Introduction

Well, another year, another tabula rasa to fill with flights. And what’s a better way to start it than to meet some of your fellow a.netters in... the Snowy North!

This whole thing got started by photophil’s report: Two T-Tails Across The Baltic Sea - ARN-HEL-ARN (by photophil Sep 24 2011 in Trip Reports). After realizing that a a few of us (*cough*) had flown through ARN almost at the same time the idea of having another meet there in the style of the last July’s FRA meet sprung up. Various dates were proposed and discussed, various people signed up and finally the second weekend of 2012 was agreed as the date and obviously Arlanda airport as the venue.

So I booked KF flights to ARN on that Saturday morning and back at a sensible time on Sunday evening, around 100 EUR alltogether - this was way before they current ridiculously cheap fares thanks to a price war with Finnair of all airlines!

Since we live in the age of globalization and Sweden has a bit of a (deserved) reputation to be a helluva expensive place for the fun things in life (hotels, booze, food, booze, life in general, booze) very soon the idea of outsourcing half of the party to Tallinn, just a short plane ride away sprung up. An additional bonus was that there was a perfectly timed Saturday afternoon flight there with an Estonian Air Regional (or Golden Air actually) Saab 340, a type many here see moderately wet dreams about and it was available for around 60 EUR. Very soon a breakaway group of people attending the meeting decided to do this, so of course I booked myself on it as well. Sorry Swedes, your country might be safe and sound and great, but it is also utterly boring compared to Tallinn!

Luckily these plans were being hatched at the same time as airBaltic was having one of their best sales ever (as part of their weekly Cherry Tuesday offers): a good per segment discount on all itineraries booked that day, so most people including me ended up booking TLL-RIX-ARN for Sunday morning. I paid 34 EUR for my flights, pretty much unbeatable value!

Here’s the route for this weekend of crisscrossing the icy Baltic waters:



There have already been a good number of reports about the various parts and aspects of the meets, listed here in order of appearance:

To And From The ARN.meet: BRU-ARN-TLL-AMS-BRU (by sultanils Jan 16 2012 in Trip Reports)
A.net Meeting In Snowy Tallinn.U2 & FR STN-TLL-LTN (by gabrielchew Jan 18 2012 in Trip Reports)
5 Flights & ARN A.net Meet (incl SF3/737s/F50) (by airbuseric Jan 18 2012 in Trip Reports)
NextJet ATP, Caravelle, Jumbo Hostel; ARN Meet (by MEA-707 Jan 20 2012 in Trip Reports)
ARN Meeting: The Highs And Lows. (by AlwaysOnAPlane Jan 20 2012 in Trip Reports)

Since there are already so many accounts out there plus the fact that none of the airlines, routes, airports, or even planes were new for me I didn’t really feel very motivated to put out a report. So I decided to do it in a little bit different way this time.

Saturday 14.1.2012

The real winter had finally arrived - this is my street around 7 on that Saturday morning. Yes, those footprints are mine:



I had arranged a lounge date with AYA333, also attending the meet and flying out on the same flight as me. A sparkling wine breakfast suited the mood just fine (by the way, that is a quadruple espresso there):



At the gate a little cross feeding was taking place :



So today’s ride is Lima Mike, the first Blue 1 717 I ever flew, and even in Premium class in November 2010, coming back from an eventful, nice but far too short visit to Belfast and Glasgow: Beautiful Belfast: HEL-RIX-PIK/GLA-BHD/BFS-LHR-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Nov 10 2010 in Trip Reports)

This bird has appeared frequently on my flights, so that would become already my sixth flight with her, by far the most common KF 717 (I have logged them all) in my log.

My first 717 ride, and only one prior to KF deciding on the type and thus making it very accessible for me and other Finnish fliers was back in August 2007 with Spanair/AeBal doing the BCN-MAD hop.

Yes, indeed they have made the font bigger - but at the same time they’ve made it hideous. Urgh:



HEL - ARN
KF434
B717 OH-BLM “Kevätsade / Spring Rain”
Seat 6F
8.52 - 09.02

AYA333 told me that he overheard the flight attendants quoting the load as 69 pax. I estimated 70%, so quite close to that.

Greta Garbo, oh yes:



We waited for a long time for a deicing vehicle to appear and do its business:



For some strange reason after pushing back late we didn’t taxi to the active but instead to an apron position where another deicing took place, not sure what happened here.



Take off from 04R was finally half an hour or so late. Notably Ms. Garbo who pushed back some ten minutes before us took off just in front of us. Being a world class actor means some serious make up and preparation time, it seems...





I think they should come up with some new slogans for the coffee cups - these are getting a little long on the tooth. I can come up with lots of them cheaply, wink wink:



Our approach to 01L took us right over the eerily beautiful frozen city of Stockholm and its northern suburbs:





Bromma - according to a popular legend there’s no Terminal 1 at Arlanda (the designations go from 2 to 5) because BMA is actually considered to be T1:



Fast forward one and half months and this fellow will be already much higher at this time - I just love late February and March in the North (just as I absolutely hate October, November and most of December here):





Not too snowy here, but rather frozen looking:



Bye Mike, hope not to meet you tomorrow:



Stockholm Arlanda Airport, take 1

We docked to the usual KF gate 10 around half an hour late. This sounded bad as we had planned to be waiting for Eric at his gate when his KLM flight arrived from AMS, originally scheduled some 20 minutes after our flight. Well, I saw no Flying Dutchmen around and figured he must’ve had a delay as well, and right after that we spotted him:



So off to the gate to meet an always happy Eric, to the SAS transfer desk to try to confuse the agent by weird seat requests (didn’t really succeed, the gal was good) and finally to arrivals and further to SkyCity we went.

The meet... Well, I think everything that can be said about it without risking a lawsuit has already been said. It was fun, people were nice, there never is enough time to talk to everybody, some people’s thriftiness sometimes can go to the extremes (or maybe it’s just the Ivan Kamprad way), beer is good, Sbarro food is not etc.

Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary.

Eventually it is time to head across the most polluted sea in the world to see if the Rannarootsi people are as hospitable as their proper cousins here.

Me and makeree were (not surprisingly) the last pax to board the bus since we had decided to pig it out in the Scandinavian lounge for a bit.

ES-ASN:



My first contact with ES-ASN was when she was still known with her maiden name, SE-KUU. That was back in September 2007 when she carried me the short hop from Tallinn to Helsinki during the previous time OV tried to compete with Finnair on that route - it will again be resurrected in March when Tero Taskila Airways is starting to ramp up its plans to take on airBaltic at their own game. It remains to be seen what will come out of it, but at least I’ve got another four or so flights already booked between Finland and Tallinn for the spring - and they’ve introduced the midnight Saab so what’s there not to love?

