Farnsniente

Getting on a British Airways plane.

That’s all folks (trip over)

—

in
📍 Austin, Texas

Photos

Trip index

Summary

Home at last!

Details

At 6:28 I wake, alarm in two minutes. I check my phone. Ah, an email from BA that came in at 3:14 am. It seems our flight out of here is now scheduled to get us into London ten minutes AFTER our flight to Austin will have left. Argh. 

We “enjoy” another hour phone call with British Airways’ India office. Early questions on the call include such gems as: “And what day are you wishing to travel?”. I am so proud of Karen for not reaching through the phone and throttling the poor bloke. When our hour is finally done we have two new flights, although we’re now flying out of a different Milan airport, one that’s more than an hour’s drive away. Uber gets us there quickly. And we’re 200€ poorer. We’ll ask our friends at British Airways to  pick up the tab. 

At this new, much larger and spiffier airport, standing in line for a British Airways ticketing agent, we see lots of familiar faces. These are all people from one or the other (or both) of our cancelled flights of yesterday. We trade horror stories and dark jokes. 

Through security and passport control (for the umpteenth time in two days) we briefly hang out at the BA lounge. As we’re checking in at the lounge (as they’re checking that we’re actual VIPs) we notice a handsome glass door off in the corner labeled “VVIPs”. I’m sure it’s very nice but we’ll never see inside there. 

At the gate, after a short wait, our tickets and passports are checked and we’re ushered onto the bus for our ride out to the plane. The bus never moves and after 15 minutes we’re all ushered out of the bus and back into the terminal. This is getting old. Apparently the plane needs cleaning. Who knew?

While we’re again waiting, a lady about our age becomes weak and passes out. Thankfully we’re crammed into the space pretty good so people next to her are able to slowly lower her to the ground. So this is what it’s come to, is it? We guess she didn’t get any sleep last night, sitting up at the other airport. She’s quickly attended to by BA gate agents. I imagine us having to step over the unfortunate fellow traveler, to get to the plane, but thankfully we’re all able to get around the commotion as we (once again) head to the bus. 

Back on the tarmac bus, this time we do drive away and zigzag our way out to our plane. Well, that seems like progress! Alas, the cleaning isn’t quite done so we’re kept on the shuttle bus a while longer. They do open the bus doors while we wait, thankfully, so we can get a bit of air. Eventually we’re allowed to board the  plane. 

From here on out it’s pretty standard going. The plane takes off and we get to London. In London, when you change planes, you have to go through security again. This time Karen’s singled out to have her shoes x-ray’ed to ensure they’re shoes and not explosive devices. The BA lounge is lovely and we eat (and have a bit to drink). 

Our flight back to Austin is only around 9.5 hours. We breeze through passport control, saying we have nothing to declare. Bags collected, we head outside towards the ride-share area. The temperature is uncharacteristically cool, which is a lovely surprise. It’s pushing 8:30 plus, and it’s already getting dark. We’re a lot further south here. 

Uber drops us off at home around 9:30.  We’re ready for bed but have no food in the house for breakfast. I drive to the store (after jumping the car… it’s been sitting un-driven for over two months). Finally, head on pillow, we fall asleep, dreaming about what a wonderful trip we just had. Next challenge, getting over our jet lag. 

Well, that’s it. Trip over (and then some). Thanks for coming along. Til next time, be well! Happy travels. 

Photos

We’re on the phone with BA for well over an hour, at 6:35 am, again trying to get a flight to London and on to Austin that’s actually going and give us enough time to make our connection.
To do that we have to change to a different Milan airport. Uber drives us (for 200+ Euros). Hopefully we can get that back from British Airways.
Our driver was nice but crazy. There’s a barf bag for each of us in the car. Given how this guy drives (crazy) we can see this coming in handy.
On the drive we get little glimpses of snow in the surrounding Alps. Maybe some of it fell last night, as we were getting all that rain?
We’re able to read the news which included information about delayed and cancelled flights and stranded travelers. We could definitely relate. Of all the many airlines affected, British Airlines got the worst of it, and not coincidentally, of all the airports affected, Heathrow got it the worst. A double whammy for us.
At the airport, waiting to talk to the ticketing agent, there were signs asking us not to yell at the poor ticketing agents.
We finally are driven out to our plane, but then we’re held on the bus. They’re not done cleaning it yet. Everyone agrees that at this point, we’ll take a ‘not totally clean’ plane.
Finally we’re allowed to board the plane, Yay!
On our flight to London we have fairly clear skies and we can see lakes and the Alps.
In London, at the BA Heathrow lounge, they have all kinds of food and drink options. We don’t take advantage of the tequila until we do. Even then we behave. We still have to make it to our plane to Austin.
Karen feeling a little bleary eyed after yesterday, but not feeling any pain thanks to a swig of Don Julio.
Heading to our gate with fingers crossed.
Maybe a good sign… we’re taking a Rolls Royce to Austin. That sounds pretty good!
Boarding at last. On our way home for reals. Great trip, despite the troubles at the end. Happy we went. Enjoyed it tremendously. We’re lucky.