A Very Difficult Day!

Saturday March 8th

Goodness, what an awful day!

I should perhaps explain first that we didn't have a direct flight home out of Salt Lake City. We had to fly to Dallas first, and then on to Heathrow from there. American Airlines, who operate the flight, changed the time of our flight to Dallas about six weeks ago, so that we only had 40 minutes between flights. This seemed crazy to me, but I assumed they knew what they were doing. WRONG!

After breakfast, we caught the hotel's shuttle to the airport, arriving just after 9.30. We arrived to find American Airlines in total chaos, with huge queues and nobody knowing what was happening. Paul had been unable to check in the previous night, since the American Airlines computer couldn't deal with him - it seemed to think he was three people. The check-in machine at the airport couldn't deal with him either, so we spent more than an hour standing in a queue which didn't move at all, while people shouted a lot and waved their arms about and there were very few staff to deal with anything. We were starting to worry about being on time to the departure gate, when Paul managed to bully his way through the chaos and get us both checked in. I asked the man checking us in why we had been given so little time to make our connection at Dallas, but he assured me there was plenty of time as our baggage would go straight through to Heathrow by itself and we had a whole 40 minutes to get ourselves to the gate. I still wasn't convinced.

Once our bags had been weighed, we then had to take them ourselves to security to have them examined, so that was another delay. I've never had to do that before.

We then took ourselves through security, which was very slow; we were told we didn't have to take our shoes off, but the machine objected to my shoes so I had to go away and take them off. Then when I came back I set off another security alert and had to have my hands checked for explosives residue or something. And the scanning machine didn't seem to like my handbag or the contents of Paul's jacket pockets. Paul collected my shoes and rucksack once they went through the scanner but I really wanted my handbag which had disappeared, and I couldn't look for it myself because I was queueing up to be checked for explosives. Meanwhile, Paul was wandering about saying 'what handbag' and 'what does it look like?' as he never looks at me and has no idea what I'm wearing or what my stuff looks like.

Eventually, my handbag - containing my passport, phone, money and cards, appeared from behind a screen and I could take it, put my shoes on and leave. We barely reached the departure gate before it was time to board, but at least we didn't miss the plane. The flight was unpleasantly bumpy but was more or less on time. We landed at 3.45 but weren't off the plane until just about 4.05, giving us about 35 minutes before our Heathrow flight took off at 4.40, which put us under some pressure. So we ran through the arrival terminal, Terminal C, and went upstairs where we had been told to catch the Skyline rail shuttle that goes between the terminals. We needed Terminal D.

The shuttle arrived just as we did, so we felt it likely that we would arrive in time for our flight. Unfortunately, the shuttle sailed through Terminal D without stopping! It then took ages to get to Terminal E, where we jumped out and waited for one going back in the opposite direction, which arrived after several very long minutes. Once again however, it sailed right through Terminal D without stopping and without explanation. Then there was an announcement that the shuttle was not stopping at Terminal D because of a security alert in the terminal, and that we should get off at Terminal C and walk from there. The announcement was so muffled it was hard to hear, but everybody on board helped to translate different bits of it. A pilot who was also on the shuttle told us that, if there were a security alert in the terminal, the plane would be delayed anyway, so we felt a bit more confident. Unfortunately, though we didn't know it at the time, there was no security alert, it just seems to have been a problem with the Skyline shuttle

We got out as suggested, ran panting right through Terminal C, up an escalator, over a huge long bridge, down another escalator and past lots of D gates to get to ours, D27, only to find that it was 4.42 and the plane had already left! Some standby passengers apparently got our seats. The staff at the departure desk had no knowledge of the shuttle problem, but they got a message shortly after that to say it had shut down, so everybody was having to walk, or run, between terminals.

In the meantime, we were put on standby for the next plane, scheduled to depart at 6.25. Heaven knows what had happened to our luggage. Apparently, it was taken off the plane and is probably still somewhere in Dallas. It may follow us to Heathrow later. Or not.

Unfortunately, the next plane was very full and we didn't get on, after sitting about for an hour and a half. So then we went on standby for one leaving at 8.05, so there was another hour and a half to wait. I passed the time by bringing the blog up to date, contacting the taxi firm to ask them not to collect us at Heathrow at 8am tomorrow, and wondering if I would ever see my luggage again.

A big school group was late for the plane, but it waited for them, so it was about 8.30 when it was revealed that there were just two spare seats on the plane and we could finally go home! We couldn't sit together of course, but we could get home, though without luggage. It seems that, if you are a group of 20, the plane waits for you, but not if you are only a group of two!

One interesting feature of the plane was that it claimed to have an Internet connection, so I tried posting this, but had no joy. I wasn't hopeful anyway, as it wouldn't collect my email; then, when I opened the web browser, I realised that it wasn't free, but actually quite expensive, so posting this will have to wait until I am home. And I was still worrying about my luggage - like would I ever see it again.

When we arrived at Heathrow, there was no stand large enough to take our plane, so we sat about for more than half an hour. Then, when we got to the stand, nobody could get the Jet Bridge to work, so we were trapped. We ended up waiting about an hour, in all!

However, the one good piece of news is that all of our luggage arrived - I think the staff must have pulled out all the stops to get us home, after our dreadful experience!

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