Trying to schedule a last minute trip to Sweden this morning for next week for some planning meetings with a client and it seems everyone is going to Europe next week. Yep, the U.S. will be a lot like Paris in August next week with only the essential people still here. With the exchange rates what they are you wonder why anyone would go to Europe on holiday right now. Oh well, they are.
Seriously, there was absolutely no space on any flight from Atlanta to Europe on Sunday at least with Delta and any partner airlines. Forced to move to Monday and then it is a less than optimal connection through Paris. I won't get to Gothenberg until just after noon on Tuesday so I will miss the morning meetings and after flying all night ( I don't sleep well on planes) I will be a zombie for the afternoon. To add insult to injury when space gets this tight the airlines don't discount anything and you pay full boat for your tiny seat and crap food. I am priority waitlisted for an upgrade to business class both ways but don't hold out much hope if the flights are this crowded.
Meetings are over Thursday afternoon but the first flight out I could get is 640am on Saturday which will make for a long day of travel since that will mean getting up at about 9pm Friday night Eastern Standard in order to get back to Atlanta by about 3pm Saturday. Again have to go the the disaster that is Charles de Gaulle. With the new international terminal out of commission and being replaced you get to ride a bus around the airport for 45 minutes or so to get to and from your plane all through temporary facilities. My connections are tight so I will have to carry on all my luggage as it would never make it. This is when the travel experience in packing light pays off. It is always rather funny to see how much stuff most American tourists pack for their short trips to Europe.
The final insult is that the only hotel I could find that would guarantee me a room required a prepaid and non refundable payment for the entire four nights and it wasn't cheap. With the current exchange rates (very bad) a single room is 162 US$ per night. Ouch!
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