Now I shall begin…
Mindful of how imperative it was that I made it on time to Miami to catch my connecting flight home to good old Blighty, (lateness would surely mean not returning home for at least another week, due to the back log), we set off to Orlando airport extra early to ensure seats on the 14:40 flight to Miami.
This flight had been booked on my behalf by Virgin who assured me that we would arrive in Miami in plenty of time to make the connection onto VS006 MIA to LHR at 19:25.
We duly arrived at MCO at 10:30 and after a slightly nervous wait at check in American Airlines confirmed our seats on the plane (flight number now changed to AA544). They advised us they would check our bags in all the way throught to LHR, which at the time, due to my tennis elbow playing up so much, was a relief.
After hanging about landside til midday we decided to head through security, checking on way that our flight was still on time. Hurrah!!
We passed through secuirty relatively easily and soon arrived at the gate. At this point, still being very nervous about making the connection on time I checked the board. Ohh no the plane had been delayed until 15:30. Panic began to rise and I noticed a look of worry cross Mr Apple’s face, but I decided no we still had plenty of time as OLCI on VS006 had been completed the night before and we would still make Miami with 3 hours to spare.
At this point I became aware that all of the surronding gates were becoming rather busy and that calls went advising that seats had been over sold!!
My concerns deepened further when at 15:00 the flight status went to delayed to 16:30. Miss Apple, who to this point had been happily playing the Sims on her Iphone, started to majorly stress out. I couldn’t say I blamed her but I calmly explained that she had no need to worry as she was with her old mum and asked her what her old mum does with any problem in life, to which she replied, “well sort it our of course”. The smile returned to her face and she merrily returned to her game, at this point however the smile vanished off of mine.
By this time a long queue was developing at the gate desk and therefore I despatched Mr Apple to go and stand in it. I then hastily pulled the laptop out and quickly discovered that the plane had broken down in Miami and the hunt was on for a working plane. At this point I high tailed it round to every other gate offering a Miami flight only to discover that due to the ominous ash cloud creating traffic chaos throughtout the world every signle flight down to Miami was booked solid, no amount of pleading on my part managed to get us a transfer.
Dread was now taking hold of me so Apple did what she does best in such circumstances and tried to take back some control. I returned to the lap top and interogated American Airlines site for flights thaat would get us back to my beloved country without further delay. Mr Apple meanwhile was still standing dutifully in the queue. After more than a little tapping on said lap top I discovered flights the following day (economy only I’m afraid but beggars etc) out of Miami to Chicage then from Chicage to LHR.
By now the delay went to 18:00 and thus I became acutely aware that we would miss our connection and therefore Apple would have to be her most charming and persuasive self in order to get us all home. The plane finally arrived at the gate (the 5th one they had tried apparently) at 17:20 and Mr Apple had finally got to the front of the queue. I quickly joined him and explained the situation to the lady at the gate and suggested that maybe as it would be AA’s fault that we had missed our flight with Virgin that they were responsible for getting us home. She agreed staright away, (I knew I was good, but…..), I told her about the flights I had found, she tapped away confirmed these and printed out what I know now was a travel itinerary. With these in hand and the crew trying to close the doors we ran down the concourse and took our seats to Miami, safe in the thought that if we didn’t make our VS006 connection (which was highly unlikely, even though I had called check-in at Miami to explain about the flight delay and that we would have no baggage and that we already had boarding passses in hand ) we would be coming out the following day with American.
Plane, finally airbourne at 18:15 with a quick and smooth flight to Miami, arriving at 19:05, passing VS005 at the gate, sorry guys missed the name of the plane, tut tut how remiss! Hurrah I thought, fingers crossed VS006 might be a little delayed and we’ll make it, after all I did suffer at Virgin’s hands on the way out on VS005 a 4 hour delay, 3 of them being left sitting on the runway at LHR (see my trip report 9 April VS005).
Apple et al sprinted off of the plane (not easy for her to keep up with the other 2 as they both have very long legs, I think Miss Apple will be the new Miss Pretty Polly legs at a very lovely 32 inch inside leg at the young age of 13) heading towards the Virgin desk. Puffing and panting (that’s’s me not the others) we duly arrived at 19:10 to be greeted by a member of the Virgin staff explaining that the flight was on time and that our seats had been given to somebody else who due to being very poorly had to get home as quickly as possible. This I have to say was some recompense for missing our connection. At least for one day God was smiling down on that poor man.
Check in then advised me that the next flight they could get me out on was the 29 April . I thanked them for their concern but informed them that American had already got me flights out on the next day (24) via Chicago. At this point you would’ve thought the story was coming to a close but little did I realise it was only just beginning……. The next chapter I shall complete under VS006 23 April as it directly relates to Virgin staff, customer service and their policies. Hopefully it will make informative reading and ensure no one else has to suffer out-right bureaucratic silliness…
