urbanSTL

How does one even book those Apple trips? Every time you post them I spend a minute poking around the Apple website out of curiosity and give up.

If you go to this site and set departure to STL and change to hotel + flight (I assume this outfit only does package deals), it says there are none for the next year.

https://www.applevacations.com/destinat ... /huatulco/#!/

A nonstop to Huatulco would save a lot of travel time vs. other options. Same with Cabo.

eee123 wrote: ↑

Sep 16, 2022

How does one even book those Apple trips? Every time you post them I spend a minute poking around the Apple website out of curiosity and give up.

If you go to this site and set departure to STL and change to hotel + flight (I assume this outfit only does package deals), it says there are none for the next year.

https://www.applevacations.com/destinat ... /huatulco/#!/

A nonstop to Huatulco would save a lot of travel time vs. other options. Same with Cabo.

This lists the flight schedule. The non frontier routes haven’t been updated yet. I think they were October last year. They just went out of season mid last month so that’s why they aren’t listed at the moment, and you can’t book them. I assume some come back.

https://www.applevacations.com/flights- ... -st-louis/#!/

I flew the Lufthansa return flight last week. Great service, flight was packed. Hope it keeps up. Frankfurt Airport is a mess, but they are building a new terminal.
Everyone at STL was friendly, but man the customs/passport control/luggage took forever. There were still people in line for passport control, and luggage still coming down the carousel, 80 minutes after we touched down. We were the only international flight at that time. And it empties out into a part of the airport that I suspect most lifetime St Louisans do not know exists. Dismal cinder block hallway leads to the rear corner of the Southwest baggage claim.
If the full flights keep up, all the more reason for a complete airport overhaul.

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Yeah international arrivals at STL is pretty depressing. 

NHampton wrote: ↑

Sep 17, 2022

I flew the Lufthansa return flight last week. Great service, flight was packed. Hope it keeps up. Frankfurt Airport is a mess, but they are building a new terminal.
Everyone at STL was friendly, but man the customs/passport control/luggage took forever. There were still people in line for passport control, and luggage still coming down the carousel, 80 minutes after we touched down. We were the only international flight at that time. And it empties out into a part of the airport that I suspect most lifetime St Louisans do not know exists. Dismal cinder block hallway leads to the rear corner of the Southwest baggage claim.
If the full flights keep up, all the more reason for a complete airport overhaul.

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Oddly, they updated the customs hall maybe five or six years ago. Not the exit hallway airside, just the customs hall itself. Maybe half the customs halls I've been through have been pretty dismal one way or another: moldy bad smells, bad plumbing, air conditioning that doesn't quite work right, and a general preference for basements (possibly for logistical reasons.) And I swear, it takes me an hour or two to clear customs literally every time I go to Vietnam with my wife. (Back in the US is usually pretty quick. And Japan, Germany, and even China have been fine. The UK was darn pokey, but I've only cleared there once. Could just have been a bard day.) Not that this is an excuse for ours to be sub-par. But man, the par is pretty awful on the course. Sorry to hear the experience was negative. Especially after all the money spent to fix it.

Oddly, I felt the other way about our experience recently in the customs at STL.  
1. It was slow... but no slower than MIA, JFK, PHL or ORD.  Those airports are the worst. PHL and MIA are ugly, smelly, unfriendly and wait times up the wing wang.  
2. We thought it looked nice and was updated even more recently for EU arrivals.
3. The baggage was slow... but every customs baggage center seems slow.  80 minute wait isn't horrible compared to lines in other cities as well.  I agree, it is long, but not more than others we experience.
*side note: we were going through customs in STL right behind a Frontier Cancun flight. Talk about passenger culture shock/demographics. The Cancun folks were in flip flops and "beer" belly shots and shirts colliding with International oversea leisure pax and business pax. It was like redneck Hoosier land meets sophisticated urbanites. But everyone seemed to be cordial... just a lot of passengers!!!!
4. Exit into SWA baggage???  That is strange for sure.  We didn't do that a few weeks ago... we exited to the terminal taxi/pick-up curb outside.  Not sure where they routed you all or why.

matguy70 wrote:Oddly, I felt the other way about our experience recently in the customs at STL.  
...
4. Exit into SWA baggage???  That is strange for sure.  We didn't do that a few weeks ago... we exited to the terminal taxi/pick-up curb outside.  Not sure where they routed you all or why.

Yeah we wanted a taxi. I knew where to get one from the SWA terminal so we didn't go out the main doors. There are signs to check in baggage for international transfers and it leads down this dismal hallway to the SWA baggage area (I assume used primarily for those frontier etc holiday flights).
It's the same route that I assume intl arrivals would take to get to Metrolink or hotel shuttles. I guess we could have just gone out those doors and rolled luggage up the road to get under the garage.
Anyway, all minor negatives to have the Frankfurt flight on a major carrier. This is just leisure travel for us, once every few years. Laying over on the east coast for a few hours (sometimes 5 or 6) waiting for the only flight to STL after the transatlantic was always the worst. For business travelers (I heard several Bayer folks, American and German, on our flight in the customs line) this must be a godsend.




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NHampton wrote: ↑

Sep 18, 2022

matguy70 wrote:Oddly, I felt the other way about our experience recently in the customs at STL.  
...
4. Exit into SWA baggage???  That is strange for sure.  We didn't do that a few weeks ago... we exited to the terminal taxi/pick-up curb outside.  Not sure where they routed you all or why.

