We went to London and Paris recently. I had to use a $400 voucher and a week of vacation that I can’t carry over, so we were looking for a trip to do. We found a great deal to London. I have family up north in the UK so it was a trip. Found a roundtrip from London to Paris for $66 each also, so we added that to our trip. I usually have two or three classes to teach in a week and for some odd reason I had none in the first week of March. Everything worked out. We decided to go at the beginning of February and booked everything by the second week and we left on Feb 27th.
The trip was great. We saw and walked tons in Paris and London. One day we went to service at St Paul’s Church in London and then Notre Dame in Paris the next day. The cities are so historic. The cities are and look like history museums. Spectacular buildings.
One thing that I really liked on the trip were some of the hand dryers. They had hurricane force like blowers. Not like some of them that are like a chain smoking sparrows breathing heavy on your hands. Inevitably you have to wipe your hands on your pants with those.
But before we left we had a doozy start to the trip. The flight was delayed for two hours and 15 minutes when I first checked online on the status of our flight. That being the case we would miss our flight in New Jersey that would take us to London. I checked one last time before we left to see if anything changed on the flight and sure enough it was an hour and 20 minutes late. Just enough time for us to catch our flight, but we would have to hoof it.
I’m a fast walker. So after we got off the plane we made a beeline for our gate which was 83. We get in line and I hand over my passport and boarding pass while my wife digs around for hers. Well, she is still digging for it when it’s her turn to hand it over. We have to pull to the side and we look for her passport which she can’t find. I now realize that there is a chance that it fell out and is still on the plane that we just got off of. Knowing that we have only minutes to spare I decide to run back to the gate we just got off of and look for it there. I run like a cat being chased by its owner for its bath.
Out of breath and sweating I ask the lady at the counter to help look for it. I had to wait for her to get off a cell phone first. She said the cleaning crew already went through and didn’t find anything. I realize I got a lazy one on my hands and finally convince her to look. So she goes in and I follow, but then they tell me I can’t go in. So I wait. I call my wife and ask if she found it – nothing.
Finally the lady comes out and says she didn’t find it. I let her know that it could’ve fell out in some rows behind where we were sitting since our luggage was back some rows and she calls someone and then just says that they didn’t find anything. This lady was as much help as a wisdom tooth. I was frantic, but being nice. I even begged her to look again and she wouldn’t.
She said that she would have to go to the New York for an emergency passport. Then she remembered the next day was Saturday and that it might have to wait until Monday. I just don’t want to think it will have to get to that point.
I had to think quick because I knew that the passport had to be on the plane and they were just about done boarding and ready to leave. I see the pilots show up. I let them know that for some reason the lady doesn’t want to help and if they could please announce for people to check for the passport on the plane. They say yes. In the meantime I get a call asking whether I’m taking the flight to London. Our luggage is already on it. So I have to make a split second decision and I decide to go. I’m rolling the dice, but I figure the pilots will come through. I already know due to checking what was available with the first delays that there was a flight about a half hour later that my wife can take in case they find it. Plus another one two hours later. I let the lady know that we are at gate 121 in case they find it.
I start my run back to the gate to catch the flight. I see my wife along the way since she is going to customer service. Some quick goodbyes and my mind was racing. I didn’t want to go on the trip alone, but I was going to see my cousin for the first time in about 20 years and also visit many other relatives that I’ve never seen so I had to go for that reason alone.
I get on the plane and I’m now in full sweat. I can see people looking at me like I was walking around naked. I sit down and try to cool off. A little time goes by and the lady that took my boarding pass lets me know that they found the passport. Halleluiah! I make a quick call to my wife. They were taking her to the gate in one of those people carts to catch the next flight. She ended up just making the next flight. Needless to say, I’ll be contacting management at Continental about the gal that didn’t help, but to also thank the pilots for their help.
That wasn’t the end of our flight escapades. On our flight to Paris we took an Easyjet flight from London to Paris for $66 roundtrip. Great deal, but as with all airlines now they are hitting you with extra fees. We get to the airport quicker than we expected so we ask if we can get on an earlier flight. The gal says yes, and that they usually charge but we should be able to change for free. And sure enough we go to the person that changes out flight and they say the same thing and do get us on for free. No problems.
So our return flight back is where we encounter problems. We each had luggage to check and we had one to carry on the plane. Plus I had a laptop and my wife had a purse. They let us take them with us at no charge to Paris and they saw we had them and we even showed them to them so we figured there would be no issues coming back.
Most airlines don’t bother with fussing about carryons but this time Easyjet did. This time we can only take one carry on and that includes the purse and the laptop. I asked to speak to a supervisor since they didn’t ask us to pay extra on the flight over to Paris and everything fit fine into the overhead. The supervisor told us that we had to pay 18 Euros (over $20) for an extra bag. Fine. So then she says we can add stuff to our luggage that we were checking in so that we don’t have an extra carry on. So we go nuts stuffing everything into our carry-ons and checked luggage.
