Back from YYZ

Hey guys! How's everything going? I was gone for a while, but that's because I was in Toronto YYZ. It was great. But what was also fun is that I was there with R. It was like this... R. was scheduled to do a flight to YYZ on the KL691/692. This flight is operated by a Boeing 747-400. My next flight was to New York JFK on the KL641/642 on the 777-200. It was not a request, but was given to me. Up to 2 weeks before the departure, crewco can change your schedule however they like, if a flight was given to you. I didn't log into my Plan & Go for a while, because I had other things on my mind with AFC and the Dubai project as well as the Martinair project. Last Monday I logged in to see what my daily allowance was (dag geld) and to see which hotel we were residing at, when I noticed that my JFK was changed to YYZ. It was the same day as R's flight, but not the same flight. It was the 2nd YYZ of the day... the KL695/696 on the 777-200. I didn't tell R. anything and just hoped he wouldn't log into my Plan & Go. He didn't.

Tuesday I said goodbye to R. and he was off to Schiphol for his 13.55 flight. At Schiphol he called me to tell me that he met a friend of ours (Herman) on the train and that he was also going to YYZ with his company Martinair. He is a Purser with them. Martinair's flight leaves at 13.20. So R. would be in YYZ with a buddy. Later that evening I myself headed to SPL to brief. I was unpleasantly surprised to find out the Senior Purser (SP) was the same woman I did the New Delhi DEL flight with. Ugh... I truly dislike her. Anyway, I have to say that she did work on this flight. The flight was alright, but hectic. A lot of transfer passengers from Iran and Pakistan (Tehran, Islamabad and Karachi) were on board. Very demanding people.





In-flight AMS-YYZ

R. approaching YYZ. Below is Pearson Airport - Photo by RdG

After we arrived in YYZ, we headed to the hotel. I SMS'ed R. that I arrived in JFK and ask him what room number he had, so I could phone him. He SMS'ed that his roomnumber was 312. Mine was 610. So after I dumped my luggage in my room on the 6th floor, I showered and changed and headed to the 3rd floor and knocked on his door. "Room service!". Hahahaha! He opened the door and you should have seen his face! Priceless! We had a good laugh and I explained him what happened.

After that we headed into town with Herman, who was staying at another hotel not too far from us, and had lunch at TGIF. The rest of the crew all did their own thing. It was fun. We shopped a little, headed to the Niagara Falls and generally just strolled throughout the great city of Toronto.

Niagara Falls

This was my 4th time in this city. The first time was in 1998, when I used to work on the Airport of Aruba for Air Aruba/Ogden Ground Services. When I first started, I started as a part-timer doing the handling of the Charter Division. We used to also do the handling of Royal Airlines and SkyService Airlines. Both are airlines based in Canada.



Royal Airlines and SkyService - Photo taken from jetphotos.net

One day the representatives from the airlines told us all that if we wanted to, we could fly to YYZ with either airline. The choice was ours and it would cost only US$75,-. So a whole group of us went to YYZ for the weekend. The full-timers were pissed-off and jealous, because the offer was only for those doing charter airlines. Stupid, because they had IPB-rights on Air Aruba, KLM, VASP etc. while we didn't have any rights. Also they looked down on the 'charter agents'. Whatever... we had a great time. We flew with Royal to YYZ on a 757 and back with SkyService on an A330. The 2nd time I went to YYZ was with R. and the 3rd time was for AFC. Now I was there as part of a crew.

Before you knew it, it was time to head back to Amsterdam AMS. R. and Herman were first to go, but I decided to accompany them to the airport. I however was not allowed in the crew bus, so I took the regular bus to Lester B. Pearson International Airport. There we all sat at Starbucks Coffee and enjoyed a capuccino and from there it was time to say goodbye to Herman. He was first to go.

Herman's plane at the gate - Photo by Herman Beek. Dank je

On the bus I saw Herman's plane taking off. Dit is voor jou, Herman!

20 minutes later, I said goodbye to R. who had to head to the gate with his crew.

R's plane from Starbucks Coffee. It was the PH-BFL (City of Lima). Surrounded by BA. Raise your hands Lesley!

R's aircraft - Photo taken by RdG

I went back to the hotel, took a 2 hour nap and then got ready for calling in the lobby. The bus took us to Pearson, where we checked-in and got briefed.

My airplane at the same gate where R's 747 was. Again surrounded by BA. Those BA airplanes are all over the place! Lol!

I flew with PH-BQD (Darjeeling Railway). Here it is getting cleaned and catered.

In-flight YYZ-AMS

After a long and grueling flight we landed at SPL, where we shook hands and each headed our way. It was fun! Because Herman is shy and doesn't want to appear on the blog (especially in uniform... like me), I decided to post the pics in Photobucket. People with access can log-in here to see all the pics of our trip.

But Father's Day was great last week. Mom made a cake and we all ate at a restaurant. Good fun with the family.



Mom & Dad and the cake Mom made. The guy in aluminium foil was made by my brother Junior! Hahahaha!

No, no decision on AFC as yet. Although I have had some interesting offers from within Air France-KLM as well as other companies. Stay tuned....