Visiting America, or "the reason I hate commercial flyin

I travel quite a lot for my job. Fortunately this job entails me to travel within Europe most of the time so unless it is unreasonable to travel by car I will do just that. I have a small van. This means I sit nice and high, plenty of legroom, I can get out once in a while for a walk and take a break.

So whenever I need to be in the UK, or Spain, or France, or Poland, I will take the car. Once I get there I am usually asked why I didnt take a plane since it is so much faster. This is where they are usually wrong. When I travel by plane, and sometimes I must, then I have to arrange transportation to the airport, be there 4 hours in advance for all the paperwork etcetera, arrange transportation from the airport to my final destination, and all these things even planned to perfection in any of these countries I mentioned, my top nett time profit is 6 hours.

When I take the plane to Spain, by the time I am at the airport, in the plane, and on my way to Barcelona, I am well on my way in France without breaking any speed limit and taking a break on the way.

So in short, whenever I need to go somewhere, I genuinely prefer to drive there unless I have no alternative.

Que the president of the company I work for. Our company sells specialist chemicals such as additives for paint to stop fungus from growing on your painted wood, or to make paint flow easier when you administer it without forming hangers. We also manufacture specialist oils like for sewing machines and guns. The company is based in the US, and is privately owned by 6 shareholders of which the main shareholder is the president of the company. This means that whenever the president of the company says I have an idea, this translates into this is what is going to happen. And then it is up to us to make this idea happen, no matter what the consequences may be. Now to be fair, his ideas are usually based on some good business making decision criteria, which have saved the company from bad economic situations before so I am not saying he is a bad president.

But this president, had the plan to gather all members if IT together from all over the globe and form a IT convention in the main office in New Jersey. For 2 weeks we were going to hear all the presentations of the different branches in IT within this company, from the I5 systems (AS400) to the website department, and from IT in Europe to IT in Asia. So my first instinct was Is he nuts? 2 weeks in NJ while I cant afford to be gone for 2 days in Europe?. Then I started to look at the travel arrangements and though I like to drive, going to Russia and take the ferry to Alaska to drive to New Jersey does seem a little too much of a good thing. :-)

So there I was, sitting in a economy seat, from Schiphol to Newark, after which I wold be picked up by a limo and brought to a hotel in East Hanover. I hate traveling like that. I truly detest it. the Boeing 767 has 3 columns of seats, 2 columns of 2 seats on the side, and a column of 3 seats in the middle. Everything is cramped, everything is build for guys 2/3rd the size of me. I am fat, but not as fat as a lot of Americans I have seen so how on Earth those people would ever fit in those seats is beyond me. And then there is the smell. Oh my FSM, the smell. 8 hours long all passengers bunched together eating and sweating and farting. As I sat at the isle, all my hopes to be able to stretch my legs every now and again got seriously smashed literally when a cart or another passenger crashed or kicked or stepped on my feet.

Needless to say I was not a happy camper. But I somewhat was excited about seeing the US for the first time so I took it all in my stride. After the long long long passport procedure I got in the limo, and tried to get a glimpse of the garden state. Well whoever is in charge of keeping that garden clean, he or she is doing a rubbish job. There is more thrash on the sides of the New Jersey highways than I have ever seen in any country. I was very sleepy already, as I hardly had any sleep on the plane and it was midnight for my biological clock, so I was glad to be in the Ramada Hotel in East Hanover. I unpacked quickly but for a change made good use of all the closets, as it was going to be my home for the next 14 days.

As I arrived on Saturday so I could explore the town a little on Sunday, the first thing I noticed is that I couldnt find a sidewalk anywhere. So I kept away from route 10 as much as I could and checked out the industrial area and the stores that were open like Targets and Bust Buy (I had to buy an plug adapter since my laptop power supply does support 110V but doesnt have the correct plug). I walked by a lot of houses, and a lot of churches, of various denominations, quite often just across the street from each other. As I walked through this town as I have walked through many towns in many countries, this was the first time where as time passed, I more and more got the feeling This is not the kind of place I would want to live. I dont know, it had a feeling of detachment I have never had in Sosnowiec or Gooreind or any small town in the UK.

Every morning I was taken from the hotel to the main office of our company in Florham Park, which is a 10 minutes drive. During that time the whole of NJ was packed in snow and ice, and all the gray of the buildings combined with the gray of the slushed roads did not give me a sense that the feeling I got that first Sunday was wrong. It was however great fun meeting in person people who you have worked with for many years over the phone and email. In that aspect, the president of the company was right again. What we also learned in those 2 weeks as the economic crisis progressed, that our department was one of the few departments that was not going to get downsized. This mainly due to the fact that we have been working on a lean and supertight budget and delivering our promised result for over 4 years straight. Our pay rise however is being reverted though, so next month I will get 2% less than last month. As much as I dont like that, it is better than being out of a job.

The rest of the 2 weeks were pretty uneventful. We were treated to a department dinner at the expense of the Company, as a thank you from the president for our effort.

Yesterday the whole song and dance of traveling back started all over again. The noise, the smell, the only upside was that I could watch 3 episodes of House MD back to back.

