I didn’t want to fly a day before the conference, because I had too much work and in general I thought I could use this time better. However, I didn’t want to fly in right before the conference either, and I was also looking to minimize the cost. I finally ended up on the daytime flight, which would leave Chicago at 8:25 AM and arrive in London at 10:25 local time. That would still give me time for a good night’s sleep, and that was also the least expensive flight. Economy Premium was just slightly more than Economy Classic, but I decided to be mindful and not spend on extras when I didn’t really need them.
That being said, I got up at 4 AM on Tuesday so that I could leave the house at 5 AM and be at the airport at 6 AM, have breakfast at the lounge, and just relax while waiting for the flight. It all worked fine; moreover, it was a very fast rife early in the morning, so I was at the airport by 5-40 AM. I had breakfast, called Boris, and started to write a blog post while waiting. Suddenly, I saw a notification from the AA app (the flight was operated by American Airlines). I opened my boarding pass and saw that the flight was eight hours delayed! I was devastated and ran to the customer service counter in the lounge. They told me there were no other flights: the incoming flight was delayed, but because it was a late arrival to London and London won’t accept night arrivals, we would have to wait till morning in London. That meant the overnight flight, which I wanted to avoid! Also, I didn’t have Economy Premium, and I could not upgrade because there was nothing available!
I decided to go to the office to attend an important meeting, which I would skip otherwise. Also, it was twice faster to get to the office than to go back home. Only when I was almost there did I realize that I had left my office pass at home (and it was done on purpose because I didn’t want to carry around things I wouldn’t need on my trip). The security issued me a temporary pass, but I could not go to the gym or use a shower, or even open the doors to get from one side of the floor to another.
I sent a message to the hotel, asking them to keep my room for my morning arrival, and left for the airport, planning for longer security lines than they were in the morning.
The lines were longer but not terribly long. Fortunately, the AA lounge has showers. I was unsure whether I would have time at the hotel in the morning, and it turned out to be a good call because the flight was delayed for another hour and then we sat for another hour in the aircraft waiting for a takeoff, because the scheduled flight to London was just five minutes apart of t=our new departure time. Thankfully, BA moved me to the front row in the Main cabin, so I had some extra legroom.
Another thing was the food. When possible, I try to order a low-calorie meal, which I tried to do this time as well. However, the system returned “something went wrong” error and I gave up. When I was already seated, a flight attendant asked me whether I had a low-calorie meal, and I said yes, but what they brought to me was vegan, not low-calorie 😀. Nothing wrong with vegan in general, but that meal ended up be barely eatable, and same with the breakfast: they even didn’t give me yogurt which was a part of other people’s breakfast! I did my best to sleep for about 4 hours, and that was the max I could do on a less than 7 hours flight.
The flight landed at 7:08, and I was out of the terminal twenty minutes later (the worst passport control became the faster one in recent years). The conference started at nine, and I still needed to get to the hotel to leave my luggage and change. I message my colleague who was a part of the org. committee to ask whether there is any food at the conference, and he sent me a picture of pastries, so I realized I needed to get some food at the hotel (my room included breakfast, and was pre-paid). I reached the hotel shortly after 8 AM (thanks to Elizabeth Line!) and checked-in. They told me they didn’t have a buffet, and I had to order. The hotel was very old-fashiined (I will post some pictures), and the restaurant looked very respectable. So imagine me rushing in and asking what’s the fastest thing they can make :). They were visibly puzzled by this request and when on to confer, and then said that they can make fried eggs on a toast. To their credit, it was ready in ten minutes – I time it! So I got the eggs and a coffee and took off to the conference, which was in ten-minutes walk.
Hettie's Reflections 