US Airways, The Unfriendly Skies

It's been a little over a year since I've flown between the US and Europe. I wish I could have waited longer (for several reasons) but Friday, July 26, I found myself sitting on a new US Airways route between Philly, PA, and Oslo, Norway. Here’s the story – I tried to keep it short.

Once upon a time one of America’s largest airlines decides to explore the other side of the pond. Big mistake! This airline was lost, had no clue, and exhausted its weary passengers.

Now as I said, it’s been awhile since I’ve hoped the pond and I usually fly a European carrier. Still, I found some of the “offerings,” or rather lack thereof, particularly disturbing. I know I’m spoiled, but Shane and I found this flight to be so bad that I just HAD to write about it. Here are our ratings.

Seating – Cramped US standard seating, not the slightly larger seats for most European segments. (Also no personal TV screen, no leg rest, no room period.) (2 out of 5)

Food – Pasta or chicken? At least it was dinner. The only thing I had to eat all day was McDonald’s on the way out of LFT and I didn’t finish that. Breakfast was smashed Danish and I gave it to Shane. (1 out of 5)

Beverages – $7 for any alcoholic beverage!!! This is the first time I’ve seen a charge for alcohol on any flight to Europe. $7 for Bud Light??? Come on! Those are stadium prices but at least there you can buy a hot dog with your beer. We had wine and a Bloody Mary for $32.

Entertainment – Might as well have been on-existent. From Shane’s window seat he couldn’t see the screen. I could only hear sound in my left ear and they wanted $5 for the headset (remember, this is an international flight) and they showed only 1 movie on a 7:15 min. flight.

Communications – 99.9% English. The pilot or co-pilot spoke Norwegian at the beginning of the flight but then not again. Yes, I know, most everyone in Norway speaks English but when was the last time you took an international flight and the crew spoke only one language? The crew felt some kind of need to keep passengers in the dark about our arrival time but constantly reminded us to fasten our seatbelts, remain seated, and other various “helpful” tips in the middle of the night when we were supposed to be allowed to sleep.

Service – Efficient – I mean who can’t hand out danishes quickly – but no service between dinner and breakfast. All other pond-hopping flights I’ve been on included water and OJ service at least twice during the flight.

Schedule – DELAYED take off in Philly by one hour and fifteen min. Our arrival time was never announced during the flight and without the helpful screen showing your progress we had no clue if we had 30 min. left in the flight or 2 hours. As I drafted this “review” on the plane I realized we would not be landing on time.

Bailout – Why did we (the USA) bail out this airline? So they can add new routes and provide sub-par accommodations?

Price – For all of this we paid $2,461.60 round trip for each person! That’s right kids, we paid almost $5,000 for the worst flight of our lives. US Airways no longer offers bereavement fares so we were stuck paying top dollar for the most horrible flight possible. I will never fly a US carrier to Europe again.

Travel Pictures

Just a few select photos that represent our recent travels to Colorado and the east coast.

A hike overlooking Boulder, Colorado.

At Red Rocks in Colorado for the historic Dicso Biscuits performance.



Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO.



At Starscape near Baltimore, MD.


Dancing queen.

Travel Warriors

We vacationed in Colorado in late May/early June with the purpose of exploring Colorado (and seeing a couple of Disco Biscuits shows of course). While we had previously discussed a home purchase there, our life in Lafayette, LA, seemed to be keeping a hold on us and we were ready to give up the dream to move "out west."

It rained almost the entire week we were there but we still managed to take a couple of hikes and explore towns around Denver. Friends and our agent assured us that kind of weather is unusual. We put a lot faith in their words and were so taken with the lifestyle that Boulder offers that we put an offer on a property in Boulder that was accepted.

We're purchasing the property as a vacation home and go to settlement on July 15. Keep in mind we have a few updates planned prior to moving our stuff to Boulder but we're excited about the opportunity we see in this unit. We can't wait to start spending time at 4764 Franklin and for you to visit! I recently found a Web site that has great photos of the new property in Boulder AND a video tour of the house. Check it out!

Only in Louisiana

I was sitting peacefully at my desk on June 17 finishing up a few things and getting ready to call it a day when … I heard a HUGE crash outside my window and saw a big plume of smoke and debris fly toward our unit. I ran out to see what happened (because that was the smart thing to do, right?) and found a drunk man who stole a cab and crashed it into the building across the street. He was so inebriated that he kept falling down as he tried to run away. Several witnesses kept him in place until the apartment staff and the police arrived. Thankfully no one was hurt but the exterior of the building is in bad shape. Luckily that unit he hit is unoccupied at the time of the incident.

True story. Only in Louisiana!

