Kenilworth, New Jersey
Monday, September 23 – Today:
4AM-Wake up
4:20-check out of airport hotel
4:30-Arrive at check in. No line!
4:45-security a breeze, waiting for lounge to open at 5
5-6:15-have breakfast, read, relax, think about how well things are going but know we have a tight (55 minute) connection in Oslo. However, when we flew over, we made a shorter connection with no problem. Feeling confident. BIG MISTAKE
7:05–plane supposed to depart, they announce it is going to be 40 minutes late.
7:45–announce it’s going to be 2 hours late. Now know we will miss connection. Ask desk if they will rebook. Not til we arrive in Oslo (as, technically, we haven’t yet missed connection–do the math people!)
9:22–plane departs for Oslo. 2 hour flight, plus we have a time zone change.
12:12–land in Oslo. Find out they have re-booked us BACK TO HEATHROW! Good thing they waited until we got to Oslo to do that! We have an hour in Oslo. During that period, we get our passports checked for arrival, go through security, get our passports checked for departure (yeah, immigration control folks looked at us oddly) and get to gate. We ask service agent if our luggage will make all these changes. She says, “it should be OK”. Wow lady, you inspire confidence.
1:15–plane leaves Oslo for London, same 2 hour flight and we get the time change back.
2:45–plane lands in London. Boarding for flight to Newark starts at 3:10. We follow signs for connections, ask guy BEFORE passport control where to go, follow his instructions and find out they were wrong and we have to go back through security!
3:00–at security, wondering how people can move so slowly. BOTH Dan and I get selected for pat downs plus my backpack was kicked out and had to be searched. Glad those dangerous gingerbread cookies were checked out!
3:24–finally cleared, find out gate is 15 minutes away and boarding has begun
3:24–3:32 fastest airport walk in my entire life, and I hoof it in airports. Poor Dan was dying because, of course, it was also 90 degrees in terminal.
3:32–boarding line empty, but still open–we made it!!!
3:50–they announce that Heathrow has had an issue with one of their runways, we won’t depart for at least another hour. Glad we sprinted.
Currently 4:36 local time. We have traveled more than 12 hours and are still in the place we started. I cannot make this stuff up.
Pictures and final entry tomorrow, I am awaiting the beverage service.
7,777 steps;3.8 land miles, thousands of air miles.
8:15 [UPDATE]-flight made up the hour and landed on time! Newark redeemed itself with 30 second passport control. However, luggage did not arrive. Ms. “should be OK” wasn’t quite right. Thankfully, we booked Park-Sleep-Fly with the “Sleep” portion tonight. Waiting for the hotel ride service, bed soon. We got up 21 hours ago…
Unless you count airport seating or security/passport control lines as sights, nothing to see here.
Breakfast:
SAS lounge at Heathrow, included in price of Premium Economy ticket, was fine. Had to wait for it to open, but lots of options, nice seating.
Lunch:
I think lunch may have been a protein bar that had been stashed in my backpack for 2 weeks….
Dinner:
Provided by United Airlines on flight across the ocean. Airplane food, but it was a step above the protein bar…
Nothing to see here either…
Today was just mentally and physically exhausting. Lots of time sitting in planes interspersed with tense sessions of worry that we would miss a connection then annoyance when our bags were no where to be found and there was no one to contact at the airport.
Definitely first world problem, but it highlights why people are increasingly unhappy with air travel. Why we were flown to Oslo, when it was clear we would not make our connection is beyond me — we cold have gotten a much earlier flight directly to Newark, without all the additional security and immigration checkpoints.
Smartest thing we did was book the “Sleep” part of our Park-Sleep-Fly on the return end of the trip. That plus having separate bags for our pre-game in Philly meant we had clothes and toiletries and a bed close when we finally arrived.