Trip to Panama. Or How We Were Trying to Travel to Germany.
In July 2022 we went for "holidays" to Germany. After paying a small fortune for tickets with Airfrance, we took three days to arrive to the destination and three days to get back. We stayed in three different hotels in Paris and luckily did not get stuck in Panama. Both destinations were not even on our traveling plan. What happened?
On the way to Germany:
We were put on a standby as the tickets were oversold
Had to rush to do a PCR test at the airport since we had 'only' two vaccinations (and not three)
Managed to get on the airplane and coordinated with three wonderful people to change their seats to be sitting together
Waited in the airplane five extra hours while they were fixing the breaks
Arrived to Paris hours after our connecting flight departed
Spent a night in a hostel with bunk beds next to the CDG airport (Premiere Classe Roissy CDG - do not stay there)
Barely managed to get our seats on the morning flight to Frankfurt
Obviously did not receive luggage at the destination
And still it was fun after not traveling for two years!
Once in Germany, we had a massive jet lag that turned into covid. The following two weeks were spent in a quarantine in Frankfurt. Then we tested negative and headed back home.
On the way to Mexico:
We arrived to the FRA airport 5 hours before the flight. As it was 40 degrees celsius outside, we preferred to be in a place with air conditioner.
We googled that it was possible to drop the luggage up to a day before the flight, but it was only 2 hours in advance. Good news, there was an impressive playground where we got entertained for three hours that we had to wait.
Once through all the queues, we were finally at our gate next to which was conveniently located a premium lounge for AMEX. When entering the lounge, the guy at registration casually mentioned that we could relax as our flight had been delayed. Hm, what? This information was not on the screen.
An hour later as we were queuing for the boarding, the announcement came in. The flight we were waiting for to go to Paris - had not yet left Paris. We stayed put in the lounge for another two hours while drinking fancy sparkling water and German beer.
The kind man at the gate who was providing over-detailed reports apparently was not even an employee of the airport. He said that airplane arrived but something was not working properly. So they had to park further away and just needed to find buses to take us there. Honestly?
After messy 10 hours at the airport and an hour flight, we were finally in Paris. The connecting flight had left an hour before.
The trickiest part in CDG airport was to understand where to get assistance on the lost connecting flight. Due to the shortage of staff, there are no people whatsoever to provide any information:
We arrived to CDG after 00:00. We were trying to stay in the transit zone and to move to the terminal of our connecting flight - but all corridors were closed.
We left transit and went to departures. Everything closed. People sleeping on the cold floor.
At 1:00 am we were about to give up and to wait till 5:00 am when they start opening the registration.
I saw this god-sent, overworked man who seemed to had been sorting Airfrance mess for the past 48 hours. And truly he was! He took us through some secret corridors to the customer service in the other terminal.
There we got all the perks from the airline but they could not place us on the next flight, since there were none available in foreseeable future. "Please come back tomorrow", we heard.
Next day we returned and the choices were: to fly the following day through Panama to Mexico City or to fly in three days on separate flights. Now I am counting Panama as a new country I visited this year.
At the end, we had half a day left in Paris and headed to Galerie de paléontologie and Avenue des Champs-Élysées. I got my Parisian treat - tartare de boef (I am slightly obsessed with raw meat) - and counted it as another successful trip to Paris.
Lessons learned:
In case you need to fly through Paris and stay over night, I would totally recommend Hotel IBIS Paris CDG Airport in Terminal 3. You get there in 10 min by internal train from CDG airport. They have small yet stylish, clean, and well equipped rooms. Breakfast and lunch buffet has a good variety. But the main bonus is the train station (RER B) which is literally in front of the hotel. Every couple of minutes passes a train that takes you in 40 min directly to Gare du Nord. We paid 17.80 EUR for a day pass which covered the trip to the city and back, plus the rest of the traveling by metro during the day.
When airline says that flight is oversold, they evaluate at 70% the probability to get a seat (though in summer it was down to 50%). Three of us and another family of three still got seats.
If you don't have one, get a lounge membership - its nice to have a place to go to when you are stuck in the airport.
When you have to stay overnight, Airfrance provides per passenger:
packed tasty dinner with water,
hygiene products,
decent white t-shirt,
hotel booking,
ticket for bus shuttle, and
15-20 EUR voucher per person per day of stay (to spend only on food at the airport)
On the way back we accumulated 120 EUR in vouchers. It was cool to splurge 30 EUR for macarons in Laduree. But the rest got wasted in a coffee shop.
Keep a good record of all documents and tickets at every step (take fotos)
It is very probable that your luggage gets lost, so:
take a picture of your luggage
take couple pics of what stuff you packed
keep your favorite new things in the carry on
if you do not receive luggage at the airport, you have to report it either at the airport or online during 24 hours
We requested refund for everything (i.e. lost baggage, purchase of necessities, stolen items, delay, overselling etc.) by everyone (i.e. Airfrance, Copa Airline, American Express) and up to now - nothing. Lets see how it goes!