Well, it's that time of year again where I whisk away a group of intrepid tossers to an unforgettable trip to Alaska and The Yukon.
I know it's a dirty job but someone has to do it and it might as well be me.
I've got a full trip this year and some great people so it should be a lot of fun.
As usual, I'll do this as we go along and although it's impossible to do it daily, I'll update as often as I can and try and post some different pictures than usual but there will be a lot of stunning scenery pics which are unmissable.
I've done this a few times now and I've found the best way up to Anchorage is via Frankfurt. It's the only direct flight from Europe and shaves 6 or 7 hours off the day.
Early start up to Birmingham and as I joined the queue, the phone pinged with the words we all dread "flight cancelled". F***s sake and it turns out that climate twats have glued themselves to the runway and Franfurt and it's caused utter chaos. The group whatsapp is going bonkers as 5 people are flying out.
Lufthansa have cancelled their London and Birmingham flights but for some reason the Manchester flight took off a little late. I think the plane must have been overnighted in Manchester whereas us poor folk in Birmingham and London were waiting on aircraft coming over from the fatherland.
Bollox and double bollox as it's now going to be a freakin nightmare to get to Anchorage. If anyone has been ti Birmingham airport at 6.30 am you will now it's bedlam and the Lufthansa staff were reasonably helpful, didn't really know what was going on and just told us to go on the app and deal with the useless AI bot which was crap. After a couple of hours, I managed to pin down the right girl and using my charm and wit she managed to sort some other flight out which aren't ideal but better than nothing I guess.
So, I'm now flying tomorrow morning from Heathrow via Newark on United. The worst thing is the Newark/Anchorage leg will be 7.5 hours of abject torture as the US internal flight make Easyjet look comfortable.
Lufthansa to their credit arranged a taxi down to Heathrow and a night in the Holiday Inn as the flight is at 8.00am and 'er indoors would definitely not be getting up at 3.00 am to get me to the airport.
The driver of teh cab was called Iqbal and was good company going down to London. He used to be an insurance broker in Pakistan and was regaling me with some unbelievable stories of Pakistani insurance claims and outcomes !!
So here we are, a day behind already and although I hate not being up in Anchorage to meet everyone as they get in, it could be worse.
I know it's a dirty job but someone has to do it and it might as well be me.
I've got a full trip this year and some great people so it should be a lot of fun.
As usual, I'll do this as we go along and although it's impossible to do it daily, I'll update as often as I can and try and post some different pictures than usual but there will be a lot of stunning scenery pics which are unmissable.
I've done this a few times now and I've found the best way up to Anchorage is via Frankfurt. It's the only direct flight from Europe and shaves 6 or 7 hours off the day.
Early start up to Birmingham and as I joined the queue, the phone pinged with the words we all dread "flight cancelled". F***s sake and it turns out that climate twats have glued themselves to the runway and Franfurt and it's caused utter chaos. The group whatsapp is going bonkers as 5 people are flying out.
Lufthansa have cancelled their London and Birmingham flights but for some reason the Manchester flight took off a little late. I think the plane must have been overnighted in Manchester whereas us poor folk in Birmingham and London were waiting on aircraft coming over from the fatherland.
Bollox and double bollox as it's now going to be a freakin nightmare to get to Anchorage. If anyone has been ti Birmingham airport at 6.30 am you will now it's bedlam and the Lufthansa staff were reasonably helpful, didn't really know what was going on and just told us to go on the app and deal with the useless AI bot which was crap. After a couple of hours, I managed to pin down the right girl and using my charm and wit she managed to sort some other flight out which aren't ideal but better than nothing I guess.
So, I'm now flying tomorrow morning from Heathrow via Newark on United. The worst thing is the Newark/Anchorage leg will be 7.5 hours of abject torture as the US internal flight make Easyjet look comfortable.
Lufthansa to their credit arranged a taxi down to Heathrow and a night in the Holiday Inn as the flight is at 8.00am and 'er indoors would definitely not be getting up at 3.00 am to get me to the airport.
The driver of teh cab was called Iqbal and was good company going down to London. He used to be an insurance broker in Pakistan and was regaling me with some unbelievable stories of Pakistani insurance claims and outcomes !!
So here we are, a day behind already and although I hate not being up in Anchorage to meet everyone as they get in, it could be worse.
!
