Trip To Panama. Or How We Were Trying To Have Holidays In Germany

In July 2022, we went on a "holiday" to Germany. After paying a small fortune for tickets with Airfrance, we took three days to arrive at the destination and three days to return. We stayed in three different hotels in Paris and luckily did not get stuck in Panama. Both destinations were not even on our traveling plan. What happened?

On the way to Germany

• We were put on standby as the tickets were oversold

• Had to rush to do a PCR test at the airport since we had 'only' two vaccinations (and not three)

• Managed to get on the airplane and coordinated with three wonderful people to change their seats to be sitting together

• Waited in the airplane for five extra hours while they were fixing the breaks

• Arrived in Paris hours after our connecting flight departed

• Spent a night in a hostel with bunk beds next to the CDG airport (Premiere Classe Roissy CDG - do not stay there)

• Barely managed to get our seats on the morning flight to Frankfurt

• Obviously, I did not receive my luggage at the destination

• And still, it was fun after not traveling for two years!

Once in Germany, we had a massive jet lag that turned into covid. The following two weeks were spent in a quarantine in Frankfurt. Then, we tested negative and headed back home.

On the way to Mexico

• We arrived at the FRA airport 5 hours before the flight. As it was 40 degrees Celsius outside, we preferred to be in a place with an air conditioner.

• We googled that it was possible to drop the luggage up to a day before the flight, but it was only 2 hours in advance. The good news was that there was an impressive playground where we were entertained for three hours, and we had to wait.

• Once through all the queues, we were finally at our gate next to a conveniently located premium lounge for AMEX. When entering the lounge, the guy at registration casually mentioned that we could relax as our flight had been delayed. Hm, what? This information was not on the screen.

• An hour later, the announcement came in as we were queuing for the boarding. The flight we were waiting for to go to Paris - had not yet left Paris. We stayed in the lounge for another two hours, drinking fancy sparkling water and German beer.

• Apparently, the kind man at the gate who was providing over-detailed reports was not even an airport employee. He said that the airplane arrived but something was not working properly. So they had to park further away and just needed to find buses to take us there. Honestly?

• After a messy 10 hours at the airport and an hour's flight, we were finally in Paris. The connecting flight had left an hour before.

• The trickiest part in CDG airport was understanding where to get assistance on the lost connecting flight. Due to the shortage of staff, there are no people whatsoever to provide any information:

  • We arrived at CDG after 00:00. We were trying to stay in the transit zone and to move to the terminal of our connecting flight - but all corridors were closed.

  • We left transit and went to departures. Everything closed. People sleeping on the cold floor.

  • At 1:00 am, we were about to give up and to wait till 5:00 am when they started opening the registration.

  • I saw this god-sent, overworked man who seemed to have been sorting Airfrance mess for the past 48 hours. And truly, he was! He took us through some secret corridors to the customer service in the other terminal.

  • There, we got all the perks from the airline, but they could not place us on the next flight since there were none available in the foreseeable future. "Please come back tomorrow", we heard.

  • The next day, we returned, and the choices were to fly the following day through Panama to Mexico City or to fly in three days on separate flights. Now, I am counting Panama as a new country I visited this year.

  • Ultimately, we had half a day left in Paris and headed to Galerie de paléontologie and Avenue des Champs-Élysées. I got my Parisian treat - tartare de boef (I am slightly obsessed with raw meat) - and counted it as another successful trip to Paris.

Lessons learned

If you need to fly through Paris and stay overnight, I would recommend Hotel IBIS Paris CDG Airport in Terminal 3. You get there in 10 min by internal train from CDG airport. They have small yet stylish, clean, and well-equipped rooms. The breakfast and lunch buffet has a good variety. But the main bonus is the train station (RER B) which is literally in front of the hotel. A train takes you 40 minutes to Gare du Nord every couple of minutes. We paid 17.80 EUR for a day pass, which covered the trip to the city and back, plus the rest of the travel by metro during the day.

• When an airline says that a flight is oversold, they evaluate at 70% the probability of getting a seat (though in summer, it was down to 50%). Three of us and another family of three still got seats.

• If you don't have one, get a lounge membership - it's nice to have a place to go when you are stuck in the airport.

• When you have to stay overnight, Airfrance provides per passenger:

  • packed tasty dinner with water,

  • hygiene products,

  • decent white t-shirt,

  • hotel booking,

  • ticket for the bus shuttle, and

  • 15-20 EUR voucher per person per day of stay (to spend only on food at the airport). On the way back we accumulated 120 EUR in vouchers. It was cool to splurge 30 EUR for macarons in Laduree. But the rest got wasted in a coffee shop.

• Keep a good record of all documents and tickets at every step (take photos)

• It is very probable that your luggage gets lost, so:

  • take a picture of your luggage

  • take a couple of pics of what stuff you packed

  • keep your favorite new things in the carry-on

  • if you do not receive luggage at the airport, you have to report it either at the airport or online during 24 hours

• We requested a refund for everything (i.e., lost baggage, purchase of necessities, stolen items, delay, overselling, etc.) by everyone (i.e., Airfrance, Copa Airline, American Express) and got refunded... nothing!