Food I Miss When I'm Away From DC

Good thing I'm in DC this week and next so I can enjoy some of my favorite eats. Here are some of the places I'll be visiting. While many of these restaurants are chains, they do not have Lafayette, LA, locations and I miss their yumminess when I'm telecommuting from Timbuktu!

Super Pollo — Peruvian chicken and yucca
Panera — Fresh baked and soup
Chipotle — Tacos
Cosi — TBM (tomato, basil mozzarella on white)
Rio Grande Cafe — Queso and tortilla chips
Matsutake — Susi
1 Gen Thai Cuisine — It's all good!
Jaleo — Tapas and sangria
Indigo Landing — Beautiful waterfront dining. The weather is fabulous this time of you and you can't beat the view!

There are many more to add to the list but these come to mind quickly. It's nice to be back with friends enjoying "the old life."

Oh, those smart Norwegians

According to this New York Times article, thriving Norway provides an economic lesson.

It's a familiar story to me. Oil rich country demands revenue for the State, invests wisely on behalf of its citizens, huge federal government oversees citizen's lives, fabulous work and "welfare" benefits, great opportunities for outdoor activities and beautiful cultural centers. I've always been a proponent of Socialism. Maybe Shane and I should consider moving to Oslo rather than Boulder!

Sister-In-Law Awarded Mother of the Year!

Happy Mother's Day to Mary Pat Julias, Linda Julias, Amy Julias and Mona Wentworth. Mary Pat, you've got the rest of them beat with your knowledge of technology. You're a crafty one! Check out Mary Pat's award video.

Wear Your Sunscreen

It’s pool season in southern Louisiana and we plan to spend time relaxin' by the pool this weekend. Wish you were here!

Neil Young Rocked the Free World

Shane wanted to see this musical great rock Jazz Fest and I can tell you the show was one for the history books! The set list included Heart of Gold, Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River, Rockin’ in the Free World and many more greats. The encore was a Beatles cover, A Day in the Life, and Mr. Young literally beat the song (and his guitar) to death. During the encore all the string s came off his guitar and he kept playing! Here’s the video.

For great photos of the event and a review visit this blog.

It's festival season. Campers, remember to write!

I’ve been remiss at regularly posting so a lengthy update is in order. To prevent this from becoming a diary entry I’ll just stick to a few key highlights.

• The Julias parents came to Lafayette for a week and Shane enjoyed some time off and showing them around Cajun country. The highlight of this trip for the boys was a fishing expedition in the Gulf of Mexico where they caught red fish and something else I’m told is tasty. You can view pictures of the entire trip.


• The last weekend in April was the annual Festival International de Louisiane and Shane’s parents were very accommodating and joined us for our second-favorite music festival in Lafayette, our first favorite is the Zydeco music festival in the fall. (In case you’re wondering, Zydeco (French: "les haricots" or "le zaricot", English: "green beans") is a form of American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 20th century from forms of Louisiana Creole music. The rural black Creoles of southwest Louisiana and southeast Texas still sing in Creole French.


• The first weekend in May was spent at Jazz Fest in New Orleans with our friends the Kirkman’s and some boy their daughter brought to visit from England. I still can’t figure out if his name is Steve or Ste. Must be an English thing that this American just doesn’t get. Anyhoo, the best part of Jazz Fest was Bon Jovi and Neil Young. As you can imagine, we slept through the late-nite shows.


• Sometime during the Julias parents visit I got really sick. So sick, we wondered it was swine flu. After a week of fever, chills, aches, pains, sore throat, stuffy nose and a headache, I took my little self to the dr. where he not only didn’t swab my throat (in all reality Shane thought I had strep) but offered me a cortisone shot to feel better immediately and tried to give me crappy antibiotics. I insisted on a z-pac. No worries though, I have my Mexican friend picking up all the antibiotics I could ever want so we have a store of them and don’t have to visit Louisiana doctors. The whole experience was a little disappointing since Lafayette is a regional medical center and somewhat known for the quality of their doctors. As I so often have to conclude, they just do it differently down here.


• The kitties are doing well but for some reason Apollo keeps trying hump Maia. He must have finally reached sexual maturity. It’s kind of sick to watch and I don’t know if I’m supposed to keep him off her or let him “play.” She doesn’t seem that bothered by it so for the most part I just try to pretend like I don’t see anything.


• Work is going well for both of us. I’ve been asked to take on a highly visible multi-year project (job security!) and Shane had two job offers this week. Our plans to move to Boulder could be changing so stay tuned for more updates.
  

I’ve gone on long enough. I’ll try to post more regularly. We seem to keep ourselves busy enough these days that I should have plenty of fodder for the blog.