well.. bad luck everyone cos the broom won!
I have to say - last Thursday was one of the most physically and emotionally gruelling days ever. Apart from the Icelandic volcano disaster there was more hassle at Heathrow - the whole ESTA system was down on both sides of the Atlantic. This is the electronic visa system which meant no one using an ESTA could fly. It also meant no US citizens could get boarding passes so no one could get to fly to the US at all.
Being perenially early for everything, I got all checked in, checked my bags and got to the gate only to be told after sitting there for an hour that I wouldn't be flying, I'd have to go and collect my bags and go back to the desk to book another flight.. so I did.
As I got to the desk though they made a decision to let us fly so I had to check all my bags again and get back to the gate in ten minutes - no mean feat with me walking like hopalong by this time!
The plane had been due to leave at ten and it was now 11:30 and they were closing heathrow at 12 sharp. We all got on the plane... and waited.
And waited.
And waited..
Finally at 12:30 they got a revised flight plan and we took off at 12:45. They'd let us go. Oh boy you should have heard the cheer as we took off!
We were the very last flight out of Heathrow. I found out when I got here that other flights behind us that were also queued on the runway had to taxi back to the airport.
We had to fly down over France and over to the US that way instead of the usual up over scotland route and then out over Iceland and Greenland.
We were 2 hours and 45 minutes late leaving but thanks to some good tailwinds we were only an hour and a half late getting in.
I did miss my connecting flight to Syracuse so had to sit at JFK for another four hours. JFK was packed too and because there were so many planes on gates that couldn't take off for Europe - all the domestic flights were operating out of about a third of their usual gates. This meant they were boarind two or more planes off each gate at the same time (we all had to walk down and outside on the tarmac as it was the only way to do it.) I was sure luggage was going to be going a different way to me but luckily for me it didn't!
By the time I got to Pauls I had been travelling for 24 hours solid.
The fun and games didn't stop as we left Heathrow though - oooh no! The pilot then announced that although a decision had been made to let us fly the ESTA system still wasn't running so we faced getting to NY and being turned around and not allowed to enter the country. I had printed a copy of my ESTA so thankfully that didn't happen to me. You can imagine how tense that flight was.. not just knowing I might not get into the US but knowing I might not get back to the UK either!
I have to say though, in spite of all of that I seriously consider myself to be one of the luckiest people on the planet. The ESTA system was screwed, there were thousands of people stranded all over the world because of the Volcano - and I got exactly what I wanted! Now if I could just think up the right lottery numbers
It's good to be home!
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Broomstick One versus the Volcano (Read 1305 times)
