Category Archives: Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi

Fog in the Desert III

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Please read part I, II, and II.5 first.

The worst part about the Etihad lounge was that they don’t know how to make a martini. My “Bombay Sapphire straight up with two olives” turned into a jigger of gin, and a jigger of vermouth right out of the bottle. Only the olives were cold. But, at 4am, they gave us free vouchers for a limo service into Abu Dhabi, 40 minutes away, and vouchers for the first-class Dusit Thani hotel, meals included.

Our Abu Dhabi hotel rook
Our Abu Dhabi hotel room.

Atrium of our hotel taken from the 23rd floor, where we had our room.
Atrium of our hotel taken from the 23rd floor, where we had our room.

Nicest accommodations of the trip, and close to the best food. (Their buffet beat anything in Vegas and at any hotel we’ve ever been to.) But, exhausted, we collapsed into bed and slept until Noon. 

There are really only two sights to see in Abu Dhabi–the place is mostly for shopping. Dubai is the tourist Mecca (so to speak), but it was 90 minutes away. We couldn’t motivate ourselves to get up and see the sights, 1: a mosque, or Sight 2: The Corniche beach and shopping area. And, we kept falling asleep, knowing a 14-hour flight to Sydney awaited us.

At 7:15 it was time to go back to the airport for our 9:20 flight. As we checked out, the desk clerk said there was no Etihad limo for us. “Take a taxi–here’s the fare. It’s more than enough.” I asked what to do about tipping the driver and the change, if any. He replied, “Don’t tip.” And “You keep the change.” Tipping the guests . . . I could get used to that.

"Ingot we trust." Outside the Premier Class Lounge in Abu Dhabi they have gold ATMs.
“Ingot we trust.” Outside the Premier Class Lounge in Abu Dhabi they have ATMs that dispense gold bars.

Once at the airport and at ease in the Premium lounge, we discovered that Etihad was still having problems with British Airlines to book us a flight to Hobart Tasmania. But we had been upgraded to First Class for the long flight, were scarfing down sushi, chicken Waldorf salad, salmon fusilli, and those potent, but incompetent Martinis.

The flight was delayed three hours–why weren’t we surprised?–and still Etihad could not quite get the Hobart connection fixed. Well, Sydney was closer to Hobart than Abu Dhabi, and was that key lime pie for dessert?

The plane was a 777; the seats were little compartments; the beds not only lay flat, but could easily accommodate six footers; the seats and beds had a massage setting; the entertainment was big-screen, noise-cancelling, and stereo; and the food was custom-prepared by an onboard chef who personally discussed your meal with you. 

The slogan for ABC’s Wide World of Sports was “The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.” Our motto for this trip was becoming “the thrill of First Class and the agony of Economy.” The lows made the highs so much higher. 

When we landed in Sydney on Tuesday, an Etihad representative had all the details ironed out–flight to Hobart Wednesday morning. But it was Tuesday. Yes, they would put us up again, this time at the airport hotel, meals included. Just pick up our bags. 

Ahh, our bags. While Etihad had 24 hours to stow them aboard our plane, they seemed to have missed the flight. So had the bags of 55 other passengers. They handed me $204 Austrailian as a consolation prize and set out to find our luggage.  Now, we really were beginning to feel like we were on the Etihad payroll.

Wednesday, day of our flight to Hobart. I am writing as we wing our way to Tasmania, bags still in limbo. Complicating variables are that despite Marcia correcting them three times, the airline spelled her name and my email address wrong, and seemed to lose my mobile number. Also, we will be moving around Tassie; even if they locate the bags, it will take some time and coordination to get them to us. 

Because of my arm injury, we decided to put all our camera equipment into our luggage to make our backpacks lighter. Well, we do have our cell phone cameras. Also our rain gear, and hiking shoes and clothes are in the luggage. Come to think of it, ALL our clothes are in the luggage except for what we are wearing and some underwear and a couple of shirts. Oh, yes, the weather report is calling for rain tomorrow, and Adelaide, our next stop in about a week, seems to be burning down. 

Sounds about right. Why settle for a vacation when you can have an adventure?

