From the Maldives with XL Airways

International Airport Roissy Charles de Gaulle 2A. Pushing my trolley luggage in the terminal rather quiet in the middle of the afternoon, however I try not to offend a handful of unruly children who wander through the immense hall. Nose in the air, I try to display my flight on the table to find the registration desk. Vol XL Airways flights to Male, capital of Maldives counter A1, at the right end of the terminal. Turn around, and I recrosses the bunch of kids who bicker and run in all directions. Where are the parents? ... Four couples waiting patiently in front of me when I arrive at 15:55 at the registration desk which carry three hostesses who look relaxed. Five minutes later I held out my passport and I place my bags on the conveyor belt.

The weighing of luggage is always the first small highlight of my travels: Ask any diver, and worse at any pro photographer, and you will understand. At a time when low-cost airlines (at super-reduced rate) accept only 15 kg of luggage per person for flights outside Europe, where some American companies are even starting to charge per kilogram of luggage Additional over 10 kg a small fortune in dollars, when you go on a scuba diving destination and you tare additional hassle of photographic equipment, all the efforts and hardships that you have in your home carefully sorting out the essential from the superfluous before closing your travel bag remember to give your regards to the time to put your bags on the belt of the ruthless landlady who is about to tell you: "You're extra baggage must go to the counter and pay the tax XYZ supplement ". Usually what desk is located at the other end of the terminal and that you always comes a day rush in a crowded airport and you have no other immediate option than running without taking time to think to pay.

The worst I ever accepted? ... 80 kg of excess baggage!

I was starting to settle a few years in the Indian Ocean, and if I had happily left behind me sexy suits and high heels, still I carried a few books and odds and ends that would allow minor my daily survival. I was expecting extra baggage, I had even included in my budget. I paid. And three hours later, flying over the Mediterranean to Mauritius, I realized that at this rate I should have to immediately buy a plane ticket for my mother who had accompanied me to the airport I would have catapulted "diver" and she could afford a few days in Mauritius in spite of everything making me do a good economy because it would have been entitled, as I do on Air Mauritius, 40 kg of luggage ...

Anyway, in this April 29, 2009 I am not worried, I am entitled to 20 kg of baggage and XL Airways allows me extra 15 kg on presentation of membership card to a school diving (CMAS card, PADI, ...). The figures of a digital color worthy of a PC screen of the first years pass above the treadmill: 16.3 kg for my personal bag (which I have already slipped a few accessories weight and my tripod). My dive bag it displays 18 kg, yet I only grabbed the light because I am going to dive in warm waters. But how do the other divers? "... I have a twinge of anxiety when asked to weigh also the backpack that I said" hand luggage "trick that allows me to spoof in my travels photo equipment and computers: GLURP, 14 kg. And yet I have light! ...

But the charming hostess definitely do not move a muscle and hands me the label "hand luggage" to fix the handle of my backpack. Better still, it tells me that the flight is scheduled for an hour. So I have the time to attend to my favorite hobby, once I spent the form of presenting a passport and baggage scanner hands wander bookstores in airports where I unearthed the international press and the most specific tourism that we do not necessarily found in bookstores. It takes me seven minutes to pass customs and my backpack to the scanner, exceptional! Consider buying your magazines in the bookstore just to the left of the scans if you need to climb stairs and then down another to return. The departure lounge is located on the A49 away but quietly in front of a store's accessories that I have time to quietly explore. So with a smile that I appear to board when the hostess invites passengers with children to attend to door ...

I handed my boarding pass, the hostess slipped into the electronic terminal, and ejected my card appears as a shameful disease so you have time to land a skilful hand that freezes while a hideous beep is heard . Just my luck ... I wonder what the problem is already when a charming man with bright eyes get my boarding pass and beckoned me to follow him to the computer screen it is consulting. My luggage? Yet though ... I removed the batteries of all kinds, and I have no batteries in my dive light. Smiling, the man in uniform who would crack a shopgirl scribbles a quick flourish on my boarding card and hands it to me, smiling: "We are pleased to offer the Galaxy class trip, so you can enjoy better services Our company XL Airways ".

Wow ... I would throw myself well to his neck! ...

As usual, I slept only two or three hours the night before because I paid a lot of files before departure. And I would not have dreamed of a business class on a long trip like this. I leave in the hallway leading to the aircraft by walking on feathers of goose down as I feel light all at once! My backpack does not draw more on my shoulders, and I hold out my boarding card to the hostess who takes a step aside: "Welcome on board XL Airways Madam, I wish you a pleasant flight on our Galaxy class" . Without a guilty glance toward the other passengers who themselves forking right, I thanked her with a smile that I wanted less radiant, more jaded, and I am greeted by another hostess who leads me to my seat: 1A first row, with two portholes. The dream ...

