BA1337 NCL-LHR 16 MAY 10 (DOMESTIC)
Posted: 17 May 2010, 06:25
OLCI for the flight was due to open at 20.15 but glued to the NATS and other websites ... Spent a very restless night wondering what was going to happen. Once up, kept an eye on the situation and started finding out times of trains down to LHR. Didn't know what was going to happen on Monday but just knew that I couldn't leave it until Mon am to find out an then travel. I also knew that I had a Yotel cabin booked so at least I would have somewhere to sleep. Rough day packing, NATS website, packing, dealing with on edge boys (all 3 of them!) and an on edge me, NATS website. Got the courage up to checkin for BA and then the Virgin flight. I tried to change my BA flight to the 17.50 on the basis that the airports were scheduled to be open until 19.00 hrs but no information about what was happening after that but fare conditions meant that I couldn't.
Finally packing done, weighed, all paperwork double and triple checked. Final check of the NATS website but nothing new there (this was now about 4pm and the same info had been there from 1030). So off we set for the airport via Frankie and Bennys. Once we'd ordered, I checked the NATS website and found out to my relief that the ash cloud had just stopped short of both LHR and NCL so could finally relax and forget about taking the train! I actually started to worry about my normal travel worries (bags too heavy not got my tickets etc etc etc).
Got checked in at NCL very quickly. It was 18.00 by this time but the previous 17.50 flight had not yet left. Said goodbye to the boys, unfortunately I couldn't say when I'd see them next - could be less than 24 hours or seven days... Went through security, not taking the £3 fasttrack option, but there was little delay. Departures was busy, there were a number of delayed flights and the apron looked like a Jet2 convention...
The 17.50 went off about 19.10, and the incoming BA flight came in at 19.35, only 15 minutes late. We started boarding at 20.00 . I was sat in 8A and had the whole of the three seats to myself, the aircraft was about 50 to 75% full. Once the doors had shut, we sat on the Tarmac for a while. The Captain explained that they were waiting for clearance from ATC and asked us for our patience.
We finally got airborne at 20.46hrs. Instead of, as normal, turning immediately south and inland, we headed north and out over the North Sea. Once we'd reached 20,000 ft or so (round about the Scottish Border) we then turned in a circle and headed south but still continued over the North Sea for most of the flight, a most unusual route. We came in directly over the Thames Estuary and into London and then instead of holding as the Captain said we would, we got a direct track into LHR. We were on the stand at 21.50. It was then that the Captain informed us that the flight had been originally scheduled to land at LHR at 3am but luckily had got the clearances it needed!
Bags off incredibly quickly - a couple of flights got there before us but our bags appeared first! Then I was on the hunt for the Heathrow Express lifts. Found them and made my across to T4 and the Yotel (which is probably worthy of a post in its own right).
Spent a nervous night, tossing and turning, expecting to wake up to chaos and a closed airport .... but apparently things look as if they're going to be fine ... which hopefully (fingers crossed) they will be!
