June in Germany and Austria – our Trip to Bachfest Part 1
Air Canada is really Air Chaos, and the Perils of Group Travel
In mid-June, we travelled to Leipzig, Germany, for 11 days and to Austria for 5 days. This week’s post will outline the negatives of this otherwise wonderful trip.
The trip was planned at least a year beforehand. Its purpose was for a group of at least 20 adults to travel to Bachfest in Leipzig.
From ChatGPT: “Bachfest is an annual music festival dedicated to the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. It’s held primarily in Leipzig, Germany, where Bach spent the last 27 years of his life as Thomaskantor (music director) at the St. Thomas Church.
Here’s a quick overview:
Location: Leipzig, Germany (with events often in historic Bach sites like St. Thomas Church and St. Nicholas Church)
Timing: Usually takes place in June each year
Organizer: The Bach-Archiv Leipzig, an institute devoted to Bach research and performance
Program: Includes concerts, cantata performances, orchestral and choral works, recitals, and lectures — featuring top international ensembles, choirs, and soloists.
Theme: Each year has a different theme, often focusing on a particular aspect of Bach’s music, his influences, or his legacy.”
So, loving Bach as we do, and loving the idea of travelling with the organizer and his wife, we signed up. We learned that the logistics of the trip would be handled by a travel agency that specializes in student travel to specific musical destinations. This would also be an opportunity for us to go to Germany for the first time.
Since I’m a relatively new travel advisor, I was interested to see how group travel works and how someone else would organize everything. First BIG mistake. If you like to travel in any way similar to the way I do, do NOT relinquish control. Here’s what happens, first with Air Canada (AC) group air.
Rather than flying us to Leipzig, the agency booked us on a direct flight from Toronto to Frankfurt- an overnight flight, about 8 hours. That was followed by a 4-hour bus ride to the hotel in Leipzig. The flight arrangements are where the problems started.
The agency selected the flight – Air Canada’s pain-in-the-ass rules for Group Air on this flight were as follows:
Since the majority of the members of the group lived in the Kitchener area, the only way one could check in to the flight and get baggage tagged was to go to the Waterloo International Airport at 8 in the morning, take a bus to Pearson together with travelers going to other destinations, arrive at Pearson at about 10 a.m. and then wait until 1:30 p.m. to go to Bag Drop, as our flight was not until 4:30 p.m. For us, this meant that we lost a half day- our usual MO would be to take Red Car from home to Pearson at about 12:30, arrive at 1:30, drop bags, go to the Lounge, and wait for our flight. Using the required timing, we left home for Waterloo at 7 a.m. When we complained about this, the agency told us that Air Canada’s rule on group travel is that everyone in the group must check in at the same place – if we had gone to Pearson on our own, AC would have counted us as a no show at YKF, (Waterloo International) since the bus leg of the trip has its own boarding pass.
Had we known this in advance, we’d have booked our own air and met the group at the hotel in Leipzig. I should also mention that we were one of the few who was allowed a “deviation”, flying home from Vienna a week later than the group who went home from Frankfurt, and obtaining seats in Premium Economy. HOWEVER, one is not told where one’s seats are because the agency doesn’t ticket the air until about a month before the trip. This is beyond annoying for people like us who book air at least 6 months out to get VERY specific seats. As a result, ours were against the bulkhead, in the middle of the plane, and beyond uncomfortable.
We asked the agency to arrange for us to be in the AC Lounge since we had to be at Pearson so far ahead. “You can’t access the Lounge if you’re part of a Group”. How F***ing stupid is THAT? So far, I’m seeing no advantage of group air. (except maybe there’s a financial one, but again, this would have been the time for the agency to advise us of this) Agent suggests we book in the Plaza Premium Lounge, so we do so, for 11:00 to allow for bag drop and security.
So, having lost a half day of sleep/work, off we went on the f***ing bus to Pearson. We try to check in our bags at Bag Drop when we arrive. BAG DROP DOES NOT WORK UNTIL 3 HOURS BEFORE THE FLIGHT. I snap. LOSE IT. Off to the AC rep we go, who tells us to go to a counter where we can likely talk them into taking our bags early so that our lounge reservation isn’t a total waste. Counter rep says there is no room for the bags to take them early. Irate Husband and former AC employee reminds her they can put them in Cargo. She relents, bags are checked, and we are off to the Plaza Premium Lounge, about an hour late, but with still enough time to enjoy it to the fullest. Best part of that awful day.
3. When you’re part of a stupid AC group, there is no ability to see your reservation online. This is important when you want to make sure about timing, seats, check in, etc. You have to trust that you will get an email from AC to check in the day before the flight. Since we had already been shortchanged on relevant information, it was very hard to be trusting!
4. The final, probably most annoying and trip-ruining part of dealing with the agency was their approach to booking concert tickets and the group dinner. We started making payments for the trip about 9 months prior. Tickets for concerts went on sale at the end of November 2024 for June 2025. We purchased our separate concert tickets (the group price included 10 concerts; we went to 13) in early December and easily obtained seats where we wanted them. Imagine our surprise at the first concert to realize that a) almost all of our seats would be horrible, b) the agent figured we all needed to sit together and c) tickets weren’t purchased until late March, although they had our money before that. I’ll cover the group dinner in a future post.
5. The one thing that worked well was the choice of hotel- we were at the Intercity Hotel Leipzig – part of the H Hotels Group. Location was perfect, right by the train station, tram terminal, and easy walking distance to all the concert venues. We had upgraded our room, and it overlooked a quiet courtyard so there was no street noise. The bed was very comfortable, and the room was large enough for us to work in. Daily breakfast was excellent.
https://hrewards.com/de/intercityhotel-leipzig
Drawback was that the bar staff was rude (except for Sebastian) and the restaurant menu was limited – and thus began our trip-long relationship with the restaurant/bar at the Marriott across the street. We based our dinner decisions on whether our server, Maia, was working that day. We would also make sure to drop by for a drink after most evening concerts.
https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/lejdt-leipzig-marriott-hotel/overview/
Here’s the kitchen staff from our first night there. They had the best salads, burgers, martinis, rose wine, onion rings, etc. Our experiences with Marriott hotels, both with accommodations and with food and beverage, has always been outstanding.
Next week, we will continue in Leipzig to talk about the concerts, sightseeing, and the overall vibe.
I’d love to help you with your trip planning!
Happy Travels!