Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Flying out of BWI? No problem! Flying to Iceland? No...

AAAAARGH! I can't believe it! After being cautious and buying my tickets months in advance, to fly from BWI to Reykjavik to Amsterdam in March at a great price, I find out this (right from the hestur's mouth):

Icelandair will terminate the Baltimore/Washington service effective January 13, 2008
You can imagine how I felt after that little tidbit of information. Fortunately I talked to a helpful lady from Icelandair's North America offices (located in Columbia, strangely enough - for now). They booked me a flight from BWI to Boston Logan, where I will THEN transfer to Icelandair and complete my journey to Reykjavik and Amsterdam - and viceversa. Of course, it's TWO connections each way, which will leave me very exhausted. But at least they are footing all the extra expenses. At least I can't argue with that. And I can finally mark Massachusetts off as a state I have visited, if only for a few hours.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

SO ANNOYING!!!

Malnurtured Snay said...

Sacrebleu! You've never been to Boston? It's such a beautiful city! You should make it a vacation destination at some point -- lots of history.

John said...

AS: You better believe it! When I heard it on NPR this afternoon my jaw just dropped and I got this glazed-over look in my eyes (not good while driving). I stayed that way for five minutes, speechless! Then I started bitching.

MS: Nope. The farthest north I have ever been on the East Coast is Connecticut, and I was only passing through to visit someone in Great Neck, NY. I did get as far as Albany - good state museum. But they're not really near the coast, so I didn't count them.

Summer said...

You have to LEAVE THE AIRPORT to count it as visited... so, you know, take a quick cab ride if you can, go buy something, and THEN you can count it. But seriously, Boston is pretty nifty so you should go back. And even better than Boston are the areas around it. My best friend lives near Newburyport. Sniff.

Sucks that they cancelled their service but I'm glad they're picking up the tab for you. That happened to one of my friends with Aer Lingus a few years ago. I guess Baltimore just doesn't have as much of a travel urge as we should. This of course means less competition and higher fares for those of us who DO like to travel. damn.

John said...

Sure it counts, and nobody can tell me otherwise :)

Seriously though, I won't have the time to leave, and I truly don't trust AirTran to get me there on time, so I'll just find a place to rest for a few hours. As for going back: so many places to see and eat at! It will still be there, so I will make it back to visit at some point. Besides, they have two Wagamamas, my favorite noodle place in London which chose two locales in Boston as their first North American locations. Until I get back though, I can eat at one of the two Wagamamas in Amsterdam

Unknown said...

I am so bummed to hear this, we flew from BWI to Reykjavik to Amsterdam in August. I was hoping to do the trip again or to just spend a few days in Iceland.