Yeah, fifth time aboard this plane for me, second time on this very same flight - the previous time was actually in November 2010 after another meet with Eric here at ARN (major deja-vu, I flew in on the same KF flight as today, he arrived on the same KL flight...): Two Planes And A Ferry Across Baltic: HEL-ARN-TLL (by FlyingFinn76 Nov 14 2010 in Trip Reports)

ARN - TLL
OV124
Saab 340 ES-ASN
Seat 1F
14.28 - 16.31

As has been said already a few time the cute young FA thingy was certainly Markus material. We being the ugly, geeky, shy or whatever flying folks of course were too embarrased to ask her for a photo, so sorry Markus, but I think this serves you right for focusing on your “business” instead of more important things in life like us.

My original seat 6A had a limited view outside thanks to the engine:



AYA333 behind me kept complaining about the lack of legroom. I asked the FA whether he could move to row one (he is incredibly shy, I’ve heard him say exactly twelve words all throughout the two years we’ve known each other) but he immediately declined (wow, word 13: “No!”) and in order not to loose my face (or what’s left of it) I moved there instead. Well, can’t beat the legroom:



Views are better too:



The bad part of course came from the fact that this was my last shot during taxi before the FA told me friendly but sternly to stop taking photos:



A huge shame that, as we took of from 01L, did a right turn right away and flew parallel to runway 08 for a while, affording me the best view of ARN I’ve ever seen from air but of course no photos then.

Nice reflection of our plane in the propeller hub, taken when it was finally fine to take photos without causing us to crash and die a horrible death just because of one selfish bastard wanting to snap photos:



Coffee & a warm muffin, wow I feel like an op-up on the first row now:



Getting moody:



Special mention: taking a leak in a Saab 340 toilet with an inop toilet light AND a pair of Estonian ladies on the last row is not fun. I tried to use the flash of my camera to help my aim - in the progress I shot this one (and several others which will soon be available in the “Too hot for Internet” version of this report):



Find the non-a.netter:



Sunrise to sunset - that’s all in a flying day for the Finn:





Observant readers have already noticed that I decided to get back to my original seat in order to shoot photos of the landing. Kalev candies were distributed before the call to buckle up:



Is this an paid advert:



Tallinn looking quite frozen:



Our approach is a bit shaky, thanks to a horrible cold wind that is strong enough to separate the meat from your bones if you stay out of cover too long. Actually this wind is rumoured to be the final revenge of Ivan the Terrible, whose last breath now keeps wandering around the periphery of the once great Russian empire reminding the descendants of his conquers about who once was pulling the strings. It has also been rumoured to have been used by the notorious Cheka as a torture method, kinda like the waterboarding of the Czarist Russia... sorry, the absent mind wanders again...





Back in modern times I had arrived in Estonia, for the umpteenth time - seriously, I’ve lost count as I’ve flown here at least 30 times with fixed wing aircraft, twice with a helicopter and taken various boats several dozen times. And I still like it. A lot. Well apart from that bone gnawing wind. But there are ways around it.

Tallinn

The official party hotel was the Estonian version of Ibis, the Tallink Express hotel in the port (well for most of us, somebody was too cheap and decided to book a rathole in order to save 15 EUR, some Finns had too much money and for tax reasons had to stay in more upscale hotels etc.). Cheap and cheerful:



Although the beer in the lobby bar was overpriced:



So a night of good food, a few too many drinks, a horribly cold wind, a lost Jonas and excellent comradeship followed.





.

Sunday 15.1.2012

After a too long night out on the tiles, a too brief sleep and far too early we still managed to make it to the airport with the first bus (I spend the ride sleeping). Picking up the boarding passes was fast, as was security (even though Eric has his usual arguments with the staff and their modus operandi).

Our overnighting ride, the airBaltic plane lottery had finally settled on a 735:



A lynx trying to be awfully smart:



“For me flying is a just an everyday thing” - pretty clever:



A quick coffee or three in the lounge (where as seems to be the norm nowadays I’m the only guest) and onboard YL-BBE, another old friend of mine. I had the pleasure of flying with her the first time in March 2007 from Vilnius to Copenhagen, when BT still kept the VNO hub (I had just flown in from HEL with one of their Fokkers a few hours earlier) operation going. This route was pretty much the last one to be cut as their codeshare agreement with SAS forced them to operate them long after the second coming of the VNO hub had already failed miserably (again). Nowadays SAS sends their own CRJ-900s from Kastrup and thus RIX and TLL remain the only airBaltic destinations served from Vilnius. I actually bought a 1/500 die cast model of an BT 735 from that flight.

This bird has also served me on such memorable occasions as the second last flight of my record-breaking 7-in-a-day flight marathon: Seven In A Day: HEL-CPH-OSL-BLL-CPH-ARN-RIX-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Mar 1 2011 in Trip Reports) and the second best (but best non-faux) flight in BT business class I’ve ever flown: The White City: BEG-VIE-RIX-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Sep 25 2011 in Trip Reports)

All in all we have a nice history together, and now this is my sixth flight with her.

TLL - RIX
BT366
B737-500 YL-BBE
Seat 5F
8.47 - 9.33

Back in present I was out as soon as our wheels left runway 08, coming back just in time for landing towards the north at RIX runway 36.





Riga Airport

I betrayed the others and decided to search for some breakfast options in the lounge (Jonas of course tried hard to come with me and refused to believe that I don’t have guest priviledges anymore) as the ones in Tallinn were limited to cookies. Inside I was very delighted to find out that they had introduced a hot breakfast since my last morning visit here in November (https://www.airliners.net/aviation-forums/trip_reports/read.main/202510 ) :



That really hit the spot, so I had another couple of servings. Here’s a toast to Fabrizio with some Italian water from the water bar:



Eventually it was time to continue the journey. Another six rounds of airBaltic plane lottery had resulted in the original 733 becoming none else than the mysterious Baltic Phoenix (of Dutch origins), the plane that refuses to die and keeps coming back after being retired, the good old workhorse of the airBaltic fleet - ladies and gentlemen, the Foooookkeeeeeeeeer fiftyyyyyyyyy!! (applause).

YL-BAC is this reincarnation’s registration (hopefully not related to Johan Bäckman or “The second Finn who sold his country” as the letters BAC already give me the creeps). I only met her back in July 2009 when this ex-SAS and Skyways bird (which has a different seat configuration than most of the BT Fokkers) took me for a brief visit to Kaunas and back, including the world’s craziest taxi driver and the world’s slowest bus ride: Turboprop Galore: TKU-RIX-KUN-RIX-TAY, TLL-HEL (by FlyingFinn76 Jul 29 2009 in Trip Reports)

RIX - ARN
BT105
F50 YL-BAC
Seat 15D
11.38 - 12.04



Markus, we still remember you:



Unfortunately Jonas decided to switch places and sit next to me on the aisle seat of the last row. Well he is okay but there’s only that much a man can listen to how somebody has already spent a whopping 40 Euro on this weekend and not gotten anything in return before his brain shuts down as a self defense measurement. For me this happens right after our take off from 36.