I am glad to be home. I hope I havent bored you all to tears.

I love USA to bits, love Florida, Vegas etc.. but i hate the flights coz of the crampedness.. but fly Virgin Alantic Comfort class, its lush. Extra £150 per person but well worth it for a 10 hour flight, or 12 to Vegas. Dunno what plane we flew on... it had 3 columns... 3 on left and right... and 4 in the middle... but in the comfort class (middle class) it had just 2 columns of 3, bigger seats and more room. Ive done a 12 hour flight stuck in the dead middle of the column in rubbish class and it was just dreadful. Also the amount of peole on the plan makes you wonder if the damn thing will take off.

Id live in Florida if given the chance.

And id rather fly than drive.

Mr Stu

The only time ive flown across the pond was in a RAF Hercules not fun

Unless you are a VP no-one gets to fly any more expensive than economy. Company policy.

Ive never taken a plane in my life :rofl:

Not bored at all Leo, I only tolerate flying as it happens to be the only way to get to the places I wish to visit. I have travelled once from St Tropez to Nottingham non-stop, by Motor-cycle, 1050 miles and 31 hours, suddenly flying did not seem too bad. I did the same trip by plane some years later with the kids, although the flight was only 1hour 20minutes, it still took 1 and a half days as I flew from Gatwick in the early morning, so I had to travel by car the day before, stay in a hotel overnight. And I thought I had shortened the journey.

Mind you, the thought of listening to my kids arguing in the back seats of the car for nearly 2 days makes the cramped conditions of the plane seem like heaven.

Trev

God I hate the AS/400 system. Thank yourself that you dont have SAP though!

The i5 is not bad, and in our case pretty useful even as the terminal setup is much leaner over WAN than a MS-SQL client server solution. We are looking to replace the i5 for our main solution to a new ERP system to be implemented in the next 5 years. This could be a SAP solution, but that is by no means certain.

Mario and I sometimes take the train. We have learned the hard way that 1st class is preferable.
For one thing, you wont find many howling brats in 1st class.
And you have legroom.

The 2 Transatlantic flights I have taken have been the worst experiences I have ever had flying (one round trip). Overcrowded, surly cabin crew, plane delayed for 2 hours on the taxiway at Gatwick due to a water leak and a captain who sounded like Ronald Reagan and most probably was because he had no clue where he was or where he was going. Immigration in Chicago OHare was also a nightmare - Egyptian visas and stamps in my passport and the Americans were still nervous about the middle east even after the Iraqis were chased out of Kuwait about 4 years earlier.
The journey back was also a nightmare as we flew through the remnants of hurricane Floyd. I never knew that a 747 can shake so much and still remain airborne. The cabin crew were better this time but when it came to wheeling out dinner, the weather meant that they could have stood at the front of the plane, let the tray go, and it would hit the back showering everyone with the stuff that only they call food.

I hate flying in general but it is a neccessary evil in order to get to where we want to or have to travel to. My best flight was with Air China to Beijing - the plane was very nearly empty and I managed to sleep well stretched over 5 seats. The cabin crew were able to take very good care of us but the best bit was the pre-flight promotional video - a fine work of late Chinese Communist film-making with rousing music, red uniforms and marching down the runway holding up the company employee manual a la litle red book - hilarious and gob-smacking at the same time.

Leo - have you herd of/used or whatever of - Metastorm BPM or Cordys ? Mainly Cordys as the owners are based in Holland and boss went there for a presentation and im due to go soon.

Mr Stu

i uswed to be really scared of flying but got use to it and now enjoy the sensation of take off!!

i have flown accross to america florida, twice and we are going again this year it can get boring but the tv system keep me entertained, and as for the food i have a large appetite and so dont mind what i have bar a few things. The annoying thing about that is that it is heated so much you have to leave 30mins before you can commence eating or risk burning your mouth badly

very interesting leo

alex

If you ever listen to what Lee Evans has to say about flying as well as laughing your head off, you also realise how true it is.

Stu, I have heard of Cordys, as CapGemini has started rolling out their software in major companies like ABM-Amro and Fortis, but I have no experience with their SOE solutions.

Fair dos. I work for a company which is a new and well respected Cordys partner and all over the world blah blah blah, but hear their systems are all over the place in Holland since there based in holland, just wondered if you came across it or anything, fair dos.

Mr Stu

Ive been to Las Vegas 3 times now, and the flight is always the worst part, mainly because I am cramped up for 10 Hrs, and for a guy my size its not good.

lol :-)

I love flying... hate cheap airlines... almost always delays

For all of you who have ever looked at the contents of the plastic tray containing your in-flight meal ( I use the term meal very loosley in this context!) and thought What the hell is that??... check this... :proud:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/4344890/Virgin-the-worlds-best-passenger-complaint-letter.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/tr...rlds-best-pass enger-complaint-letter.html

Thats one of the funniest complaints that I have ever seen. Its well presented, very aimed and so funny. I wish I had just 10% of that talent.

Mike.

I dunno ........ :wink: