I thought I would start this year in blogging with a big bang.

I left Singapore back for the UK on the 3rd of Jan, my winter Break, a break that itself deserves another monumental blogpost. But seeing as this is fresh on my mind – here goes.

I arrived at Changi Airport ready to fly out on one of Singapore Airline’s 777-300ERs, one of their latest additions to SQ’s completely widebodied fleet. I am happy to report that SQ did not fail me in anyway, the stews were their usual efficient SQ selves, although I suspect the food quality has fallen slightly… but that may just be me. Read below for more, I tried to tell it as best as I could.

Anyway, all the drama starts when I land in Frankfurt. An airport that is usually the model of German efficiency. I rushed off my plane to the Lufthansa Service desk in the terminal building to pick up my boarding pass. A process that normally takes about 30 minutes. *which IMHO is already quite unacceptable* But Today was a special day. The ticketing desk next to the service desk had a queue longer than Mcdonalds during a Hello Kitty Promo, and I immediately knew something was up. I spent the next 45 minutes in the queue, where each and ever person in front of me and there were only like 10, spent around 15 minutes getting served. It was quite ridiculous, I JUST WANT TO GET MY BOARDING PASS! Is it THAT DIFFICULT?! I was screaming in my head. At the 35 minute mark, with 7 people still in front of me, TWO of the THREE staff members left. Just got up and walked away. The entire queue literally had BULGING eyes when that happened. And last guy, bless him, was a blond model of german efficiency but even he didn’t seem to know how to deal with the sheer complexity of all the problems people seemed to have. At 9 pm, exactly 1 hour before my plane was to depart, I couldn’t take it anymore, I hollered at the man at the desk, “If I’m just here to collect my boarding pass, can I go straight to the gate?” He said back ” yes yes, you can go to the gate” I immediately whirled out of there.

When I arrived at gates B 31-33, a joint holding area for flights to the Great Britain, I was faced with the same chaos. My flight was overbooked it seemed but no matter, I was sure, certain that I would be able to get on. I slipped past the mass of humanity harassing the ground staff at the desk for Heathrow, and headed to another pleasant German man who was manning the flight to Dublin and asked him if I could get my boarding pass from him. He said “Ja! Sure sure”. But not even him could save me from the all consuming fear of the Standby List. And why you may ask is there a standby list for this flight? Turns out there was about a FOOT of snow at Frankfurt Airport, which meant flight cancellations, and lo’ and behold, all the flights subsequent were quite full already, so it was nearly impossible to get people rebooked.

I was lucky though, because I was alone and more importantly a Star Alliance Silver passenger. Instead of shoving me at the end of the 30 person long list, I was placed at number 12. But I knew, just knew that the chances of there being enough slots ahead of me to get me on the plane were spotty at best. And true enough, the helpful *very German* information screen said there were 7 seats available. 7. And they filled out quickly and surely. I was sitting there, trying my best to block it out with reading, reading on regional government of the UK. Read Read, OMG I’m gonna have to spend a night in FREEZING FRANKFURT!

I was just about resigned to having to accept a hotel voucher and a taxi voucher, as they were beginning to swipe cards, and close the gate and so on, when this lady, who had been the “one to watch” as she was always the lady who called out the names of who got on, and who stayed off. She said, something something something… Jeeeq Jerrick… My brain literally went. *KAPOW* I fought through the huddled masses, fought through, and showed them guard at the door my passport, my standby boarding pass, everything. And received my new, shiny yellow boarding pass that gave me a seat at 16E.

I really do apologise though to the lady who didn’t show up, I believe it was a Ms. Lai. Your “sacrifice” ensured that I would get back home on time. I hope however that Frankfurt is out of the woods at this point, and that people are able to get seats onto their flights.

Nevertheless, after an uneventful flight, I got back to BHX, hopped in a cab (because I was so late the trains were all gone) and then got into my Cold Cold House. Which had a flooded kitchen. Because, hey ho – something tripped the power. And the freezer melted… all over the floor, Plus. something was leaking. Yeah. Good times.

And thus concludes the story of Jerrick and the German Airport, tune in next week for more harrowing tales of standby lists, unknown Cheese Bread and Blond goddesses.

airports, BHX, flying, frankfurt, lufthansa, SQ, Star Alliance