Tag Archives: travel

Streiks

Gestern Bahntickets gebucht. Heute neue 4-tägige Streiks angekündigt. Warum? Wegen Geld, wegen unwürdiger Arbeitsbedingungen? Nein, weil zwei freaking Gewerkschaften sich nicht einigen können wer für wen verhandeln darf.  “Über die eigentlichen Tarifforderungen – fünf Prozent mehr Lohn und eine Verkürzung der Wochenarbeitszeit – sei bislang gar nicht mit der Bahn verhandelt worden, sagte Weselsky am Montagabend im ZDF.”

Als Bahn würde ich jetzt mit Volldampf an fahrerlosen Zügen forschen. Als Kunde gucke ich mich nach Mietwagen um. Tolle Glanzleistung, Danke!

P.S. Liebe Bahn, wenn ich für 4 Personen eine Familienreservierung buche, ist es keine schlaue Idee 4 Plätze an verschiedenen Tischen im Wagen herauszusuchen, wenn noch ein ganzer Tisch frei ist.

From here to there

Die letzten Wochen sind wir einiges gereist: Zur Familienfeier nach Vierkamp, zum Geburtstag nach Groß Elbe…
Dabei stelle ich fest, dass Zug fahren doch gar nicht so schlecht ist, im Vergleich (wenn auch zienmlich teuer).
Am Samstag haben wir von Hamburg nach Salzgitter 5 Stunden gebraucht, weil es 3 Studen gedauert hat auf der A7 Hamburg zu verlassen (im Radio heisst das dann beschönigend “17km”). Sobald wir den Stau überwunden hatten, mussten wir erst mal raus und Pause machen. So macht Autofahren echt keinen Spass. Muss Hamburg denn alle Autobahnen auf einmal renovieren?

Booking a travel

Using modern technology platforms to book a travel, using the modern web 2.0 should be a no-brainer, right? This is what I thought yesterday when starting to book a simple travel from Zürich to Hamburg an back.

So first, do your citizenship duty and check out the railway system (yes, I am ecologically biased). German Bahn has a “Switzerland special” for 39€ one-way, great… But their web form only allows to select a German station as departing place and a return trip starting in Switzerland. There is no way to book Switzerland-Germany-Switzerland. grr. So off to http://sbb.ch and book there: enter all travel details, select discount cards etc, just to be informed that (unspecified) parts of the trip Zürich-Hamburg can not be booked and therefore no booking at all is possible.
So back to http://bahn.de, skipping all discounts and simply enter Zürich-Hamburg in the regular web mask. It is great that they offer me to enter my Swiss half-fare card or my German half-fare card, but that is an “exclusive or”, I can enter either my Swiss or my german half-fare card for a trip spanning both countries. Fail again! Price: 220€ for the discounted cheap tickets bound to a specific train.

So off to the flights: expedia.de offers a direct 230€ Swiss/Lufthansa flight, so I’ll go for that. (1.1h rather than 8h of traveling time is more attractive). Enter details, skip rental car and insurance options, just to be informed that the flight is now 270€ rather than 230€. Suckers. Off to http://lastminute.de, booking the very same flight for 230€.

Conclusion? Digital markets might be true enablers, but their execution is still lacking. Also in-transparent price design can be something rather frustrating for the consumer.

Arrived in Göteborg

Plane without my luggage

©Spaeth, Plane without my luggage

Right after my holidays, I had a few hours to unpack and repack and make my way to Göteborg, as a visiting scholar at the IT University in Göteborg with Jan Ljungberg. I last visited them in 2003, so it has been a while.

One thing I will never understand is luggage transport and customer service with airlines. I understand that things are made more complicated by the interaction of multiple organizations, but are airlines not supposed to be good at processes and customer service?

This time, they did not even board my luggage in Zurich, my starting destination. So obviously, it also did not make its way to Copehnhagen, or Göteborg. So I am now left without any luggage… again. On average, 3.6 Passengers out of 1,000 reported lost luggage in Dec/Jan 2011 [USFlightStats], unfortunately, I seem to always be one out of them.

Äntligen Måndag

©Spaeth "Äntligen Måndag!"

Otherwise, I am still in the process of getting set up and going again. I will be enjoying this stay, but I hope it is also going to be a productive time.