Notice FlyBE now running an ATR here instead of the E170:



Yes folks, despite what you might think from the photos and your experiences this winter has been record warm here:



By the time my superego got reunited with the reality we were already on sight of “Du gamla, du fria”:



I suggested Jonas should sing this national anthem of theirs to get us into the right mood for the Folkhemmet, but he started asking for tips and I decided against it.

Same nice approach over the neatly arranged Stockholmese suburbs plants us on 01L on time.





Mmmm, Marabou (Hannah, it’s chocolate):



Stockholm Arlanda Airport, take 2

The first time I visited ARN was in the autumn of 2002. That was my first time flying with SAS and I had booked one of their monthly web special fares for a weekend visit to Zürich. I flew in with an Air Botnia Avro, had just enough time to make it from the inbound bus gate through passport control (Switzerland and Schengen was still a long way off back then!) to a non-Schengen bus gate, get into the bus and be driven to a Skyways ERJ-145 (operating for SAS) which was parked right next to my inbound Avro. Back then I wasn’t that well traveled yet, so I remember thinking what a weird airport this is with these pointless bus rides... Well, on that trip SAS also offered me my first ever op up and as a consequence of accepting the offer also my first ever flight in business class (well, a middle seat on a Mad Dog, but at least I managed to drink 5 G&Ts between CPH and HEL) and basically won me over. I’ve been a fan ever since. And I’ve never called them faux. Never ever. Never will. At least in a proper way.

Back in 2012 I and AYA333 picked up our KF boarding passes from the transfer desk and the others had already disappeared. Well, like all the Autostradas lead to Rome (sorry, it is after all 2012, and Anno Domini at that!) all the wanderings at Arlanda lead to SkyCity. So that’s where we found the rest of the gang, had some burger lunch (most of us opted for the proper burgers, but somebody preferred The Golden Arches for its world famous cheapness) and more chat.



Some of us arrived back from TLL on this one - a wise choice as the timing was much more hangover friendly:



Finally people started trickling out for their homebound flights, some brave ones decided to visit the city-whose-name-shall-not-be-mentioned (seriously, try saying “Örnsköldsvik” - even the Swedes themselves are unable to do it after two pints) and some of us (me!) in dire need of a place to lie down to the comfortable sofas at the Scandinavian lounge. And for the record: I wasn’t the only one sleeping there, a bunch of people were doing the same. Well, they were all French though, so maybe they don’t count.

Eventually I recovered some of my strength, and eventually me, AYA333 and makeree (who was found again, word on the street is he was briefly abducted) went to the gate only to see Blue1 doing what Blue1 does the best - being delayed:



At least the plane is already there, and luckily not Mike but November this time. This is one of the two Star Alliance liveried KF 717s (the other is Papa) and one I’ve only flown once before, OUL-HEL two months ago. That flight actually completed my “collection” as having flown with all the birds in the current KF fleet.



ARN - HEL
KF428
B717 OH-BLN
Seat 8F
18.17 - 20.08

The plane was completely packed. I kept hoping for an op-up but no dice. Well, I was quite a zombie at that stage anyway so basically dozed through the whole flight. Too dark to make any decent photos, although I did try during the take off from 19R and landing on 15:







Back in HEL AYA333 went to T2 to check in for his Norwegian (the airline, he was not going to Norway) flight in the morning and as makeree had quite some time before his bus he joined him. I went looking for my brother who graciously promised to pick me up and headed home with them.

Conclusions

As I said - pretty much everything has already been said about the meet. Yes, it was wonderful. Yes, I had a blast. Yes, we should do this again (Berlin in June at the latest!). Thank you all!

Well, now that the traveling year has been kicked off it’s time to get jiggy with it. Two weeks and I’m taking advantage of another dirt cheap airBaltic ticket to London, combined with an eagerly expected a.net meet and probably my last flight with BMI. The route is scheduled to be HEL-RIX-LGW/LHR-TXL-CPH-HEL. Happy contrails!

Hi FF,

nice read as usual! Good to get yet another view on events in ARN. Nice idea for a side trip, even if you did miss the Caravelle.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): proper burgers, but somebody preferred The Golden Arches for its world famous cheapness

So would you call McDo a "faux" restaurant, as there is no table service - more a cafeteria?  

Thanks again

signol

Hi P!

As usual a great tripreport, love the nostalgia twist!
The A.net meet for sure was great, it was nice meeting you and everyone else.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Sorry Swedes, your country might be safe and sound and great, but it is also utterly boring compared to Tallinn!

Since when is expensive the same thing as boring?  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Bromma - according to a popular legend there’s no Terminal 1 at Arlanda (the designations go from 2 to 5) because BMA is actually considered to be T1:

That is one of the most common explanations, the other one being that ARN's cargo ramp is terminal 1.
There's no official explanation.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary.

Hmm. Should I bother finding out what you are talking about?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): My original seat 6A had a limited view outside thanks to the engine:

Hey that's a lie! You were on 4A, right behind me on 3A!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): AYA333 behind me kept complaining about the lack of legroom.

I don't blame him, I had expected more legroom on the SF34. On all of my S2000 flights there have been way better legroom.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The bad part of course came from the fact that this was my last shot during taxi before the FA told me friendly but sternly to stop taking photos:

When handing out the candy she saw my camera too and told me not to use it during landing.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Find the non-a.netter:

The FA?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Our overnighting ride, the airBaltic plane lottery had finally settled on a 735:

I have two flights on BT in Feb, I hope one of them will be a F50.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Notice FlyBE now running an ATR here instead of the E170:

Hey, congrats! You've learned to say FlyBE instead of FinnComm!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Mmmm, Marabou:

That building is very close to where I was born and raised.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Two weeks and I’m taking advantage of another dirt cheap airBaltic ticket to London, combined with an eagerly expected a.net meet and probably my last flight with BMI. The route is scheduled to be HEL-RIX-LGW/LHR-TXL-CPH-HEL. Happy contrails!

Looking forward to read that one!

Martin

Hey P.

Been looking forward to your take on this event. Really nice casual style for this Saturday evening after a few beers and wines.
This event is well documented now but still makes for good reading.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Here’s the route for this weekend of crisscrossing the icy Baltic waters:

Nice map.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The real winter had finally arrived - this is my street around 7 on that Saturday morning. Yes, those footprints are mine:

Would have been nice for us Southerners to see some more of this instead of mainly frost.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary.

