Adventures with Lufthansa and FTU Amsterdam – Learning goes both ways

Learning goes both ways
Adventures with Lufthansa and FTU Amsterdam 

• Would I like to speak at FTU? Umm. Yes!
  
• To the airport, LH953 Birmingham to Frankfurt
• An (un)expected extended layover
• LH996 Frankfurt to Birmingham (Business Class)
  
• The Park Inn Amsterdam Schiphol Airport
• Speaking at FTU Amsterdam
• LH997 Amsterdam Schiphol to Frankfurt Main
  
• What is the meaning of the words “Reasonable Connection” at Frankfurt?
• LH958 Frankfurt to Birmingham 
• Learning goes both directions (This section)

Let’s do a quick wrap up of this trip, and talk about some thoughts that have been bubbling in my brain.

Lufthansa

I’m concerned to be honest. Whilst the service aboard (both in Business and Economy) classes were passable. The safety issues on the first flight still trouble my mind – and whilst it does happen sometimes, it shouldn’t. At least their ground services were very good when push came to shove. A shame their hub airport can’t match that service.

And those NEK Seats – Leather covered hard benches.

Frankfurt Airport

I thought Heathrow was the worst place in the world to connect. I was wrong. Unless you have a 2-hour clear window or are doing Schengen to Schengen/Schengen to Non-Schengen connections it can be a pain.

Amsterdam Airport

If for some strange reason I switch to SkyTeam – I could get used to this as a hub. Just have good shoes, as you’ll be hiking a fair bit…

The Park Inn Amsterdam

A reasonable one-night stop hotel, which has enough facilities for the transit passenger – whilst those staying a bit longer will appreciate some of the touches like reasonable speed Wifi, a small social area and free transit back and forth to the airport.

And as for FTU Amsterdam?

It goes to the title of this post learning goes both ways. I picked up some hints and tricks during the event, whilst I gave my fair share out. And it was good to learn from other because you adjust your teaching style as needed whilst giving lots of food for thought.

And to me, that’s valuable. At events like FTU, you pick up as much from other people there as from those who are giving talks.

There was a recycling bin near the exit – which had something printed on it:

And even in travel, this is true – at the end of any trip, there will be a hunger for new ideas, new thoughts and new adventures – it’s the joy of it.

And this brings me to the end of this trip report.  Thank you for bearing with me during this one.

Next up:

Well, there are two things going on in tandem – because I do complex things… well not really, but it’s worth a shot eh?

• Starting Monday:  I take another hard look at the Economy Class situation between the UK and Chicago in “Blowin’ in the wind – Another Chicago Adventure with American Airlines and British Airways” (flown in October… I’m just running behind on my trip reports)
• Starting Friday: I’m beginning my end of year Tier Point run with a trip… that could be either butt-numbing or quite comfortable. Look out for my Snapshots…, but here’s a preview of it:

Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper – copyright © Karl L. Swartz

And my math…

1340 Tier points, 18086miles and a bucketload of Avios… and a Ryanair segment.

Let the chaos begin 😉

Thank you once again – your comments are always welcome.

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