Trip Report
YUL-CLE-GSP, GSP-ATL-YUL
• YUL-CLE: DL2223 Expressjet (Continental Express) ERJ-145 N11119 Seat 17a
• CLE-GSP: DL3435 Expressjet (Continental Express) ERJ-145 N113913 Seat 17a
• GSP-ATL: DL510 Delta Airlines MD-88 N910DE Seat 16E
• ATL-YUL: DL 4891 ASA (Delta Connection) CRJ-200 N930EV Seat 5D
This entire trip started off in a confusing manner even right down to the first step into my house on my return it continued :) Well I have to say I entertain myself well if nothing else but overall it was fun and successful.
The purpose of the trip was to go to a small town in South Carolina called Fair Play to examine an EDI system our company has set up there for a large customer. Lately it’s created fake order lines, ghost lines and missing lines making the order process very unreliable. They asked me to look over the process to see if I could improve the way in which it was working. Ok simple enough I suppose...
The day before I'm set to leave, Monday I find out our head office in Europe has been working on a completely new solution for the EDI setup there. It would seem no updates were ever communicated to anyone and no one including the manager of the branch nor the company VP who asked me to go down to look at it was aware of this... so really why was I going? In effect I was going to try and fix something that was going to be completely replaced shortly. So hardly inspirational but I still set out to do my bit regardless.
I left the office on Tuesday at around 10:30am to get my 2:00pm departure. Although a Delta flight it was code shared on a Continental Airlines ERJ-145 Jungle Jet bound for Cleveland. My head must have been in the clouds that day thinking about the mess in which this all unfolded. I went down Higway 13 (go figure) and promptly took the 40 West.....the 40 West! Where the hell was I going... obviously not to the airport... so realizing my stupidity I had to find a convoluted workaround through a construction zone to get back onto the 13 South and get back on track to the airport... sheesh.. not a good start but I had plenty of time to spare anyways.
I parked in the massive long term parking lot. Well I didn’t look not did I realize they are expanding the multilevel parking garage at YUL located between long term and short term parking. I could no longer could I simply walk straight through it to the airport in like I normally do. I was now met with a barricade of construction and not many other obvious options to get around it. There was no Shuttle bus in site and no signs to say where or how to get to the terminal. I noticed a "Pietons" marking (Pedestrian walkway) on the ground and followed it. What a waste that was... it led diagonally across the long term parking lot directly to some Federal building and vanished with no sign to say where to go after that. I just walked across several dangerous roads coming out of the terminal then alongside the western end of the parking garage and up the ramp to the terminal. All in all it was a very long walk, perhaps a kilometer in length. Continental of course was located deep in the centre of the terminal another long walk. I was pretty exhausted by this point... but I checked in fast and without problems and started to walk to customs.
US Customs went smoothly up to the customs officer but once into the security zone all hell broke loose. No one seemed to know what they were doing. No signs to tell anyone anything. Several people asking me to bring my bag to them... then they argued over me settling on the fellow with the big mother of an x-ray machine that sucked in my bag and x-rayed it. I was first told to place it on the main luggage belt then someone said it was broken. I then had two people pointing in different directions where the alternative was. When I went to another guy throwing bags into a hole in the wall some other agent told me he had to examine my bag (again). Yet another agent started to scold him because it had already been examined by the mother if all x-ray machines earlier. It was like the Keystone cops... no one knew what to do nor who was handling what... it was a mess. I was never so glad to get rid of luggage in my life.
I then walked over to the personal x-ray scanners. Two were opened and I chose the one at the end of the walkway. Suddenly I had two more agents instructing me because I had a laptop and the other scanner way over on the other side was apparently for people with bags... yeah right, again no obvious sign to tell you that. Could I do anything right in their eyes?!?!?! Gees...what a bunch of assholes. The lead you astray then scold you for not paying attention to basically nothing. Once past that I was out of there and not looking back.
Of course Continental's gate was way at the very end of the new US wing, gain another long exhausting walk. The wing was generally quiet as it was noon. Other than having my Northwest Worldperks points added to my boarding card I sat down and started reading a new book on Genghis Khan I bought at the airport bookstore. A small crowd of mostly American male businessmen gathered at the gate. I had seat 17A a single seat on our ERJ-145, this one with winglets. Nice plane but narrow inside still though it was roomy and comfortable. We took off on schedule, were served drinks and given pretzels and in just under two hours landed at Cleveland Hopkins Airport. Continental impressed me... polite staff, nice clean planes with an eye pleasing comfortable interior and good leg room. The black male flight attendant was very attentive and polite. What more could I ask for really? It was my first trip through Cleveland Airport though and all in all it went very smoothly and I came away impressed. When we landed the plane came to a very fast a forceful slow down. I literally found myself sliding forward in my seat. That was unusual.
