What a roller coaster of a journey to our daughter’s in Manchester UK.
Late leaving St Louis due to a maintenance issue. We only had a 40 minute layover in Charlotte NC so now we were anxious that we wouldn’t get there in time for our flight to London.
Relief before landing when we find out that the London flight is delayed.
We get to gate in time only to find out the flight had been cancelled due to maintenance issues.
Waited 2 hours in line to rebook flights.
Overnight stay in hotel we arrive at midnight with no luggage as it has been checked to London.
Wake at 5am to book a cab to the airport as they wouldn’t let us book the night before then we were told the cab would be arriving in 5 minutes. Frantic rush to get downstairs in time.
Back at the airport and through TSA for 2nd time.
Catch flight to Boston 7:30am wait in Boston airport for 9 hours.
Stroll to the gate ready to board American Airlines flight to London then we realize we have been booked on to the British Airways flight which is leaving at the same time but BA is in a different Terminal. Up to this point I had been quite calm but now I went into panic mode.
Leave Terminal C look for shuttle bus stop, no shuttles so run to taxi rank. First cab driver refuses to take us because it’s not lucrative enough for him. Another taxi driver takes pity on us and takes the fare.
He hurtles around the airport outer road like a race car driver, we tip him well jump out of vehicle, run into the terminal then it dawns on us we have to go through security for the 3rd time.
We ask people to kindly let us through because our flight to London leaves in 10 minutes and they let us through. Why is it that whenever you are in a hurry your flight is leaving from the last gate in the Terminal. Gate 12 of 12.
We run as fast as we can after 9 hours of leisurely hanging around in terminal C. Relief as we see a few people still going through the gate to board. There was one final hiccup before we got on the plane, the scanner will not accept our tickets because we were originally flying with AA so they had to re-enter our info.
We boarded the plane collapsed into our seats and tried to catch our breath and stop our hearts from pounding. It turned out that we had a row of 4 seats to ourselves so we were able to stretch out a little.
It was a great flight, 6 hours passed quickly, watched 2 movies and arrived in London at 7am.
It was a breeze through immigration we arrived in the baggage claim area and then the repercussions of the previous day came down upon us. We waited and watched every piece of luggage from our flight pass by and get claimed until there were no cases left. Empty handed we walked to the service counter and were told that our cases were still in Boston. As we had experienced going through security the day before so had our luggage due to us changing airline, which meant it missed our flight out of the States.
We are assured by the service representative that when our bags arrive in London they will be sent to our destination in Manchester. To be continued …..,,,
