Friday was not such a good travel day, but it could have been worse. I normally have to wake up around 4:30 am, so I can leave the hotel around 5:20 am to get to the airport in time for a 7:00 am flight. I actually woke up a few minutes before 4:30 am, and I was trying to think should I try to get a few more minutes or sleep or should I just wake up. I ended up falling asleep, but then I woke up one minute before the alarm clock was supposed to go off... But then I noticed I had not turned the alarm clock on!!! Needless to say, it would have been terrible if I had overslept. I either set the alarm time but forgot to turn the alarm on, or when I previously woke up, I turned the alarm off... Anyway, then my reserved transportation to the airport did not show up... The front desk then called a taxi for me... The taxi then arrived but just as he was pulling out, he was saying there is a 10 euro surcharge for taking me to the airport... What..??? So I had him take me back, and we talked it over with the front desk, and the front desk also agreed this was BS, so they called for another taxi. I then got another taxi, and I ASSUMED he wouldn't be charging me the 10 euro surcharge, but when I got to the airport, he asked for 10 euro more than the meter. Sigh. This guy also took me the long way to the airport, heading into the city instead of taking the most direct route. However, as it turned out, it was not significantly different, and he didn't speak English that well anyway. I asked for his business card but he said he had none. Hmmm...
Even though I didn't get to the airport as early as I wanted, fortunately, there was not a long line at the Swiss counter, so I was able to check-in quickly. In the end, all's well that ends well, but the problem was the transportation was mainly because the transportation desk at the hotel did not set up the transportation properly for me, so I'm sure I'll be giving some feedback to the hotel.
Update: February 28. I finally wrote to the Hilton Vienna Danube to complain about the fact that I did reserve airport transportation and noone showed up. We'll see if they respond.
I must not be having much luck in traveling these days. On my trip to Vienna on February 28, I noticed I was in row 39. I hate being in the back. When I checked in, I told him I know I want to change my seats to something as close to the front as possible. Apparently, he thought I was joking because he did not do anything. When I did ask him again, he basically said that I should check at the gate. Ugh. OK, so I go to the lounge and ask if they can move me closer, and she was able to get me to row 20. At least that is 19 rows better... Anyway, when in Zurich, at the airport lounge there, she noticed they lifted the wrong ticket at Dallas. Instead of lifting the Dallas to Zurich ticket, they lifted the Zurich to Vienna ticket. So now, I did not have a ticket to Vienna anymore. Actually, I was fortunate she noticed because if it would have been discovered at the gate.. Or worse yet, if they would have continued to lift the wrong ticket on the next portion and then discover on my trip back to Dallas that I had no ticket, it would have been a confusing mess. Anyway, this was all caused by the first guy who stapled the boarding pass to the wrong ticket. I think I'll avoid him in the future...