CLE has a long rectangular terminal with glass walls so very open and airy. Most every plane I saw was owned by Continental and very few if any larger than an ERJ or 737 so not overly interesting from a spotters point of view but it worked well for me and I'd use it again if I had to. The next ERJ I was to board was without winglets and was waiting at gate D08, not far from our arrival gate at D03. I think the registration was N13913, I only saw 913 or 813/513 on the nose cone but found N13913 only in the airliners.net database so it must have been it. The airport itself was fairly busy, Most everyone waiting at the gate for our plane looked like typical white working class people. Gone was the business crowd. Boarding was on time. I had the same seat, 17A but this time with a female flight attendant plus the same choice of drinks and this time two bags of pretzels... ahhh supper... :)
We took off on schedule and headed right up towards a massive thunder and lightening storm. It was amazing! We flew around it but it was a wall of very high thick or dense clouds some very black and at points lightening was going off continually inside it. It was a real spectacular light show! Nature at it’s best and I had a front row seat. I was a bit nervous as the plane hit many rough spots and jumped around but it all held my attention until we got to South Carolina where on the other side there was a spectacular sunset. We landed in Greenville (GSP) on time and headed to where else...the furthest gate at their terminal from the exit...sigh... more walking. God must be telling me something about my need for exercise...
Danny, the branch manager was waiting for me at the gate apparently... no security issues here... he was literally at the entrance to the gate I exited... I totally missed him and headed down to baggage claim and ended up calling him on my cell LOL... another winning moment... He was expecting a Delta plane not Continental not realizing it was a code shared flight but he did find the gate in the end. It was good to seem him; he's a super guy and loads of fun. We got into his SUV and drove to Anderson SC where I had a room booked in at the Holiday Inn Express... very nice place... King Size bed Whoa :) 100 channels on the TV (don't ask how many were worth watching though). The trouble is the first night I woke up at 3am, the next night at 4am and last night at 2am and in every case didn't get back to sleep so I still am exhausted....
The next day I went to the office... it was my first time there. I found it isolated as people had told me and surprisingly quite large but it was a dump in the office. It looked like it had never been cleaned in years. For two days I worked over the EDI system only to find out it was not compatible with Windows 2000 their operating system. Furthermore the old manager had tried an upgrade to the software but never completed it correctly so there were likely all sorts of conflicts going on. The software manufacturer told me they’d supply us with a newer upgrade but later we found out the maintenance contract had expired... well, it turns out Danny later finds out the entire account will be moved to Michigan and there's a good chance the branch itself may close or be reduced in size so again making my whole trip really worthless and the goal of solving this issue pointless in the long run.
At least I got to go to South Carolina and enjoy the 25 degree temperatures. I was my first rip to South Carolina. It's very pretty country with rolling hills and clay banked lakes. There's quite a lot of business. People are very Southern... kinda slow and laid back. They are if anything almost overly friendly. Everyone kept telling me to have a nice day LOL. They have a reputation for being "slow" though. The last two managers couldn’t deal with it. They hated the state and especially the people. One of them, Rich who I was trained with for SAP, used to say that everyone in the state was stupid and ignorant. He really hated it there. The women in the office though seemed very friendly and knowledgeable. Woodrow, the warehouse guy was polite and soft spoken. I liked him right off the bat including his really traditional American name. I didn’t see any evidence of mass stupidity. I am aware of the states racial past though and I know some of the sentiments still linger. They still have a long way to go to break with traditional thinking.
This morning however it was time to return home. Dan and I had driven the relatively new company Toyota Truck to the hotel last night... well I drove the truck, the first time I've ever driven a truck and followed him in his Isuzu SUV... and this morning we had to take it to the dealership because in less than a year the previous manager had put so many miles on it going back and forth to Myrtle Beach and Charlotte that the lease requirements are already fulfilled. They need a new one.