UPDATE BICHENO, TASMANIA
Etihad/Quantas did not put our bags on the next flight to Hobart, Tasmania because no one verified for a third time that we would be at the B&B that we’d told them twice before we would be staying at. And, word to the wise for the weary traveler using a USA cell in a foreign land, no one would call us internationally to verify anything–we had to call them. Of course we called Hobart, but no live person answered. All we got was a recording. And, leaving word did no good because no one was authorized to call internationally. Talk about being stuck in a loop. Finally, we got in touch with Quantas Australia (Their number was incorrect on their website!!! Another Tasmania branch office gave us the right number.) and they ordered someone to make the 2-hour drive to Bicheno to deliver our luggage the night before we took off for Cradle Mountain.

Abu Dhabi, Sydney

Fog in the Desert II.5 (you try 2.5 in Roman numbers)

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Let’s call this an update with details to follow:

As I write this at 6:02 Wednesday morning, we are in an airport hotel in Sydney with the promise of a flIght to Hobart Tasmania and the certainty that our luggage is lost. We are reduced to the clothes upon our backs and in out backpacks. Etihad is optimistic about finding it someday, but not before we set of for Tassie. And given that we are moving around the island, it is possible our luggage, if found, will be taking the same tour a day later than we.

But, we ARE in Australia and philosophic. It’s almost like we are now on Eithad’s payroll. They booked our Tassie flights and put us up in a third hotel with full meals (more to follow on our second hotel in an Abu Dhabi palace). If you are in First Class, They are superb problem solvers, even though some of their problems are of their own making. They are determined to make things right even if it takes a thousand wrong moves.

More to come

Abu Dhabi

Fog in the Desert Part II

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Make sure to read I before II. I am already being too wordy and don’t want to exacerbate this vice by repeating events.

1. Sunday. The beginning of a new week and a new ordeal.
2. A sign in the hotel lobby, as we walk to a nice buffet breakfast on Etihad, says only those whose final destination is Abu Dhabi should get on the 11am bus for a 4pm flight. Well, since we rebooked with American and will be in Abu Dhabi for 24 hours, this means us.
3. Bus arrives with an Etihad person bearing solutions for those with canceled connecting flights. One Turkish woman we chatted with, also trying to go to Sydney, said that she was now being routed on two different airlines–one to Inchon, Korea, and then from Inchon to Sydney. She would arrive on Tuesday. Etihad did say that if she could find a better routing, they would book it if any seats were available. Sorry for her, but we are delighted that we had planned ahead.
4. Do the security thing at the airport–I think they are beginning to recognize us. 
5. Go for our new boarding passes at the Etihad counter, and after two hours with the agent and two supervisors, I am writing this as we are aboard our plane ready to push back and fly to Abu Dhabi. Victory is ours!
6. BUT, Etihad could not find the American Airlines reservations in their system. Sure, it was on the  AA website and we have an AA confirmation, but not in the Etihad system. NO SEATS for us!
So, It was our choice: If we were willing to fly business class to Sydney (our miles were for First Class, and this was to have been a trip highlight) they would put us on the 2pm flight to Abu Dhabi so we could make the connection. Since we’re on the verge of doing three days in airports instead of Tasmania, we agreed and boarded our flight. 
8. Now I am sitting in the biz-class lounge in Abu Dhabi. It is 2:07 and my eyes are as hollow as a burned-out tree trunk. The flight from Istanbul was delayed for three hours. First, they had to wait for some passengers who went to the wrong gate. Then, when there were 20 no-shows, they had to offload their luggage. Last, we left at a very busiest time and it took us 30 minutes to take off. 
9. We missed the flight to Sydney. I might need to learn Arabic.
10. Observational note: there are a lot of Arabs in Abu Dhabi. There also are a lot of Americans. There even is US Customs which you can clear from a half-world away. Either Abu Dhabi is the 51st state, or the USA is an Arab Emirate.
11. Good news is Etihad has rebooked us for Monday, will treat us to a hotel room (again), and will try to help us get to Tasmania. Bad news is they won’t let us out of the lounge to go to the hotel until they straighten out all the booking. Bad news is Marcia has developed a cold. Now I hear some of you saying “Poor babies, stranded in a business class lounge.” And it is true that dining on an excellent smoked salmon in cream sauce pasta is not exactly waterboarding. Nor are the Belvedere and tonics. And one guest nearby just complained that his Heiniken wasn’t cold enough. We could have been suffering the grossly overcrowded public lounge with the poor economy class folks and the camels. Yes, we are grateful for the mana from Ethiad, but we also are very tired.

