If there’s one word that strikes fear in the heart of even the most seasoned traveller, it’s ‘delayed’ – especially when it’s on one of those big electronic airport signs.
Today, we’re off to Munich on the first leg of our northern odyssey. It’s quite simple really. If we jump out of bed at 5:00 AM, we can be ready and waiting when our good friends arrive at 6:00 to drive us to Brisbane. … Off we go, right on time!
Wow, only 8:15 and we’re already in the check-in line. That’s funny, there’s usually a bigger line. Ah well, everyone else must have slept late. We’re supposed to use those electronic kiosks to self-serve our bagging, tagging and dropping, but the nice lady says she’ll help because “I don’t have much to do at the moment anyway.” She smiles. “You’ll board at Gate 85 at … mumble … mumble.” We didn’t quite catch that, but we’re old hands at this so, off down the escalators to join the huge snaking line at security and immigration. Amazing – I think this is the first time ever that ‘one of us’ hasn’t had some long forgotten, prohibited item in the depths of her handbag. We really are off to a great start! Now, all we need is the whole Brisbane-Cairns-Hong Kong-Munich thing to run smoothly and we’ll be … what?!! … the big electronic sign shows our flight. Yep, Gate 85, but – ‘Delayed – estimated time 13:10’. That’s a two hour delay! Our transfer in Hong Kong is only two and a half hours!
Nanette and I look at each other. So, we might miss our connection – big deal, what’s the worst that could happen? Well, we won’t have any way to cancel that expensive Munich shuttle in time, and we’ll probably lose one night of the hotel booking, or maybe even the whole booking, but besides that, it’s all cool.
I’ll skip all the boring details about unsuccessfully scouring the departure area for anyone in a Cathay Pacific uniform and being the only people in the whole terminal who actually listened to the announcements. The good news is we did depart exactly at the delayed time of 13:10. The even better news is the pilot did a sterling job buying back time, with the result that we’re only a bit over an hour late when we reach Hong Kong. Now, we just have to sprint down this endless maze of arrivals corridors, find the transfer area, go through security again and… Oh, no! The security guy in the transfer area wants to scan ‘her’ carry-on back pack again – and again – and again. “We need to completely unpack this madam. The X-ray picked up something. See there – that dark line on the screen is a metal object.” They search. We search. They search again. The hundred and fifty people lined up waiting for screening don’t seem impressed. Eventually, it’s agreed that the scanner must have picked up the little ornamental bar on the outside of the backpack. Now, like contestants in the Amazing Race, we can finally navigate another kilometre or so of shopping precinct, find the subterranean station, catch the train to Gates 201-250, head up no less than three very long escalators, then follow the signs to what we hope is our gate.
We’re still a little flustered and out of breath when we reach Gate 212. Woohoo! That little electronic sign says ‘Munich’, and we have at least ten minutes to spare. My ‘unnamed’ companion turns to me, pulling a small, sharp instrument out of her handbag. “I wonder if this was what they were talking about.”
Anyways, as I write this, the flight information screen says we’re 2 hours and 33 minutes from Munich. This last sector is with Lufthansa and, with true German efficiency, they expect to have us disembark at 5:01 AM local time, four minutes ahead of schedule.
LamondG 
Good old German efficiency. We were travelling on a train in Germany a couple of years ago when the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. It turned out that a renegade tree branch had fallen onto the track from a storm. It was cleared after a few minutes, however less than a minute after the train stopped I got a text from Deutsche Barn apologising and telling me how to apply for compensation!
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