More of a bidet effect if I remember your story?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Nice reflection of our plane in the propeller hub

Love this picture.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Actually this wind is rumoured to be the final revenge of Ivan the Terrible, whose last breath now keeps wandering around the periphery of the once great Russian empire reminding the descendants of his conquers about who once was pulling the strings. It has also been rumoured to have been used by the notorious Cheka as a torture method, kinda like the waterboarding of the Czarist Russia

Trip report and History lesson combination. Love it.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Inside I was very delighted to find out that they had introduced a hot breakfast since my last morning visit here in November

Perfect for the hungover Finn.

Had a blast mate and good to see you again.
All the best, Lee.

Nice trip report as always! Nice to see a Saab 340, a type I haven't experienced and must try to get on (as soon as I have money again, a last flight with BD will come first!)...

At a tad bit of a tangent, how does one (trying to make myself sound posh/intelligent) find out/join these a.net meets?

 

Just thought I'd answer a question to which I knew the answer!

Quoting planejamie (Reply 4): At a tad bit of a tangent, how does one (trying to make myself sound posh/intelligent) find out/join these a.net meets?

The meets are planned on the Non-Aviation board. Here's the thread for this meet:

A.net Meeting ARN 14/15-JAN-2012 w/ Caravelle (by photophil Sep 26 2011 in Non Aviation)

There's also an "After-thread" for the meeting.

ARN Meeting Jan. 2012 - A View Back (by photophil Jan 15 2012 in Non Aviation)

Martin

Quoting deltamartin (Reply 5): The meets are planned on the Non-Aviation board. Here's the thread for this meet: A.net Meeting ARN 14/15-JAN-2012 w/ Caravelle (by photophil Sep 26 2011 in Non Aviation) There's also an "After-thread" for the meeting. ARN Meeting Jan. 2012 - A View Back (by photophil Jan 15 2012 in Non Aviation) Martin

Ahh thanks, I don't normally look around that bit of the forums as it's normally full of people complaining about the government or comparing cars/computers!

Now that's taken care of, I won't bring it up on this thread again  

Hi FF!

fantastic report, lovely map with the flights drawn on it. Nice text, a great read!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): For some strange reason after pushing back late we didn’t taxi to the active but instead to an apron position where another deicing took place, not sure what happened here.

I am almost sure, exceeding so called 'hold over time'. After de-icing, under certain circumstances of weather/temperature, a specific time path is set from de-icing until 'airborne time'. If you can't make that, then you need de-icing again.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I think they should come up with some new slogans for the coffee cups

You haven't seen my slogan in the signature? It's there since my one and only Blue1 flight. Like!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So off to the gate to meet an always happy Eric

I do my best for that. But after such a great flight on a real proper airline, I can only be happy of course.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): We being the ugly, geeky, shy or whatever flying folks of course were too embarrased to ask her for a photo, so sorry Markus, but I think this serves you right for focusing on your “business” instead of more important things in life like us.

I will make sure that the picture with her (and YOU) will come online at you know where...

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): My original seat 6A had a limited view outside thanks to the engine:

6A? Was mine! Emergency row... or am I confused? Hmm...


Well, great pics, lovely Tallinn, great people and indeed, a wonderful time, dinner and drinks. Thanks for posting my fishy meal! It tasted really good.

Have a nice Sunday
Eric

Hi P.,

This is what I call a refreshing morning read. I have had some good laughs thanks to your well-appreciated humors.  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): the Snowy North!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): thanks to a horrible cold wind that is strong enough to separate the meat from your bones if you stay out of cover too long.

I think you know why I did not attend the meeting.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): that is a quadruple espresso there

So sextuple would have filled your cup?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Being a world class actor means some serious make up and preparation time, it seems...

Ladies first, remember?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): according to a popular legend there’s no Terminal 1 at Arlanda (the designations go from 2 to 5) because BMA is actually considered to be T1

Hmm, do they do that to pay an honor to BMA?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Bye Mike, hope not to meet you tomorrow

Look how sad he looked after you said that.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Me and makeree were (not surprisingly) the last pax to board the bus

You must have felt like a celebrity. Did anyone make a photo of your entrance? 

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): We being the ugly, geeky, shy or whatever flying folks of course were too embarrased to ask her for a photo,

Why the embarrassment?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): (wow, word 13: “No!”)

That is a good one!   

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Find the non-a.netter:

The one standing in the aisle.


Thank you for sharing and have a nice Sunday.

Best wishes,
Suryo

Hola Petteri!

Great Sunday morning read.

I really enjoyed the different perspective to the ARN meeting and your wise decission to move the party to a much affordable place like TLL... glad to see many people enjoyed it and decided to go along.

By now you must hold the first prize, if awarded, on crossings over the Baltic Sea.

Hope BER in June is as much fun as well.

All the best from the sunny Med; no wonder you are not flying today as you must be busy casting your vote for presidential elections, aren't you?

Salut!

Roger

Hyvaa Iltaa P.

From a sunny and warm SGN, it was sooooo nice to read your Wintery and cold ARN-TLL TR !!! Good idea to escape 'expensive' Sweden and choose for 'cheap' Estonia instead  

Great writing: I absolutely really do love the way you put things/words down...also good to have added the links to your previous TR's...

No doubt you all had a great time; afterall, great countries and cities along with the companionship of A.nutters, are the ingredients for a fantastic weekend: sorry to have missed out on this one (due to my then upcoming SGN trip)  

Did you've to put your camera away due to the 'all electronic devises should be switched off' or was this still an old SSSR relic of non taking pictures while in the air ? Apparently, the others were not 'warned' or just ignored her 'advise' ?

Kiitos for this wonderful TR; looking forward to your next one !!!

Cheers,

MH017/Pieter...

Hi FlyingFinn!

Thanks for another report of the meeting at ARN. Great pics and great narrative as always.

Both Stockholm and Tallinn looks very cold to me........

Glad you had a great time meeting everyone and hope to see you in Berlin.

Looking forward to your next report!

The777Man

Thanks for the report, nice to read your account of the day as well!
I enjoyed reading it, as usual.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Yes, indeed they have made the font bigger - but at the same time they’ve made it hideous. Urgh:

That font is huge indeed. As an advertising guy I can concur with your 'Urgh'.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I think they should come up with some new slogans for the coffee cups - these are getting a little long on the tooth. I can come up with lots of them cheaply, wink wink:

I've been wondering; are that just random quotes they come up with, or do they use famous quotes or something.

Hi FF,

Another nice perspective of the Arlanda meeting nicely spiced with some nostalgic remarks - and icy Nordic scenery of course. Reading all these reports about the meet really makes me regret that I could not join you guys. But oh, let's hope for better luck next time.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So I booked KF flights to ARN on that Saturday morning and back at a sensible time on Sunday evening, around 100 EUR alltogether - this was way before they current ridiculously cheap fares thanks to a price war with Finnair of all airlines!