Will the “Fog in the Desert” turn into the “Eternal Blog in the Desert”? Don’t know yet, but look for Part III (and hopefully final) coming soon to your browsers.

Abu Dhabi, Istanbul

Fog in the Desert I

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With 19 flights I guess it was inevitable that something would go wrong. But, that fog in Abu Dhabi, causing the closeure of the airport for one hour, would cause us to miss four flights and lose our money on three pre-paid hotel and ferry reservations–that we didn’t count on. Nor did we count on British Airlines (we used miles from them) not making good on our missed flights because we didn’t give them 24 hours notice Australia time–which would have meant telling them of our delay two hours before we even knew there was a problem.

And then there’s Etihad Airlines (world’s leading airline in 2014, according to their self-promotional ads referencing no media I ever heard of) that could turn a 1-hour closure into a fiasco for thousands of travelers. 

Here are the details:
1. Saturday. Marcia and I arrived at the Istanbul International Airport the morning after a lovely evening in a great city. The airport is VERY security conscious–they have two full X-ray, shoes off, pat-down security points–the first is as you enter the airport; the second as you go to the gates. They also inspect your passport when entering And leaving the country.
2. The Etihad agent could not understand our booking. We paid bucks to fly from Istanbul to Abu Dhabi (couldn’t use miles) and miles to fly from Abu Dhabi to Sydney. After a half hour of telling us it was wrong, she involved a supervisor and they somehow welded the two flight together to make a single trip. I say “welded” because when problems hit, no one could undo the flight plan so that it could be updated and changed.
3. 11am, ETD board shows a 3-hour delay. We have lunch and are very philosophic because we still can make our second flight. 
4. 3pm, ETD board shows 6-hour delay. We are now scheduled to leave Istanbul two hours after our flight to Sydney is scheduled to leave. Safir gets the bright idea to call American Airlines (whose miles we used for Etihad) and push up our Sydney flight one day. We’ll just overnight in Abu Dhabi and avoid the rebooking rush. Marcia does her magic with American and all seems well. they just need Etihad to release the flight. One little problem, no one, American Airlines or us, can get through to Etihad. But they said they will keep trying.
5. 5pm, ETD board shows cancelled flight to Abu Dhabi. No announcements, no info–just the word “cancelled” in Turkish and English. Looks like we better see about a hotel room. So I go in search of the airport hotel while Marcia rechecks with American about our rescheduled flight. Glad we did that.
6. Strolled by Information on the way to the hotel and on a whim asked if Etihad had an office in the airport. No, but there is a transfer desk.
7. American still can’t confirm with Etihad. Marcia and I wander over to the transfer desk where chaos reigns. Many people are in need of all kinds of transfers. See someone in some kind of uniform and ask about Etihad–“Oh, don’t stand in line, you need to get your bags!” She takes our boarding passes and Passports, makes copies, and tells us where to go.
8. We stumble around the airport to the magic Passport Control #2–another chaotic line that I break into to get us out of the secure area and into the hidden Baggage Claim #11. The display shows  a flight from Russia, but our bags are doing the Hora around the carousel.
9. Grab the bags, see another uniformed person and ask what to do. “You must take the bus.” What bus? “Etihad bus.” What? Are we driving to Abu Dhabi? “Bus goes to the hotel–follow her it’s leaving now!” We jog through the airport after the fastest rep in the world.
10. Last two people on the bus (apparently, there also was a later one). Ten-minute trip to a hotel so popular that it has 200 rooms available at any time. Nice room with towels under the windows to keep the rain out. It hasn’t rained in days but the towels are still wet. But, the bed is comfy and they have a buffet to feed us. And, credit where credit is due, Etihad is picking up the tab.
11. 11pm, American Airlines has succeeded in contacting Etihad and securing a new flight to Sydney. The hotel says the hotel guests will be picked up the next morning to get on our flight to Abu Dhabi. It has been a long day but it has ended well. I take a shower in the only shower stall I’ve ever seen whose floor slants away from the drain. More towels.