So what actually happened in the first day…
Very early in the morning, around 5am alarm clock rang, and it was time to start journey by going to airport. My brother kindly take me there and trip was began.
First mission was to check-in into airplane, which revealed tiny problem. When booking tickets I haven’t realized that in London flight arriving from Helsinki and leaving to Atlanta wouldn’t be going from same airport. So flight from Hki was going to arrive at Heathrow, while plane to Atlanta is going from Gatwick. Not a problem by itself, but huge problem in schedule wise. First of all due to this I couldn’t checkin for both planes from Hki, but I would have to do whole checkin routine again in Gatwick, with added bonus of performing checkout first in Heathrow. Considering that I’ve only 3 hours time to switch plane and do all this, and also the fact that I don’t have any clue of how to do it…., it made me rather nervous.
Thus first thingie after checkin was to get into infodesk to query a bit more information about LHR to LGW reconnection. I was being told that recommended reconnection time is minimum of 2.5 hours and that there would be bus (15 pounds…) going between airports, and transport time is around 1 h. Phew! That is gonna be tight schedule, considering that checkin is usually rather slow thingie….
So first flight from HEL to LHR was restless. I was certainly worried if plane would be late, since it would make my schedule rather impossible. However, after all I was lucky, since flight was early (about 10-15 mins). so no problems on that side. And I was feeling that everything is gonna be completely ok.
Not! I realized that I might be in problem when trying to checkout my luggage at LHR, since I was still standing at package claim after 40 mins of waiting. So all the time I gained in early arrival of plane was lost there. And I knew that I needed to really run. Luckily I managed to quickly figure out directions where to go, by asking various people of airport staff.
Just in time I managed to catch bus to LGW, 5 – 10 mins later and I would have missed it, which would have made reconnection totally impossible. So, there I was sitting at airport in the bus, and clock is ticking. Around two hours time to when my next flight was gonna leave and I’m still at LHR…
Bus driver told kindly that driving time will be anything between 15 minutes and 2 hours depending of the traffic… That didn’t help much to make me feel easier… Once more I was lucky, since there wasn’t any traffic jams or such on the road, so bus managed to get into LGW in nice schedule, leaving me 1h 20 mins until flight would takeoff. Basically meaning that I’ve around 1h to checkin until gate is closed… Hah! perfect scheduling! not!
That means that I was in deep shit, since performing checkin in less than 1h, in any larger airport is simply imaginary thing. And this was revealed to be true, since checkin line in LGW wasn’t moving at all. I was just standing there helplessly and seeing my time running away. Officers at checkin desks seemed to have deep problems with checking process, since I saw them calling of them somewhere, and checking seemed to be incredibly slow. I was wondering really what the heck is going on…
When there was only 40 mins until flight would takeoff…, airport officer came around and started to call for people going to Atlanta. There was actually quite many in the line, around 10 – 15 people. Officer caller all passengers going to ATL to come to front of checkin line. And when I got closer, true nature of the problem was revealed. Appearently they really had deep problems with ATL flight, since it was heavily overbooked, and too many of these people have showed up at airport. Thus there simply wasn’t any seats left in the plane. That could be called a problem!
After few moments and some additional phone calls, some progress started to appear. Final solution was that remaining people (including me) where reseated into business class! So I was being after all again incredibly lucky. I was going to travel to ATL in style, in the first class, with full service, etc.
Great thanks for handling situation goes to British Airways, which after all managed to handle issue in reasonable manner.
Yes, flight from LGW to ATL was a pleasure. First time in lifetime that I really had enough leg space in aircraft! That is really something! And of course champagne is served when getting seated, and free drinks and snacks available during flight, and comfortable seats.
Cabin crew did good job in keeping flight enjoyable, however, as always I wasn’t able to catch sleep in plane. Meaning that I was overtired when getting to ATL, considering the fact that week before the trip has been also gone with reduced sleep…
After 9h+ travel time, flight arrived to ATL almost in time, meaning my actual vacation time is going the began. And yes, I was feeling great in arriving into destination.
Everything good and ok now? Yes, you’re right. Of course there was going to be still issues at airport. First of all it must be said that border control at USA border is rude. I mean very rude. I felt somewhat insulted when going through routine with officer at the border. And all the security checks and complications of baggage claim. Humiliating experience in overall…, not raising my expectations for the country.
But after all I was here! And my phone was also working, so I did big and important call to reach my hostess… And managed to meet her finally, meaning that the first day of the trip is soon accomplished. Giving memories to be carried along…
Total trip time was therefore around 19 hours, counting flight and time in the airports and transportation.
My trip has began!