In reality this kind of story happened to me several times over the last twenty years, and always when I was traveling alone. Me never had the means to offer me a trip in Business class (who is different, of course, from the First Class which still exists on a few carriers). But as chance and the dates of my flight, I was pleasantly surprised to be overtaken in Economy Class to Business Class when:

• the airline had made an overbooking process (that is unscrupulous in selling more tickets than there are seats) and it happens more frequently than we imagine,
• a passenger wanted to take my seat next to that of his wife he was, unfortunately, separated by several rows,
• I accompanied a friend who traveled passenger in business class and she had one of those famous magic cards proving that she made this company a number of flights per year.

I have been outclassed in Business Class Air France twice, including a flight San Francisco / Paris flight that long so I enjoyed. To both occasion, I was traveling alone in the economy class and was so easy to "move" to make way for additional passengers. I have also been entitled to a gratuity of such a flight Paris / Martinique, one day strike of airport passengers while fulminating against an angry overbooking the flight, I can not remember the name of the company. Another time a passenger insisted Eco sat beside her friend lying well to the front of the camera, and for that I had to assign the window seat I had taken care to reserve well in advance I left, something I always do on long distance flights: at least I can turn to the window to try to sleep a little and I always take advantage of the sunrise. The hostess asked me if I would accept a seat I felt disappointment because I was torn between a sense of understanding vis-à-vis two friends who dreamed of traveling together on a long journey and the disappointment of having m install on the other seat stuck in the middle of a main span. But as badly off the passenger showed any sign of impatience at my hesitation (which I think is still legitimate), the hostess has decided: "let me few moments ladies, I return to you immediately". She walked away, probably discussed this problem with his IFA, then it is actually returned to us. Meanwhile I had decided to let my seat anyway when I resigned to take a flight in a less enjoyable than expected.

The other passenger in a fifty, dressed like a fashionable tea, the hostess was arrested immediately, "you have found another place for her?". It was my 30 years that were quite new to him weigh less heavily in the balance of equality between passengers. The hostess smiled with application: "We always find solutions to satisfy our passengers' and leaning towards me but loud enough for me to rosisse embarrassment, she said:" Miss, our purser you offered a seat in Business Class and with a window so you can better enjoy your journey ". A little slap of an old evil high ... I think if we had dared her and me, we would have stuck his tongue in this thing dry and powdery, which has dropped a crestfallen expression.

But back to the XL Airways flight last April 29 ...

In class Galaxy traveling in conditions that are not those of a class affair, but an intermediary between the economy class (photo earlier in this article) and Case (which does not exist on XL Airways, saying that 'it is a Comfort Class. A class where the seats are a little wider, and where rows of seats are arranged in pairs along the windows (for couples, for example), and only three seats in the bay Central. You have more legroom and seat recline allows you to relax enough to doze off (note that the fixed arms that separate the seats do not rise, you will not be able to lie down if you free seats were next to you).

On the Airbus A330, the cabin Galaxy is located just behind the cockpit, you have less turbulence if you must cross during the flight.

If the hostess announces the doors of the plane, I count only six passengers for twenty-one seats available in class Galaxy. Behind me, someone! I'll be able to recline my seat as much as I want, and I install my small business in the right seat will remain free. Royal!

Cover refreshing fruit juice or champagne before takeoff, exceptionally I choose champagne: it is a night flight, sleep as a maximum!

While the aircraft was taxiing to the runway, I pity the young steward who makes the demonstration of safety procedures: six passengers we're going to read magazines or newspapers that he has put at our disposal without him throwing a glance. It must feel very alone in these circumstances! The captain announced a few minutes late taking off because we are not a priority. Mariah Carey vocalizes softly as background music, I finish my champagne while the hostess makes sure that my magazines will not fall, I'm in no hurry: I'm going to report a dream destination! I'm more lenient with charter airlines on the accuracy of flight schedules. When you purchase a flight on a company other than National, you know that you take the risk of any delay, and I said that this is also not systematic. We also know that national companies are paying premium prices for gold lease through their hub and takeoffs are always a priority.

Sky down at Roissy, with some sunny periods that splash the puddles of water on the runway. , I note that the logo looks like the Korean air Pepsi ...

We take off, with thirty-five minutes late. The crews we proposed nicotine substitutes for smoking passengers. Welcome initiative that other companies should follow! Pity the smokers who became half mad after two hours of withdrawal if they failed to buy cigarettes and other artificial patches that allow them to take. Under the wheels of the A330 rape fields dot the landscape in vast semi-urban plates suffers. Some airstrips that weave a spider web, a silent graveyard, a city with its suburban buildings in the square, the spire of a church, village residences themselves as Playmobil, then we enter the cloud layer which overwhelm the city.

A stewardess call to order a passenger who has already opened up and his luggage: the plane was always about takeoff and the man struggled to get out of his seat, the safety instructions always bright. I'm always surprised by the lack of brains of some, and they are not flying passengers for the first time are the most undisciplined!

