Flight down to Heathrow was fine until we came out of the stack for final approach. Captain was advising we would be at least 10 mins early at the gate. Great we all thought. Not quite a full flight. Happy people turning up early, until we have to stop and wait for our stand which was occupied. Captain reported that he was negotiating for another stand.
10/15 mins later, we are now running a tad late, and captain is pleased to announce that he has secured a different stand for us. When we get there we are then told we have to get off via the steps and a bus will take us to the terminal because we are at an international gate.
We then wait another 10 mins for steps, and then we are told that they are going to be placed at the back of the aircraft and it then takes another 15 mins before we are dropped off by the bus at the terminal
I could carry on whinging, but I will try not to. After all we are having a few days away and we need to chill. One thing I hope someone on the BAEC forum can clarify is this: Is the captain made aware of potential gate/stand issues before landing? I would have thought that someone should have a view of the end to end process - timing of the final approach, landing and availability of gates/stands to avoid setting the wrong expectations? Appreciate things can go wrong, but I'm feeling like Mr Grumpy right now and I'd really like to know...