Whoa. Deep
breath. I am on the flight from London
to Bangkok.
My flight from Chicago to London was pretty uneventful and I
slept right through most of it.
We got in late but I didn’t even look at exactly where I was
flying next, what airline or when it took off.
Upon decent, when I got my itinerary out and determined that
the connection was going to be pretty tight, I prepared for the worst… but just
went through the motions. My flight was
at 12:30 and it was already 11:45. I had
to get on a bus to the next terminal (the sign said that took 6 minutes). I did my best to just stay in the moment and
noticed that the guts of Heathrow are actually pretty cool. They have these silver baggage chutes that
spiral down from above. It is very
surreal.
Once I got to the terminal, I figured out that I’d have to
go through security again. Oh no. And the line was long. But I didn’t want to be that ugly American
and ask agents what I could do. Then
there was this very polite woman answering questions for a couple so I asked her
too… and she sent me to a special priority line. OK, now this was getting somewhere. It was 12:10.
Then after a bit, I realized that I still wasn’t going to make it. But again, I didn’t want to raise a
stink. Then this woman behind me got an
agent’s attention that she had a 1pm flight and she didn’t think she was going
to make it. So then I felt obligated to
chime in that mine was at 12:30. You
won’t believe it, but the agent told her to stay there and grabbed me and put
me at the front of the x-ray right then and there.
It was still really far after security to the gate. And I wasn’t sure which gate anyway. Ugh!
Ok, once I figured it out – it said Gate 5 – CLOSING. Crap.
I hauled ass but by then it was 12:15.
I was screwed. Then this cart
asked me if I was going to Bangkok on Thai Airlines and I told them I was… they
said they were LOOKING FOR ME. Can you
believe it? I was the last customer, but
at least they were expecting me still. I
hopped on and it was a safari airport terminal style. We were beeping and
throwing people out of the way… little kids with mini rollerbags were tumbling
down in front of us and then a wheelchair bound elderly Indian man couldn’t
nudge over to let us by… it was a nightmare.
But I was so excited that they knew I was on the way and held the plane
for me!
There were no fewer than six airline employees waiting for
me at the gate and I was the very last passenger on board. Whew.
I couldn’t believe it. I was so
happy. I have no idea how many other
flights there possibly are from London to Bangkok and what that would have done
to my vacation plans.
Everything happens for a reason. J
Thai Airways is really nice.
There are tons of recent movies to choose from (I watched at least five
on this 11 hour flight) and the curry for lunch was delicious. And of course there is the fact that they
send search parties out to find their last straggler passengers. They have my business for sure.
Then after the flight they gave me a little flower
corsage. So classy.
Once I made it to Bangkok (it’s Friday 9/21 already), I had
to go through security once again. This
time they called me on my toothpaste.
I’m an old-school holdout for crest regular paste so I brought a full
sized tube in my carry on. Chicago
O’Hare had no issue with that. London
Heathrow had not problem with that. But
Bangkok did. Ugh. It was because it is larger than the
allowable ounces in a tube. I asked if I
could squirt some of it out and still keep it… but the security agent said
no. Well, I certainly don’t want to be
in a “Locked Up Abroad” episode for arguing over toothpaste. I hope they have Crest in Bali!
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