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Analysis

You know you have a problem with your main airport when…

…you can make jokes about Heathrow Terminal 5 in adverts in German in the magazine of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Translation: “Sorry, our advertisement is still stuck in Heathrow Terminal 5”. The deckchair seems to make reference to the famous anti-German Carling Black Label advertisement about Germans and British and sunbathing. […]

Analysis

Customer service – how you should do it

I’ve been so frustrated in recent weeks by a complete lack of customer service in all kinds of places I’ve been – Coditel and UPS in Belgium, Thomas Cook Airlines in Canada, BAA at Gatwick (on my return from Canada – not as severe as Boris Johnson’s experience!) – that […]

Analysis

Riding the Railroad

The cloud sits heavy over Albany, NY and drips of rain slide down the windowpanes of the coach windows of Amtak train 69 “Adirondack” bound for Montréal. After a nightmarish bus journey in the opposite direction this is much more civilised. I wonder whether the border crossing is going to […]

Analysis

Brussels – St Pancras – Gatwick – Montréal and onwards

Eurostar terminal Brussels on a Friday morning, 0830. Why so many people? Apparently it’s normal a stressed UK Borders passport checker informs me. Coach 17, filled with doddering pensions and Flemish children. Why can’t Eurostar do a business standard coach? And why can’t Flemish parents control their kids a bit […]