The Adventure Begins!

If you know your airline logos you can probably guess where I am heading! As I said to a couple of people, I am NOT packing my sun cream but I AM packing my swimsuit!  

I got to the airport for a 1pm flight and found out that it was delayed for 4 hours due to gale-force winds at the destination airport.  As an airline employee I should know better than to leave for the airport without checking the flight to see if it's onetime!  I was in such a rush this morning and I really would have appreciated the extra time!  Oh well, thankfully after almost 30 years in this business, I still enjoy airports and sometimes it's nice to have extra time to enjoy them - I am usually rushing through when I am on a work trip.  Although I was flying standby today, they were kind enough to give me my seat and let me check my bag right away so that I could relax for the rest of the time.

Yesterday I mentioned that we had had a medical 'emergency' coming in from DC and a doctor on board had helped us out, and advised that we divert to get the passenger to a hospital, which is why we landed in Shannon.  Well, as I was wandering around this huge airport called Heathrow (busiest airport in the world for international travel), who should I bump into, but the very same doctor from our flight yesterday!  He was already heading back to DC after a short meeting in London.  I told him where I was going and that I was killing time with a 4-hour delay and he immediately said that he was on his way to our airline's Business lounge and he would take me in as his guest!  Yes, thank you!  I don't mind if I do!  So he did 2 good deeds in 2 days!  He had another meeting while he was in the lounge so we said goodbye again and I had a couple of hours to relax in luxury!  

A word of warning - if an airline tells you about a long delay, be prepared that they may just decide to go early anyway.  I dutifully arrived at the gate 45 minutes before the 5pm departure and heard the 'last and final boarding call'.  I thought I had plenty of time but in fact I was the last one on board and we left 30 minutes before the time they'd told us in the morning!  

It was a beautiful time to take off and we were treated to this pink glow for a great deal of the flight time.