We go back to the gal and she then weighs the carryon and said we also have to pay 12 Euros (around $15) for every kilogram (a kilo is just over 2 pounds) over…just a minor detail that the Supervisor left out. Our carryon was around 25 pounds. So I tell them I might as well buy another ticket. It’s cheaper at $33. Otherwise we would have to pay $268 for one carry-on. So then we decide to put the laptop into our luggage that we check in and take out 25 pound luggage in as a carryon. The lady gives us a slip that we have to pay 48 Euros for the extra weight on the luggage. Then I say I might as well throw some stuff away since there is probably some stuff that we can toss that will equal 9 pounds. Then we ask if we pay the for the 4 kilos if it will mean we won’t have any issues with the carryon since it still doesn’t truly fit into the luggage cage that measures the approved size (I think it’s rigged not to work with any carryon luggage). She doesn’t know what to say.
Asking the Supervisor what to do didn’t help either because she couldn’t make a decision. She was helping other people and just wouldn’t let us know what we can do. She was even moving other people over to the gal that was helping us. And then she would walk away or talk to other people about other things. They must’ve gone to the same etiquette class as passport lady. I let the Supervisor know that this is the first time we’re flying Easyjet and to give us a break. No answers.
So at that point my wife is ready to cry and I’m ready to pop a fuse. I ask the gal what we need to do. She couldn’t figure anything out and the supervisor wasn’t helping. I let them know that I didn’t want to miss the flight. I mention to the gal that this must happen often and she says more so today. We’re both equally frustrated and then she just decides to print up the luggage tags and let us take out carryon luggage with us. We can also carry the laptop out of the case into the plane. And after all that….we didn’t pay an extra cent. From $268 to zippo. Call it the wear them down while they wear you down method, but I surely could’ve gone without the hassle.
My cousin told me that there are television crews that film the exploits of Easyjet and how they take advantage of their luggage rules. While we were waiting there we saw others going through the same things. They price their tickets so low that they have to make it up in extra fees, but if they aren’t consistent then it just pisses off the customer. Plus don’t price it so ridiculous that it costs more than the ticket. That’s just taking advantage of the customer. It’s great for people with short stays with very little luggage or short business trips, but not long term travelers.
SOME TIPS:
The Hop On Hop Off tourist Buses gave us some issues – had to get a voucher for an extra day because the ticket got messed up. They don’t run late so remember that when you travel. Best bet is to get a day pass for the local buses. You won’t get a narrative about the city, but if you find a chatty Cathy on the bus ask them about the city…it’s all the same.
Do all you can to avoid using taxis. They are very expensive. We traveled by bus and train and saved tons by doing so.
Exchange rates vary as much as 15% at the stores that exchange currency. It’s like getting an extra $15 for every $100 exchanged. Look for the stores that are out of the way and not on the main roads. They tend to have better rates. We found the ones that gave us the best deals with a little searching. You can negotiate for better rates when you exchange larger amounts of money or even smaller amounts. Look for the stores that don’t charge a commission or fee. The dollar is stronger now so the rates are much better from even one year ago. The UK was still using pounds and Paris uses the Euro. Credit cards use the best rates available, but charge some fees, so check before you charge to see what the fees are. In the end it was about even between the credit cards and the exchange stores.
You can find deals at restaurants, especially on off nights like Monday or Tuesday. We went to one restaurant – Bloody French (in London) that allowed you to bring in a bottle of wine and there was no corkage fee! A restaurant just down the street charged $6.50 in British Pounds just to uncork a bottle. And we bought a bottle for $4.49 in British pounds – less than the corkage fee and the wine was great. Also found some Bordeaux and Cotes des Rhone wine for around $1.50 Euros each per bottle! That was after we walked into some guys shoplifting.
Local Supermarkets are great for lunches or breakfast. They had some great deals in London and Paris. We even found a food market at the airport that was very cheap too. No coupons in Europe for the most part.
Pop costs around $3.00 at a restaurant…and no refills! So we got a 2 liter of Pepsi for just over 1 dollar at the supermarket. Took it with us in a backpack. Saved us tons.
Watch out for what they give you for water. They might give you a bottled water and they charge you tons for it. Make sure it’s tap water.
The Louvre art museum had a deal to get in after 6:00 for a discounted price. They have a Paris Pass and a London Pass for a set price to go to as many of the listed museums and attractions as you want for a set number of days. It’s hard to go to many so that it’s worthwhile for the pass though. Some museums are free on certain days.
We had some great deals on hotels. Check kayak.com and hotels.com for the best deals and tripadvisor.com to make sure they are decent hotels. We stayed at a 5 star in London for $129 (Sofitel) and an average $72 a night in London in Kensington Park. The hotel in Paris was $100 a night. Room in London was very small though. Free breakfast though!
Look out for street scammers. There is one where people will drop a ring or a coin and then give it to you as if you dropped it. It allows them to shake your hand or get close to you so that they can swipe a wallet, watch, or ring from you. It got to be so prevelant in Paris that I was carrying a coin in my hand that I was going to do the “look what I found behind your ear” trick when they did it to me.
Joe
http://www.joethecouponguy.com
