(Him: Charlie)
Started the day by setting a slow pace for today – had dim sum in Brooklyn, read newspaper, strolled in the neighbourhood, and bought some grocery as well. Jo said this is like retirement life/activities. Well, so retirement = being less sensible to time? I guess when people work a whole life dreaming for a better retirement life, they’d better understand what it really is. Maybe "retirement" is just a mental state, and can be enjoyed once in a while even before the age 65?
Started the day by setting a slow pace for today – had dim sum in Brooklyn, read newspaper, strolled in the neighbourhood, and bought some grocery as well. Jo said this is like retirement life/activities. Well, so retirement = being less sensible to time? I guess when people work a whole life dreaming for a better retirement life, they’d better understand what it really is. Maybe "retirement" is just a mental state, and can be enjoyed once in a while even before the age 65?
To save money, we decided to take a long public transit journey to JFK. The bus-then-subway route took us almost 1.5 hours to get there, but it was quite an enjoyable ride on a Sunday afternoon. We have to admire NYC’s enormous size – we didn’t even make it out of Brooklyn for the entire journey! I bet suburb people rarely visit Manhattan much because it’s just takes too long to get there.
The journey from JFK to Riga had a transit point in Dusseldorf. The carrier for the first leg was Air Berlin. I mentioned this airline because I am very impressed with their service!
Starting from its logo - red/white lower case letter “airberlin” carries a subtle and practical tone, kind of matches the German style. In contrary to airlines in North America, the service provided by Air Berlin was impeccable. First off, it’s been a long while since I received an air travel kit, but sure enough, one was waiting for me right in my seat. Pleasant surprise… Secondly, throughout the 8-hour journey, in addition to hot meals, they served plenty of fluid, including complimentary alcoholic drinks. They even handed out hot towels in the morning to freshen up sleepy passengers. Another thing that I noticed was the ambient temperature in the cabin, which is a stark contrast to other airlines that give you hyperthermia.
Well fed, well hydrated, and well rested customers = happy customers. Unfortunately, these seemingly basic customer requirements are quite often unfulfilled among North American airliners, and quality customer service is even elusive at best. The irony is that all the “cost cutting” measures didn’t really give them a financial advantage. Time to rethink business focus?
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