Yeah we wanted a taxi. I knew where to get one from the SWA terminal so we didn't go out the main doors. There are signs to check in baggage for international transfers and it leads down this dismal hallway to the SWA baggage area (I assume used primarily for those frontier etc holiday flights).
It's the same route that I assume intl arrivals would take to get to Metrolink or hotel shuttles. I guess we could have just gone out those doors and rolled luggage up the road to get under the garage.
Anyway, all minor negatives to have the Frankfurt flight on a major carrier. This is just leisure travel for us, once every few years. Laying over on the east coast for a few hours (sometimes 5 or 6) waiting for the only flight to STL after the transatlantic was always the worst. For business travelers (I heard several Bayer folks, American and German, on our flight in the customs line) this must be a godsend.

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Usually there is a super long dismal hallway going from the gate to customs at airports. So you just did it in reverse. Haha.

I still remember my trip to Dublin a few years ago. Felt like I was walking thru a dingy basement forever to get to customs.

^Truth is spoken. Customs is never really the fun part of the airport. I'm just grateful when it isn't utterly dismal. I need to clear customs here someday soon.

Screens not working isn’t acceptable for any city at the rates Lufthansa charges

shadrach wrote: ↑

Sep 22, 2022

Flew back from Frankfurt yesterday.

Outbound last Wednesday 9/14 was totally full. (dbinSouthCity was on that flight as well.)

From those I chatted with, passengers were heading to Croatia, Slovenia, India, Sweden as well as cities within Germany. Personally, I think STL could probably support a London flight on alt. days as London (Great Britain) tends to be a final destination while Frankfurt is a Eurasian and beyond gateway. IOW, I’m not sure Frankfurt is cannibalizing London traffic. Maybe that’s wishful thinking.

Coming back the flight was about 80-85% full from what I saw. More empty seats than I would have liked but on par with most flights I’ve been on. (And googling flight loads, I found that ~80% is considered ‘at capacity.’)

The plane heading back was obviously older, most of the in-flight entertainment screens didn’t work. I bet JFK, LAX, DFW, MSP etc. get the nice planes. Customs took about 20 min. I didn’t check any bags—just a backpack and was out quickly.

Nice to have direct service.

The plane you were on coming back in the last month flew to Washington DC, Detroit, Seattle, JFK, Atlanta, Philly.

So everyone gets it.

Oddly enough it’s 10 years old which I think of one of their younger A330s

I’d probably email or call them and mention the screens being an issue. You might get some kind of credit from it.

^How can you have PTSD from a plane that gives such a good ride? I will forever miss those old Mad Dogs when the last Delta 717 finally retires.

Anyway, all that aside, glad Shadrach and DB had a good flight out. My sympathy over the busted console. I've had a few TransPacs on older UA 74s that had no seatback entertainment at all. (Well, and back in the days that nobody had anything.) But at least when there's no seatback movie there's something on the big screen that everyone can watch. It's not ideal, but it's surely better than nothing. I suppose that's a good reason to make sure I keep taking books on these adventures.

Also, welcome home.

^Half those AA Mad Dogs were former TWA iron. I'd regard them almost as a sacred relic. I know nothing lasts forever, but I cherish every chance I get to ride one.

(And they really did give a nice ride. 74s too. Wish I could remember the my ride on the L-1011 a little better. I remember the round walkway at the tail by the latrines. I think I remember the peculiar tablesaw whine of the engines as they spooled up, but that might just be videos.)

It appears STL to SFO has been cut on United. Was scheduled to return in January, which I thought might get pushed again, but it’s now off the schedule completely.

symphonicpoet wrote: ↑

Sep 24, 2022

^Half those AA Mad Dogs were former TWA iron. I'd regard them almost as a sacred relic. I know nothing lasts forever, but I cherish every chance I get to ride one.

(And they really did give a nice ride. 74s too. Wish I could remember the my ride on the L-1011 a little better. I remember the round walkway at the tail by the latrines. I think I remember the peculiar tablesaw whine of the engines as they spooled up, but that might just be videos.)

I worked for TWA for 7 years along with a friend and we would travel almost every other weekend. We didn't make much money back then but we did have a manager friend who would exchange employee rate rooms at Holiday Inns ($15 per night) for TW EEE tickets. I would venture that at least half those flights were on Mad Dogs and we used to love 'em. First class was whisper quiet, though the seats were a bit smaller than the similarly quiet 727. Nothing quite like the g force of a Mad Dog takeoff at an airport like SNA!

jshank83 wrote: ↑

Sep 24, 2022

It appears STL to SFO has been cut on United. Was scheduled to return in January, which I thought might get pushed again, but it’s now off the schedule completely.

Looking at you, Alaska.

I'd really like to see more quick snack/coffee options in all of the concourses. Been bugging me for a while, especially as travel levels have returned.  C concourse for an early morning coffee/pastry you have 1.5 starbucks, both with crazy lines.  I hit the first starbucks in C last week and it was 30 minutes, and there was only 8 people ahead of me.   Today, in T2 the Baskin Robins and Starbucks lines have 20-30 people each, granted there are other options here.  

Returning from Europe today on the FRA to STL and with about 600 miles out from STL it went up to 40,000 feet, found that odd since this route is 34,000-36,000 for the most part

The coffee lines are universal I think, even before the pandemic. Unless you have a bunch of time to kill it can be near impossible to get a coffee in the morning at most American airports.

Need to figure out some kind of portable personal coffee maker or something.

dbInSouthCity wrote: ↑

Sep 25, 2022

Returning from Europe today on the FRA to STL and with about 600 miles out from STL it went up to 40,000 feet, found that odd since this route is 34,000-36,000 for the most part

Previous flights (although Fridays started at 36 and went to 34 for some reason) did it also as I am looking back. I think as they use up fuel and get lighter they work their way higher. Looks like they usually step it up by 2k at a time.

Hope your flights went well. I know someone on the outbound today. Going on to Singapore