Once that was done we drove up to Greenville Airport where he dropped me off. GSP is a really pretty airport. It’s very small and traditional but in a pretty wooded setting. Again it was like Cleveland a long functional rectangular terminal although much smaller. I was very early and had tons of time to kill. My Delta MD-88 wasn't even there yet. All the key airlines that served GSP showed up. It was surprisingly busy. Delta had CRJs everywhere... one ERJ-135, our MD-88 and a 757 eventually came in. There were ERJ-145s in US Airways, American Eagle and Continental colours. CRJ's from Independence Air, Northwest and United Express came and went. There was also an Airborne Express DC-9F parked there too. Planes came and went continually so it was a surprisingly active airport compared to what I expected. Looking out from gate B03 you could see the long elevated runway that paralleled the terminal. Although it didn't have olive tree laden mountains in the background it reminded me a lot of Athens Greece in terms of the view of the runway as well as the design and setup except this terminal was actually nicer although smaller.
At one point the gate next to us had three CRJ’s parked and were taking on three sets of flights at around the same time. Two CRJs were parked one in front of the other and the activity of baggage handlers and people boarding both planes at the same time made for quite an entertaining site. It was genuinely busy. The fellow next to me at the gate was talking on his cell phone in German and later in the flight I noticed the couple in front me were speaking an Asian language, I think Korean… so also surprisingly international.
Our plane looked like it was going to be pretty full. We boarded by zones, a new boarding method I guess. I was in zone 7. They called zones 1 & 2 right off once boarding started. That was first and I suppose business class. Then we waited about 20 minutes for the remainder of the zones. Eventually ours was called. My seatmate, woman went and took my window seat... I let her have it even though I thought that was a bit nervy. She ended up being very nice though, we spoke for a bit as we approached Atlanta. ATL looked spectacular from the air... huge and sprawling and you could see the new runway they were building... as if they needed more runways...I think it's the largest airport in the world in terms of passenger flow at the moment... but it competes with Chicao O'Hare and ORD occasionally takes the lead so I'm not sure where they are but it still is massive and incredibly impressive. We landed at Concourse B. My CRJ was leaving Concourse C. The airport was full of Delta and Air Tran jets.
I stopped off at Sbarro's in Concourse B and munched on a Pepperoni Pizza slice that was too doughy but still decent. It hit the spot since my current diet of pretzels just wasn’t working for me. The air traffic out the window of the food courts area was amazing. Mostly Delta and Air Tran but I saw KLM's 767, Hooter's Air 737 but not many other airlines to speak of. The runways were continually flowing with planes coming and going. Our ASA (Atlantic Southeast Airlines) CRJ was packed to the rim... full flight. I had a rather large lady next to me on the aisle but I was still comfortable. I think she felt a bit confined. She too was very nice to talk to. The female flight attendant Marsha wasn't though. She had that sweet southern accent but was a bitch. She seemed to like ordering people around. She scolded a passenger in row one for talking while she was making announcements. She told one passenger walking down the aisle looking for his seat to go to the front so she could ge to the front of the cabin instead of letting him pass her or her moving back to let him board. She blamed passengers when she dropped all the cups off her food cart in flight because she hit something in the aisle they had dropped or left there. She had warned everyone to clear the aisles but come on don’t blame them and make them feel badly about it. Then later in flight she scolded people including my seat mate for standing waiting in line to go to the washroom and made them go back to their seats and watch the occupancy lights. Yikes... people were making fun of her. I swear after the safety instructions she was going to come around a test us on what we remembered LOL... It was like being in grade school and quite frankly after a while I wasn't impressed by her. She was too strict in her mannerism to the point it was becoming noticeable among the passengers.
The flight though left on schedule and was smooth all the way to Montreal. We got drinks, cheese and crackers and peanuts. I didn't take the drink since my dinner tray was slightly broken and not level for fear it would spill. I still had the Evian bottle I bought from my flight down anyways. The view from the window was akward thanks to the CRJ's low window line... it's hard to look out especially when on the ground. Montreal came into view looking spectacular all lit up this evening. The full moon reflected off the St Lawrence river in spectacular fashion. It was around 6pm and we flew past the airport and got a nice view of YUL all lit up. It seemed so small compared to Atlanta. It's a shame I didn't bring my camera on this trip... missed many nice views from the window... beautiful mountains (Smokey mountains? Appalachians?) and some spectacular lakes. One in particular was long and large with many islands. But overall there wasn't a lot of interest during the whole trip to take pictures of and ATL despite it's massivce volume is essentially a two airline airport. We landed 20 minutes early actually.... then I came back to YUL's problems again....