May I congratulate you for choosing to arrive to the meet in such a stylish way!

It was indeed quite amusing to see Finnair introducing 69 EUR return fares on domestic and intra-Scandinavian routes (if they only would have set that fare on the RVN route too!) and I think it was the next day that KF set their fares to 51 EUR. That really is a price war in the right meaning of the word.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Here’s the route for this weekend of crisscrossing the icy Baltic waters:

That map is indeed icy!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): There have already been a good number of reports about the various parts and aspects of the meets, listed here in order of appearance:

Oh dear, apparently I have quite a backlog in reading.  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): At the gate a little cross feeding was taking place :

It just feels so wrong. Specially as a truck carrying the *wrong* Finnair colors is feeding such a beautifully shaped and colored plane.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So today’s ride is Lima Mike, the first Blue 1 717 I ever flew, and even in Premium class in November 2010, coming back from an eventful, nice but far too short visit to Belfast and Glasgow: Beautiful Belfast: HEL-RIX-PIK/GLA-BHD/BFS-LHR-HEL

That kinda makes sense as it was also the first 717 to be delivered.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): KF434

Nope, KF429.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Yes, indeed they have made the font bigger - but at the same time they’ve made it hideous

Well, well, what did I say?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Greta Garbo, oh yes:

Perhaps a nice looking lady but the same can't be said about the plane carrying her.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): For some strange reason after pushing back late we didn’t taxi to the active but instead to an apron position where another deicing took place, not sure what happened here.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): I am almost sure, exceeding so called 'hold over time'. After de-icing, under certain circumstances of weather/temperature, a specific time path is set from de-icing until 'airborne time'. If you can't make that, then you need de-icing again.

Eric beat me to it.
Plus I remember seeing your aircraft coming in a little bit late from OUL so that could also have explained the delay in pushback?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I think they should come up with some new slogans for the coffee cups - these are getting a little long on the tooth. I can come up with lots of them cheaply, wink wink:

Perhaps they will come together with the installation of new seats on the 717s? (Wink, wink, that's something to look after!)

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Bye Mike, hope not to meet you tomorrow:

Such hard words.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): AYA333 behind me kept complaining about the lack of legroom. I asked the FA whether he could move to row one (he is incredibly shy, I’ve heard him say exactly twelve words all throughout the two years we’ve known each other) but he immediately declined (wow, word 13: “No!”) and in order not to loose my face (or what’s left of it) I moved there instead. Well, can’t beat the legroom:

Wonder if he will be able to gather some courage and publish a little trip report? Not only of this trip, I think he has some other material up his sleeve.
Still I can't possibly figure out why you didn't ask for a photo? I had no problem asking for a photo as I happened to be flying with one of the KF FAs featured on the TV show (for the record, yes, it was on the 717!)

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Coffee & a warm muffin, wow I feel like an op-up on the first row now:

A warm muffin? mmmmmhhh..

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): “For me flying is a just an everyday thing” - pretty clever:

Perhaps for a bird and an airline employee, but not for an A.netter.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Notice FlyBE now running an ATR here instead of the E170:

You mean Finnair having Flybe run an ATR here instead of the E170?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): I suggested Jonas should sing this national anthem of theirs to get us into the right mood for the Folkhemmet, but he started asking for tips and I decided against it.

I think you are being a bit too hard on your fellow A.netters here.  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Eventually I recovered some of my strength, and eventually me, AYA333 and makeree (who was found again, word on the street is he was briefly abducted) went to the gate only to see Blue1 doing what Blue1 does the best - being delayed:

Come on - don't be so hard on them! They've improved their punctuality tremendously and in the end you arrived pretty much on time!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): At least the plane is already there, and luckily not Mike but November this time. This is one of the two Star Alliance liveried KF 717s (the other is Papa) and one I’ve only flown once before, OUL-HEL two months ago. That flight actually completed my “collection” as having flown with all the birds in the current KF fleet.

Ah, OH-BLN, that is the only aircraft I have flown seven times on. And I never get enough of it. Even though one of the newer 717s in the fleet could also be a nice ride.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Yes, we should do this again (Berlin in June at the latest!).

Hoping to see you then.

Quoting akhmad (Reply 8): Look how sad he looked after you said that.

  

Regards,
717Flyer

Hey P another lovely report. Glad no J's were injured during the process   I was at work when I saw that and just laughed out loud and my colleagues were looking at me !

Those icy photos are nice to see but Im happy to be warm at home  

Glad you all had a fab time . Looking forward to your 2012 reports some of which look very exotic  


Regards

Philip  

Hey, P.,

great and funny story, well done.
And not a single second of boringness here with the number of meeting reports.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): As has been said already a few time the cute young FA thingy was certainly Markus material. We being the ugly, geeky, shy or whatever flying folks of course were too embarrased to ask her for a photo, so sorry Markus, but I think this serves you right for focusing on your “business” instead of more important things in life like us.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Markus, we still remember you:

Imagine how hard it was to work at the biz front that weekend, but sometimes it´s better to do so.
Anyway I should go and check that Tallin based "workers" for myself.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Well, now that the traveling year has been kicked off it’s time to get jiggy with it. Two weeks and I’m taking advantage of another dirt cheap airBaltic ticket to London, combined with an eagerly expected a.net meet and probably my last flight with BMI. The route is scheduled to be HEL-RIX-LGW/LHR-TXL-CPH-HEL. Happy contrails!

Looking forward to this one.

Greetings,
Markus(FLIEGER67)

Hi P.

Great report of the meet in ARN. Nice to see your addition as well.
It was great seeing you again over that weekend.
Another report of that SAAB flight, really feel bad for not booking it myself in order to save some money (that probably was wasted on Bus/taxi to my convenient hotel).
Nice to see some nostalgia as well


Greetings
Marc

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): An additional bonus was that there was a perfectly timed Saturday afternoon flight there with an Estonian Air Regional (or Golden Air actually) Saab 340, a type many here see moderately wet dreams about and it was available for around 60 EUR.

Just a notice. Golden Air do not operate Estonian Air Regional aircraft since March 2008. It was in beginning, when OV Regional didn't have the Air Operator Certificate and enough SF34 type rated pilots.

[Edited 2012-01-22 11:23:24]

[Edited 2012-01-22 11:23:58]

Well hello there mr FF76,

Now it's official, your 1st story of the new year: the Finn is BIB! (Back In Business  ) A very good kickoff: a nicely spiced and perfectly seasoned plate with tasty sidedishes and a sweet dessert. More of that in the future please!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): a type many here see moderately wet dreams about

Me included but that has passed ever since the Sat 14th 2012.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Yes, indeed they have made the font bigger - but at the same time they’ve made it hideous.

