Good morning, Amsterdam – Good evening, Brussels
Only 35 minutes away from London by flight, it is always a wonder that you have time for in-flight service on the way to Amsterdam. Today’s flight, BA 8451 was no exception. In fact, of all the routes I fly with British Airways, this is the flight I have taken most often and at the same time. I almost know the crew’s names from repetition, even though BA changes the crew irrespective of the time and route. Those on today’s flight certainly recognize me, just like the crew from London City to Munich. Usually on time and getting into Amsterdam comfortably for lunch meetings, the flight was late enough today unfortunately to make me sweat. It is normally fine if you have a lunch meeting in Amsterdam Zuid, as it’s minutes away from Schiphol to there. However today, my Dutch colleague picked us up at Schiphol upon arrival for a drive into Amsterdam city center, which is close but not as predictable in a car. Normally I love Schiphol as you can seamlessly transfer to train service to Amsterdam Zuid or Centraal, or many places in Europe. This is why I am starting to prefer Schiphol to any Northwestern European airport as a starting point, and for international long-haul transfers. Of course the fact that I get Delta SkyMiles points on KLM flights is a plus, and I cannot fault their service except for a Bali flight, KLM 835. I will explain that situation on another post. Today was not just any confusion and I was not flying with KLM of course. We left City Airport about 30 minutes behind schedule, despite near perfect weather in both London and Amsterdam.
I have previously written that often enough flights to and from London City airport use remote runways and gates at European airports. The runway that BA from LCY flights use is one of these, and the gate is about as far at the end of the airport as possible. Today, the taxi took 25 minutes after the flight departed 30 minutes late. If I were landing for pleasure, the bright side would be that there is a pub next to the gate where you can catch a beer and even a smoke if you are into that. The clientele at Murphy’s Pub Schiphol is usually pretty blue collar, and sometimes I wonder what their destination might be. If I had to guess, it’s often Birmingham or Manchester, which is totally fine in my book. Sky News plays in the pub’s smoking area and people get their fix of nicotine and UK news before either a trip across the planet or just back to the Midlands. Either way, the place has a surreal vibe to it.
Today was not the occasion for this pub as much as I would have liked to take a moment to decompress, as my colleague and I had one hour upon landing to get from the gate to our meeting in central Amsterdam, thanks to the said delays. I could just walk past the pub and comment that these people are having fun. All of their drunken antics as I walked past the pub made me feel sad having just eaten a croissant with cheese and frozen tomato for breakfast. Thanks, BA.
Luckily, we made the meeting on time, but I was stressed out. After a day of meetings both in Central Amsterdam and near Schiphol, I took the Thalys 9358 train service from Amsterdam to Brussels, for meetings over the next two days. The Thalys train is a notch up from the Eurostar in my opinion, and they offer a lucrative frequent traveller program. In fact, as soon as you register with a qualifying trip, you gain lounge access at all Thalys train stations. For a bit extra, you can sit in 1st class (Comfort 1) and this comes with free Wi-Fi, meal service at your seat and newspapers. Today, this upgrade was definitely worth the extra 15 Euro, as I would have paid this much for Wi-Fi alone and no food. So, I was given a meal, the wine kept coming and the staff on board was welcoming as always.
The downsides are there too. I tried to blog this over an excruciatingly slow Wi-Fi, though a free service with Comfort 1. I arrived over 40 minutes late in Brussels and there was a further “emergency” on the tracks ahead towards the main station. We were asked to disembark at Brussels-Nord, which is not a nice place at all. There was no telling how long the delay would be to get to Brussels-Midi, the main station. I was forced to take a taxi to my hotel.
This is the 3rd Thalys train I have taken in the past 2 months that has been over 30 minutes late. There was no explanation as to the delay when I was waiting for the train at Schiphol this evening. Last month in Paris, after an overnight flight from Pittsburgh to CDG, my Thalys train was nearly 2 hours late leaving for Köln, Germany. I had not slept given the circumstances of my very urgent and last minute return to the US for a weekend. I did get a text message through that morning from Thalys, however. There was an excuse then, and it came down to a serious power outage in Western Germany near Aachen. I don’t know if I believed it or not, but there was nothing less in the world I wanted at that moment than to spend 3 hours at Gare du Nord in Paris waiting for a train. Normally a stopover in Paris is a plus, but just not then. Thalys could have at least thrown an extra bit of Champagne in for the delay in my opinion.
I am now checked in and staying two nights at a hotel in Brussels, which I will review upon check out. I have never stayed at this hotel before, but my first impression is – hmm. Tell you about it later.
All and all, I give Thalys a major thumbs down in terms of punctuality. As comfortable as the service is, I have had way too many delays compared to any other service, including Eurostar, Deutsche Bahn, SNCF, and any other European train service.