I spent the past ten days in State
College, Pennsylvania. A summer school for astronomers was organised
there, by Penn State University. Together with Mikkel, a colleague
and friend at Aarhus University, we went there to indulge ourselves
in statistics.
The summer school itself was absolutely
fantastic. With the ever-increasing size of observational data in
astronomy, comes the need to handle those using statistical methods.
Everyone in the field will recognize that as a fact, but
nevertheless, deep statistical understanding often remains limited.
Comparison and selection of complicated models, handling of various
sources of errors, simulations, multi-dimensional datasets, complex
parameter correlations and confidence estimation, large datasets from
various sources, … The list of statistical problems is nearly
endless and standard solutions rarely apply. While statisticians have
answers to some of these challenges, astronomers – unlike a lot of
people in social sciences, usually proud of their knowledge on
mathematical issues – rarely outsource their issues directly to
true statisticians.
The summer school was intended to
bridge that gap between statisticians and astronomers, and targeted
young people in the field, who, unlike some of their supervisors,
acknowledge the need for a more thorough statistical background.
Teaching was done by statisticians and astronomers (or combinations),
and lab sessions introduced us to the freely available R program. It
is safe to say the workshop was rewarding. I doubt statistics will
ever be my favorite subject, but perhaps the time has come to embrace
it.
It's not only about content. The
weather was nice and warm for most of our stay, and having a
margarita in a shirt outside was a welcome change from the Danish
weather. Most importantly though, it was inspirational to meet
astronomers from all over the world, doing a PhD in a wide range of
topics. I might run into some of the exoplanet researchers that were
present, one day. It will be interesting to see where all those young
astronomers end up in five to ten years. How many will still be in
the field?
The Lufthansa story
While Penn State's Days Inn hotel
accommodated us flawlessly and the summer school's organisation was
impeccable, unfortunately the same cannot be said about Lufthansa.
Our flight scheme was Billund – Frankfurt – Philadelphia –
State College. On the way there, they lost our luggage. It got stuck
in Philly (as the locals like
to pronounce the city), despite having rechecked the
bags upon arrival on US soil.
No big deal, as the next day it was delivered to the hotel, but it
was on the way back to Denmark that things truly
went fubar.
I
don't use the term lightly (for those not familiar with it, I suggest
an urban dictionary), but it
is appropriate. In State
College, they could not yet assign me a seat for the
Philadelphia-Frankfurt flight, as it was overbooked, but since we got
to the airport well in advance, it was not a problem (at least not
for us). Then came Frankfurt.
Our
flight got delayed by 15 minutes prior to arrival, because of bad
weather at
the airport. As we learned from the immense queue at the Lufthansa
Service Desk, a large number of
incoming other flights got diverted because of the thunderstorm,
leading to subsequent cancellations in departing flights. Our final
flight of the day, to Billund, was listed as “in time”, so we
thought we'd escape the trouble, but an hour before departure,
instead of the start of the check-in came a cancellation
announcement.
We
were informed that we were placed on a waiting list for the next
plane to Billund a few hours later. With no other information than
that there were more than 50 (!) people on that list, we could only
hope that our four extra hours of waiting would pay off. I
asked about compensation and my German was good enough to understand
the discussion between the
Lufthansa ladies, which
was obviously
not meant for my ears.
Roughly
translated: “How much can we give as food compensation? I didn't
give anything to the previous people, but this one actively asked, so
I guess I have to? - Yes, then
you have to”. We got a
voucher worth ten euro.
A few
people from the waiting list
made it on the
plane, during what appeared
to be
a bit of a lottery: a large group of deeply tired people, hoping for
their name to be called. Mikkel was among the lucky few, and with no
other seats left on the plane, we decided to split up. He got his
business class seat home, and I thought that on my own, it would be
easier to find an alternative option to make it back to Denmark.
That
turned out to be easier said than done. Together with the 30+ other
people that didn't make it on the plane (what did they really
expect?), we were sent off to find the Lufthansa Service
Desk for more information and
rebookings. After having crossed through half
of Frankfurt
Airport, we located it, only to
find that they were closing it down. Granted, we were not the only
stranded group that day, and the situation was rather
chaotic.
Being
sent out to the main hall for Lufthansa bookings, outside of the
secured area, I started to lose hope to make it out on another plane
the same day. A long and extremely slowly moving queue awaited us
here, where we had to stand in line in a sun-lit tunnel of glass.
Sweating, the first hour passed by. And another one. We wondered why
they could not put more people on this. Throughout the waiting
process, we were asked multiple times for our destination, and asked
to remain patiently in the
queue. When we finally made
it to the front of the line, we were told that we were in
the wrong line. This queue was
only for Asian destinations. This
Lufthansa person should consider himself lucky that the Danes are not
aggressive people. I looked around me
to find a hidden camera.
We
moved a floor down and started afresh, in another line. At least this
one moved somewhat faster.
The friendly Lufthansa lady
offered me a 'choice' between another waiting list attempt later that
night, or a hotel and a flight the next day. Even the next-day
flights were difficult, and she could put me on a flight to Billund,
with a transfer at another
airport. Not exactly tempted by the opportunity to see more German
airports, I opted for a flight to Copenhagen instead. They wouldn't
refund my train ticket to make it home from there, but I was long
past caring.
I
waited over an hour for the shuttle bus that Lufthansa promised would
drive every 15 minutes, and arrived at the hotel around 21h – more
than 12 hours after first arriving to Frankfurt airport. It
stopped raining about an hour after I had arrived.
The
food we got was halfway decent. With a
gay couple from New York and anAmerican woman, we were discussing
whether it was the airline or the hotel benefiting from this scam. It
was certainly not stranded travelers such as ourselves. We got 30
minutes of free internet access, and for more, I paid ten euro out of
my own pocket. The shower
felt great, but it was less nice to change into the same t-shirt
again – as my luggage was still somewhere checked in, Lufthansa
promised me a hygiene package,
but I never received it.
I woke
up from the wake-up call,
disoriented,
but at least the
breakfast was very good, so
my spirits were up again. However, since
the shuttle service wasn't large enough to take everyone to the
airport and they had to call additional taxis, and we subsequently
got stuck in morning traffic for the thirty minute drive to the
airport, I got worried about missing another plane... but apparently
it was time for Murphy to show me some mercy.
There
was a small victory as well. The bottle of Highland Park I
had bought at the tax free shop the day before, was taken from me at
the security because I could not take it in from outside (too much
liquid), as it was not packed in special duty free wrapping. I went
to the shop that sold it to me the day before, and while they pointed
out it was more Lufthansa's fault than theirs, they gave me a new
one.
Apparently, Heidemann does
know what customer service means, which was refreshing to find out.
I left
Saturday afternoon in the US, I arrived Monday at 16h home in
Denmark. The travel took at least 24 hours longer than expected. In
return, I got a lunch (only because I actively asked), a dinner
buffet, a hotel room and a breakfast. I had a shower, but no clothes
to change into. I paid for internet twice, at the airport and at the
hotel. I paid my own train ticket and lunch on the train. While
writing this, I my luggage still hasn't made it home, unlike
promised, it was not rerouted properly. I should get it back later
tonight.
The
lady at the lost baggage counter
was very helpful and advised me to file a complaint against
Lufthansa. The friendly security person who took my whiskey bottle,
and the duty free shop woman who gave me another one, advised me the
same.
Lufthansa,
consider this my complaint. I
hope someone googles you, and reads this. Delays
can happen, and bad weather is no one's fault. As most travelers, I
accept that. The way you deal with the situation matters, though.
This weekend, for me, I
believe you did a
pretty shitty job.
Vincent