As long as it's not Arial 10, I'm happy with the font & size.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): For some strange reason after pushing back late we didn’t taxi to the active but instead to an apron position where another deicing took place, not sure what happened here.

Maybe the captain felt it wasn't done properly?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Me and makeree were (not surprisingly) the last pax to board the bus since we had decided to pig it out in the Scandinavian lounge for a bit.

Yes indeed! We wanted to mock you on that one but we couldn't get through your elephant skin 

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): AYA333 behind me kept complaining about the lack of legroom.

Lack of legroom, come on! It was as comfy as a summerly beach chair!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): a lost Jonas

Tried the 'lost and found'?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): even though Eric has his usual arguments with the staff and their modus operandi

And that in the wee hours of the morning, Eric trying to change the world   

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): For me this happens right after our take off from 36.

And that's when Jonas took his lucky shot?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Some of us arrived back from TLL on this one - a wise choice as the timing was much more hangover friendly:

Wise choice exactly! I still can't get enough of that OV CRJ-900...

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Thank you all!

No, thank YOU my friend  

Sultanils

Once again, excellent report.

And it was nice to see you live on national TV saturday morning  

Nice report P, thanks!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): the Snowy North!

Surely for you it's the snowy south?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The bad part of course came from the fact that this was my last shot during taxi before the FA told me friendly but sternly to stop taking photos:

That's thw worst part of the good legroom seats

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Sunrise to sunset - that’s all in a flying day for the Finn:

I'd love to do the SQ EWR-SIN flight - take off at night, spend all day (in C) on the plane, sunrise, sunset, then arrive with yet another sunrise.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The official party hotel was the Estonian version of Ibis, the Tallink Express hotel in the port (well for most of us, somebody was too cheap and decided to book a rathole in order to save 15 EUR, some Finns had too much money and for tax reasons had to stay in more upscale hotels etc.). Cheap and cheerful:

Don't forget the clever Brit who found a cheaper, nicer more central hotel  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So a night of good food, a few too many drinks, a horribly cold wind, a lost Jonas and excellent comradeship followed.

Was nice to meet up with everyone despite the cold

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Blue1 doing what Blue1 does the best - being delayed:

Oh come on, only 10 minutes. What % of flights leave within 10 mins of their STD.

Quoting planejamie (Reply 6): Ahh thanks, I don't normally look around that bit of the forums as it's normally full of people complaining about the government or comparing cars/computers!

Sory, but why are they advertised on the Non-Av forum - surely it's very aviation related?

Hi Petteri,

It's incredible, almost everyone who went to this Nordic meeting posted his TR! Can't image how flooded the forum will be after Berlin. However, well done everyone and keep on posting them! (Even if the one I'm waiting for most is Jonas' to see how faux Air Baltic was according to him).

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Here’s a toast to Fabrizio with some Italian water from the water bar:

A toast with water?! Well, a toast is a toast and thanks! However, am I the only one thinking that the idea of shipping bottled water (in glass containers!) over long distances is one of the stupidest things that our civilisation could come out with after dresses for dogs and personal shoppers? Especially if you think that Northern Europe isn't what I'd call short of water... Glad they didn't give you San Pellegrino, that water is crap.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Well, on that trip SAS also offered me my first ever op up and as a consequence of accepting the offer also my first ever flight in business class (well, a middle seat on a Mad Dog, but at least I managed to drink 5 G&Ts between CPH and HEL) and basically won me over. I’ve been a fan ever since. And I’ve never called them faux. Never ever. Never will. At least in a proper way.

Great story. It's been the same with me and Japan Airlines. Old airplane, pre-historic IFE, limited legroom... but I was on the upper deck, the jazz channel mixed John Coltrane and the Kyoto Jazz Massive, the FAs did a drink run every 1.5 hours, each one of them with a smile... I'll fly them tomorrow.

Hey there Petteri Finn Finn, nice report. Fun to see your side of the story, and I must admit that I had a few laughs. Although that lavatory thing just sent me the creeps!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): this was way before they current ridiculously cheap fares thanks to a price war with Finnair of all airlines!

Really? I had no idea KF had a price war on the route, how much was the fares? Maybe good for EBG segments. Hope they'll have it in the future as well!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Since we live in the age of globalization and Sweden has a bit of a (deserved) reputation to be a helluva expensive place for the fun things in life (hotels, booze, food, booze, life in general, booze) very soon the idea of outsourcing half of the party to Tallinn, just a short plane ride away sprung up.

What? Estonia wasn't that cheap. Heck some places in Sweden are equally cheap or even cheaper. Yes the booze and the hotel were quite nice priced, but the rest... Not so cheap.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): some people’s thriftiness sometimes can go to the extremes (or maybe it’s just the Ivan Kamprad way), beer is good, Sbarro food is not etc.

I'm just saying, I didn't feel like spending 90kr on lunch when I had already eaten breakfast on the train.  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): (well for most of us, somebody was too cheap and decided to book a rathole in order to save 15 EUR, some Finns had too much money and for tax reasons had to stay in more upscale hotels etc.). Cheap and cheerful:

Well, yes €16 is a big difference considering we only spend 4 hours there. AND I got take-away breakfast in the morning, as opposed to you guys who had to starve.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So a night of good food, a few too many drinks, a horribly cold wind, a lost Jonas and excellent comradeship followed.

Yes, that was a great night, and thanks a lot for that interesting Vanilla Jägermeister drink!, it kept me warm! Shame about the dinner though, not much time for me to enjoy the meal.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Unfortunately Jonas decided to switch places and sit next to me on the aisle seat of the last row. Well he is okay but there’s only that much a man can listen to how somebody has already spent a whopping 40 Euro on this weekend and not gotten anything in return before his brain shuts down as a self defense measurement. For me this happens right after our take off from 36.

Well, I get claustrophobic when seated at a window-less row. And I'm just saying that those €40 were spent on overpriced nick-nacks, not a single time did I feel full during that whole trip.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): most of us opted for the proper burgers, but somebody preferred The Golden Arches for its world famous cheapness) and more chat.

Actually, I headed over to the next door lunch restaurant for some proper food. Had a very nice farmer's steak with some sauce and potatoes for the reasonable cost of 90 SEK. Coffee, water, salad and bread were included in the price. Very good, as opposed to those overpriced burgers 180 SEK, just insane!

Thanks for sharing
//Jonas

Hi all,

Good to see so many comments, thank you. Sorry for the late reply, have been far too busy recently...

Quoting signol (Reply 1): So would you call McDo a "faux" restaurant, as there is no table service - more a cafeteria?

Well, it's a fast food joint.

Quoting deltamartin (Reply 2): Since when is expensive the same thing as boring?

That's not really my point, but you know, things are just so safe, controlled and predictable in Sweden, hence the feeling of being boring. It is both good and bad.

