OK. I'm heading off to the airport... going to walk into Harvard Sq and then take the T to logan. Hopefully my next post will we from Oslo (or at least somewhere in Europe)...
[see bottom of previous post for update with pictures]
(08:43) [/Travel/Oslo] #

That's the average speed of my attempted trip to Oslo yesterday.

Unfortunately my trip coincided with the first major snow storm of the year. My original flight had been on Continental through Newark. Nope. Continental canceled all their flights early in the morning. After spending a couple hours sitting on hold with our company's emergency $25/call hot line, one of my traveling partners managed to get us re-booked with Lufthansa direct out of Boston.

So we made the snowy drive to Logan around 12:30 for a 16:45 flight. Waited in line to find out that we were only on standby and would have to wait until 15:30 to see if we would get seats. (Un)luckily for us there were some empty seats (no doubt the seats of people stuck somewhere else) and boarded around 16:15.

After everyone was on and settled, the ground crew attempted to pull us back from the terminal. 3 or 4 rocking attempts and the plane still hadn't moved. Turns out that the first tow truck wasn't big enough to do the job given that the ground was covered with snow.

Much waiting ensued. They finally found a bigger truck/tractor to pull us. Then more de-icing. Then we finally moved forward on jet power only to have to hold up due to the runways being closed. Then more de-icing. Followed by another runway closure. You get the idea.

The pilot finally comes on, and in his thick German accent, told us, "I'm sorry, but today the weather has won."

This was about 20:30 or so. We were maybe 1000ft from our original terminal. We could clearly see the terminal off to our right. But apparently someone had taken our terminal spot and now there weren't any spots left for us.

More sitting around. Followed by the announcement that the flight attendants would begin passing out US customs declarations. Apparently pulling back from the terminal means we left the US? (in the end we weren't forced to go through customs)

Around 23:30 we learned from a attendant that a spot opened up, but the pilot didn't know where it was and we were waiting for a "follow-me" to lead us in. After another 15 minutes or so we started to move and pulled up to the jet-way. Everyone started to get up, put jackets on, and get their luggage down from the overhead bins. Only no one was going anywhere. At just about midnight, they announced that the jet-way we got wasn't compatible with the 747 doors and there was a gap that would need to be spanned before we could de-plane. More waiting.

At 00:15 we finally walked off the plane. They told us they couldn't get the luggage off and that we would all try again the next day at 15:45...

Update: Here are some pictures... Bjorn and Steven making the best of it (23:28)... Bjorn making his way down the gang plank (00:23) waiting for cabs home (00:42) my neighborhood in Cambridge (01:38)
(08:37) [/Travel/Oslo] #