Sunday, April 15, 2012

Star Alliance Mega-Trip 2012: Exploring Frankfurt

Star Alliance Mega-Trip 2012  
a.      Introduction/Preface
f.       Exploring Frankfurt
t.        Conrad Tokyo
u.      Exploring Tokyo
Exploring Frankfurt

After getting some instructions on how to get to the subway/bahn, I found a kiosk to buy a day pass €8 ($10.50) for going into the town and for the return as well.  Buying the day pass saved me €0.2!  The interesting thing is that during my ride to Nordwestzentrum, there was no place to validate/check the ticket.  I suppose they have inspectors come on and off the trains to check that people are compliant and bought tickets.  I hopped on Line 1 ended up at haupstedper where I had to transfer to U1 to get to Nordwestzentrum.  I realized I was going the wrong direction so I got off as soon as I could and went to the other side of the platform to catch the train going the direct location.  This journey helped me pass about an hour of time and allowed me a chance to work on blogging once again.



I arrived at Nordwestzentrum at about 2:30PM and stayed for about 2.5 hours doing some shopping and then relaxing at the Starbucks.  There were plenty of shops to shop and fast food/fast causal places to eat.  The first store I went was H & M and bought some clothes there.  Then I went to the food mart called Toom to buy chocolates, cookies, and coffee. The last place was Primark which reminded me of Kohl’s-like in Germany.  I bought some children’s clothing there but saw nothing that interested me. 






My last stop was the Starbucks to use the bathroom and the free wifi that comes with buying a drink.  The bathroom door required a pin code which I believe is to discourage people using the bathroom without buying anything.  



I left Nordwestzentrum at about 5PM and trying to make a 5:30PM check in time for Thai Airways.  It was already dark outside so I could not take any good pictures.  I barely missed my connection at Hauptwache and had to wait 12 minutes for the next train but I made it to Frankfurt Airport by 6PM.  I checked the monitors and saw that my Thai Airways flight was delayed due to the inbound aircraft.  That meant more time in the Lufthansa First Class Lounge for me! 





The First Class agent (Asian man) helping was pretty nice and the rude female agent from earlier was working the Business Counter next to him.  He asked for my UA baggage tags so he could track my bags and I allowed him to check on it.  He let me know that there would 5 passengers in the First Class cabin and that we would be departing or of gate B42 at 9:05PM instead of 8:45PM.  

He then asked me if I wanted an escort to the Lufthansa Senator Lounge and I accepted it.  My escort was Sajan who guided me through security and passport control.  I forgot to take out a coin in my pocket and it beeped… so I got an unsolicited private massage.  They looked in my bag because I had packed a few bars of chocolates together and it looked like a piece of brick on the x-ray machine.

I request my escort to take me to the Lufthansa First Class Lounge instead and she obliged.  We went to the lounge by B22 and she went inside with me.  One agent told me that I had access to the Senator Lounge only since the lounge was reserved for Lufthansa passengers only.  After producing my inbound boarding pass, they waved me through and my escort told me that she would come back to get me when it was time to board.

No comments:

Post a Comment