V-Flyer

Having been at the wedding the day before (the reception was at The Balmoral and we even stayed the night there!), we had a little wander around Edinburgh (thoroughly recommend The Dome for a bite to eat / drink) and then headed out to the airport. We were aware that there were problems at LHR and LCY due to London fog, but our flight was still listed as departing on time.

Arrived to a long queue at Club / Silver / Gold check-in which was moving slower than the non-priority queue (something to do within someone checking in a firearm). Eventually bag was dropped and asked if we knew where the lounge was - no mention of any delays at this stage. Used the fast track security - the family in front were taking quite a while, and as we were holding everything out, the security agent called us round - this upset the family, who basically almost pushed me out of the way - some people!!

On arrival at the lounge, we were asked "do you know about your flight delay", to which the answer was "No!". We were then informed that they were hoping the flight would depart for LCY at 21:00 (instead of 16:50), which we thought was little tight to get in before LCY closed. We bumped into the bride and groom who were heading back on a delayed flight to LHR and then connecting onto a flight (not their original one) to SIN......was very nice to catch up awat from the wedding and all the other stuff they had going on during the big day. Eventually their flight was called, but still no update on our flight. There was delays / cancellations on all the flights down to LHR and LCY, but surprisingly the lounge wasn't too busy. Had some nice sandwiches and also realised we could have a glass of champagne in the lounge there!

During the time in the lounge, there were numerous different updates to what was happening. Eventually, we were informed that the flight would be departing at 17:30 and taking us to Stansted where coaches would take us on to LCY. We didn't board until nearly 18:00, and finally took off at arond 18:30. There was a slight delay on the ground as some people decided not to travel down to STN - why they waited till boarding, no one knows!

Once in the air, there was a quick trolley service of drinks and snacks and a fairly uneventful flight down to STN. As we landed, noticed that they only planes on the ground there were Ryanair; there was also a BA World Cargo Plane being loaded and as we taxied to the terminal, we passed a very dark VS A340 which looked like it had been diverted and was now heading back to LHR.

Parked up at the terminal, walked to baggage reclaim for a short wait and then off to find the coaches. The staff were all very helpful and obviously used to LCY diverts due to fog at the airport. It didn't take long for the coach to be full, and then we departed for a relatively short 30 minutes trip down to LCY.

Overall, everything worked out fine in the end and we arrived back at LCY about 3.5 hours later than we should have done (at least we made it back and weren't stranded overnight in EDI). The only annoying thing was that the ground staff seemed to know nothing more than we did from the departure screens, the Internet and iPhone apps! I suppose in these situations they are trying to sort and plan, but it would have been nicer to be kept more updated rather than seeing supposed departure times pass!

Thank you for the TR.