Quoting deltamartin (Reply 2): Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary. Hmm. Should I bother finding out what you are talking about?

I don't think you should.

Quoting deltamartin (Reply 2): Hey that's a lie! You were on 4A, right behind me on 3A!

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): 6A? Was mine! Emergency row... or am I confused? Hmm...

Sorry, I should've checked the facts instead of just relying on my fragile memory.

Quoting AlwaysOnAPlane (Reply 3): Would have been nice for us Southerners to see some more of this instead of mainly frost.

You should have joined us!

Quoting AlwaysOnAPlane (Reply 3): Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary. More of a bidet effect if I remember your story?

Yes, along these lines.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): fantastic report, lovely map with the flights drawn on it. Nice text, a great read!

Thanks Eric, you're full of superlatives today, aren't you?

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): I am almost sure, exceeding so called 'hold over time'. After de-icing, under certain circumstances of weather/temperature, a specific time path is set from de-icing until 'airborne time'. If you can't make that, then you need de-icing again.

Well, we didn't really spend any extra time anywhere, just push back, taxi to the new position and shut down there. Maybe the first truck ran out of deicing fluid.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): You haven't seen my slogan in the signature? It's there since my one and only Blue1 flight. Like!

Oh, I haven't paid any attention to it. Thanks for pointing it out.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 7): Well, great pics, lovely Tallinn, great people and indeed, a wonderful time, dinner and drinks. Thanks for posting my fishy meal! It tasted really good.

Yeah, that restaurant was excellent! A good choice.

Quoting akhmad (Reply 8): This is what I call a refreshing morning read. I have had some good laughs thanks to your well-appreciated humors.

Glad you enjoyed it.

Quoting akhmad (Reply 8): I think you know why I did not attend the meeting.

Come on - just dress properly and you will be fine.

Quoting ROGERBCN (Reply 9): By now you must hold the first prize, if awarded, on crossings over the Baltic Sea.

Well, I've had quite a few under my belt, but then again geography being what it is that's kind of a necessity...

Quoting ROGERBCN (Reply 9): All the best from the sunny Med; no wonder you are not flying today as you must be busy casting your vote for presidential elections, aren't you?

Nope, I did the pre-voting already earlier. Can't be bothered to go there on a Sunday.

Quoting MH017 (Reply 10): Great writing: I absolutely really do love the way you put things/words down...also good to have added the links to your previous TR's...

Thanks P.

Quoting MH017 (Reply 10): Did you've to put your camera away due to the 'all electronic devises should be switched off' or was this still an old SSSR relic of non taking pictures while in the air ? Apparently, the others were not 'warned' or just ignored her 'advise' ?

It's the first alternative - the Estonians have certainly worked hard and managed to get rid of most of the old prejudices and attitudes - after all it's been 20 years!

Quoting roberts87 (Reply 12): I've been wondering; are that just random quotes they come up with, or do they use famous quotes or something.

I think it's their marketing department. Or maybe they just gather together in their Christmas party after a beer or five and start coming up with these, voting for the best ones. That's what I'd do after all!

Quoting 717Flyer (Reply 13): KF434 Nope, KF429.

Thanks again. Looks like I wrote down wrong on my "upcoming flights" list and that mistake just cascaded onwards from there.

Quoting 717Flyer (Reply 13): Yes, indeed they have made the font bigger - but at the same time they’ve made it hideous Well, well, what did I say?

Quoting 717Flyer (Reply 13): Plus I remember seeing your aircraft coming in a little bit late from OUL so that could also have explained the delay in pushback?

Not really, we were all buckled up and ready to go before the SDT.

Quoting 717Flyer (Reply 13): You mean Finnair having Flybe run an ATR here instead of the E170?

Yes.

Quoting OA260 (Reply 14): Hey P another lovely report. Glad no J's were injured during the process   I was at work when I saw that and just laughed out loud and my colleagues were looking at me !

Weirdo  .

Quoting MSS658 (Reply 16): Another report of that SAAB flight, really feel bad for not booking it myself in order to save some money (that probably was wasted on Bus/taxi to my convenient hotel).

That's the way it goes - you think you'll skip that one flight and then end up spending far more on fringe costs like you. Your hotel certainly sounds like it was in the middle of nowhere  .

Quoting Skytte (Reply 17): Just a notice. Golden Air do not operate Estonian Air Regional aircraft since March 2008. It was in beginning, when OV Regional didn't have the Air Operator Certificate and enough SF34 type rated pilots.

Thanks. I thought it was like that but wasn't quite sure actually.

Quoting sultanils (Reply 18): As long as it's not Arial 10, I'm happy with the font & size.

Comic Sans?

Quoting sultanils (Reply 18): Yes indeed! We wanted to mock you on that one but we couldn't get through your elephant skin

Sorry, it's impossible!

Quoting sultanils (Reply 18): And that's when Jonas took his lucky shot?

Sometime afterwards yes.

Quoting kj76 (Reply 19): And it was nice to see you live on national TV saturday morning

Hah, they are running reruns of that show.

Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 20): the Snowy North! Surely for you it's the snowy south?

Well, maybe.

Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 20): I'd love to do the SQ EWR-SIN flight - take off at night, spend all day (in C) on the plane, sunrise, sunset, then arrive with yet another sunrise.

How about doing it in economy? On a middle seat? Next to a fat American couple from the midwest?  

Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 20): Don't forget the clever Brit who found a cheaper, nicer more central hotel

Snob.

Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 20): Oh come on, only 10 minutes. What % of flights leave within 10 mins of their STD.

Is that a Freudian slip there? I think STD stands for something completely different...  

Quoting JL418 (Reply 21): (Even if the one I'm waiting for most is Jonas' to see how faux Air Baltic was according to him).

He seems to be a bit reluctant to write about it, but let's keep on persuading him!

Quoting JL418 (Reply 21): However, am I the only one thinking that the idea of shipping bottled water (in glass containers!) over long distances is one of the stupidest things that our civilisation could come out with after dresses for dogs and personal shoppers?

Well yes, you have a point there. Remind me to tell you a funny story about this on Saturday after two pints!

Quoting JL418 (Reply 21): Great story. It's been the same with me and Japan Airlines. Old airplane, pre-historic IFE, limited legroom... but I was on the upper deck, the jazz channel mixed John Coltrane and the Kyoto Jazz Massive, the FAs did a drink run every 1.5 hours, each one of them with a smile... I'll fly them tomorrow.

Great stuff. I guess your username is a testimony to this then?

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 22): Although that lavatory thing just sent me the creeps!

Well you didn't even have to endure it!

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 22): Really? I had no idea KF had a price war on the route, how much was the fares? Maybe good for EBG segments. Hope they'll have it in the future as well!

