Adam Curry Marconi Award, KLM Travel Complications
Adam Curry returned from Amsterdam after receiving the Marconi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting. The travel involved significant complications with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, including a booking error that resulted in a 2,500 euro change fee and a lost bag. Curry described the award ceremony, which featured Dutch broadcaster Frits Spits, and noted that he mentioned the No Agenda show during his nine-minute acceptance speech.
adam curry· amsterdam· marconi award· klm· schiphol airport· lifetime achievement
00:00 They all hate the baby. I hate the baby. Adam Curry, John C. DeVora. And Sunday, January 28, 2018, this is your award-winning Game of Nation Media Assassination Episode 1003. This is no agenda. Back at home base, back to Earth, and broadcasting live from downtown Austin, Tejas, Cap of the Drone Star State in Shithole Nation, in the Cluedio, in the morning, everybody. I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, where it's better late than never, I'm John C. DeVora. That's better ever than never or something like that. What's the shithole nation you referred to? Oh That's we live in shithole nation. We do. Yeah, why not? Have you seen Los Angeles? Have you seen yeah, I guess that's just a qualified. You've probably seen Los Angeles. Yeah, it's shithole nation Might as well call it the way it is
00:58 I'm back, John! I'm back! The award-winning Adam Curry is back! You were gone, but not forgotten. Yeah. Oh man, did you see that ceremony they put on for me? No. Oh, jeez. Is that you talking about the bombing in Kabul? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's the one. Thanks. No, my Marconi Award. No, I didn't see it. I didn't know that was broadcast. Oh, jeez. Yeah, it was live. It was a 20 minutes all about me. Really? Yes. Is that available on YouTube? Yes, it is on the YouTube. Is it embarrassing? Is it about you embarrassing or is it just... No, well it's in Dutch. It's in Dutch so... But no, it was actually extremely cool. It was... Okay. It was... They brought out...
01:45 Fritz Spitz who is he's like the Dutch version of Edward e morrow, you know to give it spits. Yes, Fritz spits I Know Fritz spritz Edward e morrow doesn't quite make sense in the same sentence, but you And he did a, he just did a beautiful, I guess induction or whatever it is, or presentation of the award. Did you get a thing they put around your neck? No, I did not. I should, they should have one, you know, like a mayor, one of those big heavy chains. Yeah, but it was interesting because when we got there, like, okay, Bureau... By the way, for anyone out there who doesn't know what the hell we're talking about, Adam went to Amsterdam to get the Marconi Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcasting. Yes, thank you.
02:32 They did something very interesting which at first I was worried about. They said, okay we're doing you first. I said, what? He said, it's a live show. I said, wait a minute, you're doing the lifetime achievement first as first up in the show? I said, yeah. I was like, well that makes no sense. I mean Morgan Freeman comes on at the end. He doesn't come on at the beginning of the show. They have a different sensibility. But let me tell you, this is the way to go. Because yeah, because you can go home Not only can you go home where we actually start partying but not only can you go home But there's much less hassle as to how long you speak and I spoke for nine minutes Because you know it's not like they're running up against the top of the hour or the news break or some commercials They got to go to So I just took my time and it was it was a lot of fun. I
03:21 Did you mention the No Agenda show? Multiple times, including you, my dear friend. I got mentioned. Good, good. I'm glad I went because, man, they would have had a 20-minute hold to fill if I wasn't there. That would have been very difficult. I don't know why you wouldn't have gone, unless you were sick. Well, the travel was a nightmare, because I was only there for two nights, basically. And then Thursday night after the show, it's midnight, I'm in bed, I'm like, okay, let me just double check my boarding time. Have you ever had this where you check your ticket and you think you're going to get up in five hours to check in for boarding and you think, okay, this is Friday the 26th, and you say, whoa, wait a minute, my booking is for Friday, February 2nd. Have you ever had that where you slipped on the calendar when booking the ticket?
04:16 No, never. Well, I do have that five hours thing that happens once in a while where I check I checked the night before and said, oh, I got to get up in five hours. I set the alarm, five hours and goes off. And then I think to myself, I'm too groggy, I'm not going. And then I just skip the flight. I've done that. I know you've done that. But I really wanted to go home. And remember, Willow and Alessandro, her husband, were coming in Saturday. That was the whole reason for me to turn around. So you booked the wrong day? Or did somebody else book it for you? No, I booked it. That's the worst part. It was my fault. Then they're like, oh, well let me call the KLM hotline, which I was on hold for an hour before I even got to talk to somebody. And then they're like, oh, well yeah, we have spot on the plane tomorrow, but that'll cost you two and a half thousand euros to change that. It's like, what? Two and a half thousand euros, yeah. Okay, you sure you can't do anything about this? No, no. And it was something about no Sunday, it was whatever it was.
05:17 Well it's just cheaper than for me to book a new round trip ticket with some return date in September or whatever. Still $1500 and that came out of my own pocket. Yeah but that's the ticket. Yeah, but listen to this. So I get in, I walk in this morning, I do my trick, you know, I've got my expired KLM gold card from 2008, which I just, you know, hold nonchalantly in my hand as I breeze through the gate, the two security people to make sure I could actually be in that check-in line. And the ground attendant says, oh, well this is for tomorrow. I said, what?
05:59 So the woman who had rebooked me had not only booked me incorrectly, not for Friday but for Saturday, but she had only booked me to Atlanta and not even the Austin trip. So now I'm like, oh... We get this fixed, we get this changed, I go back. Then the woman, the new woman at the counter where I came in with my gold car says, oh I'm sorry, you can't check in here. You are, you are... What is their lowest level of points? Like, ivory. Mud people. You are mud. You are mud, you can't check in here. I said, well, they let me in and it's been a whole problem. No, that's not the way it's supposed to go.
06:37 Yeah, but would you please check with her if she finally checks me in. You know when you go through all this you don't get to choose your seat anymore and I had normally had the economy comfort. And so now I got that seat in economy right behind economy comfort, which basically has... Oh yeah, those are... you can't sit there. There's no place for your legs. Not only that, but there's a curtain that I guess is a faux separation between you and the people with three extra inches leg room. And you just stare at that thing for eight hours. Oh, you're right at the curtain. Yeah, it says you're an a-hole. You know, it's like, hey, you're a dick. You're really the worst. Oh, and then my bag didn't arrive. It's just, you know, it's just...
07:15 Screw KLM man, those guys suck. This is really horrible. Should have flown Norway, that's where I was flying nowadays. Norwegian. Yeah, I hear Norwegian is doing like a 150 bucks round trip from Austin to London or some crazy promotion like that. Yeah, they've got some unbelievable flights. So anyway, back, back safe and... Well I started penning a letter of a complaint. Oh? Yeah, to the KLM people and tell them you want your money back. Well, the real problem with KLM is, you know, their partner is Delta. You remember when Tina and I went over and then, you know, they said, oh, sorry, the door's closed, even though the plane was right there. And then there's no, even though there were 10 people coming in on Delta, KLM wouldn't wait for them. That's ridiculous because I've seen him reopen the door. Oh yeah, but now,
08:05 KLM was delayed because they were waiting for other flights to come in to Schiphol with people transferring so they waited there for their own KLM. They got it so we arrived about half an hour late and I have 45 minutes to get from you know to go through customs get my bag you You know, give it, I still had to get a boarding pass because they couldn't print off the boarding pass to Austin. I mean, I was like OJ Simpson, man. I was jumping through, over people's bags. I'm like, whoo, whoo, twirling and stabbing, stabbing the air. Did I stab anybody? No! No, but I just barely made it onto the flight. And these guys, they won't wait. They won't wait for their, for their partner airlines.
