Land in Heathrow at 1230 (exact departure time for my British Airways flight to Dubai). I never had a chance, since I landed in terminal 3 and needed to be in 4.
So here’s how I kill my time for the next 3.5 hours, constantly moving and never sitting down:
1) I bus it over to terminal 4, go through security, and check in at the services desk of British Airways. They tell me they’ve scheduled me for 9am the next morning. Best they can do. Guy tells me to try the Emirates 1630 flight, since Emirates issued the ticket (weirdly enough, because I wasn’t scheduled to fly them at all).
2) So I go to Emirates in 4, and they say I need to go to United.
3) So I go to United, and they say only Emirates can change the ticket because it issued the ticket.
4) So I go back to Emirates, and they say I need to see the supervisor downstairs beyond security.
5) So I go through immigration and customs to get out and go to the supervisor. She says she’ll get me on the plane, but that my bag, now with British Airlines for the missed flight, can’t be obtained by Emirates. Instead, if I fly with them, the best I can do is get to Dubai and submit a report! The alternative? Get to terminal 4 and bring the bag back in 90 minutes.
6) I train the Heathrow Express over.
7) I go to customer service, they tell me to go downstairs and see baggage.
8) I do, but can’t figure out how to get into baggage because it’s an international terminal, so I head back up and ask again.
9) This time British Airways says to go to the employee entrance and phone in.
10) I do, talk to a guy who lets me in, go through security and then am directed to the baggage office.
11) Guy at the baggage office says getting a bag out of system typically takes three hours. I now have 45 minutes to get back. He says he’ll call his fix-it guy, but he’s elsewhere right now on another job. He calls, and the guy volunteers to take my case because the one he’s on will take forever. He shows up five minutes later, we talk, and I describe my black bag, noting the lime yellow Southwest Airlines handle grip. He takes off and is back ten minutes later with the bag! He says, the lime-yellow handle grip was everything.
12) Back on the Express to terminal 3.
13) Then dash back to supervisor. She okays the deal and sends me to check-in.
14) At check-in, I get the back tagged through Djibouti, on the off chance I’d make the 0400 flight (I was scheduled to arrive at 0320).
15) Then a race to security. Huge line faces me. Then miracle! New line opens just as I turn the corner so I’m first in.
16) Then tagged for another security bit where your shoes are x-rayed a second time (test, I believe).
17) Then through that mall you saw in the climatic scene of “Love Actually,” the one the boy races through to meet his girlfriend.
18) Then check in at gate and boarding comes a whopping three minutes later.
The flight on Emirates was nice. Had a four-seat row to myself in coach. Watch “The Queen” (very good) on their amazing seatback vid system (like 500 movies to choose from!). Then take another Ambien to force some more sleep, because I won’t be getting any bed time until Saturday and I need to be coherent enough to do a day’s worth of meetings and briefs and interviews.
Still, it was tempting to watch “Citizen Kane” again. Must be my Hearst press pass.
