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I have a flight to catch this afternoon. Normally I would not be too rushed, but I got up later than I thought I would and I still need to eat. I am not sure if I need to arrive at the airport three hours in advance, but since I have never been to Heathrow, I should err on the side of caution?
Well, I was taking a little longer than I wanted cleaning up at MJO's place. I ended up leaving the house around two, which was not particularly smart considering that I wanted to be at the airport three hours early and the flight was leaving before five. Fortunately, the bus came as soon as I made it to the stop, so I saved some time there. I ended up wasting time at the tub station as the ticket machine did not recognize my credit card! I also went into the wrong check in section and had to find the right airline, but all in all, things were going well. There were not too many people at the airport, and security was quick. The line ups were short and I made it into the waiting area with time to spare.
I went to terminal 3 and what surprised me the most when I got there was just past the security checkpoint. The checkpoint was the entrance to a duty free store! What the hey? The store itself was large enough that it was not obvious where the exit was. It was obvious to see that I had to get through the store to reach the gates, but for someone who has never been to this terminal (or airport for that matter) and was in a rush, this type of detour would be quite frustrating. (I was not in a rush so I was able to navigate without much issue.)
The design of this terminal was such that there was only one waiting area, where all the stores and seats were. The gates were set up for very temporary waits as they were activated only minutes (much less than an hour) before departure time. The displays showed which flights were for which gates, but mine displayed a message:
Gate opens 16:10
It was only 15:45 so I settled down to do some reading.
By the time 16:10 rolled around, the display still showed the same message. At 16:20 I started wondering what was happening to my flight. The display also showed the approximate times it would take to reach each gate (or at least the amount of time one is to allow for travel from the waiting area to the gate). Some of the gates were listed for ten minutes, the others were listed at twenty minutes. My flight left at 16:50, which left me thirty minutes. Plenty of time right?
Finally, at 16:22, the display message changed to read:
Please wait
Feeling confident that things were moving, I went back to reading.
When I looked back up again at 16:30, I noticed that the sign still had not changed. Now this was cutting it quite close. Five minutes later, the message finally changed to indicate which gate I was supposed to go to. Fortunately it was not one of the extremely remote gates. It was, however, not one of the close ones.
I quickly rushed off to the gate, along with a throng of other would be passengers. To make a long story short, things went smoothly from that point on. I got on the plane, made it to Copenhagen, got through customs, and met up with girl who brought me to her place.
[0 Comments]
Monday, August 20, 2007 at 12:33:57 (UTC)
According to Wiki, Heathrow is the busiest airport in the UK, busiest in Europe, and has the highest volume of international passengers in the world.
Good luck. :)
---HKL
(Good thing they speak English...)
Grinning Reaper
Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at 00:02:00 (UTC)
Yes, it is quite a hub of transport. Fortunately I made it out alive!
QYV