Welcome to my 8th tripreport!
This report covers my journey from Sao Paulo-Guarulhos (GRU) to Munich (MUC) via Madrid (MAD) on a TAM A330-200 and a Lufthansa A320.
This trip took place a couple of months back in December 2011. I am sorry if this report lacks some of the details you might expect.
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Thanks to Great Circle Mapper – http://www.gcmap.com – Copyright © 1996-2012 Karl L. Swartz.
Those two flights covered in this report are the continuation of my flights home from Bolivia where I spent a couple of months and also did some domestic flying. You can find the links to those reports at the end of the report. For the first part of my journey, including the check-in procedure and the first two legs with TACA and TAM from La Paz (LPB) to Lima (LIM) please follow this link: Andes Hopping On Taca Perú And TAM: LPB-LIM-GRU (by volvair Apr 6 2012 in Trip Reports)
The TAM flight and the first two flights which got me from La Paz to Sao Paulo were part of an Europe-La Paz-Europe open-jaw ticket I booked back in spring 2011. The ticket originated in Milan and ended in Madrid. The ticket allowed me to fly TAM's A340-500 in its last week of operation and it included segments with TACA and AeroSur. Of the latter we will most likely read no more here on the forum as it ceased operations a short while ago.
As the ticket ended in Madrid, I booked a simple connection with Lufthansa to get me back to Munich. The TACA agent checking me in at La Paz had been unable to check my luggage all the way through to MUC, which wasn't a problem for me as I had plenty of time to make the connection in Madrid.
This report begins right after I stepped out of my TAM flight from Lima.
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December 21, 2011
Just like in Lima a couple of hours earlier I had to re-clear security for an international connection. I do not hold much for that re-screening procedures especially when you are connecting on the same airline. There was only one lane and metal detector open for our flight so that whole thing took its time and after 20 minutes I finally found myself in the international concourse at GRU's Terminal, just to find this:
GRU FIDS. Madrid already boarding.So, no time for a quick lounge visit this time. But this was not too bad as the Smiles VIP Lounge in the international terminal really is nothing to write home about. I would just have taken advantage of the internet access code to write a couple of e-mails, but due to the delay of our inbound flight some cell phone messages had to do the trick. After some minutes walking and a quick pit stop I reached the gate for our flight at the far end of the concourse. There was just enough time to take a couple of pictures of the plane and catch the registration before my boarding group was already called up. The boarding procedure was again very strictly enforced.
My 330.
Let's see what tricks you hold for me...
TAM Linhas Aereas
JJ 8064
GRU-MAD
20:55-10:05 (+1) (on time)
A330-200
PT-MVD
I was greeted with a smile at the door and found my way to the economy section of the plane. In LIM I asked the agents to switch me to an aisle seat in one of the two-seaters as the flight was going to be full and being a little taller I don't need to spend 10 hours in the window seat on a night flight.
The cabin was perfectly well cleaned but it was apparent from the IFE system and the seat controls (ash trays on a 330? come on...) that this plane was not the newest one around.
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Business class.
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Cabin overview.
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My couple of seats.
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Legroom is fine...
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...but the IFE box takes away a lot of space.
As you see I am sitting on the window seat here. My seat mate arrived very late so I already got the hopes up to be able to travel with a little bit more space.
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IFE system.
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A rather dated seat back.
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Cabin overview.
As soon as everyone has settled in the flight attendants started with their pre-departure service, meaning candy and a glass of water.
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TAM's pre-departure candy.
Also, amenity kits were distributed. Compared to the one I received 3 months prior on the TAM flight down from Milan they have apparently changed the packaging. Now it is environmentally friendly, but much less useful after the flight (I still use the old amenity kit packaging from my earlier flight). The contents were still the same thus keeping this kit one of the most generous economy offerings in the skies. It contains socks, toothpaste and brush, ear plugs and a comb. Some eyeshades would make this almost perfect.
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amenity kit packaging.
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amenity kit contents.
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Safety card.
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Ready, set, and...
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… we're off to Europe.
