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Our adventures in flight- air travel after recent terror alerts can be very challenging. We were prepared on our day of departure to abide by the strict rules of travel through Heathrow and so we carried one piece of carry-on each and checked everything else. As we checked in with the air carrier we were told that the rules had softened and we could bring one piece each plus one personal item such as a purse or briefcase or laptop. I removed my purse/backpack from my duffel bag and carried it, Sky almost decided to dig out his laptop from his big suitcase but at the last minute decided he didn't want to root around for it in the middle of the airport. (we were later so glad he didn't).
The trip went smoothly untill we reached Heathrow. We had a 2 1/2 hour time space before we had to make our connection. We went straight to the area indicated to wait in line for a bus to take us to the correct terminal-we waited in line 45 minutes. When we arrived at the terminal we entered a large, chaotic line which was backing up onto the escalator-airport personnel began moving the lines around...lines began to conjoin and double back, it was utter confusion. When we finally reached the top of the line we were confronted with personnel stating we could only bring one piece of carry-on, period and it had to fit in the luggage frame they had there. Complication: they had taken the standard frame you see at check in and had fitted pieces of wood within the frame to make it even smaller. I am thinking-"there is no way my bag is going to fit in that, especially after I jammed my purse into it." An airport person confronted Sky because he was carrying two bags-one was mine, so I took it and then I was confronted because I was holding my feather pillow. I attempted to convince him it was not a bag. The whole time I am in a state of fright because my small duffle bag is now too big to fit in their new frame size and to have to get in line and take a bus back to the main terminal to get in line to check it...we were in no way going to make our flight. Somehow in the great hunt of my errant pillow, they forgot to stuff my bag in the frame and we were waved through. Just in time to get into a massive line to go through more security and x-ray.
We missed our flight! We were put on the next available flight two hours later. We were hungry and happy to find a small lunch counter in our terminal...they had a sign up saying they were not allowed to sell drinks... It was an unhappy experience to say the least, the whole thing.
Our return flight was much better, we flew through Germany instead of Heathrow. I did experience my first "pat-down", one for the scrapbook-don't you think? The highlight of our air travel was finally being able to get a 'real' diet coke in Denver. It was sure bliss.

Labels: trips