Seven minutes after takeoff we finally pierce thick cloud blanket and here we are in a sun drenched on the wings of the aircraft behind the windows. Thick duvet under a blue sky, I dip a finger to whip the meringue with pieces of pearl in the sun of late afternoon.

We are still the same altitude if safety have dimmed. Rural France is a patchwork of marble or matt shades tart: in plowing fields or already in bloom, the French countryside unfolds its maroon, tan, bottle green or light green to announce the spring.

Disinfection of the unit with the gas bomb that leaves a slight scent of licorice in its wake. Although we are assured that this is not harmful (as they discover in 30 years?), It is time to bury his nose in the wrap paschmina who always protects my neck stiff and my throat at once of cold air conditioning, sometimes too strong, aircraft. The captain apologized for the delay in takeoff (what could he do?) And gives us a fair wind we should save more than ten minutes on the length of time of flight in 9 hours and thirty -five minutes we should land at Malé, the Maldives, with a time difference of +3 hours to Paris. The temperature will be ... (I'll tell you later !!!).

The hostess distributes a kit to sound like a blue cobalt color to my favorites. At the discretion of the airlines you travel accessories distributes supposed to make your flight or enter your convenience, this is the single earpiece headset that hurts your ears to flag kit elegant Givenchy signed with Singapore Airlines (in class Eco, I can not imagine that business class) or the very clever I am now discovering: good first point, a hook for suspend, place in front of you throughout the journey. What to slide continuously pencils, candy, lipstick, earrings, in small pockets filaments which decorate it. I suspect that the kit is probably less furnished in the economy class, but I note that of the Galaxy class four mini-kits that reveal Elasticated like Christmas Eve, a shoe-foot (very good after the long flights when must put their shoes ...), a refreshing towel and some Kleenex earplugs bagged a mini travel toothbrush with toothpaste, a cardboard nail file (thank you!), and in another net pocket zip this time I discovered a comb, put a mask over his eyes while sleeping, a pair of socks travel grippers that I quickly put aside (I always carry with me those offered by Singapore Airlines that I use on every trip, but next time I'll try those of XL Airways). As a woman I appreciate the nail file and the tube of Colgate toothpaste true (I'm the pub if I want!) And not a strange-tasting toothpaste pafois indeterminate and clove that makes me often think: "Indian product? ...". No, the Clove is used in dentistry. But for toothpaste, I prefer mint!

Flying Mulhouse I choose my hot plate and hesitate between Supreme Farfale chicken with turmeric and mashed green beans with pesto, or cream tulip salmon with basmati rice and lettuce with carrots fine. I opt for the veal stew with mashed potatoes with chives mustard seed and vegetable medley. I skipped the wines on offer (two reds and a Chablis) and I continue to brut champagne, served chilled. I was always told "no mixing". I really do not usually drink, I do not like, but this flight is presented in the best omens and I intend to let me do.

For an appetizer I am the TV news while sipping my juice thick tomato, and fresh as it should (no need to mention the small bag of crunchy, salty dirt on which we do not crack under normal and swallows it yet very fast when the hostess has her back and since nobody is there to feel guilty!). But Jean-Yves Lafesse accompanying my dinner in a series that dates to 2003 but whose impertinence always makes me laugh as much. The hostess took advantage of the service entrance (Walnut St. Jacques and smoked salmon rolls with dill) and asked me if I want a video after dinner with a choice of five recent films, and if I want be awakened for breakfast. And when she serves a basis chocolate / pineapple for dessert with a sorbet, pear, strawberry or blackcurrant, I do regret not having accepted the alarm for breakfast: buns with poppy seeds that accompanied dinner let me consider a revival in the joy and good humor.

By installing me comfortably for the rest of the night I will note it clear to my readers that the company XL Airways is the only currently offer direct flights to the Maldives each week from October to April, an important asset negligible when only eight days off and we do not want to spend hours in a transfer of Arab Emirates, instead of enjoying the beach and seabed. Can I arrange my travel.

I will finally pay little attention to the movie I chose, and when the hostess presented me a beautiful box filled with Michel Cluizel chocolates to wish me a pleasant night, I pack video, headphones and magazines to concentrate on pillow and blankets in which I will carefully m'empaqueter: I was awake at 2:40 am (5:40 hours of the Maldives), and in this quiet cabin Galaxy I tell myself that if I rebook flights on XL Airways I leave no doubt seduced by the price difference with the economy class to justify the sacrifice of two or three restaurants in Paris for the comfort of a night above the clouds ...

This story, many travelers might have to write, but learning on the news tonight how many French people who have never flown, I thought I could make, in my own way, a little travel in their life if I read here. History tell them about the first hours of a journey, sharing the first sensations ...

Will you read the story after my arrival in the Maldives and that my discovery of my hotel, the Halaveli Resort? I invite you to meet me immediately on www.meilleurshotelsdumonde.com for the rest of my adventures ...