AY started with 69 EUR r/t fares to ARN/CPH and some domestic destinations. You could actually book these for around 50 EUR from other sites as the AY TSC is high at 20 EUR. Well, KF countered and undercut them to around 55 EUR. Availability isn't the best and there's a min stay but you can easily nest tickets for same day and plane turnarounds if so desired.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 22): What? Estonia wasn't that cheap. Heck some places in Sweden are equally cheap or even cheaper. Yes the booze and the hotel were quite nice priced, but the rest... Not so cheap.

Well that's all you spent money on, isn't it? Or actually you didn't even spend any money on booze.

Quoting LH4116 (Reply 22): Actually, I headed over to the next door lunch restaurant for some proper food. Had a very nice farmer's steak with some sauce and potatoes for the reasonable cost of 90 SEK. Coffee, water, salad and bread were included in the price. Very good, as opposed to those overpriced burgers 180 SEK, just insane!

Ahh, the restaurant with the rudest staff at Arlanda. Sure their prices are okay and the kebabs aren't bad, but as Robert put it - the staff isn't.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 23): That's the way it goes - you think you'll skip that one flight and then end up spending far more on fringe costs like you. Your hotel certainly sounds like it was in the middle of nowhere

Héhé, the fact that you and Jonas even did not knew where this hotel was explains a lot about it's location :p.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Reply 23): How about doing it in economy? On a middle seat? Next to a fat American couple from the midwest?

The aircraft only has J at this time so not possible to fly in Y..... 

The777Man

Hi P, nice report, I like the humor  It was nice meeting you again at ARN albeit very short.

Rgds

Martijn

Hi P,

Sorry for the late reply. Good to see your first report of 2012 online. Seems like a good weekend was had by all.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Special mention: The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary.

Now you can't just write that and not enlighten us as to why. Did you get locked in? Was there some tramp living in it? Did it have some scary flushing system?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): A huge shame that, as we took of from 01L, did a right turn right away and flew parallel to runway 08 for a while, affording me the best view of ARN I’ve ever seen from air but of course no photos then.

Buggar, to borrow a phrase. It's always in those situations where you have some really special views.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The official party hotel was the Estonian version of Ibis, the Tallink Express hotel in the port (well for most of us, somebody was too cheap and decided to book a rathole in order to save 15 EUR, some Finns had too much money and for tax reasons had to stay in more upscale hotels etc.). Cheap and cheerful:

Now, that was fun, guessing which member saved 15E and who splashed out.

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Mmmm, Marabou (Hannah, it’s chocolate):

Not familiar with that brand, it's missing from my chocolate log!

Happy flying
Infodesk   

PS. Does your brother wear a distinctive hat too?  

Hi P.,

good report as usual!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Since there are already so many accounts out there plus the fact that none of the airlines, routes, airports, or even planes were new.

Sounds horrible!  

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So I decided to do it in a little bit different way this time.

You didn't change so much, did you?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The bad part of course came from the fact that this was my last shot during taxi before the FA told me friendly but sternly to stop taking photos:

Oh no...  


PH

Hi P. !

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Since we live in the age of globalization and Sweden has a bit of a (deserved) reputation to be a helluva expensive place for the fun things in life (hotels, booze, food, booze, life in general, booze) very soon the idea of outsourcing half of the party to Tallinn, just a short plane ride away sprung up.

as far as I understand booze booze and booze with 4h hotel is cheaper in Tallinn ... and at the end Jonas is stingy

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So off to the gate to meet an always happy Eric,

nice to know

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): some people’s thriftiness sometimes can go to the extremes (or maybe it’s just the Ivan Kamprad way)

definitely is something wrong with the water hehheheh

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): As has been said already a few time the cute young FA thingy was certainly Markus material. We being the ugly, geeky, shy or whatever flying folks of course were too embarrased to ask her for a photo, so sorry Markus, but I think this serves you right for focusing on your “business” instead of more important things in life like us.

hahhahahahahhaha Suryo was missing

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): AYA333 behind me kept complaining about the lack of legroom. I asked the FA whether he could move to row one (he is incredibly shy, I’ve heard him say exactly twelve words all throughout the two years we’ve known each other) but he immediately declined (wow, word 13: “No!”) and in order not to loose my face (or what’s left of it) I moved there instead.

hahahahahahahahah

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): (and several others which will soon be available in the “Too hot for Internet” version of this report):

hahahahahhahahaha

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Is this an paid advert:

no just "Seven Sisters"

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): sorry, the absent mind wanders again...

what...sorry ? I read your reports because of your absent mind

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): the Tallink Express hotel in the port (well for most of us, somebody was too cheap and decided to book a rathole in order to save 15 EUR, some Finns had too much money and for tax reasons had to stay in more upscale hotels etc.).

we all know who is saving 15 euros ...but who is mystery,rich,tax benefit Finns ? hmmm hehehehe

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So a night of good food, a few too many drinks, a horribly cold wind, a lost Jonas and excellent comradeship followed.

lost J. I thought you took care of him

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Another six rounds of airBaltic plane lottery had resulted in the original 733 becoming none else than the mysterious Baltic Phoenix (of Dutch origins), the plane that refuses to die and keeps coming back after being retired, the good old workhorse of the airBaltic fleet - ladies and gentlemen, the Foooookkeeeeeeeeer fiftyyyyyyyyy!! (applause).

hahahha clap clap clap clap

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Unfortunately Jonas decided to switch places and sit next to me on the aisle seat of the last row. Well he is okay but there’s only that much a man can listen to how somebody has already spent a whopping 40 Euro on this weekend and not gotten anything in return before his brain shuts down as a self defense measurement. For me this happens right after our take off from 36.

hehehhehe yes but his revenge was brutal

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): So that’s where we found the rest of the gang, had some burger lunch (most of us opted for the proper burgers, but somebody preferred The Golden Arches for its world famous cheapness) and more chat.

Jonas this is not polite to leave company... but wait 180 SEK for burger or farmer's steak in sauce and potatoes with coffee, water, salad and bread for 90 SEK ... wait for me Jonas who cares for the rude staff hehehheheheh
super funny P. thanks ...stipica  

Hello Petteri!

Thanks for nice story from our great weekend in January!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): Here’s the route for this weekend of crisscrossing the icy Baltic waters:

Cool map. Were did you get that one from?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): not sure what happened here.

Maybe they missed a spot? 

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): BMA is actually considered to be T1:

Hehe cool. Never heard that before!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): The disabled toilet in the T5 landside upstairs restaurant is scary. Very scary

What about it?

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): midnight Saab so what’s

Nice with a change from the midnight Fokker 

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): for tips and I decided against it

He he!

Quoting FlyingFinn76 (Thread starter): much more hangover friendly

Yeah, I was really jelous on Matt and Tom. I wish I took that flight too. I guess you too since you were even more "In i dimman" than me 

Greetings
Robert