V-Flyer

After our very late arrival, short amount of sleep and work meeting, it was time to head out to the airport. Arrived to find a huge queue at the self-service machines, club europe and eurotraveller desks. They seemed to be trying to rebook lots of people stranded from the day before (they had cancelled 3 flights to BCN on the Wednesday). We wanted to see if there was any possibilty of moving to the BA487 (we were booked on the later BA487), as we knew that everything was delayed and we wanted to try and get home as early as possible. They initially had only 3 desks open (including the club one), which was really slowing things down - eventually another 3 opened and the queues seemed to start moving.

After waiting for ages, we eventually got to the desk. Initially we were told that we had no flexible tickets, but then suddenly he started typing away on the computer and told us that we had been moved to the earlier flight. However, the compromise was that we wouldn't get fed on the flight, as it was catered ex-LHR. Given that the meal was only a small main course and some cheese, this seemed ok (we had also been out for a usual late Spanish lunch). With our new boarding cards, we headed through security and this time spent a while wandering around the shops (there is nothing apart from McDs past immigration). Once I had bought some wine and parma ham, headed through immigration to the generic airport lounge.

The flight was about an hour late boarding, and we stood around at the gate for ages. Once on board, Club was only half-full (including the passenger behind who had been moved from the earlier flight and upgraded to Club). After the usual long taxi to the runway, we were up in the air and heading home. Drinks were served promptly and then the meal service started. No idea why we had been told that we wouldn't be fed - there were 12 main meals for 11 passengers. I had the chicken in cream sauce with vegetables and a very nice Italian red.

We had a little bit of holding over LHR before we landed, and then it was through security and off to find the driver who would be taking me home. There were lots of people with connecting flights at LHR and I am sure that most of them would have missed the connection due to the delay on this flight.

Very glad to have been moved, since our original flight was also delayed by over an hour, which would have made it very late to be getting home.

Thank you for the return TR.[y]