I once came close to missing a BA flight out of LHR when I had a very late night the night before. I'd lost something I needed to take with me and needed a replacement which I couldn't get really locally. I'd had to go to a shop a few miles away on public transport and had only arrived 15 mins before it was closing. Made it back home around 22:30 and then subsequently realised I had no food in the flat so went to the 24hr Tesco which took about an hour so we're now about midnight. I got home cooked something to eat and finished my packing.
So finally got to bed around 01:30 and fell fast asleep, slept through my alarms and woke up at 09:45, flight leaves at 11:30 (BA213). I made it out onto the main road looking like a refugee from War on Want and tried to find a black cab with no luck. 10:05 and there's one heading towards me with his light on so I waved like a madman with both arms to get him to stop. I explained that I was in a desperate rush to get to LHR and thought this was the fastest option. He said he'd use the M4 Bus Lane and the speed limit to get me there. Which he did in 25 minutes right to the terminal door (so I suspect we might have gone slightly faster than we should have done
) and having given him a large tip raced into Terminal 5 which I had never been to before. I found someone from BA walking past me who took pity on my situation and marched me up to a check in counter ignoring the people in Club World line and I was dealt with immediately. I went through security and then ran around airside until I found the he train to the B gates to catch my flight. I had no idea about conformance or anything like that (and if I hadn't have been helped would have missed the flight) but I knew that turning up for a long haul flight with bags to drop, with an hour to go, to a terminal you've never been to before, wasn't a very good idea.