First off being early at YUL ironically doesn't mean it's a good thing. There was a plane at our gate so we had to wait, and wait, and wait. We waited them moved to new position because another plane in another gate had to back out... then we ended up making a complete circle thanks to yet another plane trying to back out from our new position. We literally were circling at the US trans border tarmac trying to avoiding aircraft movements... oh brother. Just what was the multi million dollar airport wing expansion for? People were starting to comment on the stupidity of the situation and the irritation of being there and not being able to get off was starting to get to some. I was in a good mood so it didn't bother me that much but this being my home town and hearing people make bad comments made me feel embarrassed especially after leaving such an amazing airport like Atlanta. We pulled into the low (ground) level gates at where else... the very end of the wing, the furthest point from customs.... the walk this time was crazy. First I had to go up 3 levels of escalators and then take a very long walk to the first of two moving sidewalks then another long walk to customs. The woman next to me I noticed for the first time had a cane and a limp and was struggling to make the distances. It would have been nice to have had an electric cart waiting for people like her. The airport was not providing a good service for this if you ask me. I didn't see any electric carts waiting just in case some people needed them. They also need another moving sidewalk in at the very end of the wing on the top level to make the first initial walk easier for older people or people with leg issues.
Customs was a crowded mess. The lines were zigzagging over half the Hall's capacity meaning only half the lines were opened but some Air Transat vacation flights had arrived I believe and our passengers were there and it took quite some time to get to the customs booth. We constantly moved back and forth though about 8 to 10 lines of passenger traffic as we headed to the exit to the customs booths. I felt like we were cattle being led to the tough except there was no food at the end dammit! LOL... Anyways it took about half an hour but I was out and my bag was waiting for me.... then the next mess... trying to get the Navette to long term parking... I wasn't walking way out there again especially in the dark.
This was the worse of everything; I got outside and quickly adjusted to our colder weather which wasn't all that bad thankfully. The terminal walkway was jammed packed with people and lines of luggage carts in the way making it all the more difficult to maneuver around. People had their bags in the way and they huddled together talking blocking traffic movements of those seeking limos, taxis or shuttle buses. There didn’t seem to be any organization at all. It felt like a free for all. Lines of people didn’t have a start and an end. There were no over head signs telling you where anything was and the standing signs were blocked out by people who had gathered around them to get on whatever they were getting onto.... It was also poorly lit. Shit it was frustrating, I could barely read the sign posts, barely get through the crowd and there was no one there to help you.
Finally I found the long term parking stand Shuttle bus and plunked myself down next to a group of people who I thought were waiting for the same thing. A bus came up that had a sign scrolling across the front that said Long Term-Employees... yeah like make that more confusing... people were asking each other if it was for employees only or for the long-term parking or for long term parking for employees only. I asked the driver and he said it was for parking so I got on, dropped my bag in the main baggage section and sat further down exhausted and a bit annoyed although on the scale of problems this wasn’t a biggie.
The doors closed and he moved all of perhaps 5 meters and stopped. Opened the doors and other people flooded in. My once relatively accessible bag was now in a sea of bags and many people had filled in the aisle around it with their bags. Oyiee... I had visions of me eventually coming all the way back here again to do it all over LOL. We got to section 52 where I had parked and I literally had to push people out of the way to get my bag and get off the bus. The driver looked at me sympathetically with that "I've seen this mess before and I feel sorry for ya Bud" look. I was never so happy to get off a bus in my life... what a pathetic mess... it was like a 3rd world airport... well BGI was much more organized than that in fact. I truly understand why YUL isn't a major hub... it can't handle the basics let alone anything major. There is little direction for people on the ground, signage is poor to non existent in some key places and the facilities are still cramped in many key areas. Any major increase in passengers and it would collapse under it’s own weak infrastructure.
I drove home stopping off at the bank on the way. I arrived, dropped off my luggage and went to the bathroom for the first time since 10am and then went to to get something at MacDonald's only to have yet another confusing experience trying to get and order for chicken slices or whatever that new chicken trio is. The drive through clerk really didn’t care less about getting my order right. THose stupid microphone booths you have to talk to aren't clear. Throw in my poor French at the girsl has trouble understanding me. It seemed her face would crack if she smiled and tried make you feel good for helping pay her salary. In the end she still neglected some of what I ordered but really by this time I could care less. I at least had something to eat and I was home and free of all that LOL... I'm free... FREE AT LAST!! LOL My door is closed and locked! They can't get to me now. Anyways, I’m happy it’s over and the experience despite the problems was a good one. I’ve heard much worse airport stories than these. My flights all left on time and were smooth. All the airport experiences went well. My luggage wasn’t lost and quite frankly had I been more attentive driving I wouldn’t have gotten lost nor parked where I parked. Also there wasn’t any need for me to interact with the bitchy flight attendant so really it went well.
