s all folks, hope to write a bit more often during the Christmas time, but now they are gonna start to show Real Madrid on the TV...

Good night!

Anna Karenina vol I

One of the things I intended to do when creating this blog was writing some reviews about books or music I read / listen to. Today I could write about the book I just finished (and not finnished), Anna Karenina vol I. But actually I will write about the feeling, my feeling of finishing projects...

I think everything comes from the time I was at the primary school. On that time I was quite messy and it was rare that for example I would use my pens until they ran out of ink. Instead I just used to lose them. The same could be applicable to notebooks, rulers, rubbers, etc...

Nowadays, anytime I finish a pen, or a pencil, or a notebook, I get filled with an unexplainable joyful feeling. The same happens to me when I get a book read, like I just did.

Sometimes I feel like nowadays is difficult for me to get that much of concentration and focus so that I could read some text longer than an IT article or some scientifical explanation at wikipedia. If some time years back people used to talk about the fast food are, today, with the internet explosion, the web 2.0, the SMS, the MMS, the GPS, facebook, Twitter and many more... we should talk about the fast info era...

Anyway, we the feeling that I made a good achievement today, I go to bed... the question is... what to read next?

Travelling in Finland... Ecological?

As you might now, I travell quite much around Finland, mostly by boat from Helsinki to the Åland Islands, but quite often to some other cities like Uusikaupunki, Turku, or Lahti...

What I have always wondered is how it can be som damned expensive to travel with the public transportation in Finland. For example, travelling from Helsinki to Lahti (128 km) is a bit under 14 €, Turku to Helsinki (164 km) 27,50 €...

I don´t have a car any longer, but I used to have one, and if I remember right, with 27,50 €, I was totally able to get from Turku to Helsinki with my old Nissan Sunny 1.6... so if you have an own car, why would you sit some strangers and risk you to get spread some contagious disease, instead of sitting comfortable in your own car by the same price? And when you are two... why to pay double???

Wouldn´t it be more reasonable to have a bit lower fares for the buses so that people would might think to leave their own cars home (or not to have car at all) and travel a bit more ecological?

Could some finn explain how can be cheaper to fly from Helsinki to Kittilä than taking a crappy-full with people bus?

Have a nice week!

Kent - Dom Andra

Is 05.28 finnish time, I think I have been awake since 03.00 or something like that and does not look like I am gonna make it to sleep any longer.
Actually is not so bad, the night has something that day is missing, probably because everyone is quiet around and you are just with yourself...
Anyhow, the night is a good moment of the day (so ironic) to make decissions, for example wether to go or not to sleep, to stay home or to go out, to create a blog or not... Since I am not going to sleep (again) yet, and I am not definetly going out in the rainy Helsinki night... I decided to create a blog.

Creating a blog is a BIG decission, like having a kid... think how much time do you spend figuring out a name for it... Actually I have been thinking about creating a blog since I moved to Finland, so I have just needed ... let me count... 4 years, 9 months and 10 days in making up my mind, I hope is not gonna take that long to decide to have a kid.

Wny to have a log? Well, it might be because then your friends could be updated with what you are doing, or maybe because it will be nice to post some pics here, but let be honest... I think this is a fantastic way to remember what you have been doing, yes I admit it, I am getting old and I do not remember what I was doing yesterday, so why not to have a blog where to track you back?

There are also some more decisions to make (fuck, I am getting alreday stressed and I just started with this...) for example, in which language to write... yes, one of my main features is to be laguage schizophrenic, enjoying my days creating new multicultural ways to swear, but since Internet is global I will take in english even though some other language will show up for sure...

Then is this thing, which might be important... what to write about? shall I write about my daily life? About work? About my studies? About friends? About enemies? Shall the entries be connected to the reality? Shall I just philosophize? Well I have not made up my mind yet, so I will probably mixed (or messed) everythin up...

Well... probably is enough for today, but please, feel yourself comfortable and welcome to my piece of the blogsphere...