British Airways - Baggage Atrocities

January 9, 2008 – 2:02 am

One World, Many Bags Lost - Should be the new British Airways tagline, as far as I’m concerned.

Every year, 10% of bags on average get lost or delayed by the airlines. BA seemed to have a good track record with dealing with lost bags, but this time was different:

I was one of the thousands of passengers who was caught up in the fog drama.

Fog drama? Oh yeah, that happens in Britain every year, and lost bags are nothing new. But, with new security measures it’s another world altogether.

It seems that the ‘one world’ airline seems keen to leave its passengers with ‘one change’ of clothing - and on a ski trip too.

I organised a 6.00 AM flight in order to get to the slopes of Gstaad at 9.00 AM, to fit in a day’s skiing. Unexpectedly, I ran into some friends who were on the same flight but headed to a different ski resort. We checked in together. The check-in desk was in chaos due to planes not taking off (insufficiently sophisticated technology battling the fog).

The man behind the desk was over-worked and exhausted, and mislabelled my bags for my friend’s bags. Luckily, I caught his mistake but was told it would take an hour to re-label the bags, so I would miss the flight (and the connecting mountain bus in Geneva). But, there was space on the next one arriving 4 hours later that would “definitely” have my bags on it.

Alas, in Geneva I was not reunited with my bags. The Swiss told me that my bags were scheduled to be on the next flight over and would be delivered to my address in the mountains that night.

“Thank god,” I thought. That night, I had a black-tie dinner in Gstaad. Gstaad is one of the most elegant ski resorts in the world and the competition to out-glam everyone is fierce.

After all, this is one of the world’s most glamorous places to spend your New Year’s. Listed as one of the worlds most expensive ski resorts, it’s full of dethroned royals, ex-rosey students, billionaire gangsters and the mega rich.

Never in one small town have I seen as many five-star hotels to choose from. I must point out that only one of them was full of stars, however. The Palace Hotel, where competition is takes on a whole new meaning - malice in the palace was in the cards. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Society, europe, humor, travel | Comments (3)

Slave to Fate and desperate men

November 19, 2007 – 5:00 pm

On July 1, 2002 a Bashkirian Airlines passenger plane and a DHL cargo jet collided over the German countryside. Eyewitnesses reported seeing fire in the sky, a noise like thunder stirred the sleeping in their beds, and any desperate hopes for survivors were quickly abandoned. Seventy-one people lost their lives, most of them Russian children on a UNESCO-sponsored trip to Barcelona. Architect Vitaly Kaloev, a Russian citizen then living in Spain, lost his entire family: wife Svetlana, and two children, Diana, four, and Konstantin, ten (do NOT Google pictures of that family if you value your composure, the children are so… so… Well, you know how it goes).

In 2004, Kaloyev traveled to Switzerland, demanding a personal apology from Skyguide, the air traffic control company that admitted responsibility for the crash. Unsuccessful in his attempt to meet with then-Skyguide bigwig Alain Rossier (how dare some guy who lost his entire family ask for an audience with His Holiness the CEO? - That’s the way the world works, it seems), Kaloyev traveled to the home of Peter Nielsen, the only man on air traffic control duty at the time of the crash (Nielsen’s partner had gone on break). An altercation ensued, and Nielsen was stabbed to death in front of his family.

Although convicted of murder, Vitaly Kaloyev was recently released by Switzerland’s highest court. His sentence was shortened, and he was then cited as having completed two-thirds of it already. Last week, Kaloyev got a raucous welcome in Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. People who had never met him held up signs reading “You’re a real human being!” Kaloyev’s first order of business was to visit the family graves.

The Russian press has called what happened in 2002 “murder.” I don’t quite agree. Read More »

By Natalia Antonova | Posted in Columnist, Current Affairs | Comments (3)

Megeve – Skiing and Guided Ski Tours In The Heart Of The French Alps

August 16, 2006 – 5:02 pm
    How to get to Megeve… But don’t tell anyone!

Megeve is well known by few and is a jealously guarded secret among those that frequent its ski slopes; Michelin Guide rated restaurants, high-end shopping stores, Casino and quaint narrow cobbled streets. The village is dominated the traditional church belfry, by a square all in a pedestrian friendly atmosphere. Horse drawn sleighs carry tourists all over during the peak periods adding a festive and memorable experience for young and old. Read More »

By Feature Writer | Posted in Entertainment, Society, europe, sports, travel | Comments (0)

From Prostitution To Geneva’s Parliament

February 28, 2001 – 9:56 pm

I first met Nicole Castioni at the International Book Fair in Geneva, Switzerland. She was signing copies of her bestseller, Le Soleil Au Bout De La Nuit (The Sun at the End of the Night) - ed. Albin Michel. My first thought was that she looked like a film star of the 1930s. She had a kind of grace and naturalness to her beauty that seemed to belong to another age.

She chatted easily with her audience, most of whom were touched by the sheer drama of her tale, and she talked with an air of understated courage that comes only to those who have been to hell and back. The people who had come to talk to her tried to put on their most understanding look, the kind those who had it easy feel they owe to those less fortunate than themselves. Nicole spoke calmly Read More »

By Nasser Ali Khasawneh | Posted in Columnist, Society | Comments (0)