You Don't Know What You've Got 'Til It's Gone
Posted: 08 Sep 2013, 16:09We had an interesting experience yesterday whilst dropping #1 son off to start his mid 20's life crisis trip around the world.
The day had not started well when, after a rather stressful 12 hours of trying to get seats selected on his BA flight to BKK on line and on the phone, he revealed that the tickets had been booked by the TA via QF. Had he told me that earlier I would have been able to advise him on how to get the BA PNR out of QF....and why does no one in the TA or BA suggest that....but anyway rather than raise stress levels I kept my counsel and said instead we'd just have to get to LHR T5 early. At which point he revealed that BA9 still goes from T3. Oh well.
Anyway, that's not the point of this. What is the point is that on arriving at T3 we find that not only is the BA rump operation there housed in a part of the terminal shrouded in a Stygian gloom where I hope BA gives free vitamin D tablets to its staff, but worse, oh much worse, is the fact that the QF operation for our EK booked Christmas flight to SYD is also that end.
I know that the VS ground operation is often accused of being all style and no substance (all fur coat and no knickers, as my granny would say) but we are surely going to sorely miss the feeling that something special is happening when checking in. The weekend before Christmas is going to be madness on the M25 and at LHR anyway, and the thought of being stuck in that gloom for more than a few minutes is just so much more than I can bear. I can already feel an attack of the vapours coming on.
The day had not started well when, after a rather stressful 12 hours of trying to get seats selected on his BA flight to BKK on line and on the phone, he revealed that the tickets had been booked by the TA via QF. Had he told me that earlier I would have been able to advise him on how to get the BA PNR out of QF....and why does no one in the TA or BA suggest that....but anyway rather than raise stress levels I kept my counsel and said instead we'd just have to get to LHR T5 early. At which point he revealed that BA9 still goes from T3. Oh well.
Anyway, that's not the point of this. What is the point is that on arriving at T3 we find that not only is the BA rump operation there housed in a part of the terminal shrouded in a Stygian gloom where I hope BA gives free vitamin D tablets to its staff, but worse, oh much worse, is the fact that the QF operation for our EK booked Christmas flight to SYD is also that end.
I know that the VS ground operation is often accused of being all style and no substance (all fur coat and no knickers, as my granny would say) but we are surely going to sorely miss the feeling that something special is happening when checking in. The weekend before Christmas is going to be madness on the M25 and at LHR anyway, and the thought of being stuck in that gloom for more than a few minutes is just so much more than I can bear. I can already feel an attack of the vapours coming on.