An hour into the flight service started with a drinks run and hot towel service. I decided to stick to the Xingu dark beer I tried on the LIM-GRU leg. Half an hour later the food carts were rolled out. They had three offers on the cart, two with meat (chicken and something else) and vegetarian pasta for which I opted. The pasta was a bit dry and together with the small salad the whole meal disappointed. I had eaten better on TAM before. But the dark beer helped to fill my stomach. The crew interacted with the passengers, suggested drink choices and let one feel quite welcome on the plane.
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The meal packaging is also bio-degradeable. Maybe a signal that Brazil is starting to „green“ a little bit.
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Tada!
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And here's the beer.
I watched an action movie on the screen which could definitely see some improvement, the quality of the movies was just a little bad. The size of their movie library was quite okay, and the Brazil section was also inspiring. The hardware, however, seems a little outdated. But its still better than the offering on the (old) 744's LH sends down there.
As soon as we reached the Atlantic coastline over the northeast of Brazil it was lights out for me.
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Air show.
I managed a couple of hours of sleep on that flight. During the night, water was available in the galley, no drink runs were made.
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Over the Canary Islands...
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...a new day dawned.
.About 90 minutes out of Madrid breakfast service started with a hot-towel service again. Omelette and a sandwich were on offer. I got the omelette which was okay for an egg on a plane but nothing to write home about either. The canned fruit was quite refreshing in the sense that it was still a cold as ice when I got the tray.
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Oh, and to please a couple of people's obsession with lavatories: At the beginning of the flight they were clean and at the end they were not that clean anymore. No photos, sorry.
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closing in..
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Landing in MAD. Four degrees. Brrrr.
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Business class.
We got a remote stand at Terminal 1 on the far end on the tarmac, so a little airport journey was in order (to the dismay of several fellow passengers)
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After that: „No photo!“ What a nice welcome to Spain... at least the sun was out.
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Pullmantur waiting for its next assignment (soccer fans, Hajj, someone going tech?)
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The guys from the east.
Due to my strategic position at one of the exits of the bus I was first through immigration which is of course worth nothing when you have to wait for your luggage. 15 minutes after I arrived at the belt it started to turn, 5 minutes later the first suitcases showed up but 20 minutes later my suitcase was still not in sight. Thankfully there was a TAM ground service employee (or of their ground handlers) among the crowd assisting passengers. I approached her to ask if my suitcase made the GRU connection which thankfully she was able to confirm with her office. About 10 minutes later my suitcase showed up and I started the trek over to the LH counters in Terminal 2.
MAD FIDS.There I was greeted with a rather weird scene which was absolutely new to me: a long queue on a LH counter for an intra-Europe flight! It turns out those three counters they had were apparently a little to few to handle the amounts of people all travelling with checked luggage a couple of days before Christmas. Also – and this is where usually quite organized Lufthansa was quite a letdown: no dedicated OLCI drop-off line/counter. The Swiss counters next door did not take any LH passengers, so this all was quite a bit of a letdown. As the LH group has a bit of a presence here in MAD I had expected a better integration of the different brands, but I was mistaken.
After half an hour of waiting I was attended by a smiling male agent who switched to German after seeing my Passport. A nice touch which was very much appreciated after this time abroad. It is always nice to fly your home carrier on the last leg of a longer transcontinental journey.
MAD's older Terminal is really nothing to write home about (at least after T4 was opened) and in the end I found it not too bad that I did not have to spend too much time there. After I had reached my gate boarding was already being called which left me just enough time to conduct my belated morning routine in a bathroom (I am talking about brushing my teeth here) and catching a quick glance of my chariot taking me home to Bavaria again. And quite an interesting vessel it was: D-AIPA, „Buxtehude“, is Lufthansa's first A320. So a very nice catch on the end of this succesful itinerary.
The last one for the day.
TAP... maybe in the next report.
Some of you may now cry in anger.
This one was still flying at the time.
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A nice morning over central Spain.
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A nice welcome by EK's A380.
E-Jet Armada
A frequent target of A.netters: SQ's SIN-MUC-MAN service.
A Metroliner back there, probably doing the SCO-MUC flights (now it's a Saab 340)
Next to sistership Lima Bravo.
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Sultanils
